I had an issue with Virgin Media about early termination fees when I was helping out a friend.

The way he was treated was grossly unfair - details don't matter now.

However, I wrote to Ofcom about it and they said that they consider early termination fees to be fair PROVIDED they only cover lost profit

- actual cost of providing the service has to be deducted for the charge to be fair.

This is because, if you cancel, they are saving this amount.

I wrote to Virgin Media and told them what Ofcom had said.

I asked them to tell me how much it cost them to supply the service my friend was terminating so that we could calculate the fair early termination fee. We've not heard from them since.

The reason for this is that the information I was asking for is highly commercial

(they wouldn't want Sky or anyone else knowing this) and there is no way they will divulge it.

If they think you might pursue them for this information

(which you have a right to do - find my thread on getting similar commercial information from Welcome Finance),

they will just go away.

This is not just for Virgin Media but for any ISP, Cable TV or phone service that charges early termination fees.

Enjoy!

Ofcom should have contacted them directly and told them what to do. But it does sound like they had given up. Just be wary of them resurfacing when least expected.

They did resurface once. We just sent the new DCA the same letter. It'e been months now. I'm an old hand at this - we wil ljust keep on sending the same letter to whoever contacts us until they give up or get statute barrred, whichever comes first. I have a lot more patience than they do!

Hi steven good to see you.

We use a similar theme in our defences re mobiles.....which puts them to strict proof to quantify....they soon discontinue and run for the hills:wink:

Regards

Andy