Now Broadband overcharging

shiraz99

A month ago I received the out of contract email, which I get every year around this time, stating quite unambiguously what I'm paying now and what are my options going forward.

It clearly states

"Do nothing and continue with your existing membership for £23.50 a month

Or

Pick from one of the packages below available to you below
...
"
It then goes onto outline other deals that are more expensive.

So naturally I did nothing, as I've done previously, but this month I've just been charged a whopping £46.50. is there a way to force Now Broadband to put my fee back down as well as giving me a refund of this overcharge?

Farway

shiraz99 said:

A month ago I received the out of contract email, which I get every year around this time, stating quite unambiguously what I'm paying now and what are my options going forward.

It clearly states

"Do nothing and continue with your existing membership for £23.50 a month

Or

Pick from one of the packages below available to you below
...
"
It then goes onto outline other deals that are more expensive.

So naturally I did nothing, as I've done previously, but this month I've just been charged a whopping £46.50. is there a way to force Now Broadband to put my fee back down as well as giving me a refund of this overcharge?

No need to "force" them. I had the same last year, and they agreed the wording was ambiguous and put me to where I would've been had I phoned.

I used the online chat, and they were very helpful, took a while to go round a bit, but I got to the desired result in the end

Have a search on here around a year or more ago for this letter wording problem, there were a few of us then

shiraz99

I don't think there's now an online chat for broadband issues, I believe you have to phone, and for what I've heard they're just saying tough when you ring them up.

TBH, the wording isn't really ambiguous, even if you go further down into the options it highlights that I can still pay £23.50 by not doing anything. Under the section titled "Keep what you have" it states in bold "To choose this option you don't have to do a thing". I'll give them a call tomorrow but I'm not holding much hope, the last thing I want to do is start a new contract as I'm selling the house soon.

mgns

Unfortunately, this has caught a few people out (luckily I read about it before my contract renewal).

The problem is that underneath the 'Keep what you have' offer price is an expiry date for the 'monthly discounts'. In the past, this expiry date has been a year later. However, it now appears that the expiry date is sometimes only a month or two away and so NOW customers have been caught out by the sudden full price bill.

I'm not sure if NOW will refund you - they may not see it as an overcharge but it's worth a try. Remember, you will only pay the full £46.50 if you remain on it unchanged for the whole month - if you agree a new offer, they will adjust next month’s bill to reflect the days you were on £46.50 vs £23.50.

The £23.50 offer may still be there for you when you call them (maybe less if you ask) but it might involve you signing a new 12 month contract. You can always ask about a rolling contract.

Also, they don't seem to be offering discounts on phone packages (if you had one previously), so that may be another £0/£4/£8 on top of the broadband price.

shiraz99

So been on touch and they wont do a thing other than to give me an offer which entails a new 12 month contract, which is not something I want.

Even as the email states clearly in the package options, under "Keep what you have", "From 01/03/2024 you will pay: £23.50 a month" they're arguing that as it states further down in small writing under the Anytime Calls section "This includes discounts of £23 a month. Your first discount will expire 02/03/24" they can charge the full £46.50, even though at best this is misleading if not contradictory to what is says above.

I've raised a complaint and if I don't get anywhere I'll have to take it to whatever ombudsman there is. The funny thing is they know there's an issue, the advisor admitted as much, but they wont do anything about it.

IW74

I've just come on here to post the same thing - I had £43.50 debited from my card last night despite my "do nothing" option stating the monthly price would remain at £23.50.
Then when you look at the VERY LAST line you see...

This includes discounts totalling £20.00 a month. Your first discount will expire 16/03/2024

Given the bit in bold above that stated

Keep what you have

From 15/03/2024 you will pay: £23.50 a month I think this is a very, very underhand way of sneaking a £20 a month price increase past customers. At the very least the bit in bold should be the £43.50 price that would apply from 16/03/2024, which would more likely alert customers.  I'll be calling them tomorrow - I don't want to spoil my Sunday arguing this over the phone with them. I've had no issues with their service in the 2 years I've been with them so I will give them the chance to make this right. I know the "new" price is £26.50 for a 12 month contract, which if they are willing to give me the £20 back for this I'll consider agreeing to. If not, it will be off to Quidco to switch to another provider and make the £20 back (and more) via cashback and voucher offers.  Annoyed at myself for not spotting this in the small print, but more annoyed at Now - a lot of people will miss this, which suits them doesn't it?

IW74

mgns said:

Unfortunately, this has caught a few people out (luckily I read about it before my contract renewal).

The problem is that underneath the 'Keep what you have' offer price is an expiry date for the 'monthly discounts'. In the past, this expiry date has been a year later. However, it now appears that the expiry date is sometimes only a month or two away and so NOW customers have been caught out by the sudden full price bill.

I'm not sure if NOW will refund you - they may not see it as an overcharge but it's worth a try. Remember, you will only pay the full £46.50 if you remain on it unchanged for the whole month - if you agree a new offer, they will adjust next month’s bill to reflect the days you were on £46.50 vs £23.50.

The £23.50 offer may still be there for you when you call them (maybe less if you ask) but it might involve you signing a new 12 month contract. You can always ask about a rolling contract.

Also, they don't seem to be offering discounts on phone packages (if you had one previously), so that may be another £0/£4/£8 on top of the broadband price.

The absolute nerve of the phone bit is I have never had, or asked for, anytime calls.
Yet now when I look at my billing they're charging me £8 a month for it.

If I'm understanding the rolling contract bit, that now removes all your "discounts". I've been on a rolling contract for the last 12 months and this didn't happen, so another change by stealth, Basically they want you to sign a new contract or pay an extortionate amount to go month to month.

teddysmum

A few providers are 'at it'. Plusnet made me n offer that expires 30th March, but said they can't honour it as their publicists posted the offer and should not have done so as you can no longer have free calls as they are winding down the phone service. I can have a £3 more expensive shorter deal, but must pay the £11something for Anytime calls, despite one person claiming that there is no box to offer Anytime calls; just international plus, no calls or the evening and weekend package.

Not expecting to be refused, I've left very little time to sort an alternative, thinking changing nearer last bill would reduce the size of the money sums fiasco. Once, the short time on a different price scale, would have cost more than a whole month of days at the higher rate.

LeesArt

I have heard similar recounts about NowTV elsewhere, including double charging with Sky,

Sadly we live in a world where you have to screenshot or video everything you book online, copy every online chat, record your phone calls and do a Subject Access Request before you complain so that they do not delete anything.

Under the Consumer Rights Act (2015) this would be deemed as mis-selling,  you would not have made that decision of continuing had you been given the correct information.  

If they don't refund then cancel and ask for a deadlock letter and use their ADR provider CISAS below

or just issue a letter before action and make a claim via money claims online 

I suspect that they will cave if you get the right operator.

Alternative dispute resolution

You have the right to take your complaint to CISAS (Communications and Internet Services Adjudication Scheme), Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution, if your complaint relates to TV Membership, NOW Broadband, NOW Calls, or our complaints handling process, and either:

• we haven’t resolved your complaint to your satisfaction within eight weeks of you first making your complaint to NOW, or
• you’ve received a letter from us saying that your complaint has reached "deadlock" with nothing more we can do.

CISAS is an independent alternative dispute resolution scheme which will review your complaint. If CISAS decides that your complaint is justified, NOW will act on any decision made and put things right for you.

If your complaint remains unresolved after eight weeks, we'll send you a written reminder of your right to go to CISAS. We'll also send you a deadlock letter on your request, unless there are further steps we can take to resolve your complaint quickly. We won't send you a reminder or issue you with a deadlock letter if your complaint is vexatious or outside the jurisdiction of the scheme.

Find out how to get in touch with CISAS

IW74

A really helpful - and sadly completely true - summary of the way things are now @LeesArt. I’ve voted with my feet/wallet - ordered Shell Broadband and got a decent chunk of cashback and vouchers via Quidco Compare that will more than make up for the 20 quid I’ve overpaid.
It’s probably done me a favour long term as I will now diary absolutely every fixed term service or subscription so I don’t let this happen again.

I actually think this is deliberate on the providers behalf. They don’t like having to bring to the customers attention that they’re out of contract, so they make the notification as vague or misleading as they possibly can, whilst retaining the chance to say ‘we DID email you about it…’

To anyone else in the same boat - just leave and take some cashback for your troubles. 

mgns

Just in case you haven't done so already (and are definitely not using it) - you can remove the £8 ‘Anytime’ call package and downgrade to the free ‘PAYG’ package without being penalised. The call package should be independent of the broadband contract so you won't be signing up for anything new.

Phone calls to NOW Customer Service are free whatever call package you have. Note that PAYG calls are expensive at around 25p a minute plus connection charge, if you use it after downgrading.