Plusnet customers wrongly charged twice for £200 offer - MSE News

alanwsg

Money_Grabber13579 wrote: »

I have tried to use the DD guarantee and Nationwide wouldn’t invoke it. Apparently it doesn’t cover duplicate payments. I thought that was exactly what it was for...

Well, that's exactly what I used it for, with Santander.
Had no trouble reversing it at all, in fact they almost fell over themselves to do it.

Although it turned out to be a mistake as Plusnet refunded the duplicate a couple of days later so then I hadn't paid at all.
Then they threatened to cut me off for non-payment so I paid manually. Then they threatened me again but so far nothing's happened.

RandomQ

Why am I not surprised

Forget their excuses about a new accounting system, they try it on all the time.

e.g. leave when they put up the price, go through all the proper notice under OFCOM rules and then not only do they try to charge over £500 but they send threatening letters and debt collectors.

Took months to sort out after many promises of sorting it out

Many people would have fallen for their fake allegation that remainder of contract had to be paid and would have stayed with them.

phillw

RandomQ wrote: »

e.g. leave when they put up the price, go through all the proper notice under OFCOM rules and then not only do they try to charge over £500 but they send threatening letters and debt collectors.

I had a nightmare getting my up front line rental back. They just lied and made stuff up all the time.

I phoned to say I was leaving due to the price rise and asked when I'd get the refund for line rental, they told me it should be within 30 days of leaving.

Time passes and no refund, I question it and they tell me that they never pay back the up front line rental. I tell them they said they would, they told me that I wouldn't have been told that and they will get someone to listen to the tape to confirm I was never told that. I tell them they can listen to the tape if they want, but I'll still be complaining to the ombudsman.

Instantly they remember that they do refund the line rental, they'll email me confirmation. I receive an email but they've conveniently miscalculated the end date so they've refunded me 1 month short.

I phone back and explain, they argue for a while but they can't keep it up when faced with the service start date plus 12 months. They agree to refund an extra month.

The refund comes through, it's one month short. I phone to ask where the extra month is, they say it wasn't processed because it hadn't been "authorised". They tell me they've authorised it.

Time goes by and I receive an email from their billing department telling me that I have already received the correct amount and won't be refunding me any further, I can't contact the billing department so I complain again.

I speak to someone who argues that I have already been refunded, I explain there is an extra month, they argue, I tell them the date I started and that I paid for 12 months. They agree that I should be refunded, but that the original 1 month refund was for the wrong amount. I tell them that I was only asking for the 1 month refund, it was up to them to calculate it. They speak to their manager and come back with a new figure, which was about half a months line rental. I ask them how that was calculated and they said they didn't know. I asked them to find out and they put me on hold, I left that call going for an hour and they never came back.

In the meantime I phoned back on my mobile and told them I wish to make a complaint. They hear the hold music and try to trace that call, but can't. They told me that the billing department won't process the refund and they rounded it up as a compensation.

RandomQ

Exactly the same sort of experience, they argue argue argue

I am sure a lot of customers believe them.

Even when confronted with the law or OFCOM rules

I really think consumers should be paid £50 for each extra time they have to call or if the call and wait time exceed 30 mins.

Then they may start showing some respect.

pmduk

Customers would do themselves better to buy not just on price, but service. Potential customers post on this board all the time asking for the cheapest deal, without a thought about the quality of service they'll receive. Yet the cheapest companies frequently are cheapest because of their service levels.

RandomQ

pmduk wrote: »

Customers would do themselves better to buy not just on price, but service. Potential customers post on this board all the time asking for the cheapest deal, without a thought about the quality of service they'll receive. Yet the cheapest companies frequently are cheapest because of their service levels.

I would usually agree with that viewpoint but it has been interesting to see service levels change, I think it has more to do with who is running the company and decisions by the company to not compete or cut service levels.

Sky had the best deals on MSE before they decided not to compete, in what I see as a cartel like manner along with the other suppliers.

I see three main stages

1. Great Competition 2012

EE and Talktalk keen for market share and offering deals at around £50 per annum but when I negotiated on renewal (using Sky and EE deals) with TalkTalk I got £24 for the year, they gave me a bigger router, threw in some ethernet over power adapters, a TV box and even gave me free bolt on for international calls.

2. Reasonable competition 2015 to 2016

In this period Sky got serious about getting market share with it's £5.35 deal for a years broadband in September 2015. They then rotated deals of £65 per annum and £100 per annum.

3. No Competition

After BT was allowed to buy EE on 15 January 2015, it took a while but the market changed. We went from getting the best deal being at around £65 a year including line rental to £133 a year today.

However, it is more than just the price that has changed.

Previously you just got the discount, you did not have to jump through any hoops such as claiming vouchers with all the deadlines and problems it brings with it. You were usually not charged for installation unless the premises had no line whatsoever and even that was fixed at £20, there was also £6 to cover the postage for the router they forced you to use.

Now to get that £132 you have to prepay line rental for a year, claim vouchers within a strict window of time with no reminders and that is assuming that your aff link worked properly.

You can be charged up to £60 line rental, are charged 50% more for the router from Sky and it only has 2 ports but you can't use your own router so that means two routers and a bigger electricity bill if you need the standard 4 ports.

When you break down the current deal you pay £227.88 if you can't afford to prepay £197.88 and this is just the line rental, yet these days less and less people are using land lines and despite this the cost of line rental has increased to eye watering levels. Then you have the £65 that you might get back but you might not and as we have seen in this thread Plusnet argue about refunding the prepaid line rental or try to whack on £500 of charges to make customer stay,

I spent many years with Plusnet, long before they were gobbled up by BT, we were promised it would all improve with BT investment but while they did buy another pipe, it was not long before speed levels died again. Then BT and Plusnet had the audacity to introduce a fee for leaving them, I argued that I had not agreed to that and was given 30 days to leave which I did.

I hate Sky as a TV company but I have to admit that their BB service levels are good and they do have a hard to find department who will try to give you the best deal. However, I left when they would not offer me even £100 after my £65 deal expired.

TalkTalk are an awful company to deal with, their call centres vary from rude to obnoxious and I firmly believe their attitude comes from the top. To be fair, it was Diana Mary "Dido" Harding, Baroness Harding of Winscombe who was boss and now she has got a gig at NHS Improvement (God help us all), under her watch I saw TalkTalk go from average service to terrible service, so quite how she is going to improve things at the NHS feels oxymoronic to me.

Virgin does not compete and we have reports of they cramming in users in congested areas rather than investing in infrastructure.

The biggest problem we have in the BB market is BT

BT Control the infrastructure and force higher charges on the others or maybe this opens a line of communication that enable cartel like behaviour, anybody who has worked for a BB supplier and has experience or evidence of illegal cartel like behaviour is encouraged to visit https://www.wbuk.org/#overview or https://www.gov.uk/whistleblowing.

BT have their own company which is the leader in choosing not to seriously compete, but to just offer bundles of TV products.

BT own Plusnet who pretend to compete just so it appears as if there is competition but it is nothing on the levels we had previously (£65 a year).

BT own EE, they mostly did this for the mobile business, again no real effort to compete.

After that we have a number of companies that rebadge, e.g. SSE and Post Office, they either do not or can't compete.

OFCOM have been useless and toothless for years, the CMA have the same disease, now they have allowed SSE to merge with Npower, this will start to impact energy competition in around 18 months.

I always buy on price because to be honest the service levels are rubbish for most suppliers, Plusnet had 40m wait time last year and it took 5 calls to stop the threats of fake debts they manufactured.

Sky answer reasonably quickly in UK working hours but their call centres used out of hours are next to useless.

I have not dealt with Virgin, but family members have and report a very much "take it or leave it" attitude and poor service.

So I am not seeing anybody offering decent service levels, regardless of the price.

Guineapigsqueaks

I agree that it's hard to buy based on service as all the providers seem to have problems with their customer service at times. I'm with Plusnet and have just renewed for 18 months. It took me 12 minutes to get through today, although I abandoned a few calls earlier when informed call waiting times were 45 minutes! I just bobble about doing other things with my mobile on loudspeaker until they answer. They offered me half price Fibre Unlimited at £7.99, pretty much the same as my current deal. I said I'd like it at £5, the same as available to new customers and they said yes. I would have stayed with them for £7.99 as I like the BT Sport I can get through them, but didn't tell them that :-).