Disconnection fee when out of contract - [censored]??

My Virgin broadband contract recently ended with the predictable massive price increase (£25 to £75 per month) so I switched to BT FTTP and started the cancellation with Virgin. Predictably, I then got a call from Virgin who suddenly are now able to offer me my previous package at only slightly more than the old price if I'll cancel my BT contract during the cooling-off period. I told them "not this time" (tired of going through this every time my contract runs out) and that I wanted to terminate the service with the usual 30-day notice period.

This was on 21st June but I'd had no confirmation by 5th July so started a live chat to check the cancellation was progressing. This was pretty drawn out but the upshot was that the agent said my service would be terminated the next day (July 6th) and a final bill prepared showing a £3.23 refund. Cancellation on the 6th was before the 30 days had elapsed, and I hadn't asked for early termination, but the BT service had started so I didn't really care. I did challenge the refund as I had already paid through to the end of July and would be loosing 21 days of service but the agent said they didn't have the final breakdown yet which would confirm everything.

I've now got the final bill which is showing a refund of £53.40 for unused service but also an "early disconnection fee" of £50.17. I'm assuming this is because they've terminated before my 30 days was up, which I didn't ask for and was not told there would be a charge for. I notice in the examples linked from this page there is a "standard 30 day notice charge" but I would assume this means you give your 30 days notice and have to pay for this but the service runs for a further 30 days.

Anyone else experienced these sort of fees when they are out of contract and/or had any luck getting them back? I'm not without a connection, but obvious cons of this sort are one of the reasons I didn't renew with Virgin even after they substantially dropped their price.

I'm confused with the issue here.

£53.40 refund but a £50.17 fee. so £3.23 back to you.

It's just a quirk of the billing system. From what you have said you are not actaully paying anything to them.

The issue is why a fee? I'm out of contract so on a 30-day cancellation period. I gave them 30 days notice expecting to have to pay for my broadband service up to the end of this period. They've cancelled the service before the 30 days elapsed, refunded me for the unused days but then charged me (nearly) the same amount in fees for the "early cancellation". I'd rather have just paid for my 30 days notice and kept the connection up to the end of this period.

You're right that I'm not paying any more than I would have been had the service run to the end of the 30 days, but at least in that case I'd have got 30 days of connection for my money.

Edited by paritycheck (Fri 07-Jul-23 23:12:42)

Again, if the new BT serivce has started and in the end your not paying anything its a non issue really.

But if you really want to know why, I suggest contacting the complaints department via the VM website and ask them the question.

You could call but I reckon you would get a better understanding of your question via email.

It's a point of principle really - I am paying as much as I would have been paying if VM had continued to provide service for the full 30 day cancellation period, except they're not providing the connection. In my view they should either require me to pay for the 30 day notice period and supply a service for the full 30 days or terminate the service early and refund the days for which I was not supplied, not terminate early but still charge me for the full period. Granted, I'm not particularly inconvenienced as the BT service is running, but that's not really the point.

I did, indeed, contact VM about this and am now stuck in a seemingly endless Whatsapp conversation that seems to require me to repeatedly provide the same information over and over again!

What you explain seems like the normal application of an early termination charge.

You’ve asked for the service to be terminated early and so they’ve actioned that and charged the appropriate fee.

So in effect you skipped giving 30 days notice (and having service for those 30 days) and took the earlier cancellation and associated fee.

Not really. I asked for the service to be terminated with 30 days notice on 21st June. By 5th July I'd heard nothing further so followed up with the online chat to make sure this was happening (too many stories of them not cancelling when requested then continuing to charge you). The agent I chatted with said they would cancel the next day (6th). I didn't ask for this. I did ask whether I'd be credited for the remaining days I'd paid for (including most of the remaining original 30) and they said yes. No mention was made of an early cancellation fee.

Anyway, the upshot is that after a weekend of frustrating Whatsapp ping-pong with me providing exactly the same information at least four times, I finally made contact with someone who has agreed that there should have been no fee and says the will credit it to my account. I'm waiting to see if this actually happens.