Leaving Gigaclear

BufteaYellow

Has anyone tried to leave Gigaclear? I was on a promo contract and now the deal has finished the price has shot up. I've found a new much cheaper provider who said they'd handle all the switching process, yet now it seems they can't as Gigaclear won't let new providers deal with cancellation and switching. As I'm out of contract I don't see how Gigaclear can stop me switching provider. Also I thought under new rules broadband switches are supposed to be handled by the new provider. Ironically another reason for switching is Gigaclear's poor customer service, website and app

iniltous

The OTS (one touch switching) process is supposed to handle co-ordinating the provision of new and cease of old services when changing ISP even if that is across different network providers, but it requires that both the losing and gaining ISP use OTS , it isn’t compulsory to use OTS , some providers , presumably Gigaclear , are one that don’t use it .

The gaining provider should know if the losing provider is covered by OTS or not when they take your order , and if OTS is not available, they should tell you and then you manually cancel the old service yourself, a possible advantage is you get the new service in and working in advance (assuming it’s on a completely different network) before you get rid of the old one , it means you pay more than absolutely necessary as you have and pay for two separate services for a while , but at least you know you won’t have a break in service….this works best if there isn’t any telephony service involved.

Gigaclear can’t stop you leaving , but you may have to tell them your intention to leave yourself .

Plana_merko5

Yeah, this sounds familiar. Even out of contract, some providers make switching unnecessarily difficult. Your new provider should be able to do it under the current switching rules, so you might need to push them a bit or escalate with Gigaclear.

GrumpyDil

I switched away from gigaclear some months ago and they were definitely on the one touch switching process then.

fullyrendered

I came to the end of the 18 months 'discounted' broadband/phone service with Gigaclear and explored alternatives - we are just getting Openreach FTTP so competition for Gigaclear. They claim to be part of the OTS system.

In the end I rang them to see what price they could offer, they put me on hold for a few minutes, probably to run the broadband comparison search for my address, and came back and offered a monthly cost back at the original new customer level, which also undercut most of the other big name providers.

Never needed their customer services. Saved the hassle of switching and a new physical connection at this stage.

jas275

Just received end of contract notification from Gigaclear. I have been a customer for 4 years. The new equivalent service is 37% higher.

But when I call them they immediately offer me a lower rate only 10% higher. So they are price gauging anyone who does not call in for a reduction. Not very honest behaviour in my opinion.

They also tell me, in writing, that if I was a new customer, they would offer me the same service for less than half the price!. This came from the customer loyalty department. It is worth noting that existing customers do not need new routers or new connection work.

We have full fibre to the house - the last bit of which is laid by Gigaclear and I believe to have been subsidised by Essex County Council. It seems this last stretch of fibre is not made available to the likes of EE, Virgin or BT who would offer a much cheaper service.

Does anyone have advice on how I can get a competitively priced full fibre offer (300mbps) from anyone except Gigaclear.

Above all, how can I get away from Gigaclear whose commercial behaviour leaves me feeling somewhat unwell.

JSmithy45AD

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81920135#Comment_81920135

If you're only serviced by Gigaclear and they've not given access to anyone else yet (possibly a limited time exclusivity deal?) then your only affordable option is a 5G service.

Discounts ending at the end of a contract is hardly unusual or unknown, neither is making an offer for a new minimum term contract. That's not price gouging, and not dishonest in any way.

Companies are allowed to make lower new customer deals in order to attract business.

Detail_Merchant

Re "They also tell me, in writing, that if I was a new customer, they would offer me the same service for less than half the price!" - I think this is required by the Ofcom regulation introduced on 15 Feb 2020.
Here's a link:
https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-and-broadband/service-quality/companies-must-tell-customers-about-their-best-deals
From there:

Ofcom is introducing rules to ensure people can see whether they are on the best deal. Phone, broadband and pay-TV companies will have to warn customers between 10 and 40 days before their contract comes to an end.[1] These alerts – sent by text, email or letter – must include:

• when your contract is up;
• what you’ve been paying until now, and what you’ll pay when your contract is up;
• any notice period for leaving your provider; and
• your provider’s best deals, including any prices only available to new customers. (my bold)
  

So I guess Gigaclear weren't doing it to annoy you! Just to follow the rules.

jas275

Thanks for the replies. Unfortunately, we are not in a 5G zone or I would switch.

I agree that new customer deals are common but, at this level of discount, they are also profoundly unpopular with existing customers and damaging to existing customer loyalty. I would argue that it is a poor commercial strategy.

Noted re the Ofcom rules. I am sure that Gigaclear would have concealed the new customer offer from me, had they been able to.

I would like to see a requirement that Gigaclear makes its small stretch of fibre open to other providers in the same way that Gigaclear relies on the Openreach network.

Perversely, it would good for me for Gigaclear to go bust. Their bit of the fibre network could then be taken over by Openreach.

littleboo

Gigaclear do make their network available to other ISP's, see here .The problem is that for the mainstream ISP's, its just not worth dealing with the plethora of small providers and there is really no incentive for Gigaclear to make it attractive to other providers.

Even if Gigaclear do fail, I think its unlikely Openreach would be interested in small bits of network built to a different standard, plus the other Altnets would get upset and make a lot of noise.