plusnet discreet term! Beware before you switch

trygetback

Beware : don't sign up Plusnet before you hear my story!

I was with talk talk but they only do best deal with new customer so I looked up on internet and see lots of people saying Plusnet has UK center customer service.

I switch to plusnet (broadband and phone deals) , even now I have to pay extra for caller display. To round up, I am actually save just a little even I pay the yearly land line saver in advance.

I am with plusnet now for under 2 weeks then I realized that I have been charged for weekend calls. Please not it is very expensive for land line calls nowadays! When I do switch, all their page show free weekend calls and nothing on their FAQ page as well. All emails or letter didn't mention anything about that.

I contacted Plusnet and after 4 replies(a week's time) they eventually give me a clear picture and a link about the restriction with land line saver.

I feel very let down as there are no hints at all about such clause unless you have been pinpoint where to look at such thing if you know where it is. ( I did look up on their term and condition at the switch page before I went through the order)

They should have to make it clear or just even small hint while taking on new customers. I always think they like to collect lots of money in advance as revenue so all the providers provide such deals.

I would say their customer service seems OK, take maybe 2 days to reply each time with my enquiry but ...

so if you switch, you better know this at first, not like me...now I am in a mess, they only allow me to upgrade other expensive calls plan.


I do not have much choices now unless I pay a big cancellation fee.

Also I must very careful what they say about the charge as there might be lots of hiding clause about that so they could get more money of whick they are not entitled too.

I am afraid I don't have lots of time and effort to get all the materials to double check if the charges is really true or not.

I notice there are lots of nasty stories about company ungraceful chasing people for bills. I supposed it would be a very hard journey for one just wanting to cancel the contract .

Most of all, I hate being treated like this. I want my money well spend. I don't mind to pay for service but not like this way.

For me : I think I would stick with plusnet for this year and switch right away after the year term. Meanwhile I would get a cheap mobile deal to get free minutes. I prefer to let others to get my hard-earned money then let plusnet to get it for such disgrace behaviour!

CKhalvashi

I can see where you're coming from, but many people now (we do, I know my sister does, and I think my mother does, too) use our mobiles for calls, and just the landline for internet, so this package would be ideal for us.

I think there's a plusnet rep, who may be able to assist you in the morning.

CK

[Deleted User]

Hi,

been a Plusnet customer (Value Package) for years now, and no complaints.

I switched to Line Rental Saver last year and still get my free evening and weekend calls.

trygetback are you sure you opted for free calls when you signed up?

Sign in to your account and check what package you are on.

Sign in > View My Phone Bill > Account summary, the box will detail your product.

If need be, use the link above for Line Rental Saver, scroll to 2, click 'add a phone service', scroll to 'Choose a Calling Plan', select 'Plusnet Weekends', (Free), scroll down, click 'Add'.

oldharryrocks

Did you switch from TT thinking you got like for like as the cost 99p a month for caller display is clearly shown.. Plusnet use to offer inclusive E&W calls but they dont any longer,only Weekend ones where as TT still do. Irrespective of whether you pay monthly or or in a lump sum you can opt in for inclusive weekend calls. ( Weekend is Sat and Sunday Only by the way, not 7pm Fri to 6am Monday like it has been in the past on some plans.)

If its any help you can still use https://www.18185.co.uk with Plusnet which will keep the cost of most non inclusive landline calls down.

Gloria_Steeth

Trygetback,

Thanks for warning others about this.

I switched to Plusnet from O2 last week and had been going to take Line Rental Saver + Weekends Plan, but decided to take LRS + Anytime instead, otherwise I would have been in exactly the same position as you.

Now that you've mentioned this, I see it says on the Home Phone FAQ page that the Weekends Plan is " •Not available with Line Rental Saver. Customers on this plan will be switched to Line only if Line Rental Saver is taken".

Elsewhere, on the Legal page, it says "Line Rental Saver taken out on/before 7th May 2013 includes evening and weekend landline calls as standard, Line Rental Saver taken out on/after 8th May 2013 includes no calls as standard."

They definitely need to make this a lot clearer when you sign up, as you've found to your cost.

trygetback

CKhalvashi wrote: »

I can see where you're coming from, but many people now (we do, I know my sister does, and I think my mother does, too) use our mobiles for calls, and just the landline for internet, so this package would be ideal for us.

I think there's a plusnet rep, who may be able to assist you in the morning.

CK

thanks for the advise.

Twisted_Spirit

Just bought a house and was going to go with Plusnet.

When you sign up online you cannot physically choose free evening and weekend calls with annual line rental.

If you choose monthly line rental you can choose free e&w but if you change to annual it is automatically removed from your basket.

How did you switch? Did you phone them up? When I phoned them to ask them about free e&w calls and annual line rental they told straight away that they didn't offer it.

trygetback

[Deleted User] wrote:

Hi,

been a Plusnet customer (Value Package) for years now, and no complaints.

I switched to Line Rental Saver last year and still get my free evening and weekend calls.

trygetback are you sure you opted for free calls when you signed up?

Sign in to your account and check what package you are on.

Sign in > View My Phone Bill > Account summary, the box will detail your product.

If need be, use the link above for Line Rental Saver, scroll to 2, click 'add a phone service', scroll to 'Choose a Calling Plan', select 'Plusnet Weekends', (Free), scroll down, click 'Add'.

Thanks for your kind reply.

However, as a new customer, there are no option for me at my account page at all, I could only change my broadband plan and after some struggling, now I could see that I could add 'Plusnet Evening and Weekends - £1.50' at my account's product change page.

I know £1.50 add on seems not much but I really annoyed for Plusnet like that.

they did reply all my questions in a reasonable time but they never really answer me as I am really confused by all of this. They could just tell me in plain English ' no, you could not have free weekend calls as we say that you could not have because ...... '

They never feel sorry or anything like that for confusing customer like that.
Please be aware, any potential switcher, if you pay land line saver :

they wrote back

'You are not able to revert to monthly line rental until your current 1 year contract expires'

and

'Please also note your Line Rental Saver is non refundable and we do not offer stand alone phone'

no refund/partial refund for the money of the advance land line saver. I didn't annoy by this but all of the discreet!

Luckily my last few weekend calls before I noticed the charges just last a few minutes not an hour long for each one.

I don't think I have any choice but stay put.

I post this to alert people so before they sign on so they know what they get into.

trygetback

[Deleted User] wrote:

Hi,

been a Plusnet customer (Value Package) for years now, and no complaints.

I switched to Line Rental Saver last year and still get my free evening and weekend calls.

trygetback are you sure you opted for free calls when you signed up?

Sign in to your account and check what package you are on.

Sign in > View My Phone Bill > Account summary, the box will detail your product.

If need be, use the link above for Line Rental Saver, scroll to 2, click 'add a phone service', scroll to 'Choose a Calling Plan', select 'Plusnet Weekends', (Free), scroll down, click 'Add'.

sorry I forget to mention that, while you purchase any one of the packages, it is in a whole column for each package.

The one I choice does include the phone line with weekend free call. There are no other option or choice free calls etc.

at the box of the phone line they let you choice 'monthly' or 'land line saver'

trygetback

Gloria_Steeth wrote: »

Trygetback,

Thanks for warning others about this.

I switched to Plusnet from O2 last week and had been going to take Line Rental Saver + Weekends Plan, but decided to take LRS + Anytime instead, otherwise I would have been in exactly the same position as you.

Now that you've mentioned this, I see it says on the Home Phone FAQ page that the Weekends Plan is " •Not available with Line Rental Saver. Customers on this plan will be switched to Line only if Line Rental Saver is taken".

Elsewhere, on the Legal page, it says "Line Rental Saver taken out on/before 7th May 2013 includes evening and weekend landline calls as standard, Line Rental Saver taken out on/after 8th May 2013 includes no calls as standard."

They definitely need to make this a lot clearer when you sign up, as you've found to your cost.

It is really hard to find about this, there are other page for phone FAQ, Broadband FAQ and

the line rental saver FAQ pages
http://www.plus.net/home-broadband/line-rental-saver-faq/#change
, none saying any thing not even a small hints at all.

I even read the term and condition page before I switch.

I was told at last to find this link after the 4th times contact. They were not even explain any of this in English.

They kept writing back : 'you are not currently on any call plan'.

I was so confused as I was sure when I choice the package it's definitely include such free weekend calls on the page and they offer people to pay advance for the landline. I thought this is great they get large revenue and I get a discount. I never think further.

As a matter of fact, I always browse on this site and other money wise site to widen my knowledge. I research a great deal before my switch. I see nothing about this at all so I think I need to post to make people aware.

trygetback

Twisted_Spirit wrote: »

Just bought a house and was going to go with Plusnet.

When you sign up online you cannot physically choose free evening and weekend calls with annual line rental.

If you choose monthly line rental you can choose free e&w but if you change to annual it is automatically removed from your basket.

How did you switch? Did you phone them up? When I phoned them to ask them about free e&w calls and annual line rental they told straight away that they didn't offer it.

I am not sure I could answer you properly.

I went for the land saver already while I choice the package. I paid up straight away. So I didn't direct to the page you mentioned about.

Now I have to ring them up to see how much if I get a 'call plan'.

I don't think they would offer the 'weekend' calls plan to me, the next one is 'evening and weekend' calls and it properly cost £6 a month.

I am not so sure, I have to ring them up to clarify that. They never answer me about that even after I had repeatedly asked for more than 4 times, so I have to ring up while I get home tonight about that.

If that is the only option, I don't think I would pay £6 on top of my monthly cost for that. Not worth it. I properly get a cheap mobile monthly contact deals with some free minutes. I don't really use phone a lot.

to your question, I am not sure what would be if you just choice pay monthly to get the free weekend calls and then ask to switch to land line saver. Maybe you could still get the free calls, I am not sure. It might as nowadays things like that happen just like buying train tickets. There are lots of way to save money by using some skills and patients.

I hope someone on this forum could let you know their experience.

Sorry I could not help you out.

If no one on this forum could help you, maybe you could ring Plusnet to confirm it. Or use live chat. Please make sure you get the content of live chat send to your email. Or get all details of the person you talk to. so if anything happen, you could provide to Plusnet as evidences. Nowadays, you can't blame for one too conscious

ps : I just out I could add 'evening and weekend calls' for £1.50 at my account page.