Plusnet house move fee £114.99 - Advice

88micm

Hi folks, hopefully someone might have come across this recently.

I am due to move to a new house on 28th July. I called Plusnet and was quoted an engineer call out fee of £114.99 (£65 house move + £49.99 engineer). I was given the option to pay this upfront or add it to my monthly bill which would increase from the £25.50p/m now to something like £36p/m. My current contract runs to Sept 2022 and it has been perfect this far so I'm happy enough with the service. Has anyone come up against this recently and is there anything that can be done to reduce that fee?

The house I am moving to definitely has broadband at the minute so I asked what the engineer fee was for and was told that the last owner had a different provider and something needs done to bring Plusnet from the exchange to the property.

Any help would be much appreciated before I shell out £115 which could really be better used for furnishing as this is my first house!

JJ_Egan

Your current contract is for your current address only .

Choice pay off current contract and get new provider and new user offers at new house .

PRAISETHESUN

If you're happy to sign up to a new Plusnet contract then the house move fee should get waived, but if an engineer is required to get you connected at your new address then you can't really avoid that one. Doesn't matter if the new address is connected with another supplier - Plusnet needs to do something to get you connected to Plusnet, and they need an engineer to do that. The alternative is to pay out your contract and leave, but that doesn't sound like the cheapest option.

Ultimately the ball is in Plusnet's court here, as your contract is only to provide service at your current address. You moving home isn't a condition that allows you to break that contract without incurring any costs.

iniltous

If the service to the ‘new’ address uses Openreach , then irrespective of the actual provider ( TT , Sky , BT or whoever ) there should not be a install fee , as that service is simply migrated to PN ( usually little or no cost ) , you probably start a new contract with a home mover service .
If you are inside a minimum term at your current address, you would have to consider if the early termination fee is worth paying if you can get a new provider to provide service at the new address for less than what PN are suggesting.
I would ask PN , if there is already Openreach service into the address , why the fees, as chances are no engineer visit will be needed , and why other providers don’t charge for a home mover , but if your £25/ month PN service has around 14 months left, chances are the ETC will be more than £115, but ultimately they can simply simply say , pay the install fee or pay the ETC 

88micm

Thanks for the replies, I think I'll give them a call back tomorrow and ask if there is already an Openreach service to the existing house then what is the engineer fee at £45 needed for? If it turned out it was for the set up of the router I'd be pretty annoyed about not clarifying

pramsay13

It might be worth asking if they will waive the fee if you sign up for a new 24 month contract.

88micm

Just to update for anyone in the same situation. I was offered to either:
1) Keep my existing monthly payment and pay an additional £114.99 for the house move fee and engineer call out

2) Add the cost of the engineer and house move fee to my monthly payment for the remainder of my term

3) Take a new 24 month plan for the same service in the new property but waive the engineer call out fee and house move fee

Retrogamer

iniltous said:

If the service to the ‘new’ address uses Openreach , then irrespective of the actual provider ( TT , Sky , BT or whoever ) there should not be a install fee , as that service is simply migrated to PN ( usually little or no cost ) , you probably start a new contract with a home mover service .
If you are inside a minimum term at your current address, you would have to consider if the early termination fee is worth paying if you can get a new provider to provide service at the new address for less than what PN are suggesting.
I would ask PN , if there is already Openreach service into the address , why the fees, as chances are no engineer visit will be needed , and why other providers don’t charge for a home mover , but if your £25/ month PN service has around 14 months left, chances are the ETC will be more than £115, but ultimately they can simply simply say , pay the install fee or pay the ETC 

When a migration of service takes place, an engineer needs to be booked and paid for, by the ISP to go into the exchange / green cabinet and do some physical changes with wiring on the equipment. 

Most ISP's don't make a profit from broadband and use it as a means to either upsell other products & services, or to retain customers who use other products and services. A lot of them absorb the installation and migration costs just as part of their business plans, but rest assured they are also charged.