MSE News: Primus raises line rental for thousands of customers

StevieJ

SewerSide wrote: »

I just realised there was a pdf attached to my last bill (from 28/6/12), saying there was a £1.20/m increase. Probably still cheapest, but it could have done with its own email.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/p7aqfdmd55x8isd/pricing.pdf

I also received that but I don't expect to pay the £1.20 due to the exclusion at the bottom i.e. I signed up for line saver within the last 3 months, they probably sent it to everyone.

saver.barb

We have been with Primus, just for the phone, for almost a year. When we had to contact the customer support we found them quite helpful, but had to phone them at an off peak time to get through. They were charging for several extras, call waiting etc which we were sure we had not chosen!

BT have put up their rental recently I think so Primus is still not too bad a deal.

The_Enforcer

Primus reduced my line rental costs in 2010, by being unable/unwilling to connect my house to a phone line for several months. I'm surprised they are still recommended on MSE, at least without strong caveats about customer service.

ppc1

I have been with primus just over two months and I was annoyed that it took them over 3 weeks to reconnect my broadband from TalkTalk.

I have spoken to their customer services team in the UK three times and found them very helpful. I also spoke to a technical guy as I was having difficulty connecting to the internet. He was based in the uk and resolved my problem quickly.

I agree it can take a while to get Primus to answer the phone but when they do the advice, in my opinion is always good and the advisers are very friendly.

My phone line cost is not increasing following the announcement of price increases.

luvsnail

Article wrote:

Primus says customers will not be allowed to exit their deal early without penalty, as it doesn't believe the increase leaves anyone at a significant disadvantage, "especially when the line rental pricing is compared to other providers in the market"

This doesn't hold true for me. I use Primus as a dirt-cheap line for sole purpose of delivering dirt-cheap ADSL broadband from another provider (Plusnet). I don't use it for phone calls, so I'm not comparing it to other phone line providers.

What I'm comparing is the cost of Primus line + Plusnet ADSL against the cost of Virgin fibre broadband with no phone line at all. After this hike, Primus+Plusnet is still about £4/month cheaper than the Virgin option, but considering the cable package is three times the speed I get now and also unlimited (compared to Plusnet's 10 GB/month), it actually becomes the more attractive option.

This forms the basis of my argument to Primus, anyway. I'll see what they say.

tightmoneysaver

I phoned Primus customer services this morning, even if I take out a new contract on the home phone choices website the price will still increase by £1.20 not fair:mad:

shafeeq

Hi

I email Primus about the price increase this their reply back

"In regards to your email below, unfortunately if you terminate your
contract there will be an early termination fee as Primus have not
broken Terms and conditions as in the Terms and Conditions we have
clearly stated the we may withdraw or alter any current prices by a
reasonable amount."

Now my price increase is 15%, I asked that is 15% reasonable? waiting for the reply back.

Shafeeq

bendipa

StevieJ wrote: »

I also received that but I don't expect to pay the £1.20 due to the exclusion at the bottom i.e. I signed up for line saver within the last 3 months, they probably sent it to everyone.

There is no exclusion. If you read the T&C, like any other company they reserve the right to increase their charges anytime which they haven't done to me since I joined in June 2011. Every one of their line rental customers is due to receive the £1.20 increase from August despite what you may have read on here. It's still cheaper than BT for me considering you have to pay the full BT line rental 1 year in advance for a similar comparison , which doesn't apply with Primus.

Phones4Chris

GraceCourt wrote: »

The low prices are not much comfort to those of us who live in areas where the telephone exchange does not permit LLU (local loop unbundling)... Primus service is an unbundled service, and all of the low-cost providers charge extra where there is no LLU.

And yes, their Customer Services are appalling... they originally accepted my order in error and never actually got round to telling me that they couldn't provide the service that I had paid for, until I rang up to query something a few days before they were due to install it...

Did your order include Broadband? because it's not LLU if you are taking phone line only.

hareng

Phones4Chris wrote: »

Did your order include Broadband? because it's not LLU if you are taking phone line only.

I was with O2 for 26 months on LLU (ADSL2+) and independant FTTC for 13 months+, plus several other ISP's on ADSL. Using another service provider for phone line rental and anytime calls for last 6 years. https://www.yourcalls.net works out £9.69 p/m including calls or £14.21 p/m anytime 24/7 calls. Decent customer service by phone and email too.
Shame had to cancel as BT want it all, big mistake only 15 months left.