On 17 February, I elected to switch from a one-year fixed plan to a new Extended Fixed plan, which started on 18 February. A few days later, I noticed that the rates for this type of plan were falling fast, so on 3 March, I asked to switch to a new Extended Fixed plan. I asked for - and received - confirmation that because I was still in the cooling-off period for the current contract, no exit fee would be payable. The agent handling the switch told me that the exit fee would be automatically applied to my account, but it would be ‘wiped’ immediately.
The following morning, I saw that the new plan had entered into force, but the billing page showed the exit fee of £75 as a charge. This had the effect of plunging my account into debt - precisely the situation I was trying to avoid. When the charge was still there the following day, I again contacted Support and asked why the charge had not been ‘wiped’ as I’d been told.
It took two separate chat sessions involving different agents and much waiting while consultations took place backstage. Eventually, I was told that the charge had been reversed.
Checking my account later that day, I saw that it was again in credit. Strangely, the wrong exit fee charge had not been reversed as I expected, but instead there was a ‘goodwill’ credit of £75 to balance it out.
I can’t help thinking that the system is flawed if it automatically applies the exit fee even during the cooling-off period, with apparently no way of reversing it. It was particularly distressing to see the account in debt because of this fault. I wonder if there are cases where a customer less obsessive than me about the state of the account has wrongly been charged an exit fee and just not noticed.
Could someone check whether my experience is the one customers can expect when cancelling a tariff change during the cooling-off period,
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* PS The change of plan can only be done over the phone. This means, of course, that I have no evidence of the agent’s assurance that the fee would be ‘wiped’ immediately - yet another example of the evils of insisting on oral communication.
