primus saver -- >£350 for 2 months - don't get caught

pgtips123

I feel I have to write this because we went down the route and signed up to primus 'saver' phone and broadband to save money and got totally wiped out. We feel absolutely sick about this.

We were with O2 and got unlimted BB and separately paid for line rental. Our bills were around £22 a month. We use a online server to backup our data, it chugs along but we never knew how much.

If you sign up to anyone like BT etc you get an alert if you are close to your monthly allowance. Primus offer 20gb and line rental for £13.99 a month so we were chuffed with the savings.

Dec we had a new baby, that was amazing, the dropside was I lost my job so we knew things might get a bit tough. This was the same month we got migrated by primus to their BBand package on 24th Dec.

End Feb/Mar I get an email from primus, it was odd so i contacted them, our bband was going to be suspended, I asked why and then was sick. Our January bill was over £170 for 1 month, Feb bband was already at £140 and they decided to suspend our service until we paid them in advance.

We're locked in, we can't monitor our usage because we aren't that tech savvy, clearly we are on the wrong plan and we can't get out of the contract, all we can do is pay this staggering bill in full and now we must pay more a month because the plan we are on is clearly not fit for purpose.

Its sickening that in 2 months our BBand bill with Primus 'Saver' is more than is was for the previous 2 years. Please be careful, this has caused us untold difficulty and I'm angry we had no means to monitor what was going on. I asked primus what was going on but they've got us now, we are locked in or we have no broadband.

They asked me if I was happy with the service following my questions a few days after migration about the dreadful speeds I was getting. I politely explained I am the last person they should ask for an opinion.

Primus 'Saver' is misleading. I have never nailed why our usage went so staggeringly over the allowance in the first month and I have never been able to prove it did. I am quite upset about this and deeply regret switching.

Whoever you move to please make sure they will ensure you are on the right package, not just string you up if its wrong and you must ensure there is some mechanism to alert you if you are approaching your limit.
PG

MillicentBystander

Do you use data hungry services like Sky Go and/or netflix? To be fair to Primus (and having said that I would never go anywhere near them no matter how many times MSE recommends them) to go from an unlimited BB deal to a 20GB one without checking your actual usage wasn't the best idea. Surely they will allow you to transfer to an unlimited data deal? Have you asked them?

PS You don't really need to be tech savvy to monitor your usage as it isn't rocket science. Try this free programme:

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/tbbmeter.html

Edit: Just seen the 'online server to back up our data' bit. Yikes.

PPS IME you should try and avoid long term contract commitments on BB deals as this is what can happen.

Primus_Saver_representative

Hi pgtips123,

I am sorry to hear you are unhappy with your services, if you could you please send me an email with your MSE username and your account number and I will look into this for you.

Hope to hear from you soon,
Jo

zax47

MillicentBystander wrote: »

Do you use data hungry services like Sky Go and/or netflix? To be fair to Primus (and having said that I would never go anywhere near them no matter how many times MSE recommends them) to go from an unlimited BB deal to a 20GB one without checking your actual usage wasn't the best idea. Surely they will allow you to transfer to an unlimited data deal? Have you asked them?

PS You don't really need to be tech savvy to monitor your usage as it isn't rocket science. Try this free programme:

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/tbbmeter.html

Edit: Just seen the 'online server to back up our data' bit. Yikes.

PPS IME you should try and avoid long term contract commitments on BB deals as this is what can happen.

Re the bit in BOLD - you do know that everything you upload to your "online server" counts towards your 20Gb allowance don't you? This is not an "unlimited" service so why did you choose it??

MillicentBystander

zax47 wrote: »

Re the bit in BOLD - you do know that everything you upload to your "online server" counts towards your 20Gb allowance don't you? This is not an "unlimited" service so why did you choose it??

Err, I didn't. They OP did.

pgtips123

Hi,
yes I have since looked at those monitoring software for the computers. They only solve it for each PC though, with a teenager in the house, ours and one other PC its hard to know where the bandwidth is used up.

The ideal solution is something that is built into or attaches to your box that sends out the broadband to everyone (so I am told) as we have a wireless one.

"This is not an "unlimited" service so why did you choose it??" Yes I fully understand that now thank you, at the time we thought the limit was quite adequate, we had no idea what our use was. I am wise after the event, hindsight etc.

Some sort of gauge, like a fuel gauge, or electricity meter, that's what I (and possibly quite a few others) need... or some way of checking it online somehow, alerting me when I'm close to my limit or like BT, an alert when I am close to my limit, anything except a crippling bill. That's what is so hard, we simply had no idea, and I doubt many people do.

PG

molerat

Surely you can terminate the contract and pay a fee to do so, at those prices it will be cheaper than continuing.

7.4 Early Termination of Contract
Primus Saver, Primus Business and VoIP packages come with minimum term contracts of varying length depending on the package selected. To ensure that New Call recovers its costs invested in the set up, provision of hardware used to operate the service, customer support and any associated network costs resulting from disconnection of your services with New Call, a maximum early termination charge of £75 per line subscribed will be levied on your account if you instigate the transfer of any services held with any of New Call’s products to another provider whilst within the minimum term of any contract you may have agreed to. In the unfortunate event that you do choose to move your services away once the minimum term has been reached then the cancellation notice period for that contract applies, which is typically 30 days written notice.

Former_MSE_Becca

Hi everyone,

If you're having any issues with your Primus account or service, please [URL="mailto:primus@moneysavingexpert.com"]send us an email[/URL].

This email will go to MSE and Primus, and Primus will reply to you as soon as possible.

Many thanks,
MSE Becca