Just a hypothetical question. If one signs-up for a fixed price BB and phone contract, then the provider later increases the price, within the contract period, would that be grounds for ending the contract, without paying any penalty, as the ISP has breached the terms of the contract? Does anyone here, who knows more about such things than I do, have an opinion on this?
Legally speaking it, unfortunately, is not, as you've agreed to potential price increases in the contractual bumph you didn't read before clicking the "I agree" button - though many do voluntarily give you 30 days to cancel without penalty when there's an unscheduled price hike. I know Sky, BT, and Virgin do, at least.
As I said this question is just hypothetical, also there has not been a problem. I had just been reading about someone else's experience. Our contract is explicitly "fixed price" however and began this year. This is from the Ts&Cs: "It’s great news. From August 8th 2018 if you take one of our new fixed price contracts you’ll have your broadband and line rental costs fixed, for the length of your contract. This will apply to Residential and Business customers: Signing up to a new contract Re-contracting Changing product It’s our guarantee that the cost of your broadband and line rental during the length of your fixed price contract won’t go up."
Nothing to do with my question, not least because Sky won't supply fibre BB here. Existing Sky contract was due to end in October and before that was scheduled the second price rise this year. Phoned them a few days ago and they agreed to extend the new customer discount for another 18 month term.
In that case, yes, you can cancel without penalty - it's clearly breach of contract on their part, as they specifically stated that the price won't go up during the contract term (unless there's any nasty fine print you've not pasted.) I rang Sky this morning to cancel. They offered to take me from £60.50 a month to £33 a month for the same thing. Crazy what kind of margin these companies have. I cancelled anyway. We get enough TV to watch on Amazon Prime Video and Netflix, and I might add Now TV on there for the wife's reality TV fix.
Say you can't get it, sorrynotsorry dear wife. Edit: nowtv is ok every so often, binge whole series and films and then wait another 6-12 months until they're refreshed.
I moved from Sky TV & BT phone/FTTC t'internet in February to VM VIP bundle (M350Mbps t'internet, all TV channels and phone), it is costing me £55 per month less than the previous combined cost, after 1 year it goes up but I will still be £25 per month better off even then. Sky tried for months to offer me a cheaper deal, even calling me a few times but they still couldn't a) match the t'internet speed and b) match the cost even when I come out of the 12 month discount period with VM. I had VM for years in other houses but left around 2007 cos the BB developed a fault that they didn't want to fix (no upload connectivity after 3pm - literally none) and I went to ADSL. However, VM only came to my street in December last year so I reckon I have got a few years before they oversubscribe the local area. Apart from a minor moan from the wife about not having Sky Atlantic, everything else is perfectly fine, the kids don't shout "daaaaad, the internet is slow" at me every night now when they are streaming Netflix, iPlayer, YouTube, games etc - all simultaneously across multiple devices - so at least I get some peace. Who would of thought that 35Mbps FTTC from BT would have not been enough? Jeez kids these days need a good dose of a 56.6k modem. /rant
There is nothing specific she wants to watch, she just enjoyed the odd program that appeared (e.g. Billions), as I said, it was a minor moan.
Just as a point of interest (or not), in contract speak, fixed price means that the price can, in fact, rise due to escalation (inflation etc.). What I'd be looking for is a firm price, which should not change at all during the contract... Unless you're in the good ol' US of A, where they tend to take things the other way around. Anyway, if they had stated that the cost wouldn't rise, then it's as good as a firm price.