In reply to a post by adslmax:

Is that honest from you? I find it hard to believe it! As the T&C's stated u won't get refund on LRS once u took it, as it non-refundable stated in T & C's.

There have been a few reported cases of people getting refunds on LRS.

That's pretty good. Sound like US the customer is battle WAR against LRS refund but I do understand that LRS doesn't increase line rental cost until your LRS expiry.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

I have a feeling that Ofcom didn't think of that snare, and that if a group of people raised it with them there may be a ruling in users' favour. Either a deferred leaving, or (less likely) a partial LRS refund. But that's just a hypothesis. It's clearly unfair as it is, and their whole drive is fairness, so there might be a chance.

The customer has to accept that they are saving money on line rental because they paid a non-refundable deposit. For them to then get a part-refund on it as well as having saved money on line rental is pretty much having one's cake and eating it. The deferred leaving certainly sounds more likely as you say, but it would probably be quite messy to administer.

If Ofcom got involved they would most likely just ban LRS for being a backdoor lock-in mechanism I suspect, just as they did with auto-renewing contracts.

Ofcom are pretty useless these days. One rule for them and one rule for you.

That's what Plusnet are saying, but that is also the question. Can they do that?

Vimto-girl has managed a refund, and I think kasg keeps a closer look on things on the Community forums than I and has just said some have got it, so there must be some way round it.

Certainly it is a backdoor lock-in, completely against the apparent intentions of Ofcom.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

That's what Plusnet are saying, but that is also the question. Can they do that?

Apparently yes, as long as the pay-monthly option has the price-rise release clause intact.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Vimto-girl has managed a refund, and I think kasg keeps a closer look on things on the Community forums than I and has just said some have got it, so there must be some way round it.

As ever, some people manage to obtain things in contrary to the T&C depending on who they speak to at the ISP.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Certainly it is a backdoor lock-in, completely against the apparent intentions of Ofcom.

I suppose Ofcom accept that some customers may wish to waive their cancellation rights by saving money and paying up front (well not really waive, but few will be willing to forgo their up front payments). Perhaps Ofcom will ban LRS at some point but it seems to be dying its own death anyway, ever decreasing discounts, and Sky for instance have not considered it worth offering for a long time now.

The additional complication from the earlier question is that they were also tied into a BB contract. I believe they would want to break the BB contract as well as get a refund on LRS. So many things tied together makes things complicated.

Even more complicated on BT. I have LRS and BB on contract till Jan via a retention deal. I also have annual contract with BT mobile till March. If I wanted to try and break contract over BT price rises then, to make it worthwhile, I would need to get refund on LRS, end the BB contract and end mobile contract (because otherwise the mobile cost goes up by £5 per month by not being with BT).

So, the price rise when it kicks in after LRS will be something I have to really live with until March.

As far as I know a line rental increase automatically creates a break clause in any broadband contract too, but since that is always pay-monthly it's not so much of a grey area.

As for the mobile contract (or TV contracts), I don't know. With so many linked services these days it's a tricky issue.

Except the line rental increase doesn't take effect until LRS ends. So, at this point nothing detrimental has happened. But, when the LRS runs out it will be detrimental - but is then outside of the 30 day window.

Be interesting if Vimto managed to break an broadband contract minimum term as well as LRS refund.

It could be even worse because a person could have a TV contract as well - which of course requires BT broadband. And all of these contracts can run to different dates - I am beginning to really hate all of these things that rely on other components but can run to different contract times. If something is dependent on something else then the contracts should be coterminous and directly linked so change of cost on one component automatically negates all related contracts.

My LRS is due in November also but as I have been offered a good retention deal I will pay the LRS before the rise takes effect which will then start in November but at the lower price. (I did this last year as well without any problem.)