Renewals, regrades & recontracts

First identify what changed

Write down the old package and the new one. Compare service, price, discounts, minimum term, future price rises, add-ons, speed information and equipment. Then identify whether the transaction created a new fixed commitment period.

Pre-contract rules apply to a new commitment

When a consumer enters a new telecom contract or fixed commitment, Ofcom’s contract-information and summary rules matter. Ask for the summary and detailed information for the specific recontract date, not merely the documents from the original acquisition years earlier.

The sales record should explain the trigger

Providers may label account changes differently internally. The label is not the whole analysis. Ask what action the customer took, what new terms were presented, how consent was captured and what confirmation followed.

If a provider says the consumer “accepted a renewal” but cannot identify the call, click, message or other consent event, make it produce the audit trail.

Price and speed can reset

A recontract after 17 January 2025 should be analysed under the current pounds-and-pence price-rise rules. For broadband, a new order may also generate new personalised speed information or a minimum guaranteed speed. Keep the new documents.

Regrade disputes need a before-and-after comparison

Common disputes include a discount being lost, an add-on being attached, a contract term being restarted unexpectedly, a promised speed/product not being supplied, or an old device/service obligation being carried forward incorrectly.

A table showing “before / what was promised / after” is often more persuasive than a long narrative.

A “renewal” can contain several separate changes

Do not treat the provider's label as the analysis. A renewal call can simultaneously start a new minimum term, change the package, alter the monthly price, add equipment, remove a legacy discount, change speed or move another service into a bundle. List every change and ask which one triggered a new contractual commitment.

If the provider describes the event as a simple regrade, ask whether the minimum term changed. If it describes it as a recontract, ask for the contract summary and detailed contract information provided for that new commitment.

Use the end-of-contract notice as a before-and-after record

When a minimum term is approaching its end, the provider should normally have sent an end-of-contract notification showing key information such as the end date, current and post-contract price and available deals. Keep that notice. It can be an excellent contemporaneous benchmark for what the account looked like immediately before a retention or renewal conversation.

If the new agreement followed a “best deal” or retention offer, preserve the offer screen, email or chat as well as the final confirmation. Promotional wording and the eventual contractual price should reconcile.

Check the price over the whole new minimum term

For new contracts entered into from 17 January 2025, any specified rise in the core subscription price should be shown upfront in pounds and pence together with when it will occur. Do not compare only the first month's headline price. Record any fixed rise, the post-rise amount, temporary discount and what happens when the minimum term ends.

If you want the old arrangement restored

Restoration is not always technically or commercially possible, particularly where a legacy tariff has closed. Ask the provider to say explicitly whether rollback is possible and, if not, why. If the disputed recontract cannot simply be undone, identify the practical remedy you want: equivalent pricing, release from the new term, correction of an add-on, refund of the difference or another outcome that puts you as close as reasonably possible to the position before the disputed change.

Evidence worth keeping