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.