Early departure fee, should I make a complaint?

YorkshireRich123

Hi all, always viewing but don’t post too much.

I am just wanting the views of people on here as I know there are some extremely intelligent people with great knowledge lurking.

I have been a customer with this company (that will remain nameless for now) for around 8 years. The other month, I noticed my bill was a lot higher. When I rang them they offered me a price to retain which I kindly rejected.

A few weeks later I phoned them after one or two calls and retentions categorically told me that they were the “last line” and I would not to be offered a better deal. I accepted what they said and having clarified that they had looked thoroughly at my account and they could not offer me a better deal, I reluctantly said I would leave.

When I asked to leave and cancel, his words were “I can let you cancel now but you are better off just doing the one touch switch”. I explained that I’d never been offered this before and I had usually been given a deal that I was more than happy with. He elaborated and said “you are just better doing the one touch switch”. I took his advice in good faith and when I asked the question “when do I ask for an engineer from another provider to install the new broadband”, his was reply was “you can do it straight away, it will get sorted”.
I explained further that I really didn’t want to do it and my words were “there doesn’t seem to be any other options than the one touch switch?”. He said “yeah it’s much easier than any other option”

Having felt genuinely quite disgruntled that they didn’t at least try to keep me as a customer, I did the one touch switch that night. Coincidentally the day after I received 3 calls from 3 different people offering me a much better deal. They offered me almost 25% cheaper than that was I offered 24 hours before.
The new provider was still better value though.

A few days later I received an email from the Broadband company in question saying that I would be given a departure fee for leaving. What irritated me was that I was directed to do the one touch switch and was informed to do it pretty much immediately, despite him no doubt having my contract to hand.

when I had further calls to try and retain me as a customer, I explained about the early departure fee, and I was told “yeah that’s the policy, but I’ll see if you can get a better deal”.

Now there are a few things that happened after (and before) which infuriated me even more but that’s not directly to do with this question so I won’t include it at present.

I have spoke to a few of my friends about it since how the whole situation was managements and they think it is out of order.

One of my friends however has the opinion that everyone should read there contract and everybody knows that if they leave early, they will have to pay a penalty and on this occasion It was indeed stupid on my part. I have since read my bill which was a lot higher than the month before which indeed prompted me to call and it does indeed say “18 month discount which will end on…”.

Although I take my friends views on board, my argument with my friend is that if I were try and compare a similar like for like, I could quite easily pay my mortgage off early or switch to another provider, but I would most certainly be informed of the penalty prior.
I also argued with my friend that the person on the other side of the phone was extremely eager for me to do the one touch switch and not just cancel, which is is what I actually asked for in the first place. I argued that if he did this with 10 people in his whole shift alongside all his team, then that is a fair of amount of extra money they would make each day.

My friend did say “put it on Martin Lewis, they will all say you was in the wrong and should have just read the contract”.

I am genuinely interested what the views are, and it is worth a complaint or not. When I spoke to an advisor the other day, he stated “I’m genuinely shocked and ashamed to work for this company the way you was treated”. I recognise he was probably paying me lip service and did get frustrated when he said that he couldn’t close a complaint if he were to open one as I couldn’t give a resolution to what I actually wanted.

I look forward to responding to your replies

Thankyou in advance

Many thanks

kaMelo

From what you have said you are still within the minimum term of your current broadband contract. If so there are two options from which you can choose so I suppose the real question is what do you want to happen?

1 Cancel the contract with your new supplier (assuming you are still within the cooling off period) and remain with your current supplier at whatever rate you can negotiate.

2. Carry on with the move to your new supplier and, as you are ending the contract within the minimum term, pay the early termination fee.

Even though you feel the call handler was less than clear about the early termination fee. they never offered you a 'free pass' so as to speak. As such, moving to your new supplier and not paying the early termination fee with your current supplier is not an option you have.

MattMattMattUK

It sounds like you had accepted and you were within minimum contract period, early termination fees apply.

If you cancel your broadband then on top of that you incur a disconnection fee, normally that fee is paid via the new provider when switching, so the customer service person was correct saying it would be cheaper to switch than to cancel.

iniltous

When you say you noticed your bill (with the company you have the issue with ) had increased , you still haven’t confirmed if that was because a temporary discount had come to an end , for example you had a 24 month deal where the first 12 months had a reduced price but after the discount period ended you are still ‘contracted’ for the higher price for the next 12 months and to leave attracts early termination charges , or if the increase was because you were not ‘in contract’ anymore and to leave using OTS (one touch switching ) should not attract any early termination charges , so they have charged you but shouldn’t have .

You don’t say who it is that you have a complaint with , there is a particular ISP (plenty of posts on here about them ) that are pretty poor at charging for things that most ISP don’t charge for , like offering ‘free installation’ when joining but if you leave even a single day before the minimum term has expired they charge you the installation fee , claiming it was only a deferred fee if you don’t stay it’s not free , they also charge for the router after you leave , although supposedly refund that if you return it and they confirm it’s been received.

Clearly if you are not tied into some sort of minimum term , you shouldn’t be charged to leave , if you had called them and said ‘right cancel my account completely’ and not used OTS when outside a minimum term you would have to give 30 days notice and pay for that month (so you pay for the month after you quit , but you should still have the service for that month , however some switch you off immediately but still charge for the month .

Detail_Merchant

Just one further thought.
If you were close to the end of your contract, but, due to doing the one-touch-switch slightly before the end of your minimum contract period, then the early termination charge should be relatively small.
There should be no big 'cliff-edge' because of cancelling slightly before your minimum contract end rather than after.

From an OfCom document: "We consider it likely to be unfair if a CP sought to recover in an ETC a sum that would put it in a better position than if the consumer had performed his contractual obligations (and no more). This is the position the ordinary law would seek to put the CP in (by entitling it to damages for breach of contract), if the contract did not contain the term providing for the ETC and the consumer ended the contract early."

But as @iniltous mentioned, if you were only half way through a 2 year minimum period, that's a different case.
I guess the price going up should have prompted you to look at the details of your contract.
The people you speak to when you call up saying you are thinking of leaving are effectively sales people, and can't be relied on to give the whole story.
Also providers have been know to try and charge disproportionate ETCs, but then back down when challenged.

saajan_12

Gosh that's very long, and if you do raise a complaint then you need make it much more concise to have any luck.

Why was your price increasing, was that after a minimum term (so you were nearly at the end) or was it an offer for x months at a cheaper price (so you'd have known that deal when you entered).

JSmithy45AD

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82008426#Comment_82008426

Definitely TLDR material ;)

A year ago he was with VM for BB and Sky for TV and was negotiating with Sky re. a new deal. It's probably the April price rises for either or both. He stayed with Sky for TV and is only about 14 months in now. Given the 18 month contract mentioned I suspect that's for the VM BB although why they should be shy about that I have no idea.

if they're still within the 18 months then there's going to be ETCs as that's the contract they agreed to.

For , the OTS system is better (and much easier) and potentially cheaper as cancelling would entail 31 days notice if out of contract, you would also lose your home phone number.

For @YorkshireRich123

My friend did say “put it on Martin Lewis, they will all say you was in the wrong and should have just read the contract”. Your friend sounds like an intelligent man ;)

YorkshireRich123

Hi all, So just to clarify a few things.

Contract date 24th November 2024 and it was £33. minimum contract length 18 month and my monthly service cost from month 19 is £83. Below it states on my contract that I will pay an early disconnection fee if I leave early.

The email I received re my bill on 23rd April stated my bill would be £65.62. It also says you have 4 promotional discounts which will end on 23rd May.

I then received an email on the 28th April stating I will incur £33.53 early disconnection fee, as following on from what the agent on the phone said, I indeed switched to another provider.

I set up with the new company early May, and my final bill is now £17.98

I guess from the facts above that I have wrote, it’s plainly obviously that I have broken the contract. It will obviously teach me to look through things next time. I still can’t but think if the agent on the phone had done what I asked which indeed was just to cancel and not tell me to do the One touch switch, I wouldn’t have incurred the fee.
If I am completely wrong in my thinking and I need to just accept I shouldn’t be so stupid, then I will hold my hands up.

Thank you again for responses, and apologies it was a long post.

Detail_Merchant

It doesn't sound like the extra cost has been huge - so not too expensive a lesson.

If you really are planning on changing provider, then in future, the best thing to do is only initiate the switch (by using OTS via the new provider) at, or just before, the end of your existing provider's minimum period.

One the other hand if you want to stay with your existing provider, but want to provoke them into offering a better price, then giving them a month's notice about a month before the end of your minimum period, and telling them you don't want to do it via OTS, can get their retentions team to contact you - but it's a bit of a gamble, and if they don't then you have to think what you are actually going to do.

iniltous

TBH , if your bill was to increase from £33 to £83 after the 18 month minimum term , and inadvertently you switched slightly in advance of the 18 month anniversary, so had early termination charges of less than £18 , that seems quite acceptable as a month at the new rate would be much more at £50 , getting a switch on exactly the anniversary date can’t always be achieved, in the circumstances I think it’s a reasonable result .