Ending month-to-month broadband

[OddLion2]

My in-laws have been using EE for their broadband and are now off contract. They want to cancel and switch to another much cheaper deal. Are there any requirements for advance notice, or can they simply say "I'm done with EE" and cancel their direct debit at the end of the month? 

Billing period is from the 1st of the month, so assuming no advance notice is required there's plenty of time (it's only the 9th today).

Can anyone point me to the rules? Thanks!

[XRaySpeX · Accepted solution]

To cancel your EE BB & Home Phone either:

1. If you no longer want any BB at your location, you phone EE on the Freephone no. (Opt 1) in my sig. and give 30 days notice OR
2. If you want to migrate your BB to another ISP you apply to them directly & they'll take care of everything bar your final EE bill. This will auto cancel your contract with EE.

[JimM11]

@OddLion2 Find your new ISP and sign up to them using the OTS, all will be taken care off, and just watch that EE notification is sent by e-mail text etc, then last bill, you do pay 1 month in advance so you may get a slight refund. Leave the DD alone until refund if any is applied, and if payment is in the pipeline from EE it's going out no way to stop it, but you will get it back in due course!

If you do the cancel on EE you may not be able to go forward to another ISP! 

[OddLion2]

Sorry this isn't clear. There is no contract in place, so I don't see why they should need to notify 30 days in advance. They will likely move over to another company, but in fact that shouldn't be relevant to the relationship between the seller and buyer of goods, right?

Looking at their EE bill, they are billed on the 1st of the month, and money goes out on the 15th, for service from the 1st through the end of that month. So they are pre-paying for each month. Is this correct?

[OddLion2]

Thanks @JimM11, for your reply.

First, sorry, what is an OTS?

EE has unfortunately raised their bill a bit too much, and they're angry and not interested in paying yet another month when they can get faster broadband for less than half the price elsewhere.

Other ISPs are very happy to take on new customers, so they will not have any problem there.

Can you or @XRaySpeX  point me to the actual T&C for what they are on now? There is no longer any contract in place, just month to month.

[JimM11]

@OddLion2 OTS is the One Touch Switch, the new ISP you just approach them, signup for the broadband and they inform EE you are off and when the new ISP has got you the EE closes down, then you just settle the bill if one to EE or get a refund from them if due!

Search for OTS Broadband and you will see.

[XRaySpeX]

Of course there's a contract in place! You get service from EE, don't you? These BB contracts don't just end, just the min. term expires. They are not fixed term contracts. After the min. term they just carry on at the non-discounted price on a rolling 30-days' notice basis until you explicitly migrate, cancel or upgrade. That's what you are calling "month-to-month". You haven't bought goods; you've bought a service contract for which you pay each month in advance.

You are subject to EE Home Network Terms 

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4. When a service starts and how long it lasts
              a. Each service starts on the date shown in your order confirmation.
              b. Each service will last for at least the minimum term (where applicable) and will carry on after then
                    unless:
                    ▪ you end a service in a way set out in this agreement (see point 10); or
                   ▪ we end a service in line with point 12.

OTS = One Touch Switch used when migrating from 1 ISP to another.

[bristolian]

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@OddLion2 wrote:

There is no contract in place, so I don't see why they should need to notify 30 days in advance.

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If service is being provided, there is a contract in-place. It may be outside of its minimum-term - often confused with "end of contract" - but in-place nonetheless.

The request in a later post for T&C reinforces this. If there was genuinely no contract in-place, you could cease payments immediately and not have any repercussions. The 30day notice period will be a contractual one, which will apply whether inside a minimum-term ("in contract") or outside it ("out of contract")

The term "out of contract", in strict legal terms, is highly misleading and a popular misunderstanding.

[OddLion2]

Interestingly, I looked up the T&C documents on the EE website and found no reference to a 30 day notice period, at least not in any sort of language that a normal human could understand. I saw a 14-day notice period (not the cooling-down period, I know the difference), but no 30-day requirement.

In any case we will change companies, and be more vigilant in the future.

[bristolian]

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@OddLion2 wrote:

Interestingly, I looked up the T&C documents on the EE website and found no reference to a 30 day notice period

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Do you have a link to the document you found? And/or a path to how you found it?