Hey all, 

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TL:DR

Gave notice of cancellation of pay month plan via online chat in Feb; confirmed last day of notice period would be 21 March, ported to new provider on 18 March, now being charged a notice period fee starting from the day I ported over to new provider. Spark says this is a Port out order, so Notice fee applies. Should I be charged this?

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Just thought I'd put this out to the group to see if it's me in the wrong or if I should stick to my guns...

I was a pay monthly customer with Spark, but have recently transferred over to another provider. I knew I had to give 30 days notice and I did so via the online chat function (I have a chat transcript with a Spark Ref number to back this up). The online chat confirmed that the end of my 30 day period was 21 March 2021. With this date in mind I ported my number over to a new provider on the 18th of March 2021. 

When my bill came through last month (for March) it showed billing for the whole month, naturally I queried this, but the response said that as I still had service at the time, I would be charged for the full month and then offered a refund once I terminated. While not overly satisfied, I accepted it. 

So fast forward to this month, they have charged me a Notice Period Fee stating that I did not give notice until 18th March 2021 and I would be charged until 16 April as per cancellation terms. Curiously, there's a credit on there for period of 18 March to 31 March (which I'm assuming is what came out of my first query - but the dates are a bit off). I've queried this invoice and Spark have come back saying:

"Customer needs to request a transfer of services to the new provider. To avoid paying for two services, the gaining service provider needs to post-date their request 30 days from the day they advise Spark of the intent to take over the service.

The 30 day notice period begins on one of these dates:

•    The date the customer contacted Spark and a Spark agent attended the call

•    The date the gaining service provider send their intent to transfer the service"

That didn't make sense to me at all, as I thought I satisfied that first bullet point so I responded as much and told them to read the chat transcript again... To which they've now said that 

"If the cancellation was processed on our end you will not be able to port out your service.

Since this is a port out order, the 30 day notice period begins on the date the gaining service provider send their intent to transfer the service."

I've responded back again to say that I disagree and referred back to my online chat with Spark in Feb. 

Am I missing something? Is the Spark Rep right? Should I have been charged this fee? If not, should it really be this hard to get this charge dropped??

TIA.