UTV charging for "free" fourth month

mofei

Hi - I finished my three month trial with UTV clicksilver at the start of August. They sent me a mail saying they were waiving the 99 euro connection fee, and so I decided to continue with them. After that the fourth month was meant to be free too.

But then they charged me for the fourth month "instead" of the connection fee - so I save 69 rather than 99 euros. I've pointed this out to them but they don't seem to want to budge. Has this happened to anyone else? I would have thought that's false advertising/misrepresentation...

kaizersoze

They bill for their broadband a month in advance.
Are you sure your not being billed for next month?

mofei

kaizersoze

nope. On that bill I was charged for the fourth month *and* for coming month in advance:

"Subscription charge(s) covering 03/08/2005 to 31/08/2005 and Advance
subscription charge(s) for September 2005 We have now waived the ?99
sign-up fee, and charged for the 4th month subscription instead.
Your account was activated on 03/08/2005"

Does anyone have a copy of the agreement for that deal (3 month trial, followed by 4th free month, 99 euro signup charge and 30 euro per month)?

I've got a reply from their admin people in the meantime, saying that the free fourth month was tied somehow to the connection fee. I can't find my original copy of the agreement (must be here somewhere!!!). But even if it is in the small print, the promotional email they sent at the end of the free trial was misleading:

"We normally charge a sign up fee of 99
(euro) to transfer you onto this product but we are delighted to announce
that this is currently being waived as part of a price promotion."

... with no mention of dropping the fourth month, which means you save 69 euro, not 99...

I know it's not a huge amount of money, but it drives me mad when companies try this sort of thing, just because they think you won't notice, or just won't be bothered to follow it up.

dub45

mofei wrote:

kaizersoze

nope. On that bill I was charged for the fourth month *and* for coming month in advance:

"Subscription charge(s) covering 03/08/2005 to 31/08/2005 and Advance
subscription charge(s) for September 2005 We have now waived the ?99
sign-up fee, and charged for the 4th month subscription instead.
Your account was activated on 03/08/2005"

Does anyone have a copy of the agreement for that deal (3 month trial, followed by 4th free month, 99 euro signup charge and 30 euro per month)?

I've got a reply from their admin people in the meantime, saying that the free fourth month was tied somehow to the connection fee. I can't find my original copy of the agreement (must be here somewhere!!!). But even if it is in the small print, the promotional email they sent at the end of the free trial was misleading:

"We normally charge a sign up fee of 99
(euro) to transfer you onto this product but we are delighted to announce
that this is currently being waived as part of a price promotion."

... with no mention of dropping the fourth month, which means you save 69 euro, not 99...

I know it's not a huge amount of money, but it drives me mad when companies try this sort of thing, just because they think you won't notice, or just won't be bothered to follow it up.

I agree totally with you and UTV have a total disregard for their customers money!

Write to them and ask them for a full copy of the terms and conditions under which you signed up. Ask them when they changed these terms and conditions and when you were notified of that change. In their terms and conditions they are required to give a month's notice of any pending changes to terms and conditions. UTV have a noticable disregard for Terms and Conditions and in the past have been very loath to answer any questions about them.

mofei

Hi kaizer

thanks. Finally I found the terms and conditions, and you're right that they need a month to make changes to any charges or terms. And the fourth free month is clearly not related to the connection fee.

I'll quote their terms back to them and see what they say...