UPC overcharged me by €19 on 1st bill, are refusing to amend direct debit

Feckless Rogue

Just looking to bounce this off people as the National Consumer Agency are closed for the weekend.

I just moved into a rented apartment and signed up for UPC's Fibre Power 120 package. The deal is €25/m for the first 6 months and €44 thereafter.

There was also to be a €45 charge which was described as a charge for an equipment warranty for the modem/router hardware. This turned out to be an Equipment Activation Fee which is irksome but hey, I can live with it.

I received my first bill today and noticed a charge of €44 for "Fibre Power 120 (Recurring Charge)".

I got on to them straight away expecting the matter to be resolved as a simple error. They told me they would bill me the correct amount starting next month and subsequent 5 months as to amend the direct debit now would be effectively giving me the discount for 7 months (or something to that effect). I found this statement quite odd.

I politely told them that this was not acceptable and that I had agreed to a recurring charge of €25 and asked them to amend the direct debit. (if it seems like I'm being stingy here I also have an unexpected €200 deposit from Bord Gáis to deal with).

They told me:

• they could not do this as "the bill has already been issued".
• if I cancel the direct debit I will have to manually pay the balance (and presumably go into arrears/have service disconnected if I don't pay the full amount on the bill).
• if I cancel the service I will be charged €200.

As far as I can make out, UPC are in breach of contract here. I really don't want to cancel the service but this seems to be my only option at this point; with the other charge looming I honestly don't know if I can afford the bill they have sent me.

Would appreciate help on this one!

callaway92

It definitely wasn't just a pro-rata bill no?

Feckless Rogue

No, sorry should've mentioned that - there was a pro-rata amount of 4.28 on the bill for the first 3 days, which is totally fine by me & was explained when signing up.

shenanagans

my first bill with UPC was weird aswell. they charged €15 extra for the optional phone which i asked for, plus they charged for a month and a half for some reason. The router is free but not the phone.

Feckless Rogue

I've never had an issue with billing with them as far as I can remember. I actually was delighted with how quickly they brought out the router/hooked me up with sweet internet juice but I do feel that I am being frontloaded here

I did explain to them that I have been a customer for over five years (I estimate I've spent over €3k with them. I've also been a beta tester on the Horizon box). That didn't seem to hold any sway.

I also explained that if they couldn't accommodate me I would be forced to cancel the account and take my business elsewhere and they just said there was nothing they could do. €44 this month, €25 next month.

Feckless Rogue

Update: I turned to Twitter to voice my frustration and was contacted by customer care who are helping me out and have apologised for the error. I won't know for sure until Monday but it looks like I might be able to get the problem resolved.

wmpdd3

This goes against the direct debit obligations of the originator.

Disputed bills must be changed before the dd falls due.

Have a look at the upc talk to section here and see the other customers in the same boat.

I'd start a formal complaint with them but it will get nowhere as upc are well aware that they are in breach of the dd guarantee.

Their solution is to contact the bank and cancel that DD and pay by another means before the due date or risk a 50 euro admin charge.

Its a mess.

keithclancy

Had the same experience with UPC here in the Netherlands, their billing sucks,

I got a completely screwed up bill for switching from 30 - 50 mb package and now I have a bill of 126 euros of which they cannot explain.

jay_buddy

Hi Feckless_Rouge, Have you got this thing sorted out???
I got new UPC connection(15-Mar'14) 120MB fiber power - 25euro/Month for 6 months and 44 there after.
Even I have the same issue with my bill
Pro rate charge 15-Mar'14 to 20-Mar'14 - 10.18 euro
Monthly charge 21-Mar'14 to 20-Apr'14 - 47.50 euro
Installation charge - 20 euro

Total came around 77.50 euro for internet connection???? This was insane.

I called to UPC customer service twice but they don't have information on why the bill was generated like this.

Sent a request using contact form on UPC site, reply was I already contacted customer service on this and they provided satisfied reply... WTF only reply I got was "don't know how the bill was generated like this"

ct5amr2ig1nfhp

It looks like it breaks down as follows:

(44 / 30 days) * 7 (pro-rated for 7 days) = ~10.20

The 47.50 looks to include the 3.50 charge for either (non DD, paper bill or I believe it's now for having no account setup on MyUPC)

Were you told of the 20 EUR installation charge?

jay_buddy wrote: »

Hi Feckless_Rouge, Have you got this thing sorted out???
I got new UPC connection(15-Mar'14) 120MB fiber power - 25euro/Month for 6 months and 44 there after.
Even I have the same issue with my bill
Pro rate charge 15-Mar'14 to 20-Mar'14 - 10.18 euro
Monthly charge 21-Mar'14 to 20-Apr'14 - 47.50 euro
Installation charge - 20 euro

Total came around 77.50 euro for internet connection???? This was insane.

I called to UPC customer service twice but they don't have information on why the bill was generated like this.

Sent a request using contact form on UPC site, reply was I already contacted customer service on this and they provided satisfied reply... WTF only reply I got was "don't know how the bill was generated like this"

jay_buddy

Hi ProjectMoose, Thanks for your reply. I got this sorted out by one of the UPC rep in this forum.

Here the pro rate calculated without promotion. 15 Mar to 20 Mar
Monthly charge is 47.50 21 Mar to 20 Apr, because my account is not registered for MyUPC.
Installation charge of 20 euro
Paid 70 euro after discount of 7.66 discount.

6 months promotional discount is applied from 14 Apr to 20 Apr = 7.66 euro.
So 7 days discount is applied, remaining 173 days promotional discount will be applied in the subsequent bills.
I don't know why the promotional discount started in the middle of the bill cycle.
I will keep track of my promotional discounts and will update this post.