Code of practice

Origin Broadband offers a wide range of Internet solutions for business and residential users. Origin's product portfolio ranges from dial up internet services – to multi-Gigabit leased line solutions. In short, we offer a solution to any business or consumer need.

If you are in doubt as to which service may be appropriate for you as a consumer, it is important that you discuss this with one of our trained representatives to ensure you have all of your questions and concerns answered prior to taking our service.

While our trained personnel will do everything they can to make sure you receive a product that will serve you exactly as expected, the responsibility for ordering the appropriate product is one that both we and our customers must share to ensure that there are no misunderstandings or disappointments with this service in the future.

Origin Broadband also provides a PSTN line rental with a range of calling plans to accommodate home and business users. In Origin networked areas, our line rental and calls packages are bought wholesale from BT directly; in non-network areas, we will use an approved wholesale provider to offer this service to you.

Click here to view more information about our Residential Phone and broadband packages.

Under UK law, Origin Broadband has a number of obligations that we must adhere to in order to give our customers a fair means of choosing our service and ensure proper consumer protection is in place.

When we provide service to you, we promise to use all the reasonable care of a competent Internet and Telecommunications Service Provider. The formal details of the general terms and conditions of our contractual relationship with you, our customer, can be found in our Legal section.

In order to carry out maintenance of our network (for repairs, planned maintenance or upgrades), we may need to suspend service or parts of the service temporarily. Before we do this, we will do our best to give you as much notice as possible and promise to restore service as soon as possible after any suspension.

Although we attempt to provide you with the best possible service, no company can guarantee that the service will not develop a fault. However, we will correct all reported faults as soon as is reasonably possible.

We offer self-serve options, and we recommend that prior to reporting a service fault to us, all customers initially check the following:

• Help & Support: here you can find written guides to common issues. Please feel free to try these prior to calling our tech team.
• Origin Forum: here you will find knowledgeable individuals able to provide additional support.
• Service Status: provides details of any known service-affecting issues.

A) Residential contracts

When you signed up for our services you agreed to a minimum term (12, 18 or 24 months usually) and you are required to continue services for the minimum period.

If you decide voluntarily not to continue services until the end of your minimum period you will continue to be liable for monthly Usage Charges until the end of the minimum period unless:

• Termination is due to Origin breaking this Agreement and failing to resolve after you have given written notice of breach and followed the disputes procedure.

• Pay to Origin the sum equivalent to the discount you received by signing up for a fixed term contract (Provided that the sum equivalent does not exceed the monthly Usage Charges until the end of the minimum period) plus return the modem / hub or pay the £40.00 equipment fee if you retain the modem.

• You receive an extraordinary circumstances exception from Origin, in circumstances that excuse you from the remainder of this Agreement because they were beyond your control and the continued payment would constitute a Material Detriment to you.

  After your initial term you will continue to receive the service at the current Usage Charge in force at that time unless you give us 31 days' notice to terminate service.

  We may, from time to time, increase our Usage Charge and this is automatically applied to all non-fixed term customers. If this increase is more than 10% over the previous month's service charge you will be permitted to cancel the service, in writing, with less than 31 days' notice (i.e. any time in the 30 days after we notify you of the price increase).

  During a fixed term period we may terminate your services with 14 days' notice if you breach a material term of the agreement, such as not paying your invoice in a timely manner. The 14 days' notice gives you time to correct the breach so your services will not be disrupted.

  We can terminate your services immediately and without notice if you use the services in violation of law or we are directed to do so by a government department.

  If we breach a material term of this Agreement you may terminate our services after giving us 14 days' notice of the breach. The 14 days allows us time to resolve the breach and avoid the need to cancel the service. Our goal is to keep you as a happy and loyal customer.

  After the end of a fixed term contract we may terminate services by giving you 31 days' notice although we hope this will never ever happen.

  However our relationship comes to an end, we will need our modem/hub back. So you will be required to return our modem/router to us within 14 days after termination/cancellation.

  If you do not return our modem/router to us we will invoice you for the equipment in the amount of £40.00 (including VAT). The modem/hub will then become yours.

  Any party wishing to give notice to the other under our contract must use one of the following methods of contact. No other form of communication will be accepted, unless we have specifically authorised this:

  • To us: You may give such notice in writing sent by recorded delivery.
  • To you: We will write to you by post.

You are required to pay the charges for your selected services that are set out in our Terms and Conditions. You will be responsible for the maintenance of your connection settings and to check our call tariff rates prior to making a call. You will be responsible for any charges incurred as a result of incorrect settings or failure to properly interpret the charges we have laid out for you.

When you register for the service, you will be asked to establish a Direct Debit facility. You are able to view any charges for which you are liable by logging into the My Account and clicking 'bills'. You will be notified via email prior to your scheduled billing date of any charges to be applied.

If you fail to make payment of charges when they are due, you will be subject to a reasonable 'default charge' that will be issued in line with the consumer credit act 1974. We may suspend or cancel your service, in part or in full until payment is received. If we need to cease your broadband or line rental and calling service because you have not paid and you then later decide to resume the service, there will be a re-activation and administration charge where applicable, for which you will be liable.

You are liable for the costs of any calls that you make using your Origin Phone service. If you query the charge for dialled calls, we will re-check the bill. If we find a mistake, you will be credited accordingly however if we have no reasonable grounds to believe you did not make the call or the price is incorrect you will be liable for the call at the applicable rate.

Certain services that we provide automatically continue when the initial period terminates. In these circumstances, you should understand and agree that continuation of the service will incur the standard charges unless you notify us.

Where we arrange for an engineer to visit your Premises for activation of the service, or for resolution of a fault, you will be responsible for any costs incurred owing to any of the following:

• An engineer attends an incorrect address as provided by you
• The site for installation does not meet the minimum requirements as agreed during the product registration
• An engineer arrives to carry out the installation at the address provided by you, but you no longer want the installation completed
• Entry is refused to the Premises, or access cannot be gained, at the appointed time, as agreed between you and us
• You report a fault, an engineer attends your Premises, and discovers the fault is not the result of the broadband service
• Your reported problem, following your request for an engineering visit, cannot be confirmed
• When you cancel a request for an engineering visit later than 48 hours before the scheduled visit

We reserve the right to engage a third party debt collection agency in order to obtain any outstanding debt. Any reasonable additional charges generated as a result of this process will be borne by you.

Origin Broadband is committed to providing our customers the best value for money Internet and Telecommunications services. We achieve this by providing you with the tools to manage and self service your account online and by replacing costly or manual processes with automation and electronic communication e.g. if we need to tell you something or have an update on your order we'll inform you through the my account hub or by email instead of sending you a letter. In the event that we need to contact you about a pressing matter we may call you, which is why we recommend that you provide us with both your home phone and mobile number.

It is your responsibility to make sure you understand the charges associated with each number you call. This especially applies to Premium Rate Numbers (numbers starting with 09xx) and Number Translation Services (numbers starting with 08xx).

If you have any queries regarding either of these number types you may find the following information useful:

PhonepayPlus is the industry funded body for all premium rate charged telecommunication services. PhonepayPlus' role is to protect consumers through its code of practice which regulate all aspects of Premium Rate Number Services. They deal specifically with:

• Numbers beginning with 090 or 091
• Directory enquiry (DQ) services operating on numbers beginning with 118
• Reverse-billed SMS (you are charged for the receipt of messages) containing content operating on shortcodes. Shortcodes have 4 or 5 digits and start with 8, 6 or 2 (SMS stands for short message service)

If you think a particular service falls within PhonepayPlus' remit, you can submit a complaint to them. There are various ways of submitting your complaint but before you do, we recommend that you use their online number-checking facility for instant information about the number in question. After that, you can use one of the following methods:

• If you have a hard copy of the promotion in question (i.e. a page from a magazine), please supply your complaint in writing with a copy of the promotion to:
• PhonepayPlus, Clove Building, 4 Maguire Street, London, SE1 2NQ
• Use their online complaint form
• Call their free helpline on 0330 024 17 77 from 8am–6pm, Monday–Friday.

We take malicious calls very seriously as they can cause annoyance and distress. If you are receiving malicious calls we will help you in every way we can, including working with the police, BT and other network providers where appropriate. In the event that the caller is traced you may be required to give evidence should the matter be taken to court. We may also advise that you change your telephone number or become ex-directory if you continue to receive such calls.

Telephone Preference Service

If you do not wish to receive unsolicited telemarketing calls, register online at www.tpsonline.org.uk or call 020 7766 4420

Fax Preference Service

If you do not wish to receive unsolicited telemarketing faxes, register online at www.tpsonline.org.uk or call 020 7766 4422

If you are elderly or have a disability and wish to discuss any of the special telecommunications requirements shown below, please contact our Support Team and we will try to help you:

• Providing a nominated contact to assist with billing
• Service problems
• General issues

We take the security of our websites and your data extremely seriously. As such, we have a Data Retention Policy in place that is designed to protect you as our customer.

Should you have any queries regarding our range of services, or are experiencing difficulties with your Origin Broadband Internet access, you can contact us via our tech support team here.

Please note: we can't reply to cancellation requests through any other means than contacting our Customer Care team For opening hours, please check our Contact us page.

Please note: We may sometimes monitor or record calls to or from our staff. We may do this for training purposes, or to improve the quality of our customer support.

Whilst we aim to deliver a high level of customer satisfaction, we acknowledge that from time-to-time problems do occur. We are committed to ensuring that every effort is made to resolve any difficulties quickly and to your satisfaction.

Please refer to our Complaints Code of Practice for full details on how to make a complaint and how we will deal with it.

OFCOM has approved this Code of Practice, in accordance with criteria agreed with the UK telecommunications industry.

All information provided is correct at the time of going to print, and will be reviewed and updated on a quarterly basis.