Vivaciti unfairly suspended my internet (story inside)

TL;DR:
Bill shock, dispute, cancelled direct debit, got suspended, feel bullied.



Here is the story:

Recently I moved house, bringing my Vivaciti ADSL line with me.

A month before I moved I asked them if there was any cost involved and they didn't reply.

I went ahead to tell them I am moving house, and they said there is an active line in the new flat and they will take it over.

A week ago I received a large bill from Vivaciti with some unknown charges:

Broadband Activation Fee £40.00
WLR Basic SL - Trans-Conv from MPF £40.00
WLR Renumber Charge £14.95
ADSL Cease charge £31.12

I immediately asked them to delete them of course, because I was never told about these fees.

So while I am still waiting for a resolution, the day before the direct debit is due to take money out of my bank account, they put in the amount of the full bill with all these extra charges included, I cannot afford to have this much money out of my bank at once so I stopped my direct debit just before the day, after they have entered the amount.

And the next day my internet is stopped and I received an email (luckily my phone still works) saying "We have been advised that you have cancelled your direct debit, I can see you have disputed some of the charges but by just cancelling your direct debit this gives us no alternative than to temporarily suspend your service until this issue is resolved."

We exchanged some emails and they keep saying vague questions I don't even know how to answer like
"who told you there would be no cost"
"can I assume you just thought there were no cease charges or activation charges at all?"
"At no point where you told there would be no costs to cease your existing service and install a new service."

I said I only moved my house and I never wanted all these random things.

I feel like I have been bullied to pay money I do not owe, and now I am without internet. (I am using my phone right now.)

They are taking ages to sort out my bill (and still unresolved), but the moment I cancel my direct debit because of the ongoing dispute, my internet is suspended. I feel this is totally unfair.



Questions:

Are the fees normal for moving house?
If so, what are my options for complaint about poor (non-existence) of information and mis-selling?
If not, what are my options for complaint about poor communication and my internet being unfairly suspended?

Am I at fault? Am I at fault for cancelling my direct debit? Although I am happy to pay the regular monthly fees, I am not prepared for the extra fees listed above to be taken out suddenly.

My worry is what if Vivaciti drags on and not willing to cancel the fees and amend the bill, I won't be able to pay the correct amount, thus they will never re-enable my internet.

What should I do? Ask them to split the bill so I can pay the regular monthly fee first?

I appreciate any advice at all, thanks.

I tried to signed up to another ISP (with landline and broadband) but Vivaciti just sent me this email.

"I have been informed that you have placed an order to move your phone line, this has been blocked as until the account is settled no moves or transfers can be done."

Are they even allowed to do this?

Only way to know if the fees are correct is to look in the T&C you accepted when signing up

If they arent then dispute them. If theyre you don't have a leg to stand on really.

In reply to a post by Bastien:

I tried to signed up to another ISP (with landline and broadband) but Vivaciti just sent me this email.

"I have been informed that you have placed an order to move your phone line, this has been blocked as until the account is settled no moves or transfers can be done."

Are they even allowed to do this?

They are not supposed to do this no, But you can hardly blame them can you? because if you migrated to an new provider the chances of them getting any form of payment are drastically reduced , well that is how they will no doubt see it

I would of asked them if the fee's could be split into 2 or 3 equal amounts or other amount that you could manage to pay on top of whatever monthly costs you normally pay ,Had you been with one of the bigger isp's they may of offered a free house move service ,but at the cost of a new min term contract ,But vivaciti as far as I'm aware doesn't sell long contracts , and as a small isp can't do free house moves ,they in most cases are passing on BTOR fees that they have to pay , for things like the cease fee and taking the line over in the new property

Edited by tommy45 (Fri 15-Jan-16 15:16:58)

It was almost three years ago and I can't find the T&C anymore.

This was from an old email: http://www.vivaciti.net/terms-and-conditions

No surprise there is a charge. When you contacted them about the move they ought to have informed you that there were charges. But - did you do any research into the house move and whether there would be any charges?

It is commonly known by people on this forum that moving between houses would incur charges but most of us have been doing these things for a long time so have been around the block a time or two. I guess when comparing it to other "utilities" you may not assume that there would be a charge as gas/electric/water etc don't levy charges like this.

You could try to take them to court over them not informing you of the charges when you requested the house move but I would suggest you need to make sure that it wasn't mentioned anywhere in your Ts&Cs. As it stands you have effectively ceased the contract at the old address and started a new contract at the new address and so the fees are not for a house move service but for termination of one and start of another. I suspect the charges are indeed listed somewhere and a court may take the stance you should have checked first - but I am not a lawyer and it could well be the opposite with the court saying the supplier should have been clearer.

EDIT : Just looking at this page. There is an FAQ about "Can I move my broadband to another premises". That states that it is a termination (and elsewhere on that page it states termination charges) and then a new order (and costs for a new order are also published on the site).

A court may believe that this provides enough details to justify their position.

Edited by ian72 (Fri 15-Jan-16 15:37:51)

They did not inform me of the charges.

I saw the FAQ, I just thought they were just technical terms i.e. steps they have to take to move the line, I totally did not expect they are actually charges.

I did not see the other paragraph about termination charges etc. I thought they are entirely unrelated. The two paragraphs are too far apart to be related in any way, and there was no mention of any charges in the "moving" paragraph. It is impossible for the connection between the two to be made. Moving and termination in my dictionary are two different things.

And I have just discovered they have signed me up to a NEW 12 MONTH CONTRACT, which is totally unexpected. I assumed my plan is unchanged aka monthly contract from before the move. Nobody told me about the new contract period.

I feel totally cheated.

No, this is not a valid reason to block an outward migration and is against the Ofcom code for transfers.

If there is a contractual dispute, you have to sort it out by other means. That means you going to their ADR if they do not resolve your complaint to your satisfaction within 8 weeks of the original matter being raised to them or them to a small claims if you refuse to pay.

Matt

In reply to a post by Bastien:

They did not inform me of the charges.

I saw the FAQ, I just thought they were just technical terms i.e. steps they have to take to move the line, I totally did not expect they are actually charges.

I did not see the other paragraph about termination charges etc. I thought they are entirely unrelated. The two paragraphs are too far apart to be related in any way, and there was no mention of any charges in the "moving" paragraph. It is impossible for the connection between the two to be made. Moving and termination in my dictionary are two different things.

And I have just discovered they have signed me up to a NEW 12 MONTH CONTRACT, which is totally unexpected. I assumed my plan is unchanged aka monthly contract from before the move. Nobody told me about the new contract period.

I feel totally cheated.

Was there any explanation as to why there would be a 12mth min term at the new address before the move? Are you on the same product now as you were in your old property ? i can see from their web site that they offer 2 ADSL type products one is Broadband Unlimited which has a 12mth min term the other is a usage capped product which is a 1mth min term , the FTTC has a 12mth min term also

If the same product IMO they should of waived this 12mth min term at your new address as they have charged you to cease at your old address and hit you with their IMO over priced activation fee, which in some cases isn't representative to their charges at a wholesale level, £30 inc VAT is sufficient to cover the ISP admin costs IMO and it would also be a incentive for remaining a loyal customer

As you could have easily just had your service ceased at the old address and moved into you new one, and ordered from a different ISP & CP

You depending on how long it has been may still be within the cooling off period so you may be able to sort something with this 12mth min term ie get it changed to a monthly min term, if not cancel it penalty free ,

As a bit of advice all further communication between you and vivaciti ideally should be via E-mail or snail mail so that both parties have a record of events , As Matt has pointed out you maybe should register your complaint with their ADR provider , you could also let ofcom know that they have wrongly blocked your outward migration (though ofcom are quite toothless in reality) Vivaciti 's ADR is with

Onbudsman services

Edited by tommy45 (Fri 15-Jan-16 18:03:58)

The service at the OPs last address was 12 months (although he was out of his 12 month contract when he moved home) and the new service was also 12 months.
Broadband Activation costs us £40.00 + VAT and that's what we charge it out at we do not make any profit on this.