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MSE News: Plusnet to hike home phone and broadband prices

Plusnet home phone customers will be hit with price hikes in September, with Line Rental Saver up by £30...
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Plusnet to hike home phone and broadband prices

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Comments

  • Swipe
    Swipe Posts: 5,470 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    No mention of broadband price increases in the article
  • edinburgher
    edinburgher Posts: 13,547 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Must be psychic, switched to another provide yesterday :)
  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User] Posts: 0 Newbie
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    edited 4 July 2015 at 6:41AM
    I know that not too long ago the law was amended to allow for people wishing to leave penalty free, if they suffered a price rise mid contract. However, I don't think that this went far enough and really do believe that fixed should mean fixed for the duration of a contract. As long as this applies to all companies, then none of them would be unfairly disadvantaged. There is no compelling reason why any price rises shouldn't just apply to new contracts, which are taken out after the said price rises take effect.

    At the moment, I am looking at taking out a contract for phone and broadband with SSE, undecided, but it wouldn't surprise me one bit if all of their prices are hiked early next year. It totally defeats the purpose of shopping around and it is very irritating. It's all very well for some people to yell out 'Oh, you can switch penalty free though', but the problem is I really do have better things to do. I don't take such contracts lightly, it isn't a small decision which uses up time and energy, plus there are also real world implications. For example, potentially being without service for a while, for both foreseen and unforeseen reasons, and potentially having to be in on a certain day in case an engineer is ever needed etc.. I really don't see why I should have to bother doing this any more than once a year. I think Which? Consumer Association might still be pushing hard on this matter and the government needs to act swiftly in my opinion.

    At least the energy gangsters have the courtesy to all rip you off more at around the same time each year. :beer:
  • brewerdave
    brewerdave Posts: 8,611 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    The MAJOR problem is that the b/band market is so competitive, that they are all virtually giving away internet access. Due to a c**k up by my ISP(PN) on pricing , I have received all last years b/band sub back (plus interest) and I'm getting next 12 months free!! so they have got to recover their costs somewhere.
  • DJBenson
    DJBenson Posts: 448 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 100 Posts Combo Breaker
    There is something brewing at Plusnet - first they make changes to their broadband products (capping upload speeds to 2meg for new customers on the 38meg fibre product) and now some fairly hefty price rises - have BT finally realised that PN are, despite being under the ownership of BT, cannibalising BT market share so they've started to make PN look less of an attractive prospect? Sounds about right to me.

    I've only just started a 12 month line saver contract so I won't be hit until renewal, but I will see the £1/month call package increase.
  • minislim
    minislim Posts: 357 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 100 Posts Combo Breaker
    Just have to wait and see what happens when it comes to renewal time.
    Plusnet are very good with their customer retentions and usually match or beat the best deals out on the market.

    last year EE and talktalk had good deals which plusnet beat.

    i hope they keep this up!
  • neas
    neas Posts: 3,801 Forumite
    I wonder if if I will get a refund of my line rental saver as I paid upfront 8 months ago, but am not happy to be forced to pay more in 4 months time.

    Anyone got any ideas?
  • phillw
    phillw Posts: 5,630 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    edited 6 July 2015 at 1:01PM
    ploddingon wrote: »
    I know that not too long ago the law was amended to allow for people wishing to leave penalty free, if they suffered a price rise mid contract. However, I don't think that this went far enough and really do believe that fixed should mean fixed for the duration of a contract.

    I don't have a problem with mid contract negotiations. However the same terms and penalties should apply to both parties for it to be fair.

    They have two options to bring balance to the contract:

    1. If it would cost us £100 to cancel the contract then if we disagree to the increase then we should receive £100.

    2. If we write to them to inform them we are going to be decreasing our payments they would have 30 days to give us 14 days notice to terminate the contract without penalty.

    I suspect option 1 would be more palatable to them, but option 2 would be more interesting :-)
    DJBenson wrote: »
    have BT finally realised that PN are, despite being under the ownership of BT, cannibalising BT market share so they've started to make PN look less of an attractive prospect?

    PlusNet was only ever setup to cannibalise BT market share. By owning a cheap and expensive brand they get money from both types of customer. If PlusNet becomes as expensive as BT then they will have the cost of two companies without any advantage.

    It will be interesting to see if any other providers introduce special offers to tempt customers away or if there are so many people cancelling that they'll just hope that enough people randomly chose them.


    If the broadband price does go up and you can't get a refund of the line rental saver then they will have managed to evade Ofcom's leave without penalty rule. I'd like to know Ofcom's view on this.
  • Ian011
    Ian011 Posts: 2,432 Forumite
    Fifth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Retaining inclusive 0845 and 0870 calls will continue to push up costs for all subscribers as providers try to continue the illusion that these are cheap numbers to call.

    Calls to 084 numbers incur Service Charges of up to 7p per minute or per call to the benefit of the called party and their telecoms provider. Calls to 087 numbers incur Service Charges of up to 13p per minute or per call.

    Plusnet's offer is that you pay them £3 or £6 per month and can then make calls to 0845 and 0870 numbers such that Plusnet has to pay out anything up to £130 to the organisations that you called. That money has to come from somewhere. Where it comes from increased call prices for other Plusnet customers calling other types of number.
  • phillw
    phillw Posts: 5,630 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Ian011 wrote: »
    Plusnet's offer is that you pay them £3 or £6 per month and can then make calls to 0845 and 0870 numbers such that Plusnet has to pay out anything up to £130 to the organisations that you called.



    Which is why it's illegal for those organisations to share the money with you.


    It's wrong that you can bundle unlimited premium rate numbers though.
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