XLN Charge for Business Assurance unless you opt out

Josmyth

I've just discovered that XLN have been charging my account an extra £4.95 per month for a "business assurance" cost (to insure me for an engineer call out if needed) for which I never agreed to. Apparently a letter which was addressed to my mother in law (I am the account holder, she was the original) was sent to inform me this would be added on unless I OPTED OUT. They say an email was sent too, (never received). Am I wrong to think this seems like a very cunning way to get an extra £4.95 pm in the hope that most customers either wont read the letter or do nothing about it? Can this be treating a customer fairly? If I had 100000 customers and added £4.95 to each account there's a good chance a lot of it will stick. No mention of this when the contract is entered into as apparently it's free for the first 3 months. Anyone else come across this?

JJ_Egan

Are you a business ??

If so its a business to business contract  as opposed to a consumer contract .

Business all depends upon the contract and its terms .

Neil_Jones

Josmyth said:

I've just discovered that XLN have been charging my account an extra £4.95 per month for a "business assurance" cost (to insure me for an engineer call out if needed) for which I never agreed to. Apparently a letter which was addressed to my mother in law (I am the account holder, she was the original) was sent to inform me this would be added on unless I OPTED OUT. They say an email was sent too, (never received). Am I wrong to think this seems like a very cunning way to get an extra £4.95 pm in the hope that most customers either wont read the letter or do nothing about it? Can this be treating a customer fairly? If I had 100000 customers and added £4.95 to each account there's a good chance a lot of it will stick. No mention of this when the contract is entered into as apparently it's free for the first 3 months. Anyone else come across this?

XLN is a business to business supplier.  need to exercise far more caution since you don't have any of the protections of the domestic side of things when it comes to business, well, anything really.

I think the more pertinent question here is why its took you x months to notice?

Josmyth

It is actually my 79 year old mother in law who lives at the address and she was signed up to the contract without our knowledge over the phone. As she couldn’t get out of the 24 month contract I asked to be the named account holder but the post goes to her address and the letter was addressed to her to tell her of the need to opt out if she didn’t want the protection. She didn’t know to pass it on to me. Seems very unfair if ofcom allow a provider to use an opt out system when they know it’s a sneaky way to get more money as there’s no doubt this type of thing happens all the time.

Josmyth

Not a business. Just an old lady duped 

JJ_Egan

XLN is a small business provider is why i asked not a consumer provider .

MichaelP2021

Our business received the same suggested business assurance charge that would be added automatically unless we opted out (after joining in September 2021), and then their polite representatives explained that a high call out charge could be accrued along with an hourly rate if there was a fault and we did opt out. This came across as rather threatening. They then said that if we terminate the contract (my suggestion) there would be a charge of £299 to terminate the line and for the broadband a further £199. So we are locked in till March 2023. So much to welcome to the XLN family email I received! This potential charge must have been known when we switched over from BT to XLN and yet they duped us into switching because they were cheaper. I have written to them and expressly stated if anything happens to the line during the contract we will not foot any bill. Of course we just get an automated reply. At least I stated this in the webchat and got a copy of it via email. BTW the broadband works fine for now but we expect to switch back to BT.

adorepenistone

I too had this business assurance charge automatically added but cancelled on the same day of getting the email notification. I cancelled due to being a SMALL business and watching every penny. £4.95+VAT is better off in my pocket every month. And guess what 2 weeks later my business phone line has gone down!! what a surprise and what a coincidence!!! £120+vat to send an engineer out. They've got you over a barrel. dammed if you do and dammed if you dont!
 NO WONDER SMALL BUSINESSES DONT/CANT SURVIVE!