UPC Cancellation Fee?

SligoQueries

I'm moving to an area where UPC doesn't cover. It's an estate, literally right after another estate which UPC does cover. I would of course stay with UPC if they had their cables there, I would prefer not to leave UPC, but I am definitely moving to the new place, so I have to go with Eircom for phone and broadband. UPC are trying to charge me €200 to leave them, because they can't provide me with their services where I'll be living. They couldn't tell me if they planned to make their services available there anytime in the future, either.

Is there anyway to get out of this fee? I'm moving in the first weekend of January (4th/5th), my UPC contract is up July 2014.

Thanks.

Cabaal

They are well within their rights to charge you the remaining months of your contract as you are breaking it early,

Its really upto them if they'll reduce it or write it off,

Soundman

Strange. When I last moved I got on to UPC to inform them as I was having to stay with friends for a couple of weeks. They said no problem, though I would have to keep paying the bill which I had no issue with. I asked them since I wasn't sure where I would be moving to, what would happen if the new house couldn't get the service. They told me that my contract would be considered cancelled, though I would have to pay one final month. I was told that there would be no early cancellation fee either.

Luckily the new place did have UPC services available though.

slimjimmc

Soundman wrote: »

Strange. When I last moved I got on to UPC to inform them as I was having to stay with friends for a couple of weeks. They said no problem, though I would have to keep paying the bill which I had no issue with. I asked them since I wasn't sure where I would be moving to, what would happen if the new house couldn't get the service. They told me that my contract would be considered cancelled, though I would have to pay one final month. I was told that there would be no early cancellation fee either.

Luckily the new place did have UPC services available though.

Were you terminating before the minimum 12 month period like the OP is?

sok2005

Little bit OT but Eircom tried to charge me for moving from them before, something like 40 euro even though I was a customer for 2 years, my contact was up a long time. Their reasoning was that to switch provider I had to give them a months notice.

WildCardDoW

You did (technically, though I'm sure enough people have argued against it successfully!) until recently, now you no longer have to. I think there was a post somewhere here about that...

Soundman

slimjimmc wrote: »

Were you terminating before the minimum 12 month period like the OP is?

I deferred, but had the service not been available in the new house, then yes, I would have been cancelling before the 12 month contract had run its course.

GerardKeating

SligoQueries wrote: »

I'm moving to an area where UPC doesn't cover. It's an estate, literally right after another estate which UPC does cover. I would of course stay with UPC if they had their cables there, I would prefer not to leave UPC, but I am definitely moving to the new place, so I have to go with Eircom for phone and broadband. UPC are trying to charge me €200 to leave them, because they can't provide me with their services where I'll be living. They couldn't tell me if they planned to make their services available there anytime in the future, either.

Is there anyway to get out of this fee? I'm moving in the first weekend of January (4th/5th), my UPC contract is up July 2014.

Thanks.

Did they announce a price increase this month, they used to do it at the start of December each year. If they did, you can give notice within 30 days of,the price increase and break you minimum contract term.

alaimacerc

Ouch, that smarts: looks like UPC have a) doubled their cancellation fee from €100 to €200, and b) still apply it even if you're moving out of their coverage area, in which cases they used to waive it. And have their "bundles" just gone up in price? Really takes the gloss off their pricecut of the introductory offer...

Del2005

alaimacerc wrote: »

Ouch, that smarts: looks like UPC have a) doubled their cancellation fee from €100 to €200, and b) still apply it even if you're moving out of their coverage area, in which cases they used to waive it. And have their "bundles" just gone up in price? Really takes the gloss off their pricecut of the introductory offer...

Why shouldn't they hold you to the contract you signed up for? They didn't force anyone to sign the original contract or move to a place where they don't have infrastructure. The majority of posts in this forum are people trying to get advice on how to make companies up hold up their end of a contract, you can't expect contacts to only apply to companies.

alaimacerc

Conversely: why should I sign up to a contract whose cancellation terms interact poorly with my financial anxieties? Especially when they're getting conspicuously worse in several respects from the same company's previous such, as I was just pointing out.

Del2005

alaimacerc wrote: »

Conversely: why should I sign up to a contract whose cancellation terms interact poorly with my financial anxieties? Especially when they're getting conspicuously worse in several respects from the same company's previous such, as I was just pointing out.

If you don't agree with the contract you don't sign it, simple. The fact you signed it means that you agreed to the cancellation terms at the time you took their services, you had no financial anxiety then. Now that they are holding you to your part of the contact it's unfair.

What has raising of their prices got to do with the OP breaking the contract they signed up to? Apart from if the OP had been lucky and found out about the price increase and get out of contract clause before they called about moving out of coverage.

alaimacerc

I'll keep this as simple as:

Del2005 wrote: »

The fact you signed it

I haven't signed a UPC contract. I'm citing this as a reason to think twice about signing a UPC contract, as it's certainly making me to.

What has raising of their prices got to do with the OP breaking the contract they signed up to? Apart from if the OP had been lucky and found out about the price increase and get out of contract clause before they called about moving out of coverage.

They're both related to "UPC cancellation fees", seems to me. Now, if your objection is that this is an infinitesimally distinct issue from the original one, and should have had it's own thread... I'm filled with "meh". It seems pretty on-topic to me.