UPC customers - you might be being overcharged

redser16

If you are a UPC customer, read on:
If not, don’t bother J

If you have more than 1 of the 3 UPC products (Broadband, TV, Home Phone), you should not be charged the Fibre Power Broadband Standalone Charge of €7.87. The website says “A standalone charge of €7.87 applies to all Broadband packs and is in addition to the prices shown here. This charge is not applicable if Broadband is taken with a UPC TV or Home Phone service.“

I rang UPC yesterday and they confirmed I have been charged this in error for the last 5 months , and they have credited my account with the €40, and will reduce my bill by this amount in future.

I thought this was just a problem on my account but I have since told two other UPC customers, and both of them checked their bills are they have been overcharged.

Slunk

Thanks, I will look into this as I have BB, Phone and TV with them.

shardylan

redser16 wrote: »

If you are a UPC customer, read on:
If not, don’t bother J

If you have more than 1 of the 3 UPC products (Broadband, TV, Home Phone), you should not be charged the Fibre Power Broadband Standalone Charge of €7.87. The website says “A standalone charge of €7.87 applies to all Broadband packs and is in addition to the prices shown here. This charge is not applicable if Broadband is taken with a UPC TV or Home Phone service.“

I rang UPC yesterday and they confirmed I have been charged this in error for the last 5 months , and they have credited my account with the €40, and will reduce my bill by this amount in future.

I thought this was just a problem on my account but I have since told two other UPC customers, and both of them checked their bills are they have been overcharged.

Does it say this anywhere on your bill or is it a hidden thing ?My bill says fibre bb €35.57

Moon54

Yeah, now there's a coincidence.
About 5 months ago I also saw this charge creep into the bill.
After a couple of months I challenged them about it and sure enough I was credited back the money.
I've also told all my friends to check their bills!

jameshayes

UPC Were over charging me also, they were charging me for the 3 products separately and not combined in bundle price, fixed it when I called but you have to be wary because their bills are so difficult to translate to English.

zenno

Thanks for the information OP, I will be looking at my bill in a few to make sure i'm not overcharged for this.

Fingleberries

Thanks, I have Phone and BB and I noticed something similar in April.
- They had been charging since January 2012.
- I previously had them remove the charge in September 2011, and in July 2011.

On my May bill, it was gone.
In June, it was back again.

Contacted UPC support and they are all apologetic, and removed / refunded the charge. I'll be keeping an eye on it for the coming months, though.

@Shardylan - it appears on page two of the bill for me, under Internet. "Fiber Power Broadband Standalone Charge".

shardylan

@Shardylan - it appears on page two of the bill for me, under Internet. "Fiber Power Broadband Standalone Charge".[/Quote]

I haven't had a bill from them in ages .I was direct debit but stopped as prefer to pay in post off so I checked my bill online .Cant see it online so think will have to get onto them & check .Thanks

oneweb

Might be worth contacting the Consumer Association if you've been affected, ESPECIALLY if they've reapplied the charge multiple times. The worrying thing is that they only send paper bills when the billing amount has changed for the service (that's what I got in a mailshot) so even if you have them all filed away, it mightn't be obvious when the charge came back in.

Mountjoy Mugger

Do you not check your bills online?

Dyr

They pulled the same thing with me, i was standalone bu then got TV as well and they still stuck the standalone charge on the first bill

Davy

Not sure how this is a bargain alert

Moved to CI

leemaree

redser16 wrote: »

If you are a UPC customer, read on:
If not, don’t bother J

If you have more than 1 of the 3 UPC products (Broadband, TV, Home Phone), you should not be charged the Fibre Power Broadband Standalone Charge of €7.87. The website says “A standalone charge of €7.87 applies to all Broadband packs and is in addition to the prices shown here. This charge is not applicable if Broadband is taken with a UPC TV or Home Phone service.“

I rang UPC yesterday and they confirmed I have been charged this in error for the last 5 months , and they have credited my account with the €40, and will reduce my bill by this amount in future.

I thought this was just a problem on my account but I have since told two other UPC customers, and both of them checked their bills are they have been overcharged.

Where on the website does it say that ur overcharged? I have the 3 services

AvaKinder

Thanks for the heads up, discovered I have been overcharged for in excess of a year!

cookie1977

How do people not check their bills? I find it really weird as I scrutinize every bill coming in to the house including grocery receipts.
I wonder how much money is lost by consumers being improperly billed and not noticing.

AvaKinder

I do check my bill, but I thought the stand alone charge was a legitimate charge for people who don't have TV as part of their bundle. Wasn't until I read this thread that I realised people who have broadband and their phone shouldn't be charged a stand alone bill.

zenno

Well i looked at the bills, this one and last months one and it seems ok on my end but i just read a upc information leaflet just there seeing that i was checking the bill again and I remember on the 4th or 5th of july i left that information leaflet aside without reading it until now and it says...

We have upgraded your broadband service from 30Mb to 60Mb free of charge. to start enjoying these faster speeds simply unplug your modem and plug it back in.

I probably would never have read the information leaflet if i hadn't have read this thread, I'm usually only interested in the bill. Anyway friday the 13th seemed to work out well for me and no billing arrears

peckerhead

AvaKinder wrote: »

I do check my bill, but I thought the stand alone charge was a legitimate charge for people who don't have TV as part of their bundle. Wasn't until I read this thread that I realised people who have broadband and their phone shouldn't be charged a stand alone bill.

+1. Thanks OP.

Does anyone know when exactly this change came in? I've been with them for years for broadband + phone (no TV), and I know the standalone charge was part of what I signed up to.

A quick look at my bills suggests I've been charged this ever since 2010 at least...

cgarvey

This fee used be if you didn't take any TV package. It was only last year that they waived the fee if you had TV or phone. When I signed up for the phone (free with the BB bundle I was upgrading to), they applied this standalone charge. It took 7 calls to get it taken off properly (nobody once questioned the fee being charged, it was just trying to get it taken off my bill that proved problematic). Several months later, the fee miraculously re-appeared. I've finished my fourth call to have it removed. The current bill looks correct, but that is no indication. In fact, I've yet to have a single regular & correct bill from UPC in over 2 years!

So, keep an eye on your bills, even if you have already had the charge removed!

peckerhead

cgarvey wrote: »

This fee used be if you didn't take any TV package. It was only last year that they waived the fee if you had TV or phone.

I don't suppose you remember exactly when this happened? (or could you take do us and take a peep at your own bills from the time? They should be available online back as far as July 2011, at least...)

wmpdd3

Just to ad, if someone only wants broadband or just TV from them, its cheaper to get phone than the standalone charge. Though you have to do 12 months with the phone, but its still cheaper than broadband and the standalone charge.

AvaKinder

So I recieved an email from UPC saying that I am correctly being charged the stand-alone fee because I've been a customer for two years and only people who joined upc after they changed the rules don't have to pay.

I'm pretty disgusted to be honest.

Davy

AvaKinder wrote: »

So I recieved an email from UPC saying that I am correctly being charged the stand-alone fee because I've been a customer for two years and only people who joined upc after they changed the rules don't have to pay.

I'm pretty disgusted to be honest.

Leave and rejoin?

peckerhead

That's it for me, too. I'll put it to them that there is only one published set of terms and conditions for all customers, and if these are binding on me as a customer they should also be binding on UPC. If they won't refund me a charge misapplied (when clearly they are doing it for some people, depending on how "lucky" you get with the particular phone rep on the day) they can fûck off.

redser16

Avakinder, I've been a customer for a number of years and while the removal of the standalone charge was abonus for new customers. UPC also included this bonus for existing customers since the start of the year.

redser16

Avakinder, I've been a customer for a number of years and while the removal of the standalone charge was a bonus for new customers. UPC also included this bonus for existing customers since the start of the year.

cgarvey

peckerhead wrote: »

I don't suppose you remember exactly when this happened? (or could you take do us and take a peep at your own bills from the time? They should be available online back as far as July 2011, at least...)

I don't, sorry. I only changed over to the new bundles 2 or 3 months after they were introduced (I did that in Nov 11). I'd guess July or August were when the new bundles came out. However, the standalone charge waiver was only applicable to the new bundles (so you had to switch bundle). These new bundles were when 30mb became available for €45 (now 50Mb for €47), if that helps your search.

I suspect you're asking so that you can calculate how much refund your due, so take note of the having to switch bundle to avail of the waiver point!!

johndoe99

you'd need an instruction manual to read there bills

dub45

There is no excuse for any company not producing a clear and easily understood bill. Surely it is in their own interest as much as the customers'?

Also surely there is no excuse for an ongoing issue like this in any billing system - it is obviously affecting a considerable number of customers and should be address promptly once it has been brought to management's attention?

jvrk

Called up upc told about been overcharged then told I would be credited the amount for the last 13 months got bill today and only €2.27 credited to my a/c called again and was told there will be no refund a joke of a company.

sillymoo2007

Hi not sure if this helps others but it certainly helped me. I have all 3 products basic tv with recorder, broadband and telephone of which i was being charge 82euro for monthly. So last month a letter came to say that they would be charging an extra 5 or 7euro for the privelage of having on demand tv. I looked up the website as an existing customer and there is the same package available for 66euro a month. So now I have been paying 66 + 5 for anytime phone = 71. for more channels, faster broadband (which keeps cutting out by the way) and telephone. The only difference it made was that i was saving money but it also restarted a new 12 month contract because of the changes.

dub45

jvrk wrote: »

Called up upc told about been overcharged then told I would be credited the amount for the last 13 months got bill today and only €2.27 credited to my a/c called again and was told there will be no refund a joke of a company.

You are entitled to expect any supposedly reputable company to behave honestly and with integrity without having to be asked surely?

UPC have a rep here who you should contact directly. He should be concerned about this type of abjectly wrong behaviour by UPC staff.

In the meantime complain to Comreg.

cookie1977

sillymoo2007 wrote: »

Hi not sure if this helps others but it certainly helped me. I have all 3 products basic tv with recorder, broadband and telephone of which i was being charge 82euro for monthly. So last month a letter came to say that they would be charging an extra 5 or 7euro for the privelage of having on demand tv. I looked up the website as an existing customer and there is the same package available for 66euro a month. So now I have been paying 66 + 5 for anytime phone = 71. for more channels, faster broadband (which keeps cutting out by the way) and telephone. The only difference it made was that i was saving money but it also restarted a new 12 month contract because of the changes.

While that's obviously great for you I would see that as a failure (not taking a swipe at you) as I'd be paying the price for that package that everyone else is paying. From reading all these threads on UPC I've come to the conclusion that no "price" is fixed for UPC. So many people are on the same plan but completely different prices depending on how they went about it. For instance my package on UPC is 44.88 for 25mb broadband and nothing else but I pay 29.88euro.

It's the same for a lot of people. Depending on whether they complained about paying the standalone charge, double broadband speed etc... UPC seem quite happy to price people depending on how they complain or negotiate.

Dont get me wrong this is great but that means that for those who haven't checked out the options and maybe done a bit of negotiating at the end of their contract they could be paying 33% more for their package as opposed to some who did. This is some difference.

sillymoo2007

How do you know who's paying what then if they are making random charges and not pricing as per advertised ?

cookie1977

Lots of friends, family and colleagues with them all on similar plans/bundles all paying different amounts. Lots of evidence on threads here on boards.ie too.

sillymoo2007

cookie1977 wrote: »

Lots of friends, family and colleagues with them all on similar plans/bundles all paying different amounts. Lots of evidence on threads here on boards.ie too.

I didnt mean you personally I meant in more general terms, because if thats the case surely thats grounds for false advertisement or such.

cookie1977

No it's not false advertising. They are the correct prices on the site it's just that people negotiate them down when they're out of contract or unhappy.