MSE News: TalkTalk and Plusnet customers to be hit by price hikes

espresso

snowcat53 wrote: »

Am with Plusnet on a 12 m contract.
I have just today received my price increase email. Nowhere in it that i can see does it tell me I have a right to leave without penalty. Indeed it implies just the opposite - that they will levy an increased cessation charge if I do decide to leave! (see below). I am grateful to MSE for telling me this is misleading. I have always been a cheerleader for Plusnet but I feel very shoddily treated here.

Comments Plusnet?

Terms and conditions

We hope you're happy with the service you've been receiving from us, but if you do decide to leave, please be aware of the following changes being made:
• We'll be increasing the notice period you need to give before leaving us from 10 days to 14 days. This means that if you are thinking of leaving, you'll need to let us know 14 days in advance of doing so. If you choose not to give this notice, please be aware that you might be subject to additional charges on your final bill.
• We'll also be changing the cessation fee we charge if you decide to disconnect your contracted Plusnet broadband service without moving to another provider. This charge will increase from £25 to £30 - if you leave under these circumstances, you will see this charge as a one off cost of your final Plusnet bill.

You can't blame Plusnet for your inability to understand plain English!

snowcat53

Yes I missed that. Is that an excuse for your rudeness?

EDIT An in fact my point remains that it does NOT tell you anywhere explicitly that you have the right to cancel because they have changed the t & cs.

Bumma

Kite2010 wrote: »

And so the latest round of price rises starts

My LTS runs out at the end of September, I'm pondering if I should change providers from Plusnet, only to get a new customer discount with another company. Because loyalty doesn't pay.

Ring them up and argue the toss about loyalty discounts first - it works more often than people think!

espresso

snowcat53 wrote: »

Yes I missed that. Is that an excuse for your rudeness?

EDIT An in fact my point remains that it does NOT tell you anywhere explicitly that you have the right to cancel because they have changed the t & cs.

It is not rude to point out that what you have posted is factually incorrect.

You have been informed that they will:

"be increasing the notice period you need to give before leaving us from 10 days to 14 days. This means that if you are thinking of leaving, you'll need to let us know 14 days in advance of doing so. If you choose not to give this notice, please be aware that you might be subject to additional charges on your final bill"

This is a change to the current term already posted in this thread above by the PN rep which you obviously did not read:

47. If we have made a change which is to your material disadvantage, you will not have to pay a charge (excludes any charges or payments we have deferred) if you decide to end your agreement early, unless the price guide says otherwise. However, once we have told you about such a change, you must let us know that you want to end the agreement within 10 days.

You have been informed of the changes to their current terms & conditions which is



How many days do you have left to inform them that you wish to leave?

Plusnet_company_representative

snowcat53 wrote: »

An in fact my point remains that it does NOT tell you anywhere explicitly that you have the right to cancel because they have changed the t & cs.

Is it not in the footer of the email?

If, as a result of the changes in this email, you decide to terminate your affected service(s), you may do so without incurring the Early Termination Charge(s) that may otherwise be payable. If you wish to exercise this right you must contact us within 10 days of receiving this notification. You will still be liable for service charges up to the date of termination.

Best regards,

Bob Pullen

oldagetraveller

"Any new customer or anybody who signed up/changed package after May 8th is charged £131.88 if they take out a new Line Rental Saver contract. This does *not* feature any inclusive calls without paying for an additional call package."

Is even more confusing because I changed my package on the 5th July and paid my LRS on the 11th July and was not charged £131.88?.

"xxxxxxxx (deleted invoice number) £125.88 £0.00 11/07/2013 Fully Paid Line Rental Saver" from my bill.

So Mr Pullen, does this include weekend and evening calls or not? It did previously. Why did I pay £125.88 and not £131.88? I'm not offering to pay the extra but would like to know the reason!
I'm now regretting paying the LRS otherwise I would definitely be changing BB and 'phone provider.
It would seem that customers are deliberately being confused with conflicting information.

Plusnet_company_representative

oldagetraveller wrote: »

"Any new customer or anybody who signed up/changed package after May 8th is charged £131.88 if they take out a new Line Rental Saver contract. This does *not* feature any inclusive calls without paying for an additional call package."

Is even more confusing because I changed my package on the 5th July and paid my LRS on the 11th July and was not charged £131.88?.

"xxxxxxxx (deleted invoice number) £125.88 £0.00 11/07/2013 Fully Paid Line Rental Saver" from my bill.

So Mr Pullen, does this include weekend and evening calls or not?

It includes them.

It did previously. Why did I pay £125.88 and not £131.88?

Because you only changed your broadband product. I should have been more explicit the statement of mine you've quoted by saying:

Any new customer or anybody who signed up/changed *phone* package after May 8th is charged £131.88 if they take out a new Line Rental Saver contract.

oldagetraveller wrote: »

It would seem that customers are deliberately being confused with conflicting information.

Definitely not deliberate and it's for exactly this reason that I suggested people wait for their email. To put things into perspective there are 12 different variants of the email going out. It makes it pretty tricky to provide answers to certain questions that are applicable to everyone's circumstances.

Hope that clarifies things for you. Let me know if it doesn't.

Best regards,

Bob Pullen

tlise

This explains then why I had 4 calls over the matter of 3 days, 2 in one day trying to convince me to take up the new wonderful contract. They really could not understand why I did not want a shiny tv box when I am happy with my sky one, because it was free, just a matter of resigning up for discounts too.
By the end of the first call it was well and truly understood that I am apparantly not even out of my current contract yet! I can't find anywhere that says the end date, and it doesn't say online. So beware of them ringing you offering good deals, it always pays to know your contract end date too otherwise you don't know how long you will be tied in for. Atm Sky is offering a better deal than what I am paying, but if its only going up £1 or something, I cannot see TT happily cancelling my contract for that amount if I say I cannot pay it lol.

tlise

Just out of interest as well, shouldn't TT have notified all customers of this? I wouldn't have known had it not been for the MSE email....

TriggerX

As to the price increases? Meh. Inevitable.

What gets me angry is lines like:

A spokesperson for TalkTalk says: "We are committed to offering the best value broadband, landline, TV and mobile deals, and are always coming up with new ways to help customers save money. Price changes are sometimes necessary as we invest in the business to deliver a better experience for our customers."

How does upping prices SAVE customers money? I hate rhetoric like this. It just makes me mad. These companies make billions in profit yet continually up the charges, spouting claptrap like this. Why don't they just be honest and say "We make billions in profit but that profit has been down a bit lately so we are increasing your bills to bring our profits back up again."

This, I understand. Companies aren't run for our benefit really. They are run to generate a profit for shareholders and provide us with a chargeable service. And as such, no company likes to make a loss. If we were in charge of these companies, we wouldn't want to see a loss on our latest valuation reports either.

All I'm saying is, would it not be refreshing for a company to just be honest and say "look, our profits are down so we are really sorry but to continue providing you with your service we are going to have to raise the prices a wee bit to compensate. We'd love you to stay with us but if you really can't then that's understandable."

Oh, the fantasy world I live in. It's wonderful! :rotfl: