Hi all,

After being with TCL for a few years (well beyond my 12 month contract period), I opted to move to snap! earlier this year. I cant seem to come to an agreement with TCL about my 'final' bill. The amount in question is fairly insignificant at this point but I have already paid for a full additional month where I did not receive any services. I have certainly made a couple of mistakes along the way myself (young and naive I suppose), though I would like to know what GZ thinks. Let me outline in details (sorry, it is quite lengthy now!):

First a couple of other details: My TCL billing period was typically the 6th through to the 5th. With Snap the billing renewal happens on the 2nd.

Late April: I fill out snap!'s online sign-up form, and pay a full invoice upfront to ensure provision of services (ADSL and landline, that is).

May 2: Internet and phone cutover; I enter my new login details into my router and look like I'm up and running with snap! From here on I am paying regular monthly amounts to snap!.

May 14: I receive a bill from TCL for my regular monthly amount for the period 06 May - 05 June. I pay this in full (maybe my first mistake), in the interest of a clean transfer and getting it all sorted. I do log in to my customer area with TCL and see my phone number/line is no longer listed so it appeared that the services had stopped at their end.

11-13 June: I receive another bill from TCL for 06 June - 05 July for my normal monthly amount. I find this a little off so I send away a ticket. I tell them I cut over on the 2nd and that these charges were for a period over a month later. They mention that they had not received anything from the gaining ISP about this (I was under the impression that one should only contact the gaining ISP during the changeover, and they would notify the losing ISP of the customer transfer - I had not contacted TCL [my second mistake?]). They ask that I send my first snap! invoice to them so they can backdate the charges. I do this as requested. They reply confirming that my account has been 'closed ASAP'.

11-16 July: I receive a statement from TCL saying I still owed them the amount I had assumed had been cleared (I did not explicitly confirm this, mistake 3). So I lodge another ticket, this time attached the TCL statement and original snap! invoice. They mention that transfer of services to my new ISP was completed on the 14th of June (ie the day after my last ticket) but suggest I contact snap! and ask for 'a reference to your new service provider for Port completion'. They also credit back a part billing pariod up until June 14, bringing the amount owing down to about $35. I contact snap! as suggested.

27 July: I hear back from snap! (after an email or two back and forth; there was a delay getting the information from the provisioning team but they did supply it in the end). They say the following:

Service Order No. xxxxxxx for the phone connection for : xxxxxxxxx (ph number) - Completed 2nd May 2012
Tolls were added on Service Order No. xxxxxxx - Completed 7th May 2012

I promptly submit my 4th ticket to TCL with this new information, explaining my scenario for about the 4th time (they closed my ticket after every correspondence so I could not continue the existing case). I hear back with the following:

'From the details on your account I can see that your account was cancelled on 13 June 2012 and necessary adjustments have been applied which will be reflected on the next statement for your reference. The total account balance to date is $34.53 due on 27 July 2012.'

I replied again contesting this as they appeared to have totally ignored the new information from snap, and I have just received a response as I type, which outlines the various tickets I had submitted, plus this key piece:

"I regret to advise that we have not received any call nor email from you that you will be moving to another service provider.

I can see that you sent us an email on 12 June 2012 to advised that you have moved to other Internet Service Provider since 2 May 2012, however we have not received notification from your new service provider that they will be taking over your services. That being said, services were active on our system."

And finally: From this, it is clear to me that it was basically my own fault for not contacting them myself (my impressions that the gaining ISP would send them through customer transfer request/details and it would then be sorted was obviously a little bit misguided). I can appreciate that. What I dont understand is the purpose of getting me to ask snap! about provisioning details if they are effectively going to ignore them anyway?

It's clear in my mind that I certainly could have handled this better, though I am interested in what you guys think about the scenario? At this point I'm probably just going to pay the outstanding amount and move on, and chalk it up as a lesson.

Cheers for reading.