Onestream Broadband

Avoid this company, they will charge a fortune to leave.

My friends contract ends on 25 February and he wanted to leave today 3 December.
He rents a router from Onestream for £4.99 a month and they supplied a 2.4Ghz single channel router that's worth about £10. WiFi is absolute rubbish
They want to charge him £258 for early termination including £125 for the cheap router that he had been paying to rent and £99 for activation fees and the last weeks of his contract.
Besides all that they sign you up for "30 day Trials" that if you don't cancel you pay monthly. They don't tell you about the trial.
This is truly the worst broadband company it has been his misfortune to have been a customer of, don't let it be yours.

There is Ofcom guidance and voluntary code for early termination charges. Ofcom allows for charges for hardware (although it sounds like they have either been renting it in which case or would be returned or they have been paying for it over time in which case I would expect to only pay the balance remaining). The £99 for activation seems a little steep considering they are near the end of their contract but I suspect the contract probably says something about this - have they actually read the contract they signed up to?

The remaining £34 is relatively low for having a couple of months left on the contract so sounds about right.

They/I didn't read the small print but that doesn't exonerate Onestream from being a completely amoral company.

Replying to myself...

The price guide is here.

Look at "Connection, maintenance and service charges". The router is "rented". The price guide shows a charge:

Routernot returned or returned in cooling off period not in a brand new condition - £125

If the router is returned and in good condition then they shouldn't charge for it as there Ts&Cs say it remains their property and has to be returned at the end of the contract.
It also has:

Activation fee – Line Rental & ADSL - £99

I am guessing they got a deferred activation free making it free if they saw out the contract - if they are terminating the contract early then I suspect the Ts&Cs of the deferral said they would be liable for paying the activation fee.
Get them to talk to them about returning the router as that should remove the £125 unless it is damaged. For the activation check the original Ts&Cs but I suspect they will be liable for it.
Is there any way they can just see the contract out until February rather than cancel it as that should remove the deferred charged for the referal and the early termination rental. Returning the router should also remove the £125. They are paying a high premium for cancelling a couple of months early.

They are making charges that are similar to how others in the market charge. See my latest post for the price guide and things you may be able to do to mitigate it.

It is on the person signing up to read the Ts&Cs and to understand what they are signing up to. They could have paid the installation charge up front rather than defer. The router should be able to be returned removing that charge unless they have damaged it beyond standard wear and tear.

This is common of the industry and BT will charge for routers if they aren't returned. You may find it states that if it is returned then the charge would not be levied. Deferred activation would also generally be charged if you terminate a contract early. There isn't much unusual about what has been charged here.

They are now going to see out the remaining period of their contract as that seems the only way.
As far as returning the router while in contract the customer agent says it doesn't make a difference you still pay £125.

Further supporting info from their published price guide:

Calculating your early termination is simple, the monthly termination fee for your service is multiplied by the number of months
remaining. If you didn’t pay an activation fee, or paid a reduced fee when you joined, the standard price for broadband activation
will also be included in your early termination fee as well as the router if you have one.

And they provide an example

ou are a Onestream Fibre 80 customer and you end your contract 4 months before the end of your minimum term. Your monthly
termination fee would be £17.00, multiplied by 4 months remaining = £68.00
You didn’t pay an activation fee when joining which means £99.00 is added as well as a charge for your Superstream router of
£125.00, making your total early termination fee is £292.00

Many ISPs have a similar structure for early termination (although again I think it is odd they charge for a router that is their property and should be able to be returned - that is the main point I would be arguing with them, the rest is pretty standard charges for early termination).

Our posts crossed again
That router part is the bit I disagree with. Did they confirm if it would not be charged if they cancel after the contract and return the router? If so I don't see why that wouldn't be the case in contract even if they had to pay the "rental" fee for the remaining months. I think they are wise to see out the contract and then move elsewhere. It is also possible that some providers they move to would have paid some or all of the early termination fees for them as part of the move to a new provider (assuming that is their plan).

They didn't confirm if the router would or wouldn't be charged for after the contract expires but for the first time I am going to advise him to cancel his DD once the switch is done because I don't trust this company.
They don't want the cheap as chips router back they want to charge you £125 which is about 10 times its worth.
I have read a few reviews on TrustPilot and there is one which says they don't send a return bag but they do require you to return.
My original post is also on TP but written as if I am the customer because I am the idiot who signed him up to Onestream.
TrustPilot has Onestream at 3.9 and Google reviews has them at 1.8 which I believe is closer to the mark.

Lots of companies game Trustpilot (and probably other sites too) by asking "how did we do?" questions following specific customer service interactions. Hermes/Evri do this - all the reviews say "my parcel was delivered on time, 5 stars" because it's not made clear at any point that you're meant to be reviewing the overall service but the companies soliciting the reviews make it seem like you're just providing feedback on that specific interaction. Everybody knows Evri are a terrible company, but the sheer volume of people who get a parcel delivered and spammed to rate the experience pushes the score up to a level it shouldn't be at.

It's not in the interest of people like Trustpilot who rely on income from companies being reviewed on their site to correct this, as everybody will just find a different service to use.

What you say is correct and normaly I make a point of reading the one star reviews first but somehow Onestream escaped the net.

In reply to a post by Nervous:

They didn't confirm if the router would or wouldn't be charged for after the contract expires but for the first time I am going to advise him to cancel his DD once the switch is done because I don't trust this company.

Don't do that.

If the provider tries to collect money and fail, they will treat this as a debt and may pass it onto a debt collection agency, causing massive aggrevation and rapidly spiralling costs, not to mention a black mark on the credit file.

* Ride out the contract to the end
* Return the router, if that's what the contract says you have to do. Send it signed-for so there is proof of delivery. Do this at your own expense - it's worth it.
* Pay the final bill.
* Once this is completed and they've confirmed nothing more is due, cancel the DD
* If you are in dispute about the final bill (e.g. you disagree with a charge they have raised, like charging for the router even though it has been returned) then pay it and raise a formal dispute. Take it to a small claims court if necessary. These often side with the consumer.
* Keep written records of all correspondence and phone calls to back up your case.

Note that some providers do charge an exit fee if you cease the line without transferring it to another provider. It will be in the T&Cs.

In reply to a post by Nervous:

I am going to advise him to cancel his DD once the switch is done because I don't trust this company.

One downside about cancelling a Direct Debit is that if you end up getting a refund from the company for any reason, if the DD is cancelled the refund will not go through.

I would definitely wait until certain that all the financials were definitely completed before cancelling the DD.

In reply to a post by candlerb:

* If you are in dispute about the final bill (e.g. you disagree with a charge they have raised, like charging for the router even though it has been returned) then pay it and raise a formal dispute. Take it to a small claims court if necessary. These often side with the consumer.

I disagree with this point. Either pay the £125 and keep the router or return the router and don't pay £125. Either way, check the T&Cs to be sure of your position

If you return the router, leave Onestream to sue for the £125, don't pay the £125 if you don't believe you owe it. Let Onestream sue. You are going to look a bit daft in front of the judge paying £125 and suing to get it back.

In reply to a post by DFScale:

If you return the router, leave Onestream to sue for the £125, don't pay the £125 if you don't believe you owe it. Let Onestream sue.

They won't sue. They will bill you, then they will pass the bill to a debt collection agency, who in turn will add their own huge fees at each stage, and will use statutory powers to recover the debt.

Even if you are in the right, you really don't want to go down this path.

In reply to a post by candlerb:

They won't sue. They will bill you, then they will pass the bill to a debt collection agency, who in turn will add their own huge fees at each stage, and will use statutory powers to recover the debt.

Even if you are in the right, you really don't want to go down this path.

Come off it.

No ISP has Statutory Powers to recover an alleged debt. The have to go to court and prove their case. As for the debt collectors, if there is no debt to recover, they can add all the fees they like, but they are powerless to collect. Really, return the router, get proof, be sure that you are in the right according to the T&Cs and sit tight. The only bit you are right on is that they won't sue.

Don't give in to bullying by companies and ignore advice to give in to bullying. Take the question to Moneysavingexpert.com - they will say the same. They will probably advise making a complaint and following through with the ombudsman complaint. But not paying.

The one path you do not want to go down is paying money which is not due and then suing for recovery.

When I read these type of threads on MSE usually the advice given (from the more trusted posters) is to actually pay to avoid carnage on your credit file.

I would be returning the router, tracked postage, verifying if the fees are owed, and pay them as due, many ISPs charge early termination these days?

You might get away by playing hard ball and getting a waiver from a big name, like BT or VM, but with a smaller company who may not have the cashflow to just be waiving fee's, I think its a case of eating it up, and be careful what contracts you sign up for.

Thanks to everyone for their advice.

I will let the contract run to its conclusion and return the router, what happens from there I will let you know by updating this thread after the 25 February.

It still remains that Onestream is not a company you want to be dealing with.

A review on Trustpilot about Onestream Broadband posted 15hrs ago:

"I am in tears as I write this...a 40yr old grown man"

"I am in tears as I write this...a 40yr old grown man. This company have charged a £462 early termination fee to close my recently deceased fathers account. Not to mention the months of intermittent service and billing issues prior to his passing. OneStream, you really should be ashamed of yourselves."

Edited by Nervous (Fri 06-Dec-24 09:28:19)

Based on price, I was considering Onestream but checked out their 1 star reviews....
Something that cropped up a few times was if you don't cancel exactly 30 days before renewal, they roll you onto a new 24 month contract with the termination fees to match.
I am posting this message on 30 Jan, and I suppose you will have had to cancel some 4 days prior.

Are auto-extending contracts legal in the consumer space?

I have no idea TBH, but I am sure I read of customer's complaining about their cancellation terms and conditions.
Aside from that, which may not be accurate, having to cancel various monthly add ons and what appears to be rather poor customer service, was not worth saving a few quid IMHO 😉

A quick check and they aren't, there must be wording in the Onestream contracts that either say people are signing up as an enterprise customer with more than ten employees. There's a live streaming service called Onestream that does have auto-renewing subscriptions.

I have talked to Onestream to check the exact day his contract ended and it is 4th March so the earliest I can give notice is 30 days before that date and with February being a short month I am going to begin on 5th Feb just to make sure this company has no excuse to charge me for anything. I also have to make sure I return their router within 14 days at my own expense (no prepaid bags). If they don't get it back within that time they charge £125 no ifs or buts so make sure it's sent back recorded and signed for and keep receipt.
I don't think they can auto renew your broadband contract but they can and do auto renew the products they put you on a trial for if you don't cancel them.

Thanks for reporting back, please do let the forum know how the cancellation goes... hopefully no drama or direct debit surprises.
There was a poster on a reddit forum going by the name of bromabb, who claimed to be an ex-employee of Onestream... he is none too complementary of them to put it mildly https://www.reddit.com/r/HousingUK/comments/1b92mna/...

Good grief. First post on that thread says £5/month extra to be able to phone customer services. I bet the idiot who thought up that little scheme got Employee of the Month.

I can't find any reference to that charge anywhere other than one Reddit post, for what it's worth

It's their "Onestream Assured" priority service I would presume, that they try to upsell you when you select a package/start the order journey, that you can opt out of from the outset, and costs 4.95 pcm.

It claims Priority service from themselves and Openreach should an engineer need to attend.

Protection against call out charges should a fault be found with the customer extension wiring and sockets.

Plus enhanced compensation.


https://onestream.co.uk/support/account/onestream-as...

Edited by Davey_H (Sun 02-Feb-25 08:46:04)

It *might* be that you are getting Openreach "enhanced care", which has an improved SLA (and a cost to the ISP).

But since they don't actually say so, you might not be getting this at all.

Better to choose an ISP which tells you what you're getting. e.g. Aquiss make it clear that you get Standard Care on their residential packages, and Enhanced Care on their business packages.