Pricewatch reader queries: When 12 months with UPC feels a lot longer

Gerard McCormack has been in touch to complain "about being provided with inaccurate information upon signing up to UPC broadband in October 2014".

He signed up in a Carphone Warehouse outlet in Blanchardstown. It was the second time in as many weeks that he had been in the shop. "I signed up to Sky TV during the same month at the same location. When I returned to add Sky broadband to my package, I was told not to sign up to Sky, as this had an 18-month minimum term contract. Instead I was advised to sign up to UPC broadband, as it had only a 12-month contract. This suited my needs as I had just moved into an apartment and knew I would only be staying for 12 months," he writes.

On October 1st this year, he attempted to give his 30 days’ notice to cancel the UPC account, and was told that an 18-month minimum term had been applied to his account when he signed up. “I did not agree to an 18-month minimum term contract. In fact, the only reason I chose UPC was because I was told that it was a 12-month minimum term contract. If I had been told the correct information I would not have signed up to the contract,” he says.

He wants his contract cancelled by October 24th, and is also seeking an apology “for the time this has taken me to get rectified. I had no problem with the service during my usage and up until now had no reason to be dissatisfied with it. This issue has put a very sour taste in my mouth,” he says.

We contacted UPC – or Virgin Media, as the company is now called – and a spokeswoman said that “the original deal was made through a third-party operator. That said, and having conducted some research, we located the original agreement, which did indicate an 18-month contract was in place.

“Suffice to say, we have contacted Mr McCormack on behalf of Carphone Warehouse and all is in order.”

Former VHI customer told to wait eight weeks for refund

A reader called Terence cancelled his policy with VHI in September and duly notified the company that he was not renewing his cover for the year, beginning September 15th.

“I expect that I sent the notice at the very beginning of September,” he writes. “To my surprise I noticed that my bank account had been debited, with the premium for the year commencing September 16th. I assumed that this was an oversight and so I left the matter alone, because I didn’t want to be creating more work for the company. However, 14 days went by and there was no refund, and so I sent an email to the company.

In response he was told that his cancellation request “was received by our office on September 9th. We require 14 days’ notice to amend or cancel a direct-debit instruction. We unfortunately did not have sufficient time to stop the direct-debit payment. You will receive a full refund for any overpayments. However, under Sepa (Single European Payments Area) guidelines, we require eight weeks to issue a refund for a direct-debit payment. A refund cheque will be automatically issued to your postal address eight weeks after the payment date.”

Terence says this is “appalling for every reason. Presumably it is company practice and it applies to more than me. In that case the VHI has the benefit of premiums even though it is not providing cover. Also, I am paying my new insurer and my former insurer at the same time. This must yield a very substantial monetary benefit to VHI, which is wrong, unjustified and abuse of a dominant position. If the reverse applied and I failed to pay the premium, would I continue to have cover for eight weeks?”

We contacted the VHI and received the following statement. “We require 14 days’ notice to cancel or amend a direct debit. In this case, we did not get the 14 days’ notice, so although the customer cancelled his policy, the premium for September was taken from his account. Under Sepa guidelines – to which all banks and businesses must adhere – once a payment is taken, the customer has eight weeks to request this refund back directly from their bank. Ordinarily, VHI does not issue a refund until this time frame has elapsed.”

The statement went on to say “we are prepared to issue a refund of premium within the eight weeks once confirmation has been received from the customer by phone, email or in writing that they will not seek a refund from their bank. To expedite the case we will contact him to seek this confirmation, which will allow us to issue a refund within five working days.”