Breaking contract with Chorus - broadband

indiannie

Some advice would be appreciated.....I am cancelling my account with Chorus for broadband service as I am leaving the country. They have advised me that I will incur a €99 cancellation fee as I am still within contract (til Feb). Is there anyway to avoid paying this? If I simply cancel my direct debit will that work....? Thanks for advice....

RangeR

indiannie wrote: »

Some advice would be appreciated.....I am cancelling my account with Chorus for broadband service as I am leaving the country. They have advised me that I will incur a €99 cancellation fee as I am still within contract (til Feb). Is there anyway to avoid paying this? If I simply cancel my direct debit will that work....? Thanks for advice....

Cancelling your contract without UPC's blessing will have them hunt you down until the end of days. The debt will be a burden to you for a while.

Talk to UPC to see if they will waive the fee. However, you are intentionally ending the contract early. You have to accept the liability attached to it.

jor el

Short of asking them, or running out on the debt, no. Ignoring it would not be advised, as you'll definitely end up with debt collectors chasing you (possibly for a long time).

€99 is hardly going to kill you.

Evil-p

I was in a similiar situation myself about 3 years ago. I was going travelling and had to cancel my NTL after about 8 months of my first year contract. I rang NTL and the girl i spoke to was great. They had some offer on at the time for the first 3 months of the contract free so she put that onto my account so i only had to pay one month when i had left the country. She changed to address on my account to my mothers house so the modum and digital box could be collected after my year was up. She also flagged my account not for renewal. It all sounded a bit to good to be true. The modum and box were never collected from my mothers. After i returned home, a year later, i applied to NTL for a TV etc and got it no problem and still have it so the girl obviously knew her stuff!

So i recommend you ring NTL and be very nice and see can you get lucky too!!

GER12

I know somebody who faced a similar issue with a telecommunications provider who said they'd have to pay for the remaining of the year when they chose to cancel the contract. The person took the case to the small claims court on principal and argued the case on the basis that the provision in the contract of get-out penalties was unfair as it a created a significant imbalance to the detriment of the consumer. Something that may be of interest to consumers facing similar issues - they won the case. The law is EU Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulation 1995.

AN UNFAIR TERMS IN A CONSUMER CONTRACT IS A TERM THAT CAN CAN CAUSE A SIGNIFICANT IMBALANCE IN THE PARTIES RIGHTS AND OBLIGATIONS TO THE DETRIMENT OF THE CONSUMER. There are three main categories that unfair terms may fall into.

• Terms that give the supplier of goods or services the right to change the terms of the contract.
• Terms that limit the liability of the supplier of goods and services. For example no liability for death or personal injury arising out of an act or an omission by the supplier of goods or services.
• Terms that put an unfair burden on the consumer. For example a term states that a deposit will be kept by the supplier of goods or services if the consumer cancels the contract but does not include a term saying that the supplier of goods or services will pay compensation if it does not fulfil its commitments.

http://www.citizensinformation.ie/categories/consumer-affairs/consumer-protection/consumer-rights/unfair_terms

Kensington

It's quite simple - you sign a contract that requires a minimum term of 12 months, by doing so you are agreeing that you are bound, by law, to remain in this contract for 12 months. If you do not like this term, then don't sign the contract.

You know that free modem chorus would have given you? They don't get it for free. Cablemodems cost a fair bit to purchase, which the company foots. The minimum 12 months is there so that they at least recoup the losses they incur by providing you with the "free" modem. Hardly unfair? Of course, chorus could give you a non-binding contract and charge you full whack a few hundred quid for the cablemodem, cables, installation labour etc. etc. Except that, to me, is detrimental to the customer.

I am strongly doubtful as to the truth about the SCC agreeing to take on a case about a customer disputing a term of a contact, which they agreed to in the first place. If that was the case, I could head over to Vodafone in the morning, sign up to a brand spanking new top of the range phone on some ridiculous monthly contract, get the phone free since it's such a high monthly rental, then cancel two months down the line and keep my nice new phone. Maybe the company decided it wasn't worth the hassle of arguing with a difficult customer and just gave in.

GER12

Hi Kensington

The law is the law and fortunately there is a law enacted in Ireland and the EU defining what is a unfair term in a consumer contract - it is indeed open to every person including judges to interpret the law as they see it - you might not agree with it... and may consider yourself tied to contracts - but if its unfair in terms and conditions and biased in favour of one person over another its an unfair term - luckily that's the beauty of the judicial system works where laws are tried and tested. The small claims process is designed so that it is an easily accessible system that anybody can use regardless of their background - if you were ever in this system you know clients dont as a general rule have solicitors representing them let alone a Senior Counsel presenting a case. What I would say is that people need to know the law before going into this system and using the legislation and in the case I am referring to the plantiff had professional knowledge of contract and consumer law.... but everybody's quite free to their opinions.

Jev/N

Ger12 having studied the law on this, I would have to side with Kensington, in this instance at least

GER12

Again that is in your right - just telling as it is - and the person who took the case studied law as well....

mick_ser

Had the same problem a few years ago was moving so didnt need chorus anymore. I had a few months left on contract rang up to cancel was told of fee, wasnt very happy because was student. Rang up few more times pleading with random people and eventually got it stopped for nothing. Although if it happened me these days wouldnt have as much time to ring (Time off is too valuable to be wasted ringing them) so would probably just pay it off.

Jev/N

GER12 wrote: »

Again that is in your right - just telling as it is - and the person who took the case studied law as well....

Fair enough but what I'm saying is that it is standard business practice to include a penalty clause in most, if not all, contracts for failure to perform same.

Now, if you're saying that anyone who wished to get out of the contract before the 6, 12 of 24 months are up, without either paying the rest of the installments due or paying the penalty clause, could do so by going to the SCC, I'd think you're having me on!

As I said previously, there would be circumstances where certain clauses would be deemed excessively onerous and burdensome and thus the future contractual obligations would be discharged by the courts, but that eventuality would limited to the circumstances of a few cases.

ann0

ive had chorus hd back now for around 5 weeks and im now going to a solicitor to pull out of the contract.the tv keeps freezing and the internet keeps going down.the technician who put the hd box in cut the wire to the internet box .so i called the tech support and waited on the phone for half an hour for someone to answer.when the did answer they said theyd send the same gobshi&3 to fix itwhen he got her he claimed he never cut the net wire and that hed be back the next day that was a week ago.ive sent an email explaining that a solictor is going to be used i never even got an automated response back
chorus cant compare themselves with sky digital theres no comparison sky has way better quality and more channels and the tech support is way better.i:
chorus might say there hd is as good as skys but at the end of the day its not and its to slow to load
chorus has got a bad name and its only getting worse

Cabaal

You signed up the the contract and your breaking it early so it has a contract termination fee....standard practice really.

If you were leaving the country then why did you agree to the contract?

MistyCheese

Does anyone know, regarding NTL/UPC contracts, is that fee only applicable if you want to cancel within the first twelve months? For example if you signed up in May 2009 and want to cancel in December 2009.

Someone told me that if you go over the 12 months you effectively sign a new contract, or one is implied, for a further twelve months. So if you signed up in May 2005 and want to cancel in September 2009, they can still charge you a fee to cancel.

Kensington

MistyCheese wrote: »

Does anyone know, regarding NTL/UPC contracts, is that fee only applicable if you want to cancel within the first twelve months? For example if you signed up in May 2009 and want to cancel in December 2009.

Someone told me that if you go over the 12 months you effectively sign a new contract, or one is implied, for a further twelve months. So if you signed up in May 2005 and want to cancel in September 2009, they can still charge you a fee to cancel.

Once you go beyond your minimum 12 month contract, it becomes a 30-day rolling contract. That is, if you want to cancel, you must give them 30-days notice in writing.

They do have a "downgrade administration" fee of €10, whereby each time you lower one of their services, they hit you with €10. I don't know if they'd be cheeky enough to charge you that to cancel with them, or the legalities of them making you pay...

Cabaal

MistyCheese wrote: »

Someone told me that if you go over the 12 months you effectively sign a new contract, or one is implied, for a further twelve months. So if you signed up in May 2005 and want to cancel in September 2009, they can still charge you a fee to cancel.

Nope this is incorrect unless you agree to a new package which would come with a new contract

ann0

chorus arnt sticking to there part of the contract.at the end of the day im paying for a service that im not getting.and im not paying for something im not getting.i know of 1 person so far who got out of the contract due to the same thing

BolBill

jor el wrote: »

Short of asking them, or running out on the debt, no. Ignoring it would not be advised, as you'll definitely end up with debt collectors chasing you (possibly for a long time).

€99 is hardly going to kill you.

Dont listen to moneybags there, €99 is a lot of money for some people mate.

Just don't pay them, cancel the direct debit and threaten them with legal action if they persue it.

dudara

BolBill wrote: »

Dont listen to moneybags there, €99 is a lot of money for some people mate.

Just don't pay them, cancel the direct debit and threaten them with legal action if they persue it.

Unfortunately, if you do cancel the direct debit and refuse to pay them their balance, then you will be the one liable for legal action.

ann0

the solicicitor contacted chorus this morning i dont know what he said but hes got me an xtra hd box and free subscription with sky sports and the movie channels for a year so 2 boxes for the price 1.thats not bad.the free hd is coming tomorrow and there going to sort out the other stuff as well.if i still have problems in a couple of weeks the solicitor said hel get me out of it

urbanachiever1

Hi ann0, I'd love to know how it played out for you. I want to break a contract with Homevision Broadband on behalf of my mother who was cold called into a contract for Broadband/phone. The service is painfully slow with poor customer support. Does anyone know if a verbal contract is easier to get out of (it was done over the phone) or is payment of a bill considered acceptance of the contract?
Many thanks

dudara

If your mother has a record of complaints to the service provider and is still experiencing a poor service, then she can argue to have the contract cancelled.

You really can't cancel a contract just by *saying* that the service isn't good enough.

MikeBob

Hi, I am about 9months through my chorus broadband and tv contract and i am leaving the country next month.. I pay the bill in cash.. How can i get out of the contract with no charge.. I heard that if you say that your moving to a real remote location and if they dont provide a service there they will not charge you is this true
I would greatly appreciate all advice
thanks
Mike

slimjimmc

MikeBob wrote: »

Hi, I am about 9months through my chorus broadband and tv contract and i am leaving the country next month.. I pay the bill in cash.. How can i get out of the contract with no charge.. I heard that if you say that your moving to a real remote location and if they dont provide a service there they will not charge you is this true
I would greatly appreciate all advice
thanks
Mike

I doubt it, it's not their fault you're moving to an unserviced area and they have no public service obligation so why should they be at the loss of an income. You were happy enough to agree 9mths ago to compensate them for an early termination so you are contractually bound.