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Originally Posted by Kushan
The issue isn't anything to do with paying to end a contract early, the issue is that people are being forced to pay too much.
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By whose standard? Nobody made anyone else arbitrator / arbiter of all this.
In fact, it is not even a court that has ruled this, just a regulator with binding power.
Hopefully if this is the way that the decision goes, VM will take this to court.
Quote:
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Of course Virgin eats installation costs, etc. when a user signs up, that's why minimum contract terms exist, but if you end a contract 10 months early, that's 10 months of service Virgin doesn't have to provide you.
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No minimum terms exist so that you commit to the length and duration of the contract.
The only reason that Virgin doesn't have to provide the service, is because the customer cancelled the contract!
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Charging people for it is wrong.
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They agreed to the fees when they took out the contract though. (Early termination fees etc). They shouldn't have taken the contract if they couldn't honor it, should they?
---------- Post added at 21:54 ---------- Previous post was at 20:53 ----------
Quote:
Originally Posted by nomadking
What will happen is that there will be large upfront fees and no discounts for renewal of contract. How is the customer winning?
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Could be even worse - as it is VM charge for installation and keep equipment, right?
In the end, they could make you pay 6 to 12 months up front (just to be on the safe side) and then guarantee service for that time period. Even BT allow for upfront plans to pay line rental - VM will start doing the same.
---------- Post added at 21:59 ---------- Previous post was at 21:54 ----------
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr K
Well, the telecoms watchdog disagrees and thinks it unfair. Tough luck VM.
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Not quite - they said the fees were
excessive. A simple way for VM to get round this, is only charge the entire amount of duration for the remainder of the contract, which you agree to in the T&C. They may need to make them clearer though, like Telefonica does. (You are being this amount of credit etc etc - though it does work slightly different for phones, as you get to keep them).
The 240 sounds like a summary / default sum and that seems to be what Ofcom says is going too far but even at that they say that the terms are unclear. If VM spells it out a lot better than things will be difficult to dispute.