Eclipse Broadband, Cease Fee - is this legal?

Ash_Ra

I'm moving house and am cancelling my broadband service with Eclipse. They've informed me that I have to pay a £30 Cease Charge fee, which of course was not mentioned in any of the sales procedure.

They've pointed out that in the T&Cs, the fee is mentioned, but there's nowhere that an actual figure is shown. Is it legal to request a leaving fee on signup but not show what that amount is? What if they informed me that it was £1,000?

Here's where it is mentioned.

"8.2 You agree to pay any Additional Charges including the Cease Charge fee (or and other fees that Our Carrier levies against Us in such circumstances), and/or an Early Termination Fee, if applicable, if: a) You terminate the Service or the Service ends for any reason; (b) You move to another ISP without requesting and using a MAC; or (c) You request a home/office move."

brewerdave

Unfortunately the fee is imposed by BT Openreach for physical disconnection work at the exchange -it gets passed via BT Wholesale to your ISP -who charge you!
Its been a thorn of contention on numerous threads but very few people have got it waived -and then usually only because they have had numerous problems with their connection. Sorry

kwikbreaks

Ash_Ra wrote: »

What if they informed me that it was £1,000?

As you've accepted their T&C you'd probably have a fight not to pay it...

Ash_Ra

So the Cease Charge fee isn't something that they themselves set? If so, I think i'm barking up the wrong tree - I thought it was an admin figure plucked out of thin air.

kwikbreaks

No it's Openreach (part of BT group). The charge came in a while ago and every ISP has something or other in their T&C to cover it although most quote some specific price - usually £30 but I think that includes an admin fee over and above the amount they pay which is probably fair enough.

This issue crops up here most weeks.

macman

It's because OR may well have increased the fee to their ISP's since you agreed the contract. The norm is around £30, as above.