Are Primus trying to rip me off?

hairypitz · 4 February 2011 at 1:29AM

Or am I just being incredibly dense?

I've just signed up to the £7.99 a month offer, and I only have it to use the internet. I made one freephone call but the bill from 16th Dec - 14th Jan is £10.57.
This has been broken down as:

Charges, Credits and Adjustments £8.81
20% VAT £1.76
Sub Total £10.57

I do have a welcome email telling me "The monthly charge for Primus Home Phone Saver is £7.99: this is on the basis of a 12 month contract."

So I am not getting this.

Can anyone enlighten me please or are they just total f***wits? I've read some other none-too-complimentary posts re: customer service and am wondering if I'm gonna be regretting taking their service.

I have sent a query saying asking how they arrived at this amount, dunno if/when they'll get back to me on it tho.

Fun times: :j

tanjatucker · 4 February 2011 at 2:01PM

same here. a random amount in the 'charges' category, about £3.50 more than it should be. email sent to customer services several days ago, heard nowt so far

not impressed.

~Chameleon~ · 5 February 2011 at 12:18AM

See my reply in thread above about same thing, totally useless!! I called them today and the guy I spoke to couldn't care less and told me to email them instead!! :mad:

hairypitz · 8 February 2011 at 8:49PM

Primus were completely useless in responding to my email query, so I spent some time in the phone queue.
However they told me that because I joined at the start of January they are billing me a month in advance plus the 10 days or so between the date I joined and their monthly billing date in the middle of Jan.
It seemed a logical explanation. Hope this helps everyone with the same quandry

~Chameleon~ · 9 February 2011 at 11:50AM

hairypitz wrote: »

Primus were completely useless in responding to my email query, so I spent some time in the phone queue.
However they told me that because I joined at the start of January they are billing me a month in advance plus the 10 days or so between the date I joined and their monthly billing date in the middle of Jan.
It seemed a logical explanation. Hope this helps everyone with the same quandry

But are they charging you from the date you actually requested to join rather than the date they took over your service as they are with me?

They took over my service on January 6th and billing date is Jan 14th yet I've been billed for just over £20. I've been told I am being billed from Dec 17th, the day I actually requested to join Primus.

Even taking into account charging a month in advance it doesn't come to this much. I've also been informed that I will be charged extra if I cancel my DD until this is resolved yet they refuse to answer my emails!!

bearpeje · 11 February 2011 at 5:32PM

I arranged for my Mother in Law to switch to Primus Saver after seeing the £7.99 deal on MSE.
Start date was 4th Jan, and they sent a Statement dated 31st Jan for £11.95 incl £0.20 call charges.
I too have an email confirming £7.99 per month, so I sent them an email query a week ago. ( They claim to respond within 48 hours )
Three more emails, and two Query forms on their website later........ Not a dicky bird !

bearpeje · 11 February 2011 at 5:59PM

Just checked terms and conditions on Planet Talk site and Primus site.
Nothing at all about charging in advance, except terms and conditions on Planet Talk, that they can charge in advance if you have been late making a payment !
Difficult with your first bill I would have thought !
Again mention of excellent Customer Service and responding to emails within 48 hours, ( or perhaps days ! )

:mad:

Short_Seller · 11 February 2011 at 9:35PM

Could the higher fee also be related to call feature add ons such as caller display / block ect ect, that may have been migrated over from the previous provider ?

bearpeje · 12 February 2011 at 8:14PM

No add ons at all in my mother in laws case.
Have now emailed Homephone Choices site and await reply.

hairypitz · 14 February 2011 at 12:26PM

I also have no add-ons.
I just took it as read that the explanation I was given would be correct. It seemed to add up at the time.

Chameleon, your dates are very similar to mine. You should have been charged around the same amount as I was, if what I was told about advance billing is true. I'll be making sure that I keep a printout of what I've been billed by them to prevent me from overpaying when I decide to leave.

Could it be possible that email contact is non-existant because it puts things in writing that can be kept and used as evidence, when the company seems to have a tendency to make it up as they go along?
Not good! :eek:

bearpeje · 15 February 2011 at 10:18PM

Just had a reply from Homephone Choices.
He seemed to think that the charges may be for the last part of the old supplier plus new period with Primus.
I replied that with previous "switches" i.e. gas, electric, you pay old supplier up to switch date and new supplier from then on.
He also advised to ring Primus.
I said I had with endless recorded messages, and also that they had not replied to numerous emails and web queries.

I asked him to clarify !

Are Primus trying to rip me off?

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