cessation fee -- do they have the right to charge me?

diriso58

I'm seeking some help regarding the £25 cessation fee that plusnet want to charge me to terminate my broadband service. When I started with plusnet several years ago, I paid a hefty upfront fee (I think at the time it was over £70) to avoid being tied down to a 12-month contract. The t&cs say:

"Once we have provided the service, you may tell us to stop providing it at any time by giving us 10 days' written notice."

However, plusnet now want to charge me a £25 cessation fee. Is that legal?

Further, the info regarding a currently advertised product on their website say that the customer can pay £25 broadband fee (plus a fee for an optional router), and they "can then leave with just 10 days' notice." That means that it ONLY costs £25 to get the no-contract option (unless you want to buy a router too). I didn't get the router from plusnet when I started, as I had my own, and my home phone was already connected and provided by BT. Am I right in thinking that the fee I paid upfront must have covered any future cessation charges?

NeverEnough

Many broadband providers charge this fee - it is to cover the cost that BT charge the ISP on cessation and my understanding is it remains payable even if you are their customer for 10 years.

Unless you have copies of old emails or letters to the contrary, I think you will have to pay the fee.

spyhunter

The charge is raised when you cease your broadband and are not moving service to another isp using a MAC. BT wholesale charge plusnet this fee and plusnet then pass this on to you. Other isps also do the same.
Some pass the charge on to the customer but some don't.

diriso58

But it was not made clear to me when I bought the service that there would be a cessation fee if I decided to terminate said service.

Here's what the relevant section on the Citizens' Advice Bureau website says:

If you are cancelling a broadband service, you may have to pay a ‘cease’ charge, even if the minimum contract period is over. Ofcom says this charge is fair if you were told about it before you bought the contract.

diriso58

spyhunter wrote: »

Some pass the charge on to the customer but some don't.

Hi spyhunter, do you know which ones don't? I might want to go with them in the future.

spike7451

diriso58 wrote: »

Hi spyhunter, do you know which ones don't? I might want to go with them in the future.

All of them do,as said before,it's a charge made by BT Wholesale,who do the physical work of connections ect in the exchange,to remove the physical connection for your service.
If you move supplier,this charge is absorbed by the new ISP.As you are simply ceasing the service,the is no way that you can avoind the charge as your old ISP's attitude would be "Why should we pay it as he's leaving us..not our problem anymore"
As to it not being in your T&C's,these charges have only really cropped up since BT was forced to open up the market to other companies so if you signed up 'several years ago' then at that time the was only a fraction of other ISP's available then compared to today,so the may not have been any charges then & Plusnet may not have included it in the T&C's.
You may get it reduced but even that,the chances of getting that done are slim to none.

chanz4

o2 dont charge

macman

Your T&C's will have been amended at some point after you commenced your contract. If you use a MAC to migrate then no cease charge applies.

prowla

So, can you avoid the fee by moving to a free service?