Talk Talk - moving home

trs_2

As I discovered 6 months ago when I last moved house that when you want to move your Talk Talk broadband you must enter into a new contract, which means signing up for an additional 12 months.
Now I'm moving again and face the same scenario. I recall having a bit of an argument about this last time around as I couldn't understand why they forced me to extend the contract period but had to accept it in the end.


So I'm wondering a couple of things - first of all if anyone has found a way around this or managed to achieve another solution? I have read that it's possible to cancel completely although that will likely incur charges, potentially of up to the 6 months I have remaining on the contract.


But also, the reason I actually wanted to cancel is that I also have Sky and figured I could save money by taking advantage of their free broadband. However I've heard so many bad things about the speed and service of Sky's broadband, the second thing I'm wondering is, might I just be better off accepting the contact extension from Talk Talk and continuing to benefit from a broadband services which has really been quite faultless since I purchased it?

Any input welcome.

macman

Most providers do a Home Move for free, but in return they ask for a new 12m minimum term (not a new contract). What's unreasonable about that?
If you cancel with 6 months on your minimum term left then yes, you will pay an ETC for those remaining months.
Sky's 'free' broadband has a 2GB monthly cap, which for all but the lightest users is wholly inadequate. It's just a bait and switch scam.

trs_2

The unreasonable part is that it's anti-competitive, at least in my circumstances. I move around quite a lot, which is necessary with my lifestyle, and tend to have 6 month contracts wherever I go.However because I keep getting forced to do a 12-month broadband renewal, should I ever want to change provider, I am unable to do so without incurring fees. 12 months is reasonable for a contract, but I don't understand the need to extend this simply because you have moved house. If I continue with this particular lifestyle pattern, I will never ever be able to change provider from Talk Talk with paying for the privilege, which I hold is anti-competitive, as I won't ever be afforded the opportunity to switch.


But thank you for confirming my suspicions about the free Sky broadband. I guess at the moment it's a case of sticking with the devil I know, and I have to say I haven't encountered any disruption of service in the last 12 months of using Talk Talk.

mattyprice4004

Eh? How is it anti-competitive?

BT Wholesale charge for every connection and disconnection. Why shouldn't they pass that cost on to you if you can't sit still for 18 months?

If you don't like, pay for the move itself (around £40 from memory). Your choice!

Cornucopia

Don't Talktalk (and others) do rolling 30-day contracts. Okay, so they may not come with as many freebies at the start, but will probably be a better solution for anyone who moves frequently.

mattyprice4004

Cornucopia wrote: »

Don't Talktalk (and others) do rolling 30-day contracts. Okay, so they may not come with as many freebies at the start, but will probably be a better solution for anyone who moves frequently.

Then you have to pay a fee to move house, around £40. BT charge to disconnect and reconnect.

macman

As above, numerous suppliers do 30 day contracts. But of course, the charges are generally higher, as they have less time to recover the upfront costs.
How that is 'anti-competitive defeats me'. You're basically suggesting that other subscribers should have to subsidise your regular moves each time.

trs_2

mattyprice4004 wrote: »

Eh? How is it anti-competitive?

BT Wholesale charge for every connection and disconnection. Why shouldn't they pass that cost on to you if you can't sit still for 18 months?

If you don't like, pay for the move itself (around £40 from memory). Your choice!

If I had that choice I would do, to my knowledge you don't get the option though, perhaps I need to investigate Talk Talk's product range more thoroughly or perhaps they need to do a better job of providing advice on the best broadband deal for my circumstance (as with Energy, sales staff are supposed to advise on the best tariff for your circumstances).

Under the current deal though I'm quite surprised how you can't see how this just ties me into their service indefinitely (i.e., anti competitive) without me having to pay huge fees to leave the contact. Personally I think the contract is unfair as defined in the contract related acts of parliament, which state there can't be an imbalance in the parties rights and obligations. I don't see justification for increasing the contract length by 50% just because I've moved house. I could see justification for charging me a re-connection fee to avoid extending the contract, which I would have no qualms with at all.

Retrogamer

When an ISP moves your service from one address to another, they incur a charge as mentioned from having to book BT Openreach engineers to carry out the changes at telephone exchanges. A disconnection at the previous address and a new connection at the new address.

Including the cost of providing the service to your home, setting up the service, employing staff to support you and repairing faults it's a very low profit product. Prices are that competitive that a lot of ISP's don't make any profit from a customer until after 12 months. If the router fails, or repairs are needed, the customer phones in a lot to a freephone support line or they do house moves then the profit is usually lost.

The providers that offer 30 day rolling contracts are generally the ones who charge you for connecting services and house moves