Onestream "Assured" - automatically added maintenance service?

iniltous

Something like this should be an opt in , not an opt out , they shouldn’t be ‘giving’ you a months free trial that if you don’t cancel , then becomes a charged for service…it’s definitely sharp practice, perhaps it’s possible to report this to the appropriate governing body , or at least fire off an email to Onestream 

everyone_else

I reckon emailing Onestream will be completely useless. If this is indeed inertia selling and it is illegal in the UK, who do we report this to? Trading Standards? Ofcom? The police?!

whatever321

TAGWARE said:

"8 Our rights to make changes to the service, equipment or terms of this contract" -

Unfortunately they are not allowed to provide a service with an Automatic Opt-In clause. It's called "Inertia Selling" and is against the UK Consumer Law.

"Inertia selling is a banned practice under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008. These Regulations also deal with a trader's obligations when they sell from their business premises (including mobile premises) and when they sell at a distance without face-to-face contact with you."  Failing that there is this.

"The Unsolicited Goods and Services Act 1971 makes it an offence for a company to send you goods (includes Services) you have not ordered. The legislation is intended to discourage companies from sending customers unordered goods in the hope that they will be induced by lethargy or ignorance to pay for them."

This is a made up service that has no value. Certainly not £4 worth a month. I

No T&C's can over rule these UK Laws. However it doesn't stop un-scruples companies trying and normally getting away with it.

It is a shame that they have dropped to these standards. Once contract is complete. I will be leaving.

It the poor that will be caught out here. Which, are normally the least people that can afford theses tricks. (

BAD ONESTREAM.

Fabulous update!  Thanks

whatever321

iniltous said:

Something like this should be an opt in , not an opt out , they shouldn’t be ‘giving’ you a months free trial that if you don’t cancel , then becomes a charged for service…it’s definitely sharp practice, perhaps it’s possible to report this to the appropriate governing body , or at least fire off an email to Onestream 

Exactly.  It's illegal.  See other posts.

whatever321

everyone_else said:

I reckon emailing Onestream will be completely useless. If this is indeed inertia selling and it is illegal in the UK, who do we report this to? Trading Standards? Ofcom? The police?!

Start checking their website .../complaints which includes contacting the ombudsman.

ronnie_macleod

whatever321 said:

Ive checked on this.  Our contracts state...

"8 Our rights to make changes to the service, equipment or terms of this contract

8.1 Except where any change is required by law or any regulatory authority. If we change our services or the

terms of this contract to your material detriment, you'll have a right to leave the contract early without paying

having to pay any extra charges. We will let you know if this is the case and what to do before the changes

are made. If you take no action within 30 days of us telling you about the changes you'll be considered to have

accepted those changes."

So they failed to advise teh change before it was made because the email states the change has already been made.

I checked my emails, there has been no prior email received informing me of this, which is effectively a £40 to £48 increase in the annual bill (2 months free, 10 months and onwards at ~£4/ month).

Therefore you need to tell them within 30 days.  You can email them at hello@onestream.co.uk and also complain at executive@onestream.co.uk as per the contract too.

Ive told them I disagree and if they do not remove the service I will leave (at no extra charge).

Dont forget, if you (probably) pay by direct debit, the direct debit guarantee allows you to recover ANY payments and cancel your DD for whatever (or no) reason you wish.  (Sure you may be liable for non-payment). 

I did the same thing (I've been with them since Jan 2021), notwithstanding the wording quoted above I do not think what they are trying is legal, they are not simply trying to charge more for the same service they are trying to bill you for a new service you have not asked for - I believe this is unsolicited goods/services and they have no legal basis for attempting to charge you - just because there are some words in their T&Cs does not automatically make this legal in any way...

danglefoot

I cancelled it via the link provided in the email, but haven't received an email confirmation and there is no indication of it being cancelled on their somewhat basic customer website.

I have also complained about the practice to trading standards via citizens advice, and have registered a complaint with Ofcom. I suspect 'opt out selling' would have to have been explicitly made illegal within a particular industry and surely they would have checked it's legality before doing this, so am resigned to my only recourse being to vote with my feet. I'm out of contract and so if I can find another provider for a similar price, I'll be leaving as this is a scandalous practice designed to rob the unsuspecting.

ronnie_macleod

I emailed executive@onestream and also filled in the online form to cancel the service. I did get a bolier plate reply to my email which said amongst other fluff: "The service has not been applied to your account, apologies for any inconvenience this may have caused." But hey presto! - the current bill arrives and with no explanation my Regular Service Charge of £16.66 is now £19.25 (I am still in a fixed 18 month contract, it does not even suggest the increased charge is for the "onestream-assured" thing).... another email back to executive@onestream (because I could not get their live chat to work) and I am less than hopefull this will be fixed before the direct debit is due - I guess I will have to cancel the DD and argue the toss with the ombudsman... any recommendations for a provider who does not act like this would be welcome.

SoftCentaur

Ronnie - your price rise is the annual increase which is applied every April - even though (like me) you were sold a product with no mid-contract price hikes.

Last year I sent this to onestream

" To: executive@onestream.co.uk <executive@onestream.co.uk>
Subject: No in-contract price hikes - what you see is what you get.

 

Or is it ?

With the above prominent statement appearing on your website, I called your sales number to get a quote. 

We discussed your available packages and speeds expected etc. etc. and I opted for your Jetstream Fibre Max package over 24 months at £21.95 per month.

During this conversation I asked on several occasions that the price was fixed and would not increase during the contract - as per your statement above. Each time this was confirmed.

A few days ago, my router arrived and I had a look into the box and all the equipment was there and looked in good condition.

At this point I had a read of your T&C's and found clause 19.1 which stated that every April there would be a price rise based on the RPI.

As this contradicted the information I had  been given previously,  I again gave you a call.... and I was told the April RPI increase WAS part of the contract.

Now your "No in-contract price hikes" and "every April a RPI increase" statements cannot BOTH be true.

It would appear in-contact price hikes are built into the contract.

Please confirm which of these two statements is the true one.

I await your reply with interest."

I never received a reply ..... which speaks volumes !

rabbitmoon

I'm really suspicious of Onestream, and get the impression they're a very small company way over their head. Their prices have no doubt attracted a lot of business, but their website and customer service is woeful. I apparently had to book an engineer on sign-up, but there was no email notification about this at all, no-one showed up, and when I tried to contact Onestream I realised what an uphill struggle that was - not something that you want with an ISP. Their phone lines say "10 minute wait" but are never answered, the call-back service never calls back. The live-chat (apparently the only way to reach them) took over 40 minutes to get a reply, despite the "one minute" wait time shown on the chat dialogue. The information then given was really conflicting - apparently the engineer had been rescheduled (with no communication to me regarding this), but then was told an engineer wasn't needed at all so wouldn't ever show up anyway. It made no sense, and all felt extremely messy.