ISP withdrew our internet but still wants us to pay the final months bill

frank1978

Talktalk sent us this in part of an e-mail back in January. "We recently got in touch to let you know that your current Ultra Fibre Optic service is being withdrawn and will end on 29 May 2023. This is happening because Ultra Fibre Optic was one of the first trials of full fibre broadband in the UK, and some of the equipment is becoming obsolete and needs to be replaced."

We had an 18 month contract that ends on July 13th. We paid what thought to be the final direct debit on May 21st which was the billing peroid from May 13th - June 13th. We told talktalk back in April we would not switch to another plan as it was too expensive and would switch to another ISP after May 29th.

And we were under the impression that they actually owed us money because the last direct debit we had paid covered around 2 weeks that had service disconnection from May 29th. They have sent us a bill for the final month of the contract. June 13th - July 13th .  We are refusing to pay this as it was them that ended the contract early by disconnecting the service not us.

Are we in the right not to pay or not and do they owe us 2 weeks back ?

eskbanker

frank1978 said:

We told talktalk back in April we would not switch to another plan as it was too expensive and would switch to another ISP after May 29th.

This makes it sound like they were offering you an alternative to the withdrawn product, was this available up to the end of your contract or only if you signed another with a new minimum period?

frank1978

eskbanker said:

frank1978 said:

We told talktalk back in April we would not switch to another plan as it was too expensive and would switch to another ISP after May 29th.

This makes it sound like they were offering you an alternative to the withdrawn product, was this available up to the end of your contract or only if you signed another with a new minimum period?

They wanted us to sign another contract with a new minimum period of 18 months. It was too expensive with calls package so we rejected it

eskbanker

frank1978 said:

eskbanker said:

frank1978 said:

We told talktalk back in April we would not switch to another plan as it was too expensive and would switch to another ISP after May 29th.

This makes it sound like they were offering you an alternative to the withdrawn product, was this available up to the end of your contract or only if you signed another with a new minimum period?

They wanted us to sign another contract with a new minimum period of 18 months. It was too expensive with calls package so we rejected it

In which case it presumably comes down to whether their actions were sufficient for you to claim breach of contract, to the extent that you had early termination rights - if they basically said that the service would terminate early unless you agreed to sign a new contract then that ought to be arguable, but did you actually make it clear when notifying them in April that you were holding them in breach and claiming the right to terminate?  Was the service technically inoperable from 29 May, i.e. it would have needed new equipment to continue?

born_again

These contracts are usually in arrears. So it could well be correct.

HillStreetBlues

@frank1978
On what you have posted you are correct they owe you two  weeks refund
They gave you noticed that they were ending the contract on 29th May. You could sign or reject any new contract.
You rejected a new contract so were free to leave.