Pop Telecom £79.99 “TV Box” charge despite no TV service and incorrect billing

Irving7

I want to share my recent experience with Pop Telecom because it highlights how misleading and unfair their billing practices are, and may even breach Ofcom’s rules on accurate billing.

£79.99 “Non-returned Equipment – TV Package Box”

• My online account shows an “outstanding balance” of £79.99 for “NON RETURNED EQUIPMENT – TV Package Box.”

• Pop Telecom do not sell TV packages. I have never ordered, received, or used any TV equipment.

• The only equipment I ever received was the broadband router when I joined.

The invoice PDF they sent me only says “Non-Returned Equipment,” but in the Service Charges section of my account the charge is clearly labelled as “TV Package Box.” I have screenshots of this.

Contradictory answers from support

When I queried this through live chat I was given several contradictory explanations:

1. It is a TV package box (their own system description).

2. It is the broadband router.

3. It is just a “precautionary system-generated charge.”

4. It will only be removed once their warehouse confirms receipt.

Meanwhile the £79.99 sits on my account as if it is a genuine debt.

No communication, all the chasing left to me

• Pop never contacted me about equipment returns.

• I had to chase them in live chat, spending well over an hour with an agent who pasted vague replies, contradicted themselves, and brushed me off with “check your invoice.”

• Only after pressing repeatedly was I finally given a return address.

Advertising and T&Cs lack transparency

• Pop’s current Uswitch listing says: “All Pop Telecom home broadband customers get a free wireless router when they sign up.” I cannot say for certain whether it was worded this way when I joined in September 2024, but what matters is that at no stage was I told the router would need to be returned or that I would have to pay to post it back.

• Their Terms & Conditions do not clearly state that customers must cover return postage for a working router at the end of the contract.

• Yet in chat I was told I would have to send it back at my own expense.

Wrong final bill

My final bill was also wrong. My service ends on 23 September 2025, but I was billed as if I had the full month’s service. I had to spot this myself and push them to apply a manual credit.

Why this matters (Ofcom rules)

As an Ofcom-regulated provider, Pop Telecom must comply with the General Conditions, which require:

• Accurate and transparent billing based on the actual service provided.

• Clear, itemised bills so customers understand what they are being charged for.

In my case they:

• Mislabelled a charge as a “TV Package Box” even though no such service exists.

• Added £79.99 before my contract has ended, creating the false impression of debt.

• Failed to pro-rate my final bill correctly.

• Left all the work of clarification to me, instead of providing clear communication.

Summary

• A fabricated £79.99 charge for equipment I never had, mislabelled as a TV package.

• No transparency about returning the router, and only told after chasing that I must pay postage.

• Final bill calculated incorrectly.

• Customer service that wasted my time and gave no consistent answers.

I will be sending the router back (tracked) after my contract ends on 23 September to avoid further hassle, but I will also be escalating this to the Ombudsman as a clear case of misleading and unfair billing.

I have also seen another recent MSE thread - https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6624631/returned-modem-but-still-being-charged-by-isp -  where a customer said they returned their Pop router by recorded delivery yet was still invoiced £79.99 and told their direct debit would be taken until the warehouse confirmed receipt. That shows this is not an isolated problem but part of a new pattern of chasing customers for cheap routers (that most other ISPs let you keep) while also inflating final bills.

Swipe

Everyone should raise this with the ombudsman if they get caught out by it. They should really be providing return postage labels at their expense just like the main big ISPs do.