Any way to avoid Plusnet broadband early termination fees?

RS2OOO

Hi,

As per the title I'm wondering if I have legitimate grounds to avoid my Plusnet broadband early termination fees.

Contract expired in December and I called up knowing I was moving house and was advised i could port my broadband to new house, so I renewed contract for 18 months. Having been a happy customer for 10+ years I didn't consider this might turn out to be a bad decision.

I gave my house move date as 20th January and a ticket was opened for broadband to go live on 2nd Feb.

Long story short the new house turned out not to have a phone line connected and now its 23rd Feb and still no sign of getting connected any time soon.

Not being able to work from home is costing me £48 a day in train fares.

As a gesture of good will plusnet gave me 4Gb extra data on my plusnet mobile contract to get me through but since then I've spent a further £120 on extra data bundles.

I spoke to Plusnet today pretty much begging for a connection date and I also asked if they'd pay for additional mobile data and the rude operator gave a straight flat "no" and had the cheek to say the 4GB extra mobile data they gave me on 2nd Feb should have lasted me a month! 

After that and feeling angry I phoned Virgin who said if I sign up with them they'll have me connected within 24 hours. In desperation I signed up.

So really my question is, due to the fact I'm 8 weeks into a broadband contract and had no broadband for 5 of those weeks and with no estimate of a connection date any time soon, do I have any legitimate grounds to cancel the contract and avoid the £246 early termination charges?

Thanks in advance for your advice, and apologies if this has been asked many times before, Im struggling to search the forum from my mobile with the ridiculously slow 3g speeds I can intermittently obtain here.

[Deleted User]

RS2OOO said:

So really my question is, due to the fact I'm 8 weeks into a broadband contract and had no broadband for 5 of those weeks and with no estimate of a connection date any time soon, do I have any legitimate grounds to cancel the contract and avoid the £246 early termination charges?

No, as the contract was based on the provision at your old address. 

Neil_Jones

The "port to your new address" thing would have been based on what the database probably said what was available at the new house.  Which sometimes doesn't match the reality.

The issue here is more likely to be with Openreach, not Plusnet.  But you can't speak to Openreach, they only deal with the ISP, and Openreach would be the ones who install/setup/do the phone line work.  If the job has fallen through the net its Plusnet who will have to chase it.

That being said - https://www.plus.net/broadband/moving-home/ - suggests the notice period required is four weeks.  Jan 20 -> Feb 2 is only 13 days.

RS2OOO

Thanks @Deleted_User and @Neil_Jones

Correct that the issue lies with Openreach. 

At time of taking the contract I advised there was no phone line to the property to my knowledge but was told records show there was. So your evaluation is spot on.

Various Openreach Engineers have visited (5 that I've seen), a dig team turned up last Weekend to install the line (forcing my new neighbours to cancel having their Scaffolding removed following a 1st floor extension - They were not happy). An hour later the dig team disappeared having done no work. Turned out the road / pavement had been marked up incorrectly by a previous engineer and there was no distribution point in the street to connect a line to. Another Engineer came on Sunday to cat scan the street. He said this will require the entire street to be dug up and could be a while before work commences (council permits, notifying neighbours of lack of access etc). None of this information has come from Plusnet themselves - they just send "updates" that progress is to be reviewed in 48 hours which is continually extended.


So, if there's no way out of paying the termination fees, here's my next query:

Do I cancel now, or do I wait for the line to be installed and then cancel?

The latter option means there's a line installed giving me the option to shop around for better broadband deals at the end of the VM contract, but could I be charged extra for the work having been done?

[Deleted User]

Or do you even cancel at all?

How do the termination fees compare to what you would pay over the remaining term of the contract?

cx6

"Contract expired in December and I called up knowing I was moving house and was advised i could port my broadband to new house"

This statement, if true, forms part of the contract you entered into. You were told you could port your BB - they did not say you could port your BB ***if*** there was a line available or **if** this and that.

You should therefore say you were given misleading information and ask them to cancel your contract or suspend it  without payment until they can fulfil it ie the line has been installed.

RS2OOO

Deleted_User said:

Or do you even cancel at all?

How do the termination fees compare to what you would pay over the remaining term of the contract?

My calculations, which might be wrong, suggest cancellation equates to just over £14 per Month (x17 Months = circa £246), whereas contract is £27.98 per Month (£60 connection fee waived). 

RS2OOO

Still have no internet connection!

I believe it is to go live tomorrow.

I raised another complaint with Plusnet and was soon phoned back and the fella was really sympathetic to the situation and advised once the connection is live someone would call to discuss cancellation of the contract and to see if there's any flexibility with the cancellation charges considering I have 2+ mobile contracts that I will also move elsewhere and family members I've previously recommended to Plusnet broadband who will also cancel their services.

Will keep you updated as to the outcome.

Chino

RS2OOO said:

and family members I've previously recommended to Plusnet broadband who will also cancel their services.

Except Plusnet knows that, in reality, they would only do this if they are out of their minimum contract term and have identified a cheaper ISP. In which case they will move anyway.

prowla

If they advised you that you could transfer your service to your new address and didn't add the caveat that it required a connection to be in place then it seems to me that it's been mis-sold.

RS2OOO

prowla said:

If they advised you that you could transfer your service to your new address and didn't add the caveat that it required a connection to be in place then it seems to me that it's been mis-sold.

I don't recall full details of the telephone conversation since it was almost 3 Months ago now and obviously had the stress of numerous failed exchange/completion dates at the forefront of my mind.

However, the ticket opened by Plusnet does say:

"Line status at new property: No Line"

I've had the router plugged in the last few days and yesterday morning a connection was established and the broadband is now live, however, Plusnet have yet to inform me or update the status of the ticket to tell me I now have a connection. 

Was I mis-sold? I don't honestly know - I told them there was no line. Plusnet told me on 20th Jan my connection would be completed on 2nd Feb. Since that date the ticket has been updated circa twice a week to apologise for the delay with further review dates set a few days into the future.

The most recent ticket update was on 9th March following my telephone conversation to say the complaint would be reviewed once the order has completed.

Whilst contractually I may still be required to pay the full 18 Month contract cancellation fees (they didn't take last months direct debit), I would probably accept a heavy discount to those fees with no hard feelings under the circumstances. 

Will update with the final outcome. 
In the meantime I'm off to unplug the router since I don't need the service. Speeds are above the 21 Mbps guaranteed minimum but not particularly fast at 24Mbps, and not a patch on the 218 Mbps from the Virgin connection which is actually £2 per month cheaper.