BEWARE of Orcon's 1 month notice clause

Forums › 2degrees (including Slingshot, Orcon, Flip, Stuff Fibre, MyRepublic, 2talk and Vocus) › BEWARE of Orcon's 1 month notice clause

binarysolo

13 posts

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#73026 7-Dec-2010 15:05

A quick heads up for those of you considering leaving Orcon, or are leaving for other reasons. You need to give 1 month's notice (absolutely ridiculous!!!). Following is my letter to Orcon.

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After being a loyal customer of Orcon's for over 4 years, we are now moving overseas for 2 years and were looking to end our connection. We have always stuck with Orcon through the bad international traffic and other problems, and have recommended Orcon to friends and family.

Today in trying to end our connection, we were told there is a 1 month notice period (since when??) that is discussed (it wasn't) in the terms and conditions (finally found it under general terms).

VERY unhappy about this poorly communicated clause. We will no longer recommend Orcon, will share our bad experiences instead, and will absolutely not be re-joining when we return.

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#414066 7-Dec-2010 15:08

What is so ridiculous about it?

robbyp

1199 posts

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#414067 7-Dec-2010 15:11

A months notice seems to be normal for most providers of this type. Some however do have less.

doozy

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#414070 7-Dec-2010 15:14

it is probably cheaper than an ETF

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ockel

2031 posts

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#414072 7-Dec-2010 15:17

Was a 1 month notice period when I went overseas. The information was in the inital terms and conditions and was available on the website from what I recall. Of course the onus was on me to check the notice period as I was the party cancelling the service.

Like pretty much every other service that needed to be cancelled there was a similar notice period so it wasnt really much of a surprise that Orcon was 1 month.

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binarysolo

13 posts

Geek

#414080 7-Dec-2010 15:35

I don't recall similar clauses when cancelling my electricity provider? I just don't understand why such a clause is needed. I can see the purpose of giving 1 month's notice for someone like an employer (time to fill the role), or a landlord (time to find a new tenant), but a utilities provider?

Orcon confirmed my service can be cut off on whichever day I want, so it can't be a technical requirement. They apparently just can't stop billing for a full month from the date I request cancellation.

Reason aside, the poor communication is what bugs me most. The help desk person provided a preamble prior to informing me of this policy. It's quite apparent noone knows about this clause, and he was embarassed to have to inform me of it. Apparently they discuss this particular clause with you when you sign up. Completely disagree. They might do now, but they certainly did not when I joined.

Whether I am right or wrong (apparently wrong based on replies so far) the end result is that Orcon now has one unhappy customer who can almost guarantee the extra $33.54 they make from me by billing me for 13 days of service I will not receive, will not be worth me switching ISPs upon my return and for the negative comments I will continue to share among my network.

binarysolo

13 posts

Geek

#414081 7-Dec-2010 15:38

And yes, it is cheaper than an ETF (but doesn't apply to me after almost 5 years..). Besides, it's not at all about the money. It's about the (apparently unfounded) feeling of injustice.

Ragnor

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#414082 7-Dec-2010 15:40

Yes Orcon require 1 month notice of cancellation...

It's been like that for ages and is very clear in their terms of service which you effectively agree too every time you pay your bill.

This is the flip side of having no contract term unlike other ISP's which has a 12 term.

If you signed up 5 years ago they may not have had the policy then. It's interesting position, maybe fire consumer an email and see if they have any idea whether you can challenge the fee but I think most likely every time you pay your bill you are agreeing to the current ToS (ie: your responsibility to read the ToS).

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ockel

2031 posts

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#414086 7-Dec-2010 15:49

Sky TV is 28 days notice.
Most electricity retailers require 48 hours notice. Both electricity and gas required 48 hours notice.
Vodafone 1 months notice (or less if agreed).
Telecom 1 months notice (at least the home line was).

I only speak from having experienced it myself not that long ago.

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networkn

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#414088 7-Dec-2010 15:49

Can't understand what the op is bitching about, seems fair to me. You are billed monthly. If you are PAID monthly you generally are required to give 1 pay's period notice.

binarysolo

13 posts

Geek

#414104 7-Dec-2010 16:04

No I obviously had not read the T&Cs (definitely my fault). Unlikely to be part of a minority though. Although, based on replies so far, maybe I am the only one who wasn't aware of this 'industry standard' condition?

I was bitching about two things:

1) Why 1 month's notice? I don't accept the 'paid monthly therefore 1 months notice' reason. Unless there is some lead time to terminating the provision of a service, surely you should only have to pay for services provided to you? Orcon will be terminating my service on 23 December as requested, but cannot stop billing until 6 January. WHAT?
2) Insufficient disclosure. Something like this really should be disclosed sufficiently to people prior to signing up. Based on experience with other contracts of service clauses like this are always made quite clear.

Hopefully others about to cancel who did not know about this in the T&Cs will see this and act appropriately.

networkn

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#414106 7-Dec-2010 16:08

If you were at a job would you expect to give notice? You are paying monthly, it's fair and reasonable, I can't understand your complaint.

It WAS disclosed to you, you didn't complete YOUR obligations by understanding the contract you entered into.

It's like taking a job and signing the contract without reading it, and then complaining that you have to give a months notice. Businesses run from money they earn, they are charged for services monthly, and provide services monthly in this instance. Plus they like to know what income they are deriving.

Chances are the other people you refer to read their contract and therefore won't be surprised.

binarysolo

13 posts

Geek

#414112 7-Dec-2010 16:24

Chances are the other people you refer to read their contract and therefore won't be surprised.

I hope so. But then again, I doubt it. The person taking my call certainly sounded like I wasn't unique in being surprised just prior to telling me about it.

Look this conversation is going nowhere. The subject of my post sufficiently informs people who didn't otherwise know, and the rest of this blabber is me exercising my prerogative to disagree with the condition and to vent my frustration that it wasn't better communicated. Each person will take what they will from this.

bitserf

101 posts

Master Geek

#414230 7-Dec-2010 20:18

Understand your frustration, and personally I'm not particularly happy with Orcon right now, but that said, when I signed up it was made pretty clear that I had to give 30 days notice.

Which I was fine with, it beats the fixed term contract + penalty for early cancellation at other ISPs.

daman88

81 posts

Master Geek

#414246 7-Dec-2010 20:36

ockel: Sky TV is 28 days notice.
Most electricity retailers require 48 hours notice. Both electricity and gas required 48 hours notice.
Vodafone 1 months notice (or less if agreed).
Telecom 1 months notice (at least the home line was).

I only speak from having experienced it myself not that long ago.

Last time I cancelled from Telecom, I don't need to give 1 month notice.... I just gave them about 1 week notice and that's about it.

ah well, when you signed up something best is to go through ToC

lucky015

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#414258 7-Dec-2010 20:44

People keep referring to ETF fees and other early cancellation charges, It seems that they are conveniently forgetting that these are fees justified by the fact that they are generally charged after signing a contract giving you free hardware or something similar in monetary value.

I noticed when cancelling my account with B&W that they where going to try charge me $100 to cancel without a 1 month notice period, Considering i was paying approx $29 a month this is a rather high fee.

The very maximum a company should be allowed to charge for termination of services bound by a month by month contract is the value of service for the month required by the contract, Anything more is going way too far.

As for people actually reading their contracts, I doubt that any more than 5% of people signed into such contracts have actually read them and probably only 20% of the people that have actually read them have been able to understand them.

With a phone I was able to tell them to simply cancel the account after the time elapsed, With other services I may not have been so lucky.

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