MSE News: Primus blunder sees customers not told about price hike

Former_MSE_Helen

"Primus has delayed increasing line rental charges for some customers, after it emerged they hadn't been told about it..."

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Primus blunder sees customers not told about price hike



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bbb_uk

I was one of these customers.

I was only informed about it on 9th April.

I now have another email stating price wont increase now until 1st May.

I only received this email the day after, 10th April.

I still haven't been provided with 1 months notice as required.

I am currently getting nowhere emailing Primus, just getting fobbed and they haven't bothered to actually fully read my complaint.

They are insisting that I was informed in plenty of time but I have the emails to prove I wasn't and as such I'm taking this further.

Also, this increase is a 17% rise for me so I'm also looking elsewhere as I believe this to be a significant increase.

Naturally, when I mention this in my emails, it is totally ignored instead just stating they did inform me in advance.

Primus_Saver_representative

Hi Everyone,

In light of this thread regarding our price increase, I thought I would post some further information that hopefully will help clarify things.

The wholesale cost of line rental and calls has increased and consequently the package rental charges for all Primus Saver customers will increase. Please understand that is not something that we do lightly but unfortunately the telecoms industry is not immune to increased costs.

In recent months BT, Sky, Virgin, Plusnet, O2 and Talk Talk have all announced similar increases, now although I appreciate that this probably doesn’t take the sting out of having to pay more, it does still mean that Primus Saver is still one of the lowest cost deals available.

We appreciate that no one likes paying more for anything and of course we do not want customers to feel ‘over a barrel’ to be with Primus Saver that is why we deal every customer on a case by case basis. If the additional £1 ex VAT is causing financial hardship, then Ofcom (whom we are compliant with) do have measures in place.

For all those customers who have not been notifed you will not be subject to the price changes from 1st April 2013.

A communication is being sent out to those customers to explain further.

Please accept our apologies for any confusion caused and if you do have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact myself or the other members of the online team on [email protected].

Kindest Regards,
Jordan

leaphaze

bbb_uk wrote: »

I was one of these customers.

I was only informed about it on 9th April.

I now have another email stating price wont increase now until 1st May.

I only received this email the day after, 10th April.

I'm with Primus but haven't received any emails at all about this from them!

JenniWR

Primus_Saver_representative wrote: »

The wholesale cost of line rental and calls has increased....
Kindest Regards,
Jordan

Jordan, why are you lying? WLR has decreased in cost by £4.06 (excl VAT) annually compared with last year.

duncansoton

"Ofcom has confirmed the following controls on annual rental charges (which are expected to run until 31 March 2014):

A fully unbundled line to a property – where a communications provider takes over the line to provide broadband and telephone services.

The price currently charged by Openreach is £91.50. Under Ofcom’s decision this will be set to £87.41 for financial year 2012/13 and decrease further in the next year in accordance with the formula RPI -5.9%.

A shared unbundled line to a property – where a communications provider uses a proportion of the line only for the provision of broadband.

The wholesale price today is £14.70 per year. Under Ofcom’s decision this will be set to £11.92 for financial year 2012/13 and decrease further in the next year in accordance with the formula RPI -15.9%.

Wholesale line rental – used by communications providers to offer telephone services to consumers using lines rented from Openreach.

The price today is £103.68 per year. Under Ofcom’s decision this will be set to £98.81 for financial year 2012/13 and decrease further in the next year in accordance with the formula RPI -7.3%."

media.ofcom.org.uk/2012/03/07/ofcom-sets-wholesale-charges-for-openreach/

I've received a phone call from Primus stating that these charges may have decreased but that the charges to them have increased. I've asked them to confirm this in writing as their own website states:

"

What is Wholesale Line Rental?
Wholesale Line Rental is one development that has opened up the UK home phone market to competition. It’s one way customers can reduce their line rental costs and enjoy cheaper phone bills from an alternative supplier to BT.

Wholesale Line Rental – what’s in it for the customer?
Only BT and cable phone suppliers actually own telephone lines. However, BT now has to offer other suppliers the opportunity to rent its lines. This is called Wholesale Line Rental. The major benefits are that the customer can get cheaper line rental charges and receive one bill from Primus for their line rental and calls. The customer can also also keep their number and no work is required on their phone line.

What are the disadvantages of Wholesale Line Rental?
With Wholesale Line Rental you can keep your existing phone number. Because there’s no need for any extra equipment, Primus won’t need to visit your home. The only real disadvantage is that Wholesale Line Rental is only available to customers with a BT line!"

primussaver.co.uk/primus-home-phone-explained.html

I await their e-mail with baited breath...

virgin11

Am i the only one who gets Primus line rental for free, joined on their £6.99 offer never billed rang them up to find out what was happening 25 mins on the phone put on to someone in credit control he took my bank details still not charging me.After reading all the feedback it looks like £6.99 wont last long thats if they ever get round to charging me.

JenniWR

duncansoton wrote: »

Wholesale line rental – used by communications providers to offer telephone services to consumers using lines rented from Openreach.

The price today is £103.68 per year. Under Ofcom’s decision this will be set to £98.81 for financial year 2012/13 and decrease further in the next year in accordance with the formula RPI -7.3%."

media.ofcom.org.uk/2012/03/07/ofcom-sets-wholesale-charges-for-openreach/

Thanks. This is backed up by the Openreach pricing (where I got the information from). WLR is decreasing both before inflation and in real terms year-on-year, so don't take that "our wholesale costs have increased" bull from any CP's.

virgin11 wrote: »

Am i the only one who gets Primus line rental for free, joined on their £6.99 offer never billed rang them up to find out what was happening 25 mins on the phone put on to someone in credit control he took my bank details still not charging me.After reading all the feedback it looks like £6.99 wont last long thats if they ever get round to charging me.

Be very careful of this - check out this thread, started just recently.

duncansoton

JenniWR wrote: »

Thanks. This is backed up by the Openreach pricing (where I got the information from). WLR is decreasing both before inflation and in real terms year-on-year, so don't take that "our wholesale costs have increased" bull from any CP's.

Primus have now stated to me:

"BT may have lowered their price for WLR this financial year; however we are not a reseller of BT so have no connection with their prices.
There are many other big phone and broadband provider who are wholesalers of WLR products that offer smaller companies like us to resell their products and unfortunately as we are a reseller, we have no control of when price increases occur."

kas647

I was also notified late of the charges and not given a month's notice, as your previous forumites have noted.
I have been trying to get Primus to respond to emails and recorded delivery letters since last November. They never, ever respond. Does anyone else have this problem? I called them this week about yet another problem, and they said they would call back. Needless to say, yet again, they haven't. I have all the evidence. Should I go to Ofcom, or does anyone have a better solution. I have threatened to leave them due to their breach of contract - but still no responses. Help!

carmel11

Please note- mse has now updated and are recommending primus again, under the " home phones section" claiming there had been problems but they have now got better.!!!!!!!
Updated on the 8 th April that's the day before the letters increasing prices were sent out
If anyone wants to look at the thread "ask primus a question "or can post a link.
They call this better?
This isn't the MSE that I remember.