Virgin Media O2 ends charges for off-net home movers

[BenMcr]

Appreciate this is basically a press release post, but not much more I can add to it

https://news.virginmediao2.co.uk/vir...t-home-movers/

From today, Virgin Media O2 is changing its UK home mover’s policy so that customers moving to a home not connected to its broadband network will be able to leave without paying an early disconnection fee.

[Bob]

Ah saw this on ISP Review yesterday and forgot to post a link: https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.ph...me-movers.html

[RichardCoulter]

About time too as this was most unfair; they have been fined/critiscised by Ofcom for this in the past, so I wonder if this had any bearing on the decision??

Good news, nevertheless. The downside for Virgin is that it opens the door for people to cancel early by claiming to be moving to a non serviceable address where a friend or relative lives in order to obtain 'proof'.

Edit: Ben's post only mentions broadband. Does this mean that TV & phone early disconnections will still attract a charge?

[BenMcr]

Originally Posted by RichardCoulter

The downside for Virgin is that it opens the door for people to cancel early by claiming to be moving to a non serviceable address where a friend or relative lives in order to obtain 'proof'.

I'd expect the proof will have to include the account holder's name on it:

Customers will need to provide proof of their new address with a wide range of readily-available documents accepted including mortgage and rental agreements, utility bills, bank statements and driving licenses.

Originally Posted by RichardCoulter

Edit: Ben's post only mentions broadband. Does this mean that TV & phone early disconnections will still attract a charge?

No, it doesn't, just the way it's worded. Further down it says

Until now, customers moving to a property not connected to the provider’s network have been asked to pay an early disconnection fee to end their contract early, but the operator will now waive the charge for customers who are unable to take their services with them.

Originally Posted by RichardCoulter

About time too as this was most unfair; they have been fined/critiscised by Ofcom for this in the past, so I wonder if this had any bearing on the decision??

Good news, nevertheless. The downside for Virgin is that it opens the door for people to cancel early by claiming to be moving to a non serviceable address where a friend or relative lives in order to obtain 'proof'.

Edit: Ben's post only mentions broadband. Does this mean that TV & phone early disconnections will still attract a charge?

No, they weren’t.

They were criticised/fined for excessive/unclear Early Termination Charges when customers moved to another Provider, not when they moved off VM’s network.

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/asse...ision-s96A.pdf