UPC not refunding Standalone Broadband charge after upgrade

daymobrew

I recently upgraded my UPC account from boardband only to broadband plus phone.

With the broadband only service I was charged an additional e7.50 per month "Standalone Broadband Fee". As I added the phone service this charge is now gone.

I did the upgrade about 7 days into a new billing cycle. My pre-paid broadband charges were refunded pro-rata but the Standalone Broadband Fee wasn't refunded at all, not even partially. UPC say that it wasn't refunded because it is "not a service". The frontline customer service person could not help so I said I'd like to escalate it and I was directed to email Customer Support.

Has anyone succeeded in getting this refunded? What "angle" did you use?

Mountjoy Mugger

Why are you entitiled to a refund? You only had the Broadband service, so you were being charged the standalone fee.

You're now getting the phone service and avoiding the fee from now on. Is that right?

JimsAlterEgo

isn't this fee paid if you dont have tv not if you only have broadband?

dilallio

JimsAlterEgo wrote: »

isn't this fee paid if you dont have tv not if you only have broadband?

No.


From UPC's terms & conditions which apply to ALL Broadband packages.

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

Conditions

UPC Fibre Power Broadband services are only available to enabled homes. Installation is carried out by a third party installer. UPC will not be responsible for the installation. A €40 Equipment Activation fee applies for every Fibre Power Broadband service ordered. Orders placed online will get an online order credit of €20 for each Fibre Power Broadband service. Choose to connect the service yourself to receive a further €20 credit for each Fibre Power Broadband service. A standalone charge of €7.75 applies to all broadband packs and is in addition to the prices shown here. This charge is not applicable if broadband is taken with a UPC TV or Phone service.

Hi OP - Send them the email they have requested quoting this link and text.

daymobrew

Mountjoy Mugger wrote: »

Why are you entitiled to a refund? You only had the Broadband service, so you were being charged the standalone fee.

I am no longer being charged it - all correct there.

My issue is that I was charged the standalone broadband fee for a 2 month period but was broadband only for only 7 days of that period.

jor el

I don't see the issue here either. At the time of billing you were on a single service, so you paid the stand alone fee. You switched to a different service and will no longer pay that fee. You are not due any refund because you paid the correct fee for the service you had at the time of billing. There is no onus on them to refund now that you are on a different service.

Why are you paying for a 2 month period? I thought all UPC bills were monthly.

Arciphel

Same thing happened to me, call them up and ask for the loyalty dept and tell them you want a refund or you'll leave.

daymobrew

jor el wrote: »

I don't see the issue here either. At the time of billing you were on a single service, so you paid the stand alone fee. You switched to a different service and will no longer pay that fee. You are not due any refund because you paid the correct fee for the service you had at the time of billing. There is no onus on them to refund now that you are on a different service.

My issue is that I paid in advance of receiving the service.
The bill issued before I changed packages says:

Fibre Power Broadband Standalone Charge - 21/10/11−20/12/11 - 15.50
Fibre Power Broadband 30Mb - 21/10/11−20/12/11 - 84.00
Total for Internet - 99.50


The next bill has the following credit (the new package charges are correct):

Disconnect Fibre Power Broadband 30Mb - 28/10/11 - -74.35

So, I got credited for the unused portion of my old broadband package but not the 88.5% of the unused standalone fee (I estimate that it is 13.72 euro; it's the principle).

jor el wrote: »

Why are you paying for a 2 month period? I thought all UPC bills were monthly.

Mine is 2 month period.

jor el

The broadband is a service, the stand alone charge is a fee. You get refunded on the service, but not the fee. The fee is applicable in full at time of billing.

When you changed package, did you even check if this would be refundable? It seems to me that you just assumed it would.

As it stands, you can try the loyalty department and threaten to leave if they don't refund you. This could one of three ways; They refund your money, they call your bluff and close your account leaving with no service at all, or they refuse to refund or close your account because you are now locked into a 12 month minimum term which can't be gotten out of without paying an even bigger fee.

daymobrew

jor el wrote: »

The broadband is a service, the stand alone charge is a fee. You get refunded on the service, but not the fee. The fee is applicable in full at time of billing.

When you changed package, did you even check if this would be refundable? It seems to me that you just assumed it would.

You sound exactly like the UPC person I spoke to :-)
I feel that it is unfair not to refund the fee. It is worse because I upgraded so close to the start of the billing cycle.
Yes, I assumed that it would be refunded. I asked about the service charge being refunded but did not explicitly ask about the standalone fee.