Ofcom today fined TalkTalk and Tiscali UK £3 million after they incorrectly billed tens of thousands of consumers for services they had not received.
Ofcom opened an investigation into TalkTalk and Tiscali UK in July 2010 following complaints from over 1,000 consumers.
Ofcom found that both companies had wrongly issued bills to consumers for services they had not received, in particular to consumers who had closed their accounts. They did so in just over 62,000 cases between 1 January and 1 November 2010. Ofcom issued both with a legally-binding notification in November 2010 and set them a deadline of 2 December 2010 to take steps to sort out their billing problems.
However, while TalkTalk and Tiscali UK did take some important steps to comply with the rules, such as making changes to their customer records management systems, they still incorrectly billed almost 3,000 consumers between 2 December 2010 and 4 March 2011.
Ofcom has therefore issued TalkTalk and Tiscali UK with a financial penalty to reflect the seriousness of their breach of the rules and to act as a deterrent to them and other telecoms companies who must comply with the rules. Here to read more.
