Contract Downgrade Cooling Off

[mark1411]

I had a conversation with Virgin Media customer services about downgrading my broadband services. Customer services informed me that:

1. They are going to cancel my current contract.
2. A new contract will start, which comes with a 14-day cooling-off period, but they said I cannot use that 14-day period.

My question is: if Virgin Media decides to cancel my old contract and give me a new contract, is it my right to use the cooling-off period or not? It should be my choice, and they cannot enforce that I am not eligible for it.

Could you advise me on what my rights are?

[Martin_N]

Hi mark1411,

Thank you for your post and welcome to the community. 

To confirm, if a contract is cancelled then you would need to wait 90 days to take out a brand new contract. 

Is that what the agent confirmed they would do?

^Martin

[mark1411]

Thank you for your reply. I want to downgrade from M500 Fibre to 125 Fibre broadband. For that, they would cancel my old contract and start a new one.

[Matthew_ML]

You can downgrade anytime in the contact if you wish so.

However if you wanted to leave us and then re-join it would be the 90 days' 

[mark1411]

Thank you for your response. However, I was initially informed differently. I was told that first, the current contract would be cancelled, and then I would start a new contract. This new contract would come with a 14-day cooling-off period, but he mentioned that I could not use this 14-day period to cancel the contract.

I requested verification with a manager or supervisor, and he checked with the manager and confirmed that he was correct.

My questions are:

1. For downgrading or upgrading, why is it necessary to cancel the old contract?
2. If I am given a new contract, why should I not be able to use the 14-day cooling-off period?
3. Can he reinstate the old contract if I cancel the new contract?

[Ashleigh_C]

Thank you for clarifying @mark1411. In response to your questions, the old contract would need to be cancelled as a new one would be in place. We would be providing a service, for example, of 125mbps Broadband so a contract that stated 500mspd Broadband could not simultaneously be in place.

Your 14 day cooling off period would allow you to revert to your old contract if you wanted to, but you would not be able to fully cancel all services with us without an early termination fee.

[Cardiffman282]

Hmmm. I'm not sure that last paragraph is correct re EDFs still applying during a 14 day cooling off period.