Getting out of an Internet Provider Contract avoiding horrible stress?!

ecobob

We CANCELLED our contract, perversely by AGREEING A NEW CONTRACT!

We had been with Virgin Media for 15 years and always found them reasonable. Through MSE advice we had managed to haggle £20 a month off our bill to about £55 for our package that would be £70 if we had just left it (lots of older folk would not haggle :-( ).  A steep price increase was in the offing and an advertised Window Period where we could change provider, we decided to go for it. HOWEVER we were two days to slow and their retention people were unhelpful. We went into dispute with them and cancelled our DD.  Unfortunately the companies can force you to pay up to £250 if you default a contract!!

We CANCELLED our contract, perversely by AGREEING A NEW CONTRACT. You have a 14 days cooling off, grace period in LAW, where you can change your mind, for whatever reason, and leave.  We gave a months notice and used the time from when we were in dispute to get another company Plusnet to setup a line.  So we went from  £55 with Virgin and with a Plusnet special offer went to about £25 a month for 18 months, saving over £600.  There was a unnoticeable speed loss from 100 to about 70, that did not affect anything, we lost the free call plan but use our mobiles with free minutes and still retain our landline phone number. We use Freeview and have a Roku box for TV services.

We found the whole process very stressful, as Virgin could have dropped their price and were unhelpful, threatening legal action.  We had been with them for 15 years.

Would I recommend doing this? Its well worth remembering your rights and this 14 days grace period is standard with all providers and can allow you to get out of an unhappy, expensive contract. Soooo yes, but it was a hassle.

macman

Cooling off does not apply to contract extensions, only to new contracts.

Admiral_Barbarossa

ecobob said:

We CANCELLED our contract, perversely by AGREEING A NEW CONTRACT!

We had been with Virgin Media for 15 years and always found them reasonable. Through MSE advice we had managed to haggle £20 a month off our bill to about £55 for our package that would be £70 if we had just left it (lots of older folk would not haggle :-( ).  A steep price increase was in the offing and an advertised Window Period where we could change provider, we decided to go for it. HOWEVER we were two days to slow and their retention people were unhelpful. We went into dispute with them and cancelled our DD.  Unfortunately the companies can force you to pay up to £250 if you default a contract!!

We CANCELLED our contract, perversely by AGREEING A NEW CONTRACT. You have a 14 days cooling off, grace period in LAW, where you can change your mind, for whatever reason, and leave.  We gave a months notice and used the time from when we were in dispute to get another company Plusnet to setup a line.  So we went from  £55 with Virgin and with a Plusnet special offer went to about £25 a month for 18 months, saving over £600.  There was a unnoticeable speed loss from 100 to about 70, that did not affect anything, we lost the free call plan but use our mobiles with free minutes and still retain our landline phone number. We use Freeview and have a Roku box for TV services.

We found the whole process very stressful, as Virgin could have dropped their price and were unhelpful, threatening legal action.  We had been with them for 15 years.

Would I recommend doing this? Its well worth remembering your rights and this 14 days grace period is standard with all providers and can allow you to get out of an unhappy, expensive contract. Soooo yes, but it was a hassle.

Cancelling a DD can cause a contract to be cancelled. Doing so with most utility and coms providers does increase your bill!

jon81uk

The stress is entirely caused by yourself through cancelling the direct debit when you were in contract.

As above the 14 days only applies to the first 14 days with the provider. A subsequant contract has no legal right to cooling off.

bris

Agreeing a new contract does not mean it's a new contract if the old contract was the same company. As above there is no cooling off period.