PlusNet Early Exit?

YorksNick

Having been a PlusNet customer for many many years in October last year we informed them of a house move and asked them to provision service for transfer at the new address. The previous occupants had been on Virgin so a new landline was required. I asked gave them a switchover date (with approx 4 weeks notice) and asked for the broadband to be transferred on the same package / speed. I also asked for the landline number to be transferred.

This is where PlusNet's incompetence came to really shine - they didn't place the order on OpenReach in time so that when they did they couldn't meet the requested date. As I was working from home this meant a couple of days using a tethered mobile connection. The BT OpenReach engineer turned up on the relevant day and completed the line install. I was advised by PlusNet that the broadband would be activated "immediately", then when "within a few hours" then "overnight" but neither of these promises were kept. The following morning I spoke to someone else in PlusNet who looked and found that there had been no order for broadband actually made so it was never going to work. This was eventually sorted out and I was online. 

It then transpired we'd been given a new landline number - again it transpired that this part of the order had been forgotten about so it took another day to get that sorted out. 

The third and final failing of the order was that they'd not transferred over the package that I was on and put me on their standard rates. After a complaint I now have a person on their social media team having to apply a credit to my account every month to cover the difference between the standard rate and the discounted rate. I am told the only resolution to this would be to set me up with a new account which would temporarily mean a different landline number but they would swap it back again the day after but I don't trust them to get this right.

So - it seems I'm stuck with a 24 month contract until October 2022 but last week I received an email notifying me of a price increase and an option to leave if I give 14 days notice because I'm unhappy with the charges. I called PlusNet and was told that I would have been given notice of the imminent price increase when I signed up last year and therefore I wasn't eligible to be able to leave early and the email was a "mistake". 

My question is - does the fact that I've had an email saying I can exit early over-ride anything that may be in my contract?

I've looked into trying to find out what their early termination fees would be but the wording is so difficult to understand because it talks about deductions for BT Wholesale charges but these aren't published anywhere that I can find. 

I am prepared to take a hit on early termination fees to an extent but obviously I have limits. 

The obvious answer is to call PlusNet again but everytime you speak to a different person you get a different answer and there's nothing in writing so it doesn't avoid them changing their mind again.

Any suggestions or advice on how I can get away from this disgraceful company would be appreciated.

wongataa

The early termination fees would be the value of the contract left - months left times monthly rate.  It is the same for pretty much all ISPs.

brewerdave

YorksNick said:

Any suggestions or advice on how I can get away from this disgraceful company would be appreciated.

If your phone number is important to you then don't forget that a move to another ISP COULD lose it. Is that a risk you want to take when (after a fair amount of kerfeful) you have got what you wanted originally?

YorksNick

Thanks both - Plusnet give a detailed "formula" for how they calculate it which is based on monthly rate x number of months remaining but they apply some discounts. Their website explains the calculation (I can't post the link as I'm a newbie here, but a Google of "plusnet early exit fee" should take you to the relevant page) but states that "We then reduce the charge to take account of any costs we save because of you leaving early, such as wholesale costs" but I've not been able to find out what they are. I'm currently paying around £40.58 per month (phone and broadband combined) and have around 18 months to go - so that's looking at a worst case of over £600 which is too much. However the wholesale reduction could make this potentially more palatable.