UPC Overcharging??

davidson

I had subscribed for basic TV + broadband on 26th January. Monthly subscription rate was €57. I was offered free sky movies + sky sports for 2 months but was never activated till 24th February. When I called UPC customer care representative enabled this free service for 2 months starting Feb 24th to April 24th.

On 24th April I called them and reaffirmed that these services be cancelled so that I am not wrongly charged. Thankfully, all of this would be recorded in your tapes.

So instead of charging 57 Euros every month, I was charged €60.9 for Jan-Feb, € 68.84 for Feb-Mar, € 114.3 for Mar-Apr. All of this constitutes to €244.04. For Apr-May they have sent me additional bill of € 80.91.

Since the Sky sport + Sky movies was a 'free offer' by UPC; I dont want to pay for it.

Since I have already paid € 244.04 till now, there should be no bill payment to UPC for Apr-May period and in fact UPC owes me a refund of 244.04-228= € 16.04.

I have got my direct debit scheduled on 28th of this month. UPC have written back saying that they will give me credit next month. (They had given me same excuse even last month) but I have to pay them this month.

Lads, can you please advice what do I need to do in this case? Can I close direct debit or doing that will affect my credit history?

How should I handle this case now? There is no point of escalation in UPC. Customer care-email dont know anything about customer-care phoneline! There is no way I can escalate this? EVerytime I have a new person replying to my email queries ..

Have any one of you experienced such overcharging by UPC?

Please help..

Regards
David

Dublin25

This is exactly what they did to me and i'm currently still chasing a response to my complain submitted in December.

Not sure what advice i could give you on it other than just not to let it go. Try calling the billing department and talking to them about it. They were able to put a credit on my account before the dd was due but still left me having to pay more but eventually it worked itself out. Took about 2-3 months though.

UPC are disgraceful on their customer service and I know I wouldn't have accepted the so called "free" movies & sports if i'd have known it would have caused so much hassle.
I just stuck with UPC as our apt block only houses UPC.

Esoteric_

They did this with my mother and it went on for over 4 months before they sorted it out. 4 months of daily phone calls to them, they always refused to discuss it. It was only when she then demanded they cancel her contract with immediate effect or she'd go to the papers that they credited her account and apologized.

davidson

Thanks for your replies Lynda and Dublin25. Absolutely, this is so annoying.

No. 1 there is no competition to UPC or Sky in this country. Both of them have occupied wire/wireless domains and both are enjoying zero competition. Thats so surprising and then they know that consumers have no other choice but to go with them should they need any TV connection.


Every month they introduce some new error in their billing and on phone promise to rectify it the following month but nothing really happens. Everytime they want you to pay your bills so they get their cash but what if autodebit is discontinued? Is that an option?


Is there any way this can be escalated to the consumer protection forums. How do they work? It is a torture calling UPC everyday and replying to each of their emails.

Dublin25

Your post made me ring them about my complaint that hasn't been addressed since Dec. After 20mins on hold, was told there was no complaints dept :O
So dug my heels in and got an email address for some one in the complaints department.

Its sooooo frustrating to be told the same thing over and over again and nothing happen. Whilst my overcharging has fixed itself, i'm still so angry and annoyed over the way I was treated and am reluctant to let this complaint go. (when normally i'd let it go)

I agree totally thats it's unfair as they do have the monopoly esp in my apt block and worse still they know it yet their customer service is down right awful.

audreyp

I'm going through this as well! I was with SKY but had UPC BB and Phone so they offered to swap me to a 60€ a month package for TV too if I cancelled my SKY. I had never had any problems with BB or Phone so decided to go for it. Since then have had nothing but problems.

We got offered the free sports and movies too and then we were charged last month. The bill was 144 which we couldn't pay so they recommended I cancel my DD and then ring back and pay it when the bill was updated. I did this and eventually it was sorted. I kicked up a big fuss and got rewards half price BB for two months. Then this month I was charged my second month of "Free" Sky Sports and Movies. I am after spending about 3 hours on the phone to them in the past two days. I am gone mad, so close to moving back to SKY. It was so much easier.

Clearly i'm not the only person this happened too, so how can they mess up so bad. Wonder if a joint complaint of everyone who has been affected would help?

davidson

I wonder if there is any way this can be sent to Press or anyone knows how to take this to any consumer protection forums to take the legal action?

How much does it cost?

if you don't pay bills for 2 months they will cut the connection or take some action. How can a consumer teach a lesson to a company?

audreyp

I contacted CommReg about them and Consumer Connect and neither were that helpful. UPC do refund eventually but the inconvenience is perfectly legal it seems. I find it hard to believe that this could have happened to so many people by accident. I assumed what happened to me was a once off. Would never have agreed to sports and movies if this is what was going to happen!

chickencurry02

I find the best way is not to pay by direct debit.

I pay the bill by cash through the post office and when they over charge or the bill is incorrect I only pay what is the correct amount and email them explaining thats all they are getting.

audreyp

But there is a penalty for not paying by direct debit isn't there? I might ask them to waive that forever for me and then just pay monthly. Think that is probably the easiest! Sick of the overcharging!

chickencurry02

3 euro a month, but at least you are in control of what you pay them.
It suits me anyways. Every bill i get there is something not right about it.

Dublin25

Has anyone actually sent a complaint in to them and got a response?

I'm curious as their customer service is dreadful!

davidson

At the moment I am following up this with UPC. This is the response I got when I asked about stopping direct debit payment.

Please be advised that for customers who do not pay by Direct Debit, there is a non-direct debit fee of €3 per invoice. This reflects the administration charge of processing non-direct debit payments.

Of course I am not willing to pay additional penny because of problems in their billing system and have written them back.

jclally

What is the billing date on your account? Reasons for differences on the first bill may be a partial months payment to bring you in line with a billing cycle, e.g. if your billing cycle is 31st of each month.

Alternatively if your bill started on the 24th, you have have been a day late in canceling the sports and movies on the 24th two months later - the previous billing period would have ended on 23rd, so by waiting til the following day you may have carried them over. If so you would have been charged for them, and by subsequently canceling them they charge you a "downgrade fee".

I hope I dont sound like I condone it, Ive been through the exact same myself. Ive learned from past experience you need to cover all bases when making the simplest of orders with them. I agree with a previous poster, if I ever have disputes with cash I cancel my DD, continue to pay the correct amount and send them an email explaining thats all I will continue to pay.

davidson

No in fact I had told them to disconnect it on 20th itself. And also verified again on 24th if they had done that; which they had. Now they have sent my query to their billing team.

Dan133269

UPC are the biggest shower of clowns I've ever come across. I was signed up to their television package before, as well as leaving me short a channel and saying there was nothing they could do about it, literally every single bill I received was for more than what was agreed in the contract. The only way to deal with them I found was to stop giving them money.

davidson

Remember, if you stop payment you become a defaulter. And that goes against your credit history. Not good if you need loans, credit cards and stuff..

hdowney

i am thanking my lucky stars that i didn't sign up to them. they sound like a complete shower (now i have had problems with sky in the past but nothing like described here!).

when i contacted UPC about getting telly (that was all i could get here, no bb no phone) they said sure no problems, although they told me i would only get digital+ and not HD. said fine sure. arranged an installation date. chappy comes, comes into the house to see where tellys are. tells me i am going to have to completely move everything (now i had prepared my house for them, but aparantly it wasn't enough) so there is me hoofing about the place whilst he is outside doing goodness knows what. i had just finished when he comes in and tells me i can't get telly :eek::mad:

WHAT! aparantely there was 'too much signal' coming down! he said it was bouncing it back and therefore he was only picking up half of the channels.

i was well peeved at this point. i had completely hoofed everything in the house to accommodate them, waited in for ages (after expressely requesting a call prior to them arriving so that i knew what was going on - and of course didn't get one). i was not a happy person that day.

but i guess i should count my blessings.

davidson

Turns out that they have charged me yet again. So the total excess amount they have charged me now is 96.95 Euros. :mad:

NuMarvel

Maybe you should get in touch with your bank to see if they can refund anything? Under the terms of the direct debit scheme, you have the expectation of certain rights:

A Direct Debit Guarantee is provided by your bank in the following form:

If you authorise payment by direct debit, then

Your direct debit originator will notify you in advance of the amounts to be debited to your account

Your bank will accept and pay such debits, provided that your account has sufficient available funds

If it is established that an unauthorised direct debit was charged to your account, you are guaranteed an immediate refund by your bank of the amount so charged where you notify your bank without undue delay on becoming aware of the unauthorised direct debit, and in any event no later than 13 months after the date of debiting of such direct debit to your account

You are entitled to request a refund of any variable direct debit which exceeded the amount which you could reasonably have expected, subject to you so requesting your bank within a period of 8 weeks from the date of debiting such direct debit to your account; your bank is entitled to ask you to provide factual elements relating to your request for a refund

You can request your bank to refuse a direct debit payment on your account up to close of business the day before the direct debit is due to be paid from your account

You can cancel the Direct Debit Instruction by writing in good time to your bank.

I've bolded the one that I think may be applicable to you. That said, I don't have any special knowledge of the area, so it may turn out that it doesn't apply in your case.

If it was me, I'd get the name of someone in UPC and write to them by registered post, setting out the overcharging and explaining that it still hasn't been sorted. I'd inform them that if the matter wasn't sorted by the time the next bill was issued, I would cancel the direct debit with the bank and pay the correct amount by cash/online (less the non-dd surcharge and any previous overcharging) until such time as they got their act together. I know registered post costs more, but sometimes you need to send a hard copy letter to get someone's attention, and registered post avoids the whole "We didn't get your letter" excuse.

UPC aren't registered with the Irish Credit Bureau, so I don't think they can report you for non-payment. Not unless it went to court and they secured a judgement against you, at least.

slimjimmc

davidson wrote: »

Remember, if you stop payment you become a defaulter. And that goes against your credit history. Not good if you need loans, credit cards and stuff..

Rubbish. UPC are not a financial institution and so can only affect your credit rating by obtaining a court ruling against you. Even with direct debit the debt is owed to UPC not the bank. Stop watching so much US TV.

[edit]
See NuMarvel had that point covered first.
[/edit]

foggy_lad

davidson wrote: »

Remember, if you stop payment you become a defaulter. And that goes against your credit history. Not good if you need loans, credit cards and stuff..

Not true! They can only affect your credit rating by taking you to court and securing a judgement against you! as stated Cancel the direct debit with your bank and tell them you are insisting they do a chargeback for any amounts which you dispute, your bank MUST do this and then let UPC chase you for the money!

Markdub2000

From today I am going to just stop paying them, I have had the service just over a year now, I looked at my billing history and every month i have recieved bills in excess of 70euro for a service advertised as 35euro a month.

I have sky for tv and am sick of this 9.38euro standalone charge (7.75+VAT), 20euro if the debit fails (10euro UPC Charge along with the 10euro the bank charge)!

I might just save up and buy the service like my aunt does by annual payment but this is just wasteful

HappyNumberOne

Hi I'm new to this forum, in fact I signed up just so I could add my 2c worth to this topic.

I signed up with UPC on 1 April this year for a bb+TV package that was supposed to cost 57€/month. This is what my bills have looked like since then:

14/06/2011 27/06/2011 € 100.01
14/05/2011 28/05/2011 € 143.29
14/04/2011 28/04/2011 € 62.65

In the most recent conversation with them they admitted that there had been a billing failure on their part but I would still have to pay the €100.01 for this month! I told them to forget it and cancel my direct debit, which the agent did while I waited.

Unbelievable.

Dublin25

Still awaiting my complaint to be answered. Finally got an email address last month of some person in the complaints department. Turns out after a month of emailing chasing this woman doesn't exist only when I cc'd in the customer service email address do they come back to tell me.

Am I right to continue to try get my complaint looked at long after the inital billing issue was fixed? Should i just drop it like UPC are hoping/expecting me too?

Dublin25

Wow nearly 7months later i recieved a response today. Just said they would pass my comments over to the customer relations department. They have also credited me with 3 months fees. i'm happy with the credit but bit perplexed about not having a full reply to my queries.

Anyway all finished with them until they mess up the next time.

Oasis678

Ive had several issues with them including

1. Overcharging me when my bill was supposed to be 70 per month an offer i got through boards and they didnt seem to have a clue about it until i showed them e mails.
Had to make several calls to get it fixed and explain that it was a special offer
2. Listing my number in directory enquiries when i requested it not be. This has resulted in me getting calls from marketing cos and scammers.
3. They removed some of the ITV channels which has lead to my wife wrecking my head that she cant watch some of those crap programmes she watches.

Only good thing i can say is that their bradband is very good in my opinion.

saa

Okay how come my 60 euro bill cost me 88???
I understand tax has to be added,
theres other charges on my bill which is free sky movies but 6 or 8 euro of that is added on to my bill


can anyone help I just thought it was my first bill and thats why its expensive
I know I have to cancel the movies 6 weeks into the contract

I hope my bill goes down to below 70 as im paying for a license as well and can't really afford this but I'm living on my own don't have any family or friends so think Its a necessity.

Venom

Markdub2000 wrote: »

From today I am going to just stop paying them, I have had the service just over a year now, I looked at my billing history and every month i have recieved bills in excess of 70euro for a service advertised as 35euro a month.

I have sky for tv and am sick of this 9.38euro standalone charge (7.75+VAT), 20euro if the debit fails (10euro UPC Charge along with the 10euro the bank charge)!

I might just save up and buy the service like my aunt does by annual payment but this is just wasteful

UPC bill bi-monthly so the €70 would be correct. If you really are billed ever month they owe you half a year back

froggus

I get billed by UPC monthly

tommyhappy

I moved house 2 months ago and couldn't get UPC broadband in my new location. I decided to pay the 2 months rather than cancel and pay the 100€ odd cancellation fee as I was 10 months into a 12 month contract. Called them up and was advised not to give my 30 days notice before the 9th of May because I'm still in contract and might get charged cancellation fee. Don't cancel after the 9th of May because there will be 1 day I havent paid for and they may take a full month.

UPC collected my equipment 2 weeks ago and charged me a full months bill yesterday. I really tried to be nice. I highlighted I'd love to keep the BB but not available in my new location. I made sure I put it in writing in a very clear email on the 9th as advised.

This is carbon copy of when my parents cancelled their TV and put it in writing 30 days notice outside their 12 month contract. UPC attempted to take 2 more direct debits but it had been cancelled so sent threatening legal letters. The credit department from UPC even called to threaten and my mother read out the first sentence of the cancelation email she sent and the UPC adviser hung up on her. I had to call and threaten our own legal action pretending to be her husband and they eventually put a credit on the account for the amount owed.

I now have to do the same for myself but as I am no longer a customer what is a credit on a UPC account going to do for me. From the forum it seems consumers direct and ComReg are pretty useless. It's an absolute disgrace. They're hoping people will just say "sure it's only one bill, I'll leave that one go and cancel DD next month." I put my query on their Facebook page and woke up this morning and it was deleted. Not even and apology or a request to contact the customer care to sort this out.

To be honest their broadband is the best in Ireland. I'm getting 1/10 the speed for 9/10's the price with Eircom at my new location. Gotta make do with what I can. The only issue I have personally had with UPC was never during purchasing, setting up or being a current customer, but they make it like getting out of signing and agreement with Lucipher. I really don't know how they're getting away with it.

Anyone with legal advice? Small claims court worth a shot?