Onestream Broadband Unreasonable Early Termination Fee

fit_regale

Hi, I need some advice on how to deal with Onestream.

I signed up for a 12-month contract in September 2024, but I’m moving out at the end of July 2025 — two months before the contract ends. I can’t transfer the service, as my new place already has broadband.

I’ve been told I’ll be charged an early termination fee of £258, which seems excessive. This includes £34 for the final two months (£17/month), plus £99 for activation and £125 for the router. I received a promotional deal at sign-up, so I was never charged these setup fees.

My contract states I may be charged an early termination fee, but the actual breakdown of the price was in a separate document, which wasn’t made clear at the time.

From what I’ve read, Ofcom requires early termination fees to reflect a provider’s actual loss, and the charges must be clearly communicated upfront. If I could stay in the property and complete the contract, I wouldn’t owe any setup fees — so the current £258 charge feels unfair, it’s also reasonable to assume that these costs have already been recouped while I’ve been in contract.

I believe the £99 and £125 fees are unreasonable under Ofcom’s guidance. Please let me know if my conclusion is correct and what I can do to resolve this, or if any other options are available.

Thank you.

flaneurs_lobster

Any way you can just continue the service for the last two months?

TadleyBaggie

Might be a issue if the new occupants want to get their own broadband installed and Onestream won't release the line.

iniltous

Actually if Onestream are an  Openreach based service (and they probably are )  and the new occupant asks for service via Openreach from anyone, including Onestream , the OP service would be taken over and ETC raised in the same way as if the OP asks for service to be ceased before the end of the minimum term , it’s a bit late now , but if the OP has asked about this ISP on here before signing up , they would have been plenty of warnings to avoid them like the plague.

FYI , £17 a month probably doesn’t cover their setup costs and providing a router , as well as ‘internet access’ , TBH , if  I were looking and saw that price I’d be thinking what’s the catch , you unfortunately have found out what the catch is

…if you were to be philosophical about it , you have been paying around £13 less than a more reputable ISP would charge , so over the 10 months you were with them you have saved £130 , you can in effect deduct that from the amount from the total , but the ETC’s  if you were with a different ISP and quit two months early  ( that would ask you to return the router as they only loaned it to you )  , would still be a fraction of what Onestream want , even after the £130 deduction .

Can you get out of paying it , probably not .

The only way I can see this working out for the OP , is if the OP continues to pay after they leave the address  , and hope the property remains empty , or the new occupants don’t order broadband from a provider using Openreach , or don’t order from an Openreach based provider for at least two months , that way the OP may get to September and be able to quit outside the minimum term , and therefore avoid the ETC , but the chances are Onestream have some other ‘trap’ for non renewal , for example I’d suspect they charge for the router , but you would need to check their T&C’s 

fit_regale

Hi,

Thank you for your response.

I’m not sure if this changes anything, but I was actually paying £25/month between September and February, and £28/month from March onward. The £17/month is the discounted figure they apply when calculating the early termination charge. I do understand this is still relatively low for a 12-month contract, but I wanted to clarify.

My main concern remains with the other charges. I’m being asked to pay a £125 router fee — but I’m also required to return the router. That seems unreasonable for equipment I don’t get to keep.

I’ve been looking into Ofcom’s guidance and found a statement (from 2013) that says:

“Other (incidental) terms and charges must be fair. […] Others, like early termination charges, should also be limited (consumers who end contracts early should never have to pay more than the payments left under the contract - in fact they should often pay less, to reflect costs providers save because the contract ends early).”

If that guidance is still applicable, then I’d be paying over four times the cost of the remaining two months — which doesn’t seem proportionate or fair.

Finally, I don’t recall these fees being made clear during the call when I signed up, and the details weren’t included in the main contract. From what I understand, Ofcom requires that such terms are communicated clearly and prominently at the point of sale, which I don't believe happened in this case.

Any further advice would be much appreciated.

iniltous

You are correct about the ‘guidance’ Ofcom give , that ETC’s  should never be more than what the remaining months would cost if the full term were observed by the customer , in the BT/EE case , the example they give on their site , someone paying £35 a month , quits with 4 months  remaining of the minimum term , so £140 would be paid to BT if the customer kept to the minimum term  and didn’t leave early ….after the removal of VAT , a discount for early payment and a deduction for not supplying service anymore , the ETC is £67, less than 50% of the figure that would be paid , here is the link if required, it shows how it’s worked out .

https://www.bt.com/help/account-and-billing/manage-account/thinking-of-leaving-bt

but your ISP doesn’t have to work their figure out the in same way , they are being ‘cute’ in that the base ETC figure is quite low , £17 per month , its making you pay for the router (  like  you , I don’t see how they can you charge for it and expect its return ) and they make you pay for the initial ‘connection’ , presumably this is intended to skirt around Ofcoms guidelines, but it is in the T&C’s .

TBH , I’m not sure you can take it any further, Ofcom won’t be interested in individual disputes , they will point you to the ADR , you could try whatever ADR (dispute resolution ) entity they use (all UK ISP should belong to one, is on their  website ) but if they are correctly applying the T&C’s , the ADR may effectively say it’s your fault for not reading them …as stated there are multiple ex Onestream customers, posting here and other places about the kind of outfit they are, bitterly regretting signing up with them .

In the first place you could obviously speak to them , and ask for some reduction after all you only 2 months short of the minimum term , especially charging you for a router and expecting it to be returned , if it’s your property why return it , if it’s theirs you only rented it therefore it should be on the bill as an item or included as part of the service , but chances are they will say keep it , just pay £125 , it obviously was never worth that and has no value now ,  TBH the return is probably more to do with their recycling obligation, it’s your cash they are after .

Unfortunately it’s difficult to see an upside , those that preceded you and posted about avoiding Onestream in the main had to write it down to experience, and we’re trying to stop others getting involved with this type of organisation.

Ectophile

It costs nothing to make a formal complaint.  If they reject the complaint, it costs nothing to go to whichever ombudsman they have signed up to.

fit_regale

Hi, thank you for replying and I will be making a formal complaint.

The plot thickens when it comes to the £125 router fee as I realised only in the event of an early termination are you not required to send the router back however it is explicitly written that the router is rented as stated in clause 9.3.5:

"The price paid for the router and/or other provided hardware is a rental fee and the router and/or other provided hardware will always remain our property. Title of the equipment does not pass to you under any circumstances."  

This term is later contradicted in a separate document (Price Guide) which states that in the event of an early termination customers would be required to pay £125 for the router and are not required to return it. Onestream are then effectively forcing you to purchase an item they claim not be selling and do not give you the opportunity to send it back. So, under the Onestream contract I would be paying an unreasonable fee to hold onto an item indefinitely which is still technically Onestream’s property. How is this right?

iniltous

FYI , Onestream got quite a few complaints previously for their pricing structure… I dont know the actual figures but for arguments sake they would advertise FTTC 80Mb broadband for £ 20 a month ,quite competitive on the face of it , it was only on clicking through that figure was for the absolute bare bones service things other ISP’s include were extra …want them to provide a router on a rental basis add £4-£10 a month , they could (AFAIR ) supply one for outright purchase, same with on line security (McAfee , Norton that type of thing ) they would say included , but the small print wound say free for a month or  3 months  , £6 per month  after the free period  and an ‘Onestream   Assured’  add on , supposedly better response to faults etc which just means they took a better SLA from Openreach on your account , and charge £5 a-month after the free month , with all the extras they are added as standard on the application, and it’s your responsibility to remove them if they are not wanted after the free period ….so the £20 a-month quickly becomes £30 ish , making it no cheaper than the mass market ISP’s .

I believe they were forced to stop doing this so it may not still be the case but they were infamous for that type of behaviour, but it does show how they can have different T&C’s regarding routers depending on if the didn’t supply a router at all , supplied a rental router , or sold a router outright