Last December, I rang my Telephone company to request an upgrade from basic broadband to a 2.2 meg service. They said that I could only do this if I entered into a new twelve month contract. I agreed to this. A month ago. I found myself without telephone or internet for six days. During that time I did my utmost to contact my supplier, firstly to redirect my calls to my mobile and secondly to find out what was going on. This I did via the internet on my neighbours rig and by telephone. On the phone I could get no help. it seemed that no one new what was wrong or why. Eventually after two days my calls were redirected to my mobile. When the service was eventually restored I was only offered the percentage of my monthly fee reflected by my loss of service and no compensation for the cost of using my pay-as-you-go-mobile. Worse than this is that I have had great difficulty in connecting to the web since and even when I have, connecting to web pages have been difficult and slow when they eventually worked. Naturally, I wish to change providers and have been told that if I do it now, I will be liable for all the charges to Dec this year. How do i stand legally? I have not signed anything.
I have zero knowledge of law outside of UK. Verbal contracts are just as binding as written ones. But you need to know what you actually agreed to. If you dont know then there isnt a contract. There has to be complete knowledge by both parties of what was agreed. It sounds to me like you could argue pretty well that you didnt know what was agreed (and so there would be no contract), or failing that you could sever any obligations you have to the contract if you can show one of several things. If you can show that the provider made a fundamental breach in the contract as to what they were suposed to provide then you can insist that the contract is void. I wouldnt know how to proceed if I were you, but you need to read through what you suposedly agreed to, but it apeears to me that there isnt a contract, If I were your lawyer I would fight for that.
Well from your own admission you had a verbal contract for 12 months? It would depend on the terms of service when you made that agreement if the outage warrants you to end your service or get the refunds.
One thing is what you both agreed and another what you both can prove. Was your telephone conversation recorded? If it was, then that's what counts. If it wasn't, it's your word against theirs, and the contract would be easy to get out of upon your request. If you don't remember, well that might be a problem in deciding what to do. Just my opinion... Good luck!
Did they record your voice when you went for their broadband. They generally take your permission to get it verified via a 3rd party in US.