Joanne Batty was left with a bill of close to £1,000 after she signed a 60 page contract for a broadband and landline phone deal without reading the small print
A broadband user has shared her experience of how the fine print in her renewal contract led to a whopping £1,000 in charges and penalties.
Joanne Batty, 54, was nearing the end of her two-year broadband and landline phone deal when she decided to renegotiate the terms. She was informed that she would need to replace her existing three landlines with an updated cloud-based model, complete with three new handsets.
Despite her reservations, Joanne agreed to the change. She was then sent a document to sign, which she described as being around 60 pages long and not particularly ‘user-friendly’.
Joanne confessed that she didn’t read the entire document before signing it. But later discovered that the cost of installing and obtaining a new handset was considerably higher than what she thought she had agreed to.
According to Joanne, a customer service representative told her prior to signing the agreement that the cost for each phone would be £65, including installation. However, it turned out to be £150 per handset, plus an additional £150 focr installation fees – a total she hadn’t spotted in the contract.
The new service failed to function properly, leading to engineers visiting her home on two separate occasions to attempt to rectify the issue, costing her another £150 per visit. When the service still didn’t work, a third, more senior engineer was dispatched but left without resolving the problem, leaving Joanne with yet another £150 fee.
Joanne was warned that her broadband and landline would be disconnected if she didn’t settle the hefty £1,000 bill that accumulated following the installation visits. She received “threats” due to non-payment, and after six months, decided to take things up a notch.
She reached out to the managing director of her provider via email and within a day, received a call from the CEO who agreed to cancel all charges and offer compensation of approximately £100. Her new service was also rectified within 20 minutes as they managed to set things up remotely.
However, the ordeal took a toll on Joanne, causing significant stress and loss of business during the period her phones were out of order: ” they weren’t able to install it properly and we couldn’t make any outgoing calls or receive calls for a period, until they were able to temporarily re-route landline calls to my mobile.”
She admits she wouldn’t have consented to the contract and its terms had she fully understood and read them: “I suppose not reading the terms and conditions didn’t help but the document was so un-user friendly,” adding, “when you’re running a business, time is money.
“This contract was in my name so they wouldn’t speak to my partner when they came round to try and sort things. They kept saying I’d signed it so I had to follow it through. The contract was very long and excessive and repetitive.”
Joanne, who finally found a resolution to her situation in December 2024, has partnered with Adobe Acrobat to share her experience and demonstrate how AI can make complex contract small print more accessible.
Abhigyan Modi, senior vice president of Adobe Document Cloud, highlighted the potential of AI in this area, stating: “Customers open billions of contracts each month and AI can be a game changer in helping simplify their experience.
“We’re rolling out new features that bring contract intelligence to the forefront, enabling customers to better comprehend and compare intricate documents, complete with citations for verification, all while maintaining the security of their data.”
