Hyperoptic early termination

murdof

Hi guys,

i'm moving to a home without Hyperoptic coverage and I have been asked to pay cancellation fees.
They require £20 for every month left on my contract- which is £120 in total.
I find this excessive as they used to offer this for free when moving homes and they didn't provide coverage.

Also they offer No contract prices - for example for 150Mbit:
£38 vs £41 = £3 / month = 12*3 = £36
So the discount you get per year is £36. I believe that the early termination fee shouldn't exceed that. It is accepted by them that they still make profit with the £41/month so they should be recalculating the whole contract like that and not punish their customers because their life needs changed...

Any opinions on this?

pmduk

Don't move within contract to a property without hyperoptic coverage?

JJ_Egan

I dont think you should be punishing Hyperoptic when you have a lawfull valid contract .A contract that you agreed to and now choose to ignore it to suite your own selfish ends .

iniltous

murdof wrote: »

Hi guys,

i'm moving to a home without Hyperoptic coverage and I have been asked to pay cancellation fees.
They require £20 for every month left on my contract- which is £120 in total.
I find this excessive as they used to offer this for free when moving homes and they didn't provide coverage.

Also they offer No contract prices - for example for 150Mbit:
£38 vs £41 = £3 / month = 12*3 = £36
So the discount you get per year is £36. I believe that the early termination fee shouldn't exceed that. It is accepted by them that they still make profit with the £41/month so they should be recalculating the whole contract like that and not punish their customers because their life needs changed...

Any opinions on this?

No one likes paying ETC , but it is you that is changing the terms of the contract by moving ( even if moving isn't your choice )
If the monthly fee is £41 and they are asking for £20 for each incompleted month of the minimum term, they have already discounted the fee , they presumably would like to have asked for 6* £41, but Ofcom require that ISP's only charge their actual costs when a punter leaves early , not the full monthly fee X the number of months left.
If it's your choice to move home, then (although not trivialising £120 ) it's probably not much when set against all the other moving costs, if you are being 'forced' to move by your landlord (for example)try asking them to cover at least some of the cost

SK123

I am having the same problem and I found it completely unfair! It seems that a customer has to bear the cost that Hyperoptic don't provide service in the area I am moving to. Apparently Virgin have the same policy and a customer had raised legal proceedings against them but I am not sure what happened with it.
Are they also charging you the cost of the hyperopic hub and equipment, apart from the 20pm cancellation fee?

onomatopoeia99

SK123 wrote: »

I am having the same problem and I found it completely unfair!

If you think early termination charges are unfair, why did you agree to a contract that included them? You are breaking the contract by leaving Hyperoptic unable to supply, you are liable.


There are ISPs that run on the BT network that allow month by month contracts, so unless you live in Kingston upon Hull you could have taken out a contract with no early termination charges.

murdof

Please don't assume things.
I lost my job and have to move out of the apartment and go to a cheaper one.

I can understand a contract where if I were to cancel it earlier they would lose money e.g if I had a subsidized mobile phone.
Broadband is not a financial investment product that comes with risk. If it is it should be monitored by financial authorities not ofcom.

I already mentioned that I find it logical to recalculate it based on the non contractual price. But they tell you that you opted for a product that comes with penalties

SK123

onomatopoeia99 wrote: »

If you think early termination charges are unfair, why did you agree to a contract that included them?

ohhh the profound question of why! I love this but thank you for your response. Not many people I know like to break contracts for fun or because they have nothing else to do. they sometimes try to break contracts because they found a cheaper supplier or because something, outside their control, has happened to them, like a crime or redundancy or a disease or something which we don't (I certainly don't!) invite willingly into our lives. Such events can force us to uproot our lives and move elsewhere closer to a hospital or to a carer but of course it is obvious that the sympathies on this forum lie with profit making corporations (I quote "left unable to supply"-depicting them as a helpless selfless startup run by kids who live to serve, "punishing HO to suit your selfish ends" etc.)

I agree completely with the original poster who has suggested a fair way to compensate for the termination but of course the helpless, poor company, which also by the way is backed by billionaire George Soros, will be left out of pocket, and of course we can't have that.

Thanks guys for all the responses!

pmduk

murdof wrote: »

I can understand a contract where if I were to cancel it earlier they would lose money e.g if I had a subsidized mobile phone.

So you paid the full unsubsidised cost of installation upfront, or did Hyperoptic build that into your monthly price?

murdof wrote: »

Broadband is not a financial investment product that comes with risk. If it is it should be monitored by financial authorities not ofcom.

You're quite right, that's why you knew the cost of the product and length of contract before you signed up. Unfortunately, the ETF is one of your costs of moving.

SK123

pmduk wrote: »

Unfortunately, the ETF is one of your costs of moving.

I really like this response. I think it reflects accurately something that just cannot be helped; there is no hint of whether he/she finds it fair but more importantly I don't see him/her accusing the OP of being selfish (which tbh is very insensitive, rude and frankly stupid)

murdof

pmduk wrote: »

So you paid the full unsubsidised cost of installation upfront, or did Hyperoptic build that into your monthly price?

OK so let's see:
Price that you pay in 12 months if you have a contract: = £456
Price that you pay in 12 months if you don't have a contract: = £492
Difference £36
So Hyperoptic assumes that the above cost and anything else is £36.
Why do they charge you £20 / month for remaining months then?

6 months without contract = £246
6 months with 12 month contract = £348
Bit excessive eh? Maybe not worth it getting a contract with them but go instead for no-commitment plans for only £3 more.
Do they give you this information when you sign up? Do you receive it via email when you do?

Anyway I will just pay the ETF as you guys suggest but my advice would be don't go with 12-months plan with Hyperoptic...