Cancelling IOL Broadband whilst in the contract

UbahOne

Hey Guys,

I hope this is the correct forum, since it says Consumer issues, i say it is. Does anyone know my rights as to whether or not how I can cancel IOL Broadband after having it since the 21'st July(1 Week)? My speeds, pings etc are perfect until about 4pm during weekdays and about 1pm on saturdays and Sundays where they can get truly dreadful, sometimes a bit quicker than a 56k modem but a lot of disjointed downloading like stopping and starting. I was wondering seeing as I would now like to move to netsource instead wether or not I can cancel my service despite the 12 month contract?

Any ideas?

spongebob

Email bill.murphy@esat.com , he is the MD , other IOL/ESAT senior personnel email addresses can be obtained from the BB board. I think that angela.keegan@esat.com is head of customer service.

Simply tell himand/or her what you said above and that they have until the 31/07/03 to fix it properly.

After that you go to Netsource, as you no longer wish to pay for the service....given that it is unusable in your opinion....you must disconnect your ADSL modem as and from midnight on the 31/07 . If you continue to use it you have no case. Cancel all DD's and SO's at your bank, in writing at the counter.

You may still use an analogue modem on dialup after this time and until your alternative supplier provisions you with ADSL again.

M

eth0_

I'd check the contract and make sure you didn't sign anything that waives your statutory rights to cancel within 30 days...

query

Isn't it 10 days?

eth0_

Under the sale of goods and supply of services act you can ask for a refund within 30 days.

But now I think about it, it's common to waive this in relation to contracts, like when you get a mobile phone contract you can't cancel that afaik.

UbahOne

Muck thanks a lot for those emails and the brilliant advice. Seems good enough to me.

Etho...I dont know about the contract. Unless it was on the forms i sent back originally then i cant remember what I read.

eth0_

Originally posted by UbahOne

Etho...I dont know about the contract. Unless it was on the forms i sent back originally then i cant remember what I read.

It amazes me the things people will sign without bothering to read the terms and conditions! If there is a waiver on that contract, you don't have a leg to stand on, legally. It pays to read contracts and make photocopies of them for reference.

eth0_

spongebob

One may not be held to a contract where the product is "Not Fit For the Purpose" . No amount of terms and conditions can be used to justify holding our poster to a contract where the net result of his/her being in the contract is that he/she must pay for a Broadband connection which is inferior to a narrowband connection costing much less.

If the contract is between a business and IOL I am not so sure. It generally performs during OFFICE hours and a Busines is not a consumer by definition.

The contract under discussion appears to be between a Consumer and IOL. Consumers normally get to use the service OUTSIDE office hours. His/Her case is that the product is "Not Fit For the Purpose" WHEN he/she gets normally gets a chance to use it. The contract may be voided once IOL have been give a reasonable amount of time to fix it, by close of business on the 31st is a reasonable amount of time IMO. The contract between the consumer and IOL does not require the consumer to be a guinea pig beyond that date. IOL should have sorted these issues before they launched the product which appears to be "Not Fit For the Purpose" . Even if Eircom are at fault, the contract is not between the Consumer and Eircom.

M

UbahOne

One may not be held to a contract where the product is "Not Fit For the Purpose" . No amount of terms and conditions can be used to justify holding our poster to a contract where the net result of his/her being in the contract is that he/she must pay for a Broadband connection which is inferior to a narrowband connection costing much less.

Etho even if i did take photocopys of the forms i sent away, it still wouldnt justify why I am getting crap below par speeds meaning everything Muck has mentioned is totally correct because I am a consumer and I signed a contract with IOL. I am not a business.

The contract between the consumer and IOL does not require the consumer to be a guinea pig beyond that date. IOL should have sorted these issues before they launched the product which appears to be "Not Fit For the Purpose" .

Excellent point Muck. Only in this country...only in this country.

spongebob

Crap below par is probably 10.66 Kbit per second (1.3k BYTE per second) from an ESAT serrver such as ftp://ftp.iol.ie/pub betwen 6 and 12 tonight. Thats Because of the Contention Ratio to which you have agreed I am afraid, the IOL contract is reasonably clear about that. The 10.66 limit is the floor. Even though IOL can say that you connect at up to 512k (not AT 256k guaranteed) it is obvvious that an equitable and properly configured RADSL product should never deliver less than the speed above from an IOL server because the Contention should always be equitably shared.

If a continous download FROM THAT SERVER during the slow period every evening is slower than that speed above AND from that server....you do have an "Unfit for the Purpose" case (rather than Not Fit as I originally said...sorry .)

Unlike normal consumer law, where you complain to the Director of Consumer Affairs , Consumer matters in the Telecoms industry are dealt with entirely through the Comreg Complaints Procedure which requires that you escalate through ESAT /IOL first. Serving due notice on Bill and Angela is all you need to do to 'Exhaust the IOL Complaints Procedure'. Then go to the Comreg site and complain there on the 1st of August ...having disconnected your ADSL first. They can direct IOL to release you from your contract for specific non performance and because the product was "unfit" and because you brought it to their notice and gave them a reasonable time to fix it.

Do tell us how it goes without quoting Bill / Angela or whoever replies to you verbatim and by name, that would be a bit unfair IMO .

Over to you Eth_0 for the 'statutory nack'

M

UbahOne

Ill be posting some DU METER screenshots later on. Im in the process of taking them now. Ill take some more this evening too. Then ill put them all up here and get a broader range of opinions.

eth0_

Can I ask why IOFFL don't seem to be getting involved in the IOLBB debacle? It seems every single user posting to boards is having a **** time of it...are IOFFL getting involved?


As for the statutory rights stuff muck, i'm not a lawyer so I dunno :OP

Ubaone - please learn how to quote. I was merely pointing out that it's a bad idea to sign up to something without reading the contract thoroughly!

UbahOne

Ubaone - please learn how to quote.

Wat are you talking about? Everything i quote...i meant.

I did read it/well im sure my dad did anyway.

eth0_

Originally posted by UbahOne
Wat are you talking about? Everything i quote...i meant.

When you quote someone, you then reply to what they said. You quoted something Muck said, and then addressed me, therefore your quote was irrelevent.

I did read it/well im sure my dad did anyway.

Meh! There we go then.

UbahOne

That was no accident quoting Muck then talking about you. i was stating his point to you in relation to me.

sceptre

Constructive posting, folks, is not the same as posting in a manner that suggests the post is made in order to relieve some deeply-felt personal frustration.

It's as simple as this. If you can't say something useful, don't say anything at all. if you say something that adds nothing to the discussion and merely looks as though you're trying to impress us all with your rapier wit, you're just asking for a time-limited ban (at least to start with). I'm not going to take these steps because I'm getting annoyed. I'm going to take these steps because at this point, all sane people reading the board must be getting annoyed with these puerile comments. If there's a problem with another poster, you report the post to me using the handy link provided. If you start an off-topic argument you will be given an icehockey-style timeout.

In other words, knock it off.

Please carry on with the thread and keep it at least vaguely on topic. If you have any comments with regard to this particular post, please make them by PM to me (or to each other initially using the PM button at the bottom of each post if an argument really is required by anyone) rather than driving the thread further off-topic.