Flaw in system or is my company dodgy?

SSmith99

Is there a flaw in the system to leave after a Broadband contact finishes, or is my Broadband company dodgy? I tried to do everything correct to leave a Onestream Broadband contract at the end of it in March, without any added fees, even though they made it difficult, as said I couldn't contact them before 30 days to cancel at the end of my contact in March as I would have early cancellation fees, even though I didn't want to leave until my contract finished, and if I contacted them after 30 days I would be given late cancellation fees. I gave them exactly 30 days notice and kept re-contacting them to ensure they had put through my cancellation with no added fees, which they confirmed my contract will not carry on at the end of it with no fees.

Then I tried to start another service with Vodafone for AFTER the Onestream contract finishes. I told Vodafone that Onestream are dodgy and try to add charges that customers aren't aware of, so make sure nothing is started until my Onestream service finishes, and I didn't want to start anything with them if it might risk being charged anything with Onestream.
I'm willing to have no broadband service than have added fees.

The man in the Vodafone shop assured me that everything would be fine and I could even change my mind about the contact before 14 days with no charges. Then I decided to not carry on with that Vodafone contract after 1 DAY, after reading the small print, before any service started and before any engineers or router was sent. Then Onestream started sending me emails that they would be charging me £39.98 as a rolling service after my contract finishes in March. As I know how dodgy they are I thought that I had better contact them AGAIN to make sure they cancelled my contract at the end of March, and they said that I cancelled my request to leave them by contacting a completely different company to start a service AFTER my contact with Onestream finished. Shouldn't something like that be made more obvious to customers? It sounds all a bit twisted and dodgy.
If I told a company that I want to leave them at the end of my contract then I should be able to leave, without things happening that I had no idea could happen which cost lots of money.
If I get rid of a TV and buy a new one after taking that one to a dump, then I shouldn't have charges from the old TV company, as an example.
It seems very difficult to leave broadband companies after a contract finishes without them saying they have rights to add on charges people aren't aware of. I should be able to start looking into a new contact after theirs finishes, without being told the old company can start taking more money out my bank account.

When I first joined OS I signed up on a comparison site where the charges were different than I thought I had agreed to, and when when I called customer service they were very dodgy and unhelpful to twist the facts, saying I couldn't do anything about it, so why I was so scared about leaving and trying to do everything I could to leave without added fees. If I did everything I could to leave without being changed for it, but still get threatened with fees, then how can that be right?

iniltous

Although you explained to Vodafone what you wanted , it’s seems clear to me that they used the OTS , one touch switching migration process ( because it’s the cheapest thing for them ) to takeover from your current Onestream service rather than wait and in effect treat you as a brand new customer (albeit one with no need of an installation visit )

Presumably Onestream interpreted VF enquiry to takeover the ‘line’ as a later instruction than your previous notice to quit , and set up to do that (transfer rather than cease your service) and when you cancelled with VF and VF advised Onestream that the migration was off , Onestream instead of reinstating your previous instructions (to cease) basically decided no instructions now exist to cease or migrate so they continue to provide you with service but now on an out of contract basis if this is after your previous minimum term has expired.

TBH , you are expecting the one touch system to do something it’s not designed to do and expect VF to do what’s difficult and not the cheapest or easiest thing for them .

I suspect if you want to cease Onestream totally , on the day if your choice and be totally free of them , then you will need to wait until the cessation is complete, before then instructing a new ISP to start to provide service , so potentially a week or more without any service, as soon as you pick a new provider, if the Onestream service is still live , they will attempt to migrate it to themselves even if you say to wait , unless you pick a new ISP that gets involved in that way , so that excludes most of the value brands who just press buttons on a screen , regardless of what you say you want .

brewerdave

OP -You are a very rare customer to be prepared to be without service "for a few days".

The OTS service was set up the way it is, specifically to avoid discontinuity in broadband supply as the vast majority require/need the constant feed even if they have to pay a small amount extra on switch over.

Meanmachine58

One Touch switching was introduced by Ofcom to make switching providers for customers less complicated and easier.

One mistake feel you have done is contacting them to give notice.

I am currently a Onestream customer myself in the process of moving away to another provider and have not contacted them about leaving .

So far I have used OTS to move to another provider. As soon as the OTS request went through, straight away, I got a automated email informing me that I am leaving and will be charged early termination fees of £116. This because I am still in the 2. year contract window.But my switch date is after my contract expires, and will be in the 30 day rolling contract period, So in theory no termination fees.

I will not be contacting them, unless there is a problem like them trying to charge termination fees and then only using there complaints email address. I want a dialogue trail.

One question. Do you use there router because if you do you will need to send it back or you will be chat £125 for that.

SSmith99

From my past history I don't trust them and not leaving ANYTHING to chance. I planned for a whole year to try to leave them without any of their dodgy fees and they try any loophole to add charges. If you call them before 30 days they say that they can't stop renewing the contract then you will be charged and if you call them after 30 days, they will charge for that too.
I think they might have improved slightly since I was first tricked into signing up with them on a price comparison site, as they were fined by Ofcom for tricking people into fees they didn't know about. I did tell a customer service advisor that they're not allowed to do certain things according to Ofcom and they didn't know what Ofcom is. It was like talking to a 2nd hand car dealer when I first joined a few years ago.
I know for a fact that if I hadn't called them to say that I didn't want to renew my contract exactly on 30 days, they would use that to fine me, but they will also use the One Touch as an excuse to take away my record of calling them at 30 days, but I have called them many times to make sure I have records where I told them on 30 days that I don't want to renew and have it in writing that they won't charge me.

Yes I sent back the router. They say you have to pay yourself to use Royal Mail recorded delivery. I already paid £10 when they sent the router to me and now have to pay to send it back.

Not renewing a contract should be easy and straight forward. It shouldn't cause stress and sleepless night from annoyance of being scared things that happened before will happen again.

MattMattMattUK

It is easy if you use the one touch switching service, which is designed to make it easy. It is complicated if you deliberately make it so.

Meanmachine58

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81934924#Comment_81934924

Yes. By contacting them and and trying to give them notice. To be fair, I do remember going through there term and conditions and remember something about having to give 30 days notice at the end of your contract, but that was before OTS came in. Looking through the contract now I don't see that. Also at the end of your contract you will be automatically go onto a 30 day rolling contract. This is more expensive. But If you use OTS the 30 days notice is negated. You should not be charged by two providers.

So say your contract finishes 1st April. You contact a new provider and they arrange a switch for the 10th April. Onestream can only charge up to that date.

Meanmachine58

Managed to leave Onestream. Even got a refund from them for the period They charged me in advance.

SSmith99

I managed to leave Onestream without any charges, but then they charged me for not returning the router, 10 days after the tracking service said that I had returned it, which I then had a refund for after I said that I had the tracking proof. I knew they would as said that I couldn't cancel the direct debit even though I knew I had no more charges. I'm now free of that dodgy service.

iniltous

I think it’s fair to say there are lots of poor reviews of this provider and not many , if any , positive ones , so food for thought for anyone considering this company, personally I never consider the cheapest option with anything, as generally its cheap for a reason , and although this is a ‘money saving’ forum , sometimes it’s a false economy focusing simply on price .