My wife’s email account (….@picknowl.com.au) was closed down by TPG/Chariot with her full knowledge and approval on Sept 18.
About 4 weeks after that closure, an account using the same email address has been opened by persons unknown, without any of my wife’s request, her knowledge or her consent.
This looks similar to an illegal a scam in progress. We have requested that this rogue and unauthorised account be urgently closed down, but TPG Customer Relations are not responding to our requests to do so.
Is it now more appropriate that the issue be now escalated as a formal complaint to the TIO, or alternatively should it be referred to the police for investigation?
Clarification added on 19/11/2022
The following is an effort to clarify the situation to enable better understanding of this issue and remove any confusion amongst TPG support staff who appear unable or unwilling to understand the situation.
My wife, being the owner of the email account, was advised that her account would be closed on Aug 8 together with many other legacy Picknowl accounts managed by Chariot. This closure was the result of a TPG business policy decision. Before the scheduled closure date, my wife, as suggested by Chariot/TPG, had already successfully transferred all her email requirements to a different account with another company.
Her Picknowl account was therefore no longer required and was therefore completely redundant and unwanted and she had no wish to continue paying for it.
She saw no need to take any further action as she fully expected it to be closed down by Chariot themselves on the date of Aug 8 as they clearly indicated it would.
However, the account failed to close on the scheduled date of Aug 8. This was later found to be because the service had obviously been extended without notice from that date by Chariot. This extension of the service was neither requested nor was it required by my wife.
Because the process of transferring her email account had already been completed, and the Picknowl account was no longer needed or wanted, my wife decided to initiate its closure herself by stopping further payments for the continuation of that account. In response, and as expected, the account was duly made non-operational by Chariot Accounts on Sep 18 to the relief and satisfaction of my wife. She was by then, fully operating with another company, and had no ongoing service with Chariot, and no further need or desire to be associated in any way with Chariot or TPG.
The break was complete and to the mutual satisfaction of both parties …or so we thought.
The account remained non-operational from Sep 18. However, very unexpectedly, nearly 4 weeks later on Oct 14, without any notice or explanation whatsoever, the account was made operational again by persons unknown.
My wife and I were completely bewildered by this and approached the case manager allocated by TPG for an explanation of what was going on with this rogue account. Those requests for assistance were ignored by the case manager and TPG Customer Relations.
During those 4 weeks, the account was not operational on any day. This was easily verified by login error messages returned on each day caused by automatic login attempts that had yet to be disabled on my wife’s email client.
TPG refused requests to explain why the account had been re-opened after 4 weeks and by whom, and then also refused to close the unwanted account despite repeated and legitimate requests to do so. My wife also naturally refused to pay the new invoice for the account that she never requested, and which had the audacity to include the period when the account was actually not operational.
My wife felt as if she had been taken hostage by Chariot/TPG and was forced to be a Chariot/TPG customer against her will and was understandably outraged by Chariot/TPG's continuous refusal to close the account when requested to urgently do so. This remained the case all the way until the business decision process finally kicked in to close the relevant Picknowl accounts on Oct 31.
Staff from TPG Customer Relations continue to attempt to convince me that this is a normal situation, claiming that it is simply an extension of the account and should be of no concern to me. That interpretation is plainly and blatantly ludicrous as it is completely inconsistent with the facts that I have consistently presented to them, and I therefore beg to differ with TPG's interpretation. It does not look anything like standard practice of a responsible company to me, as I am certain that most other TPG customers and even TPG management would agree.
So although the account is now finally closed, not as a result of our persistent pleas, but as a result of external activities such as the business decision, the incomprehensible manner in which this has been managed lingers on, with TPG continuing to either ignore it or defend it, and we feel entitled to a full and honest explanation by TPG.
