- Good news if you don’t like having to do battle with a call centre.
- Sky and Virgin Media O2 among pay TV companies that will have to change how they allow customers to cancel.
A new piece of legislation passing through UK Parliament is set to change the way we cancel subscription services.
The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Bill will force pay TV and telecoms service providers to offer more options when it comes to cancelling services.
Many providers make it very easy to sign-up or to add services online. However, if you want to cancel, it can be difficult or impossible to complete the task without being pushed towards a call centre. That forces customers to go through the process of choosing the right option from the menu and waiting in a queue, invariably being told that the phone lines are “busier than usual”.
Under the new rules, which will be in place within the next two years, if you sign up online, providers must also allow you to cancel online.
What’s the current situation?
New streaming providers generally allow customers to cancel online by default, as they’ve never operated call centres.
But more traditional platform operators still make cancelling difficult.
As Virgin Media O2 customers have found out, that can become a nightmare. Customers wanting to leave Virgin Media have complained to Ofcom about being cut off or having to call multiple times to complete a cancellation.
Sky’s ‘how to cancel’ online page for its UK customers outlines all the things subscribers need to be aware of when cancelling. But you won’t find an actual telephone number or email in the relevant section. You’ll need to scroll to the bottom and click on the ‘No, I still need help’ button to be presented with options. You can’t cancel there and then.
Other providers are accused of making the cancellation process confusing, with call handlers putting customers on the spot with complex retention deals, which may or may not be better value than the service they’re trying to cancel.
What will providers be allowed to do in the future?
Original proposals allowing customers to cancel in a “single communication by any means” have been dropped. That follows intense lobbying by organisations offering subscription services.
So you won’t be able to just send an email or letter to cancel. And you won’t be allowed to cancel by messaging the provider on social media.
Instead, if you signed up via the provider’s website or app, you’ll be allowed to cancel using the same method. But providers will be allowed to make you one final offer before you say goodbye.
For example, the new legislation will allow providers to tell you about any alternative offers before you click to confirm your cancellation. Some providers are already doing this. For example a subscriber may be offered a range of cheaper options.
Providers will need to warn users of any potential cost of cancelling services. Most providers levy an early termination charge if customers want to leave before the end of a contract.
Cooling-off periods … not for all users
Providers have to give customers a cooling-off period of at least 14 days.
The new Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Bill threatened to allow customers to sign up for a streaming service or pay TV subscription and cancel for free within 14 days, even if they accessed content.
Pay TV and streaming providers weren’t happy. This would allow customers to sign up to a service, binge watch a series and then cancel without paying anything.
As it stands, the new legislation will give the relevant Secretary of State the ability to add a provision that specifies “that a consumer may lose the right to cancel a subscription contract” if they use or access content.
Marc Thornham
[Image: istockphoto]