UPC Payment Administration Fee

Koloman

My parents have been with UPC since the Cablelink days. They just have basic analogue tv in 2 rooms.

They pay through the post office and not direct debit but in this months bill a charge of €3.75 was applied to their bill called a "payment administration fee" under the other charges heading.

My understanding was that this charge only kicked in when the contract was changed and the customer did not want to pay by direct debit.

They have not changed their UPC contract so why is this charge been applied?

Kristopherus

UPC changed the contract. Your parents would have received some communication from UPC about this change to the contract. They then had a month to opt out without penalty. There's plenty of info about this change in the Cable & Digital forum.

Koloman

Kristopherus wrote: »

Your parents would have received some communication from UPC about this change to the contract. They then had a month to opt out without penalty.

They never got such a communication from UPC about this change.

Shane-KornSpace

Im sure they must have recieved some sort of notice.
I got a couple of texts from UPC to inform me, aswel as a couple of emails and even a letter in the post.

RangeR

Koloman wrote: »

They never got such a communication from UPC about this change.

It was well advertised. Not to worry, you can opt out of the contract now. You'll just lose all service and cease being a customer. This is what would have happened if they acted up it months ago. Pay the admin fee, move to direct debit or change provider.

deelite

I've received no communications from UPC either, and haven't received latest bill. If I pay bill but not the admin fee can UPC cut the service to my house?

Murky Waters

Koloman wrote: »

My parents have been with UPC since the Cablelink days. They just have basic analogue tv in 2 rooms.

They pay through the post office and not direct debit but in this months bill a charge of €3.75 was applied to their bill called a "payment administration fee" under the other charges heading.

My understanding was that this charge only kicked in when the contract was changed and the customer did not want to pay by direct debit.

They have not changed their UPC contract so why is this charge been applied?

Check out their Alternative Auto pay method

Also, did you know that the basic Digital Value pack is cheaper than analogue? The pack is not advertised on the UPC website, but is available to order by phone. The same channels are available as on analogue, but the picture quality is better. My parents have it - they always had an additional analogue point which they have kept at no extra charge. There is no need to mention the second analogue point to UPC, as this will still be available.

It's a good few years since they changed to the Digital Value pack, but I remember ringing up & organising it for them at the time. The activation fee was waived, & instead of paying €26 odd a month for analogue it went down to €21 odd (which has now become €22). A few months ago I rang up & asked if a loyalty discount could be applied to their account & they reduced it to €15 a month provided they signed up to a 12 month contract.

If I were you I'd ring up account services (you'd have to be a nominated contact on their account, but you could do the talking provided the bill payer is there to confirm any changes) & say that they want to cancel altogether, as they are considering Sky & Saorview. Get put through to cancellations/retentions/customer loyalty dept, & see if they will offer you Digital Value pack with free activation @ €15 a month. They may still charge you some sort of activation fee, but even if they did it would probably still work out cheaper for them over a twelve month period than what they were paying for analogue. If On-Demand is available in their area, provided they get a box that is compatible they will get this too. After that it's just a case of ringing up once a year to renew the loyalty discount.

Worth looking into, as is the Alternative AutoPay method if they don't want to pay by direct debit through their bank account.

Murky Waters

deelite wrote: »

I've received no communications from UPC either, and haven't received latest bill. If I pay bill but not the admin fee can UPC cut the service to my house?

It's highly unlikely that they would disconnect you for doing this - not straight away anyway, but bear in mind that not having paid your bill in full by the due date could eventually trigger the late payment fee of €12.50 so you really wouldn't be doing yourself any favours by withholding the €3.75.

My advice would be to check out the Alternative Auto Pay method linked to in previous post above if it's the case that you don't want to set up a direct debit on your bank account.

practice

If I change from UPC to another provoider because of this charge am I allowed to remove the UPC cable from running along the fascia on my house.

BostonB

practice wrote: »

If I change from UPC to another provoider because of this charge am I allowed to remove the UPC cable from running along the fascia on my house.

See here

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=74055803&postcount=3

Considering its a right eye sore I wish people had the option of getting rid of these cables.

Koloman

Murky Waters wrote: »

Check out their Alternative Auto pay method

Also, did you know that the basic Digital Value pack is cheaper than analogue? The pack is not advertised on the UPC website, but is available to order by phone. The same channels are available as on analogue, but the picture quality is better. My parents have it - they always had an additional analogue point which they have kept at no extra charge. There is no need to mention the second analogue point to UPC, as this will still be available.

It's a good few years since they changed to the Digital Value pack, but I remember ringing up & organising it for them at the time. The activation fee was waived, & instead of paying €26 odd a month for analogue it went down to €21 odd (which has now become €22). A few months ago I rang up & asked if a loyalty discount could be applied to their account & they reduced it to €15 a month provided they signed up to a 12 month contract.

If I were you I'd ring up account services (you'd have to be a nominated contact on their account, but you could do the talking provided the bill payer is there to confirm any changes) & say that they want to cancel altogether, as they are considering Sky & Saorview. Get put through to cancellations/retentions/customer loyalty dept, & see if they will offer you Digital Value pack with free activation @ €15 a month. They may still charge you some sort of activation fee, but even if they did it would probably still work out cheaper for them over a twelve month period than what they were paying for analogue. If On-Demand is available in their area, provided they get a box that is compatible they will get this too. After that it's just a case of ringing up once a year to renew the loyalty discount.

Worth looking into, as is the Alternative AutoPay method if they don't want to pay by direct debit through their bank account.

The Alternative Autopay method looks interesting! I presume that they still would be able to pay through the Post Office once registered?

UPC asking people to state that they don't have a bank account is a bit intrusive I feel.

Thanks for the detailed information Murky. A lot there to chew over. Much appreciated.

wmpdd3

Murky Waters wrote: »

Check out their Alternative Auto pay method

Also, did you know that the basic Digital Value pack is cheaper than analogue? The pack is not advertised on the UPC website, but is available to order by phone. The same channels are available as on analogue, but the picture quality is better. My parents have it - they always had an additional analogue point which they have kept at no extra charge. There is no need to mention the second analogue point to UPC, as this will still be available.

It's a good few years since they changed to the Digital Value pack, but I remember ringing up & organising it for them at the time. The activation fee was waived, & instead of paying €26 odd a month for analogue it went down to €21 odd (which has now become €22). A few months ago I rang up & asked if a loyalty discount could be applied to their account & they reduced it to €15 a month provided they signed up to a 12 month contract.

If I were you I'd ring up account services (you'd have to be a nominated contact on their account, but you could do the talking provided the bill payer is there to confirm any changes) & say that they want to cancel altogether, as they are considering Sky & Saorview. Get put through to cancellations/retentions/customer loyalty dept, & see if they will offer you Digital Value pack with free activation @ €15 a month. They may still charge you some sort of activation fee, but even if they did it would probably still work out cheaper for them over a twelve month period than what they were paying for analogue. If On-Demand is available in their area, provided they get a box that is compatible they will get this too. After that it's just a case of ringing up once a year to renew the loyalty discount.

Worth looking into, as is the Alternative AutoPay method if they don't want to pay by direct debit through their bank account.

Did this, have sky now. I was with upc/cablelink for tv for 12 years. Still have broadband and telephone. Its cheaper to take broadband and phone than bb alone. I signed up to dd, but i pay in advance so a dd for 0 goes through every month.

deelite

Read through the alternative payment thing and I pay my bill in bits before the due date can I still do so if I sign up to the alternative pay thing or do I have to pay the bill in one go?

practice

deelite wrote: »

Read through the alternative payment thing and I pay my bill in bits before the due date can I still do so if I sign up to the alternative pay thing or do I have to pay the bill in one go?

Rang them about this yesterday and got them to let me off the direct debit,
however I must pay bill in full by the due date and must use a payzone point.

Can someone explain about the payzone bit. (do on post charge them a commission)

RangeR

Retailers with the Payzone logo on the window have a Payzone POS system that integrates with UPC billing, I'd assume.

deelite

practice wrote: »

Rang them about this yesterday and got them to let me off the direct debit,
however I must pay bill in full by the due date and must use a payzone point.

Can someone explain about the payzone bit. (do on post charge them a commission)

No there's no charge in the post office, however on some bills like Eircom / Greyhound you must make a minimum payment of 20 euro

scorn

deelite wrote: »

No there's no charge in the post office, however on some bills like Eircom / Greyhound you must make a minimum payment of 20 euro

And that should be easily met if it's a UPC bill

ScouseMouse

I am a payzone outlet and now decline these bills.

I get 19c for doing it, but the bank charge me 50c per hundred to lodge the cash.

If you pay a 90 euro bill, like someone tried to do last night, I would lose more than I earned.

Just be aware, some stores may decline the billpay.