plusnet hidden fees

mmillie

I've just had a bad experience with plusnet, and thought I would warn people.

I moved house 6 months ago. I previously had plusnet at my old house, but didn't need it where I was moving to. They said in that case it's a £25 disconnection fee. I protested because that was news to me (it is hidden in auxiliary T&Cs 5 links deep from some hidden corner of their site). They said they would put the charge on hold for 6 months, and if I chose to reconnect in that time, I wouldn't have to pay.

Cut to 6 months later, and without notification they start charging me again for broadband at my old house, on a phone line that doesn't even exist. I call up asking what is going on. They claim I hadn't actually cancelled, just paused for 6 months, and so they have every right to charge me, and they refuse to waive the fee.

They might be cheap, but they seem to keep advertised costs low by unfair hidden charges. No way would I ever go back to them now. So watch out with plusnet. They are the ryanair of broadband in my opinion (and that's not meant as a compliment).

Martin

Phantom_Flan_Flinger

The £25 disconnection charge is an industry wide fee that BT charge ISP's to disconnect ADSL from a line. That's on all ADSL ISP's.

This fee doesn't apply if you migrate over to a new ISP (on the same line) with a MAC.

mmillie

Phantom_Flan_Flinger wrote: »

The £25 disconnection charge is an industry wide fee that BT charge ISP's to disconnect ADSL from a line. That's on all ADSL ISP's.

Yea, I found that, but it's not well publicised, and it's not universally applied as far as I know. And how does it cost BT £25 for me leaving the house and someone else moving in? They don't charge it on phone lines, so why broadband?

Anyway, my real gripe is not the £25 - there is after all some legal basis behind that, even if it's well hidden. My problem is plusnet starting to charge me monthly fees again 6 months after I move for a service they aren't providing and weren't asked to provide.

Thanks

Martin

P.S. I'd forgotten all about tiswas. Your avatar put a smile on my face

Phantom_Flan_Flinger

mmillie wrote: »

....and it's not universally applied as far as I know.

That's mostly because people migrate their ADSL rather than cease.
I haven't heard of any waive's of the cease fee.

cajef

mmillie wrote: »

My problem is plusnet starting to charge me monthly fees again 6 months after I move for a service they aren't providing and weren't asked to provide.

If you did not want the service why did you not cancel it, by putting it on hold for six months and not cancelling they have just carried on with the contract, did you give them the date you were moving plus your new address and phone number, they have no way of knowing your intention if you do not contact them and keep them informed.

mmillie

cajef wrote: »

If you did not want the service why did you not cancel it, by putting it on hold for six months and not cancelling they have just carried on with the contract, did you give them the date you were moving plus your new address and phone number, they have no way of knowing your intention if you do not contact them and keep them informed.

Simple really - when I told them that I was moving house and couldn't take the broadband over with me, they said I had the option of paying the disconnection fee there and then, or paying it in 6 months time if I decided not to reconnect. They persuaded me that I might as well do that as I had nothing to loose. As I recall, they even already knew I was moving when I phoned them because they had been notified that the line was being disconnected.

What they didn't say was that there would be automatic "reconnection" of no service to some imaginary phone line in 6 months - they said it was £25 disconnection fee in 6 months. They lied to me, and restarted the service without telling me.

Martin

cajef

Ok so I assume you wrote to them to cancel the service as per their terms and conditions?

Ending the service

1. Once we have provided the service, you may tell us to stop providing it at any time by giving us 10 days' written notice,

mmillie

cajef wrote: »

Ok so I assume you wrote to them to cancel the service as per their terms and conditions?

No, I cancelled over the phone. Thanks for pointing that clause out. I hope that's not another trap, but I'll send written confirmation anyway.

Martin

macman

You can't 'suspend' a broadband service. Whether you use it or not, while it's on your line Plusnet have to pay BT Openreach the wholesale fee. You either have the service or you cancel it. If you looked on your online a/c, you would see that the £25 was permanently 'active' under provisions should you cease without using a MAC.

mmillie

macman, I tend to agree with you. I know plusnet will have had to give the broadband connection on the line back to openreach when the line was passed on to the new owners, and I know that my phone number went back to virgin (complicated, but it was virgin number ported to BT, and can't be used for a BT line immediately - we tried), so they can't be providing broadband either to the line or to the number. So what excuse can they have for charging me £6/month? none.

Martin

mmillie

An update on this one. I called plusnet back today and got a much more helpful customer service person. Without agreeing that they had done anything wrong, they did agree to waive the monthly fee that they charged me this month and to close off the account. Annoying that I had to phone up a few times to get a refund for a service they aren't providing, but at least it ended OK (I hope).

Martin