Virgin.net scam

On Tue, Feb 28, 2006 at 04:24:29PM +0000, Joel Bernstein
wrote:
> On Tue, Feb 28, 2006 at 04:01:17PM +0000, David
Hodgkinson wrote:
> > OK, folks the virgin.net "no 12 month
contract" thing is a lie. They  
> > *will*
> > impose a £50 cancellation surcharge if you
terminate even 6 months into
> > the contract: "we do reserve the right
to..." is just crap.
> 
> PlusNet do something similarly misleading. They
advertise no connection
> fee but then charge a 'deferred activation fee' of
58.75 when you
> cancel. However long you stay with them. This is
doubtless my fault for
> not reading the T&Cs carefully enough but I'm a
bit pissed off to be
> charged 169 quid to cancel the remaining 4 months of my
contract!

Things like that are sailing pretty close to the wind of
misleading
advertising! Make a complaint to the ombudsman!

tjc

-- 
Turning and turning in the widening gyre/The falcon cannot
hear the falconer;
Things fall apart, the centre cannot hold/Mere anarchy is
loosed upon the world
(gpg --keyserver www.co.uk.pgp.net --recv-key B1CCF88E)

On Tue, Feb 28, 2006 at 04:39:35PM +0000, Toby Corkindale
wrote:
> On Tue, Feb 28, 2006 at 04:24:29PM +0000, Joel
Bernstein wrote:
> > On Tue, Feb 28, 2006 at 04:01:17PM +0000, David
Hodgkinson wrote:
> > > OK, folks the virgin.net "no 12 month
contract" thing is a lie. They  
> > > *will*
> > > impose a £50 cancellation surcharge if you
terminate even 6 months into
> > > the contract: "we do reserve the right
to..." is just crap.
> > 
> > PlusNet do something similarly misleading. They
advertise no connection
> > fee but then charge a 'deferred activation fee'
of 58.75 when you
> > cancel. However long you stay with them. This is
doubtless my fault for
> > not reading the T&Cs carefully enough but I'm
a bit pissed off to be
> > charged 169 quid to cancel the remaining 4 months
of my contract!
> 
> Things like that are sailing pretty close to the wind
of misleading
> advertising! Make a complaint to the ombudsman!

I will try to. Trouble is I'm leaving the country for a
while in a few
weeks and won't be around to chase stuff. I do intend to
contact OFCOM
about it, although I suspect that they cannot do a lot.
I've noticed
that PlusNet's T&Cs grew by about 5x last September,
will have to read
the old ones [ie, those that I signed] more carefully and
see if they
make equal provision for this charge.

/joel

Toby Corkindale wrote:

>On Tue, Feb 28, 2006 at 04:24:29PM +0000, Joel Bernstein
wrote:
>  
>
>>On Tue, Feb 28, 2006 at 04:01:17PM +0000, David
Hodgkinson wrote:
>>    
>>
>>>OK, folks the virgin.net "no 12 month
contract" thing is a lie. They  
>>>*will*
>>>impose a £50 cancellation surcharge if you
terminate even 6 months into
>>>      
>>>
>>PlusNet do something similarly misleading. They
advertise no connection
>>fee but then charge a 'deferred activation fee' of
58.75 when you
>>cancel. 
>>Things like that are sailing pretty close to the
wind of misleading
>>advertising! Make a complaint to the ombudsman!
>>    
>>
Not to mention recent vodafone advertising for unlimited
internet on 
mobile phones. I've ranted already here 
http://se71.org/blog/archives/2006/01/unlimited_inter.
html but 
basically, they're lying too, you only get 1Gb per month.

/Robert