Virgin.net scam

[Joel Bernstein]

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