no right to cancel at start of contract?

jevooshear

so i was looking to move house and take my internet service with me. i phoned the internet service company 30 days before moving to inform them that i would like to take the service to the new address. at the new address, the internet is crap and i want to change providers. its been less than 14 days since i moved but i was informed the 14 day cooling period applied from the day i informed them of the decision to move. this sounds odd to me as i wasnt able to use the service at my new property so wasnt able to assess it. i thought one of the reasons for the 14 day cooling off period is for you to judge the service but it seems this isn't the case. does the decision to have the 14 day cooling off period end before the service is even started seem unfair?
this is particularly the case as the company in question - shell energy - put you on a new contract(in return they waive any charges for ending the old contract earlier), so as a new contract, it would seem you should have a right to cancel within 14 days.

would like to know peoples thoughts on the subject.

thanks

neilmcl

The right to cancel services is different to that of goods. In this case you entered into the service contract over 30 days ago, even though the service itself hasn't started, and therefore cannot normally cancel it.

If the internet is "crap" as you put it what makes you think any other provider will be any better. If it's the standard ADSL service you're getting all other providers will be the same.

If, on the other hand, your provider can't provide the service they promised, ie, they can't match the minimum speed they said they could at the new property, then you have the right to get them to fix it or cancel due to a breach in contract.

JJ_Egan

OP have you checked other ISPs  as this crap may be down to your new homes line.

Sandtree

What internet do you have, who are you with and who do you want to go to?

Obviously most internet is either ADSL or FTC in the UK and both being provided by BT OpenReach. What brand you buy it from makes almost no difference to speed etc as it all goes via the same infrastructure. Virgin Cable (note they also sell BT OpenReach), Hyperoptic and a few others do have their own full infrastructure but are typically only available in certain locations.

You are wrong about the 14 days being to be able to judge the service, it is to enable you to have time to change your mind and generally envisaged that the service will not have commenced in that period. If service has commenced then its not a free of cost cancellation and the can bill for services rendered (which I believe may be more than a simple pro-rata due to setup costs)

Blackbeard_of_Perranporth

Read through this.
 https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2019/03/broadband-providers-must-now-give-customers-a-minimum-guaranteed/

But it is also down to how you connect to your router, with wireless being the least efficient.

The_Rainmaker

You need to speak to your neighbours and do your own speed tests and compare.  Have you done all that?

born_again

jevooshear said:

so i was looking to move house and take my internet service with me. i phoned the internet service company 30 days before moving to inform them that i would like to take the service to the new address. at the new address, the internet is crap and i want to change providers. its been less than 14 days since i moved but i was informed the 14 day cooling period applied from the day i informed them of the decision to move. this sounds odd to me as i wasnt able to use the service at my new property so wasnt able to assess it. i
would like to know peoples thoughts on the subject.

thanks

It's not a new contract is it. You have simply moved the old one.

Did you check the speeds available at the new address before moving?

So you get crap speeds, but that does not mean you can not use the service. As clearly you are getting something.

In true MSE style. You would have cancelled, taken out a new cheaper contract & used a cashback site to reduce it even further.....

Jumblebumble

Sandtree said:

What internet do you have, who are you with and who do you want to go to?

Obviously most internet is either ADSL or FTC in the UK and both being provided by BT OpenReach. What brand you buy it from makes almost no difference to speed etc as it all goes via the same infrastructure. Virgin Cable (note they also sell BT OpenReach), Hyperoptic and a few others do have their own full infrastructure but are typically only available in certain locations.

I would respectfully disagree
I have spent Lockdown setting up people to work from home
There has been a single common factor in those who had really bad connections and were unable to reach their ISP to gat any satisfaction.
I will not mention them by name but they are the cheapest ISP in town who use their own unbundled network
No doubt they suffer capacity issues and may well have been traffic shaping

Ectophile

The 14 day period is time to change your mind when buying a service by distance selling.  That 14 days is long gone.  It's not a "try before you buy" guarantee.

When you took out the new contract, they should have given you an estimated range of speeds that you would get, and a minimum speed that they would consider acceptable on your line.  If the speed is above that, there's nothing you can do.  If it's below that, raise a fault call.

These days, one of the things you need to do when house-hunting is to check the broadband speed at the place you're thinking of moving to.

Sandtree

Jumblebumble said:
I would respectfully disagree

I have spent Lockdown setting up people to work from home
There has been a single common factor in those who had really bad connections and were unable to reach their ISP to gat any satisfaction.
I will not mention them by name but they are the cheapest ISP in town who use their own unbundled network
No doubt they suffer capacity issues and may well have been traffic shaping

Thats not disagreeing, thats just pointing out that there is a local company to you who fit in the "and a few others" category of having their own infrastructure.

DoaM

I suspect you'll find that @Jumblebumble is talking about a major ISP who use LLU to provide Internet connectivity, so not at all local to them - more UK-wide.