UTV charge you a cancellation charge when you leave them?

stereo_steve

Has anyone experienced a cancellation charge from their broadband provider when you left them? I had been with UTV for longer than one year.

http://www.utvinternet.com/legal/legal_information.aspx

UTV annoys me for four reasons.

1) I left because I was unhappy with their service. If I was downloading a file it would max out my connection at the advertised speed, however I found web browsing very slow and slugish.

2) I notified them of my intention wishing to cancel my account and gave them 30 days notice. This does not count however as its only when someone else from their cancellation team calls you back that the 30 day notice period begins! I very much doubt this is legal. I sent an email on the same day I called to notify them of my intention to cancel my contract. I was anticipating a long wait to be called back. It turned out to be three days. While it really really irritated me I didn't voice my objections to the (nice and pleasant) person that called me back.

3) Charging me to leave?! I could understand if I was still with them for less than the contract term but its been greater than one year. Charging me to leave them is very bad for competition in the area of broadband. In my opinion as consumers, we should be able to give thirty days notice and change to another providor all through one very quick phone call.

4) I was billed for over a year for anti-virus software. When I signed up online , I must have missed the litlle box to untick to say you don't want their antivirus software. Apparntly there is a link to download it in your login screen. I accept this is my fault but I feel its sneeky having to untick a box. I asked for a refund as I'm sure they can see I never downloaded it or applied for a seriel number to activate it. No chance. They got their money.

I am now with UPC and I must say its been a really good experience. No compliants from me!

Sorry for the rant, I just cannot stand that company! It's a shame to think I joined them a long time ago when I thought they were an innovative company and I can't think of one thing that makes them stand out from the competition now. Stay away.

jor el

They've always had a cancellation fee, and it's clearly stated when you sign up. If you don't agree with it, then you shouldn't sign up in the first place. The virus scan is an optional extra, and if you didn't notice your were paying for it, then you can hardly blame UTV. Your finances are your own responsibility, and if you don't check your bill or bank, then that's your own issue.

The only valid point I see in your post is about them having to ring you back to start the notification period. If you write a letter to them and notify them of your request to cancel, this should be enough. By sending it by registered post, you can show exactly what day that notification begins on. There should be no need to wait for a call back for a notification period to begin.

Páid

jor el wrote: »

They've always had a cancellation fee, and it's clearly stated when you sign up.

They haven't always had a cancellation fee.

Their 2009 Terms and Conditions state that you must give them 30 days notice but it doesn't state that you have to speak to a member of their Cancellations (aka Sales) team. It stinks that they don't honour the initial date of request to terminate but insist on having a member of their sales team ring you back a few days later to hard-sell you a product and then start counting the days from that date.

One thing most current UTV customers will not be aware of is that they very sneakily moved all customers to new Terms and Conditions in July 2009 without proper notification. Would you consider this notification (look very closely).



The link (if you spotted it) links to here - http://www.utvinternet.com/ebill/roitc.pdf

You will notice that they claim that no action is necessary in spite of the fact that you must email them to tell them you don't want to move to the new terms and conditions. Even worse is that it states that "Please note none of the amendments listed below will adversely affect you in any way." in spite of the fact that the new terms have a number of changes that adversely affect the customer depending on when (and which terms) you signed up to.

Decidedly underhanded and deceitful customer practice.

UTV, Oh how you're fallen from grace!

dub45

jor el wrote: »

They've always had a cancellation fee, and it's clearly stated when you sign up. If you don't agree with it, then you shouldn't sign up in the first place. The virus scan is an optional extra, and if you didn't notice your were paying for it, then you can hardly blame UTV. Your finances are your own responsibility, and if you don't check your bill or bank, then that's your own issue.

The only valid point I see in your post is about them having to ring you back to start the notification period. If you write a letter to them and notify them of your request to cancel, this should be enough. By sending it by registered post, you can show exactly what day that notification begins on. There should be no need to wait for a call back for a notification period to begin.

Actually they haven't always had a cancellation charge it was only when they entered their "cute hoorism" stage a number of years ago that they introduced it so anyone leaving UTV who has been with them for a considerable number of years should check their Terms and Conditions to see if this charge applies to them.

As regards the anti virus thing while the op maybe to "blame" I am very opposed to this idea of the customer having to untick something rather than positively opt for it. Again it smacks of the cute hoorism thing. After all nobody would tolerate your local supermarket slipping groceries into your shopping basked in the hope that you wouldn't notice and then saying that it was your fault when you discovered them.

And does anything typify this "cute hoorism" approach than this ring back thing? Thats appalling. Comreg really should crack down on this type of crappy behaviour and any potential UTV customers should be asking themselves do you want to deal with a company who indulges in this type of behaviour?

When will isps learn that customers want good good honest service and good products and not so called unlimted products designed to deceive or ransom charges to leave a company or call backs etc etc?

Honesty is the best policy.

It seems so long ago now since UTV were the darlings of boards for their innovative approach to customer service and decent products. Now their only innovations seem to be petty ways to p**s off the customer.

Is Carl still with them?

dub45

Páid wrote: »

They haven't always had a cancellation fee.

Their 2009 Terms and Conditions state that you must give them 30 days notice but it doesn't state that you have to speak to a member of their Cancellations (aka Sales) team. It stinks that they don't honour the initial date of request to terminate but insist on having a member of their sales team ring you back a few days later to hard-sell you a product and then start counting the days from that date.
...............

UTV, Oh how you're fallen from grace!

Indeed! I am very disappointed to read this. When I was with them a number of years ago they were fairly cavalier about how they behaved in relation to the Terms and Conditions and over a long period there was a fair bit of campaigning from customers and in fairness to them at that time they responded to complaints and were the first (afaik) and maybe only isp to keep current and previous copies of Terms and Conditions readily available on the website.

It really is disappointing to read of a major company apparently changing all of its customers' Terms and Conditions without being totally clear about what is going on.

So much for this! :rolleyes::mad:

http://www.utvmedia.com/membership.asp?sub=cm&sublk=msh

billyboy01

stereo_steve wrote: »

Has anyone experienced a cancellation charge from their broadband provider when you left them? I had been with UTV for longer than one year.

http://www.utvinternet.com/legal/legal_information.aspx

UTV annoys me for four reasons.

1) I left because I was unhappy with their service. If I was downloading a file it would max out my connection at the advertised speed, however I found web browsing very slow and slugish.

2) I notified them of my intention wishing to cancel my account and gave them 30 days notice. This does not count however as its only when someone else from their cancellation team calls you back that the 30 day notice period begins! I very much doubt this is legal. I sent an email on the same day I called to notify them of my intention to cancel my contract. I was anticipating a long wait to be called back. It turned out to be three days. While it really really irritated me I didn't voice my objections to the (nice and pleasant) person that called me back.

3) Charging me to leave?! I could understand if I was still with them for less than the contract term but its been greater than one year. Charging me to leave them is very bad for competition in the area of broadband. In my opinion as consumers, we should be able to give thirty days notice and change to another providor all through one very quick phone call.

4) I was billed for over a year for anti-virus software. When I signed up online , I must have missed the litlle box to untick to say you don't want their antivirus software. Apparntly there is a link to download it in your login screen. I accept this is my fault but I feel its sneeky having to untick a box. I asked for a refund as I'm sure they can see I never downloaded it or applied for a seriel number to activate it. No chance. They got their money.

I am now with UPC and I must say its been a really good experience. No compliants from me!

Sorry for the rant, I just cannot stand that company! It's a shame to think I joined them a long time ago when I thought they were an innovative company and I can't think of one thing that makes them stand out from the competition now. Stay away.

UPC are not as great as you think!:rolleyes:

Recundis

dub45 wrote: »

As regards the anti virus thing while the op maybe to "blame" I am very opposed to this idea of the customer having to untick something rather than positively opt for it. Again it smacks of the cute hoorism thing. After all nobody would tolerate your local supermarket slipping groceries into your shopping basked in the hope that you wouldn't notice and then saying that it was your fault when you discovered them.



Is Carl still with them?

Actually the Anit virus is a 3 month trial that you have to contact them about if you want to keep it on or it automatically cancels.

Yes Carl is still with them but as infrastructure and networking.