UPC Standalone charge !

Darsad

I recently switched to UPC for phone and broadband only! no TV.
advertised on their site @ € 40 per month unlimited local and national calls best price by far me thinks. Got the the bill and discovered they had stuck in a sneaky € 6 per month standalone charge. This is is very annoying as it is not mentioned anywhere on their web site www.upc.ie have a look and see phone and broadband € 40 total and this was then confirmed by e mail after i placed the order. Phoned them to query and not surprisingly the girl who was quite pleasant tells me that I was informed of the € 6 charge in a second e mail. Got out the second text e mail no fancy boxes with total amount € 40 in large type showing as in the first e mail and sure enough in small text print is the € 6 charge. This is really taking the pi** and i dont know if I would have bothered changing from Eircom if the price was not advertised in a misleading way. Is there any point in pursuing this or should I just put it down to yet more experience !!

Sponge Bob

it is mentioned along with all their BB packages .

http://www.upc.ie/broadband/

Look down the page €6 extra if you do not take TV

JDxtra

Its widely known and not a hidden fact. I have to pay it myself, and although I would prefer not to, I think its reasonable considering I dont use their TV service (most people probably take TV + BB).

thebman

I think its fair enough. I'd rather it didn't exist too but if they were losing customers over it they'd stop doing it.

Truth of the matter is that it is more like a discount for taking tv and broadband than a surcharge for not IMO.

I do think it should apply if you take any two of their services though they really want to get people using the tv and broadband package.

Anyone I know with them has TV and broadband but no phone and seems happy enough.

jor el

When you sign up, you have to select this charge if you don't want a digital TV package. It's not something they've ever hidden, and you can clearly see it listed when you select a broadband only package. You must have missed it. It should also be listed on your bill.

When you got a confirmation mail, with a ref number, it should have said something like this:

YOUR ORDER
Name: 20Mb Broadband Ultra
Setup price: €0.00
Monthly price: €42.00

Name: Broadband Standalone Charge
Setup price: €0.00
Monthly price: €6.00

Total setup cost: €0.00
Total monthly cost: €48.00

kazzer

Its beacuse analogue tv is available on the same cable. So they are effectively charging you in case you leech the service.

Disclaimer: Its most likely illegal to use the service if you not paying for it.

Darsad

Sponge Bob wrote: »

it is mentioned along with all their BB packages .

http://www.upc.ie/broadband/

Look down the page €6 extra if you do not take TV

Ok so its there in feint light coloured small print not exactly up front and obvious is it.When you type it into the selection menu you would expect it to give a price of € 46 and not € 40 as it does here !http://www.upc.ie/deals/made_to_measure/

Shopping basket
Broadband 3Mb Broadband Value €22.00
Telephone Home Phone €5.00
Anytime World €13.00
Total monthly cost: 40.00

hello932

kazzer wrote: »

Its beacuse analogue tv is available on the same cable. So they are effectively charging you in case you leech the service.

Disclaimer: Its most likely illegal to use the service if you not paying for it.

How can you leech upc tv service without paying for it?

DECEiFER

hello932 wrote: »

How can you leech upc tv service without paying for it?

As he said, the cable that comes into your house for Broadband will carry the analog TV signal regardless of whether you pay for TV or not. Get a splitter and put it into your TV and you got the standard 14 or so channels that came with it way back. I can confirm that this is true. Even if you have Digital with UPC, any room that has a TV but no box can still get the analog service if you split the feed into it.

Tipsy McSwagger

I'm sorry to drag up an old thread but I didn't want to start a new one on the same subject. I got a letter from UPC this morning saying my Broadband speed and usage is going up on Sep 5th. That's great but they are putting up the price too. What I would like to know is there any way I can get rid of the standalone charge, cheers.

Edit- I just have broadband with UPC.

jor el

There are dozens of active UPC threads on the forum right now, with no need to drag up this 2 year old and very out of date thread. Your questions is asked and answered in many of those threads.