My ISP "upgraded" me needlessly

BuzzandWoody

having a few problems with my ISP, supanet.

they cold called me not so long ago, and the lady said i'd been going heavily over my broadband limit for some time. i said i had a 30 gb per month package - she insisted i didn't, that if someone told me i had that package they were wrong and they could waive the fees - but only if she upgraded my package to an actual 30gb a month service, at an increased cost (from 18 to 20 pounds a month). panicking over the bandwidth fees (she said the max they ever did was 15gb a month, and I'd been using close to 30 for about 2 years at least) she went ahead and did it.

sure enough, i checked around the web shortly after and you can find many examples of supanet calling customers and claiming their packages don't exist (google supanet and a website called "randombanter", there's an almost identical example of what happened to me..can't link to it as i'm a first-time poster).

my original package details say unlimited (12 month contract from april 09, which simply continued to run as it was even after april 2010 came around), and their T&Cs state anything listed as unlimited is subject to...wait for it....30 GB a month limit.

seems i was right, after all - as you can imagine i was pretty annoyed. i phoned back the next day, someone said they'd "deal with it" and of course we begin the cycle of endless callbacks and nothing being done about it. eventually a guy in billing lowered my contract price back to the original amount, and said they'd had quite a few calls saying the same thing. however, after this (and a few other things) since i have no desire to stay with them.

this is where it gets tricky: because nobody at their end resolved this, i imagine i'm now past the "7 day cooloff" and the new terms say i'm locked into 18 months.

which means £40 canx fee, in addition to probably something like 200+ quid to cover the unused months.

i've sent the original rep a second email and have yet to get a reply, and am considering going to Otelo about this as it seems pretty outrageous.

does anyone have any suggestions?

edit: forgot to add that Otelo say on their website:

"You must give your company up to eight weeks to try to sort out the problem. If your complaint remains unresolved after this time, you can bring the complaint to Otelo."

It hasn't been eight weeks since my original follow up call to them where i was told by another lady that they'd "look into and resolve the problem", so although i'm clearly outside the 7 day cooloff I'm not outside the length of time you're supposed to give a member company to resolve. thought this might be relevant.

spannerzone

Yeah, seems that some companies go to great length to renew and extend another 12/18 months broadband for people.

Usual thing is they phone up to offer free speed upgrade to 'up to 8mb' or whatever and probably reel off a load of T&C's (if you're lucky) and whisper the fact you'll be locked into another new contract.

BuzzandWoody

spannerzone wrote: »

Yeah, seems that some companies go to great length to renew and extend another 12/18 months broadband for people.

Usual thing is they phone up to offer free speed upgrade to 'up to 8mb' or whatever and probably reel off a load of T&C's (if you're lucky) and whisper the fact you'll be locked into another new contract.

i've also noticed quite a few posts on this very website where they're doing a similar thing - claiming your "Package does not exist" then trying to scare you with fictitious huge excess bandwidth fees, or something similar (the "Please help: Supanet and over-use charges")thread).

Going to see what email response i get (if any, which seems doubtful) then ring up tomorrow and demand a manager. this has been dragging on since last month and i'm getting a bit tired of staff members saying they'll sort it out.

meanwhile if any of you have any suggestions, please feel free to add them in

Hannibanal

Sorry, you won't like this, but needs to be said....

Well done for finding an ISP even worse than AOL, Tiscali or Orange!
That takes some doing, really.


If you think you have problems now, just try asking for a MAC, lol

You should have asked for a MAC immediately you got the phone call (assuming it was a genuine call from them)

It may be too late now and without doubt this ISP is EXTREMELY good at enforcing their terms which people should have checked, and if not understood, then asked someone, like you're doing now.

i really wouldn't waste your time with emails, phone them direct and sort it out tomorrow!

I'm pessimistic here, maybe someone can offer alternate advice?

spannerzone

Hannibanal wrote: »

Sorry, you won't like this, but needs to be said....

Well done for finding an ISP even worse than AOL, Tiscali or Orange!
That takes some doing, really.


If you think you have problems now, just try asking for a MAC, lol

You should have asked for a MAC immediately you got the phone call (assuming it was a genuine call from them)

It may be too late now and without doubt this ISP is EXTREMELY good at enforcing their terms which people should have checked, and if not understood, then asked someone, like you're doing now.

i really wouldn't waste your time with emails, phone them direct and sort it out tomorrow!

I'm pessimistic here, maybe someone can offer alternate advice?

Sadly everything you've said I agree with! - some ISP's go out of their way to have truly awful customer support. I can't imagine their own CEO's using their services for 1 millisecond if they had to deal personally with their own call centres (but I guess that's why they have PA's!)

BuzzandWoody

Hannibanal wrote: »

It may be too late now and without doubt this ISP is EXTREMELY good at enforcing their terms which people should have checked, and if not understood, then asked someone, like you're doing now.

i really wouldn't waste your time with emails, phone them direct and sort it out tomorrow!

I'm pessimistic here, maybe someone can offer alternate advice?

they phoned and told me my 30gb package didn't exist and i was using 15gb a month over the limit; i insisted i was correct but they said the only option i had was to increase my payments by £2 a month and they've waive the fictitious fees.

they were notified by myself the same day (or day after) that my contract was correct all along and they said they'd sort it out - that i'm past the 7 day "cool off" period is down to them not actually resolving, I've phoned them more times than i care to imagine so far!

bit frustrating that email, phone or anything else is failing to get any sort of result from them.

Hannibanal

Stringing people along to get past the cooling off period is a known ploy used by various companies.

You should have called their bluff, immediately asked for a MAC

difficult to know if it's too late, but i would definitely try to get out of it, but they WILL put you off saying it will all get sorted out, not to worry.

Ask for your MAC, ... move to a better ISP

BuzzandWoody

Hannibanal wrote: »

Stringing people along to get past the cooling off period is a known ploy used by various companies.

You should have called their bluff, immediately asked for a MAC

difficult to know if it's too late, but i would definitely try to get out of it, but they WILL put you off saying it will all get sorted out, not to worry.

Ask for your MAC, ... move to a better ISP

i can't see me hanging around there for much longer - i guess it comes down to whether they'll try to make me liable for fees incurred after the cooloff. i suppose the fact their billing guys immediately lowered the direct debit suggests they did something wrong, but that doesn't help me where the potential fees from cancelling are concerned.

Hannibanal

It may depend on what paperwork you have to back up your claims and what you actually said on the phone, because if you agreed to it on the phone, then they could have a recording of that and try to hold you to it.

The only way you know for sure is to try to force the issue by asking for a MAC
You need to be a bit angry and forceful about this on the phone because they will most likely try to get you to agree to the new contract.

If they do get difficult then tell them you have the paperwork and you intend to file a complaint with OFCOM.

and don't just threaten to do it, i would do that, because you won't be the first to complain about them.

Hannibanal

Just briefly if you do ask for you MAC

don't mention the word CANCEL at all at any time in the conversation otherwise they may cancel the broadband on your line and it may mean you have to pay an install fee if you join someone else, unless you go to LLU of course.

BuzzandWoody

Hannibanal wrote: »

It may depend on what paperwork you have to back up your claims and what you actually said on the phone, because if you agreed to it on the phone, then they could have a recording of that and try to hold you to it.

The only way you know for sure is to try to force the issue by asking for a MAC
You need to be a bit angry and forceful about this on the phone because they will most likely try to get you to agree to the new contract.

If they do get difficult then tell them you have the paperwork and you intend to file a complaint with OFCOM.

and don't just threaten to do it, i would do that, because you won't be the first to complain about them.

the recording would have me agreeing to them changing things so as not to be hammered by excess bandwidth fees - everything else would be her giving incorrect information about both what she claimed I had, versus the fees I'd supposedly incurred.

would i have grounds for them having mis-sold me a contract? basically everything she said was wrong, backed up with vague threats of extreme overuse.

will also keep advice re MAC address in mind.

edit: btw, i have my original contract paperwork with the package name, what it entails ("unlimited" - ie 30 gb per month) and all other relevant info. the package she claims never existed...did!