Getting out of an ISP contract

philscompany

Hi,

Hoping someone here can shed some light on this one for me. Sorry, it's a bit of a long one.

I am an independent IT consultant and one of my customers has asked me to help out an elderly friend of his.

She tried to cancel her broadband contract in May and move to another ISP. Somehow, after some phone calls, the ISP ended up renewing the contract until next year, not cancelling it.

She stopped payment in May by changing her card which resulted in a 'Final Demand' from the ISP for the outstanding amount they were charging each month, plus a £10 admin fee for every time the payment failed.

That's now been paid to stop the hassling, leaving just a month's broadband plus another admin fee outstanding but they won't let her out of the new contract early without a payment of around £75 which is appalling in my opinion.

I spent a good while on the phone with the ISP and managed to talk to a very helpful customer service person who is reviewing the calls taken in May to establish what happened but I have doubts as to whether they will accept responsibility and let the contract end now, let alone refund all the additional charges they've levied on her.

Does anyone have any experience of this sort of thing? I've dealt with similar cases many times where the client wants to move to a new ISP but not this moral minefield!

Is there a set of useful phrases to turn out at a time like this? I'm awaiting a call back to me on Monday to see what the results are but as I say I am not holding out much hope at this stage.

Thanks for reading and hope someone can point me in the right direction.

Phil

Sooler

Depends on th ISP, which one is it?

andyfff

I would suggest contacting your local Citizens Advice Bureau, who will have a great deal of knowledge with this type of problem; the service is free, confidential and impartial.
The CAB service tends to be generally drop-in (you go in and wait to be seen) and also by appointment, but some do offer help over the phone. So I’d google got your local one and give them a call to see what they can do. But when you go try to bring any communications you have letters etc as this helps the staff summarise the situation quicker. Obviously the contract would be a good start here.

This type of issue can be very stressful for the elderly and the CAB can act on your friend’s behalf telephone calls, letters etc to help reduce this stress.

Good luck!


Andyfff

Buzby

Too much speculation. How/why did the contract get 'renewed'? Once service is provided, it simply rolls on unless you upgrade. Did she? Being bullied into making payments just delays the inevitable and does not resolve the core issue. Has she checked her credit file to see if they've placed defaults on her - if so, you need to find out now and arrange for this to be removed when the full facts are known.

There's no useful phrases - other than you are seeking to review the terms of the contract, so you need to have the paperwork and go through it to see what the obligations are, earliest termination date, and see why this was extended.

philscompany

Many thanks for your help, the reason for the contract renew is unclear, she says she never agreed to it, they say she agreed to a deal on her existing contract to reduce the monthly payments by £5 which started a new contract period when she phoned them in May to ask for it to be stopped. I have no evidence to support either assertion at the moment so can only await their report from what they hear on the phone recording. I strongly suspect she was not aware of what she has supposedly agreed to.

I may well get advice from the CAB, thank you for the idea.

I'd rather not name the ISP at the moment if that's OK. I don't know for sure what's true and what isn't with regards to what they appear to have done.

Many thanks,

Phil