“Hidden Prices... hidden agenda
I’ve been with OneStream since March 2024, drawn in by the siren call of low fees and the promise of smooth sailing. What I wasn't told about were all the delightful surprises that came with it. Maybe I was a little too trusting, but hey, who can blame me for believing the sales pitch?
Fast forward three months, and I’m starting to wonder why my bills were higher than expected. Cue the dreaded phone call to OneStream. Turns out, I’d been charged an extra £5 a month for an ancient modem I didn’t ask for, plus additional charges for a virus checker and a maintenance contract I had zero interest in. Both of those were promptly cancelled, but I was still stuck with a modem that could probably double as a paperweight.
By November, the service was, to put it kindly, "patchy" at best. My modem was in a constant state of "you’re on mute," needing a reset every few days. Unfortunately, it was time for a change of address. Naturally, I called OneStream again.
This time, I was greeted by a lovely customer service agent who kindly informed me that moving my service would cost a neat £59. I was taken aback. Why charge such high fees for something that’s, well, a bit like moving a chair across a room? But perhaps that’s just my over-simplified view of things.
Here’s where the plot thickens: My new place can get Full-Fibre! A true modern marvel compared to the almost dial-up experience I’ve been living with. Naturally, I asked about pricing. I was passed on to a very pleasant guy in sales who promised to speak to his manager to get me "the best possible deal." Meanwhile, I was perusing the OneStream website and—surprise, surprise—saw that the best possible deal was apparently only available to new customers.
Now, I’m no math expert, but the difference between the price I was quoted and the advertised deal was over 40%. Not exactly what I’d call a loyalty bonus. Still, kudos to the sales guy for managing to knock a couple of pounds off my bill. Progress, I suppose.
At this point, I decided to stick with my "vintage" service, let my contract expire, and search for a provider who actually values existing customers.
So, to wrap up this slightly epic saga, I’ll just say: Stay far, far away from OneStream unless you enjoy playing a game of "guess the hidden fees" and “wait, how much?””
“Absolute joke !!!! I'm so angry they are making up my monthly payments I was tucked into a shorted contact as it was cheaper now they are adding on a 5er her and 6 pounds their saying it's for the router I have had enough they are thief's and this is fraud never a set price made up all the time.... I'm heavily pregnant and this stress is so bad with the anxiety that I could lose my baby I cannot afford this monthly made up I asked for set price they said it would be it's not !!!”
“I cannot stress enough, this company should be avoided at all costs. We requested to leave our contract as outlined in section 10 2.5 of the Terms and Conditions. This company changed our contract without informing us, and will be charging us £659 to leave. £659. Onestream claim there is no way to service to the area we are moving to, therefore they say we have no choice but to pay. This is just for internet. Moreover, they absolutely REFUSE to send us a dated copy of our original contract, which we have asked several times. All they provide is a link to an un-dated PDF which is universal and can be easily changed. It is utterly fraudulent and a complete scam. There is absolutely no need for ending the contract to be £659. They also signed us up to a trial of a VPN without our permission. This is a clear case of illegal inertia (The Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000) and an egregious violation of the Data Protection Act 2018. The use of our data to sign up to this VPN was not fair, transparent, necessary, let alone LAWFUL. Upon calling customer services, my partner was shouted at and hung up on. This is truly an awful company, and I urge you to read the Google reviews.”
“I am livid with this company. I checked my bank account to find that they had withdrawn £34.95 for McAfee, which I never ordered or requested. Upon contacting customer services I was told that it was in my contract and that I had been sent an email advising me of this payment. The operator was unwilling to pass me to a manager or supervisor and said I would have to email their complaints department instead.
I checked my emails and there was only one mention of McAfee, which gave you one free month's usage, and that they would send you an email with a link to download and activate McAfee.
Having run a search for Onestream in my emails, there was no email with a McAfee link in it. McAfee was neither downloaded, activated, or used by me, yet they believe it is OK to charge me for it.”
“If you're looking for an internet connection that doesn't need to be particularly stable, such as casually browsing social media or sending the odd email, you're probably fine with OneStream. But if you want to connect to Teams or other video conferencing platform, think again. And if you raise issues with them, expect to wait eight weeks for them to fully investigate the issue, or you will be charged the remaining contract amount as an Early Termination Fee.
My internet connection has been intermittently dropping, several times per hour, since the 2nd September. I work as an online counsellor, and remotely for a university. I have been unable to work without hotspotting from my phone's 4G/5G connection during video conferencing calls, and have experienced multiple interruptions to streaming services on Amazon Fire due to the unreliable and hugely unstable connection provided by OneStream.
Despite having "resolved" the technical issues three times (but without any details about what these fixes entailed), I requested my services be cancelled without an early termination fee. They declined, threw Ofcom's legislation at me that they should be allowed eight weeks to fully investigate, during which time I am still fully liable for paying for the unusable connection. I will only get any money back for "total loss", which has not been the main issue.
Having also told OneStream that this has affected my income and reputation, I was told that OneStream are a "residential broadband supplier" and do not therefore offer, nor are legally held to offer, any compensation. But they'll keep charging me.
They have also been told that my working family is on Universal Credit, Carers Allowance and has a disabled child on the highest rate of support due to their complex needs. This has had no impact on their response. They appear to be very happy to continue this farce, apologising only for my "feeling this way" about their service, reiterating that "Onestream wants the best for our customers which is why we would like to get this resolved for you".
Avoid this company like the plague if you want any sort of assurance that any (inevitable) problems get sorted quickly and satisfactorily.”
“I used this company for broadband between 2023 - 2024 which I needed at my deceased mothers empty house for the security cameras. Over the phone I accepted a £25pcm fixed rate one year contract, but all the monthly payments were more. It actually started at £26+pcm then after a couple of months it went up to over £30+pcm and eventually at the end of the contract it went up to £40+pcm. So I went to cancel the contract and was told that because I haven't given them 30 days notice, I would have to pay another for another month. On top of that, they insisted that I send the router back to them at my cost! Which I did, but because it was after the 14 days (apparently stated in their contract) I was charged a further £29.95. Having tried to discuss various issues with them by phone, when you eventually get through to someone (and they either don't like what you are saying - or they don't know how to respond), they simply cut the call! The broadband worked OK 90% of the time, but the customer service and attitude is the worst I've ever experienced. Avoid this company at all costs!!!”
“On paper it looks like you’re saving £5 a month with Onestream, but what they don’t mention is:
- stealth charges through unwanted opt-out subscriptions
- the monthly price changing during your contract
- they will charge you a raised price after your contract ends without notifying you
- they will charge you a huge fee if you don’t return the router without notifying you.
It also took me many attempts to finally get through to their customer service to cancel my subscription, and when I did that they neglected to mention I should send the router back to them. Now, I no longer even live in the same city as that router. How convenient for them.
Scummy company, steer well clear”
“I am writing this public review to warn others about the incredibly negative experience I have had with OneStream since connecting to their internet service in March. If you value your peace of mind, I strongly advise you to never become a customer of this company.
The first and most pressing issue arose when they installed the internet cable over my neighbors' doorway. They did not consult me about the routing, which has led to significant problems. My neighbors were unhappy and cut the cable. Now, OneStream claims I owe them £199 for the repair. To reiterate: they chose the route without my consent, and my neighbor, not I, cut the cable. Why should I be responsible for this cost? According to OneStream, their contractor Openreach sets the fee. But surely you understand the situation and can show some flexibility given the circumstances? Clearly, they have made no effort to do so, and for the past week, I have been paying for an internet service that I do not have.
Secondly, there are ongoing issues with communication between OneStream and their contractor, Openreach. I received a £200 fine from OneStream, supposedly because I was not home on the day of the engineer's visit. This is absolute nonsense. The engineer came and stated he could not install the cable due to the complexity of the site. He then said he would escalate my address to Openreach to send two engineers. I waited over a week for them to assign a new team. This is confirmed by my correspondence and phone calls. Yet, OneStream audaciously decided to charge me regardless. They claim Openreach does not respond to them. Well, that’s your problem, OneStream! It’s not my fault you can't manage proper communication with your own contractor.
Lastly, when you sign up with OneStream, they automatically enroll you in a subscription to McAfee antivirus, which costs £34 per month and is utterly useless. You won't even know you are subscribed since the emails go to spam, and then they deduct the money from your account. OneStream claims they cannot help with this issue.
Burn in hell, OneStream. In less than half a year, you have made me sincerely despise you.”
“WARNING!!! Dont be fooled by there low pices online. Signed up for fibre 1000 costing £37.90/Month BUT!!!! not stating that you will be billed 2 months and 2 weeks costing £86.90 for your first bill then a month later another monthly cost again Spoke to ALEX who was supposedly a manager representing one stream had no intension of helping a customer resolve the issue also wouldnt change the date of payment as we get paid every 19th of each month he was rude too. As a family of five we needed the payment day chaged he said was not possible. I asked to speak to a different manager and wouldnt let me speak to anyone else regauding the issue he said that theres nothing he can do about it no resolution on the call still an open complaint although hes maked it as resolved!! SHOCKING CUSTOMER SERVICE DONT BE FOOLED!!!!!”
“I had a terrible experience with this broadband company. They charged me extra money without any explanation or warning. It's unacceptable to surprise customers with additional fees. I expected better service and transparency from them.”
“DO NOT SUBSCRIBE TO ONESTREAM!!! They will slyly include 'add-ons' which you did not request which will increase your bill by £5 a month. If & when you notice, they will advice you that your first 2 months bill might be slightly higher due to a timing difference, after which it will regulate to the amount you expect to pay. But of course, it won't. This company is dodgy and the Internet is really not great. It's a bit sluggish!”
“Signed up a year ago online. Made sure I wasn't paying for their modem or antivirus. Got charged for both on the 1st bill, called their pay number for them to remove them. It took them 2 weeks to set me up. By next April they raised my payments, just because they can
A month ago they sent an email saying my invoice was going to double. Called to cancel their services (you need to give a month notice). They offer me a new tariff (more expensive than the one I had and worse than new customer's) but as was going on holidays thought it would be less hassle than setting a new line. I accepted thinking it'd start when my current contract expired.
Come back from holidays and I have no line, call them to report, they say a technician will look at it in 5 days. Today is the 5th day, still not internet. I've been charged over their initial offer. I call them to find out when I am going to get my service up, they said "we have up to 8 WEEKS TO PROVIDE SERVICE". They do not have technician to fix their issues. Try to cancel my contract but they've requested a whole year payment since their contracts overlap.
I will be LEAVING AT THE END MY CONTRACT. I would NOT RECOMMEND, they are not cheaper than others and they have not technical support.”
“They don’t recognise my email when they have been sending me messages on it.
Internet service has been down more often recently and I can’t get hold of them to ask what is going on.
I want to leave them even though it so much hassle but they have been rubbish latelt”
“Like many people, I lead a busy life and had forgotten my renewal date. When I logged in, I discovered that my payments had doubled after the first year. Since I pay by direct debit, I hadn't noticed the price increase. They lure you in with an attractive initial price, but I never received any communication from them about the end of the first-year contract or the price doubling. Had I known, I would have looked for a better deal. This is a warning to be very careful: they entice you with a deal and don't inform you when the one-year period is about to end. They might claim this is standard practice, but that doesn't make it right. Poor customer service.”
“Avoid! Disgraceful company who add extras to your account without telling you and refuse to remove them. Customer service appallingly rude. This company will not last.”
“Charged £59 randomly. Was told it was a subscription for something I never asked for or have heard of. Despite being less than 14 days ago they refused a refund as required under the consumer contracts act.”
“Loads of hidden costs: monthly price went up 4% over inflation during a 1 year contract, £250 'cancellation fee', and they sign you up for McAfee malware trial which automatically charges you a year's subscription once it expires! AVOID AT ALL COSTS!!!”
“I recommend reading the reviews of this supplier before signing up. I made a mistake and didn't research them fully before I did. I can confirm the poor reviews are very reflective of the way that they operate. Hidden charges, signing you up for free trials of antivirus software and charging you for it even when you don't activate it. Way off advertised broadband speeds etc etc.
From my experience over the past couple of months, and now reading the reviews I'll expect more surprises of poor service from this supplier. Please read the negative reviews and proceed with caution.”
