PlusNet call charges again.

triade

for the second time with this company, I've found myself subject to unexpected charges.

I can't exactly complain because they'll just tell me it's my fault for not keeping an eye on the number of minutes used.

Thing is, it's not exactly convenient to keep tabs on how many minutes I had used and their website is so bloomin' obtuse. Evening and weekend calls is only 1000 minutes. turns out, that's 4 hours a week each month. try talking to a family member or friend for less than 4 hours in a week. Of course I never expected to 'run out of minutes' on it because 1000 sounds like a lot. and they didn't exactly warn me that i was 'low on minutes', before I went over. of course I went over and that's a 2 hour phone call that's costing me £20 on my next bill.

Technically they haven't done anything wrong, but it doesn't half make me feel cheated. again.

This is not even mentioning the bit they don't tell you, that if you go over an hour on a single call, they start to charge you per minute. the actual customer support on the phone warned me about that ahead of time, as a lot of customers have been stung by it apparently. Makes me wonder if they are actually trying to catch people out.

I've just had no end of misery with them when it comes to phone calls. If you want to use the landline, I say keep away from plusnet, they'll just give you headaches.

luvchocolate

I'm with Plusnet for broadband. Don't have any minutes as dont call out just receive them.
My mobile gives totally unlimited calls for £8 a month  so that's what I use and landline if mobile fails

reddwarf2002

triade said:

for the second time with this company, I've found myself subject to unexpected charges.

I can't exactly complain because they'll just tell me it's my fault for not keeping an eye on the number of minutes used.

Thing is, it's not exactly convenient to keep tabs on how many minutes I had used and their website is so bloomin' obtuse. Evening and weekend calls is only 1000 minutes. turns out, that's 4 hours a week each month. try talking to a family member or friend for less than 4 hours in a week. Of course I never expected to 'run out of minutes' on it because 1000 sounds like a lot. and they didn't exactly warn me that i was 'low on minutes', before I went over. of course I went over and that's a 2 hour phone call that's costing me £20 on my next bill.

Technically they haven't done anything wrong, but it doesn't half make me feel cheated. again.

This is not even mentioning the bit they don't tell you, that if you go over an hour on a single call, they start to charge you per minute. the actual customer support on the phone warned me about that ahead of time, as a lot of customers have been stung by it apparently. Makes me wonder if they are actually trying to catch people out.

I've just had no end of misery with them when it comes to phone calls. If you want to use the landline, I say keep away from plusnet, they'll just give you headaches.

1000 minutes is actually over 16 hours.

matelodave

reddwarf2002 said:

triade said:

for the second time with this company, I've found myself subject to unexpected charges.

I can't exactly complain because they'll just tell me it's my fault for not keeping an eye on the number of minutes used.

Thing is, it's not exactly convenient to keep tabs on how many minutes I had used and their website is so bloomin' obtuse. Evening and weekend calls is only 1000 minutes. turns out, that's 4 hours a week each month. try talking to a family member or friend for less than 4 hours in a week. Of course I never expected to 'run out of minutes' on it because 1000 sounds like a lot. and they didn't exactly warn me that i was 'low on minutes', before I went over. of course I went over and that's a 2 hour phone call that's costing me £20 on my next bill.

Technically they haven't done anything wrong, but it doesn't half make me feel cheated. again.

This is not even mentioning the bit they don't tell you, that if you go over an hour on a single call, they start to charge you per minute. the actual customer support on the phone warned me about that ahead of time, as a lot of customers have been stung by it apparently. Makes me wonder if they are actually trying to catch people out.

I've just had no end of misery with them when it comes to phone calls. If you want to use the landline, I say keep away from plusnet, they'll just give you headaches.

1000 minutes is actually over 16 hours.

but 16 hours a month equals four hours a week.

TBH it's not difficult to understand the concept of a one hour limit - all you have to do is hang up and ring back or get the respondent to ring you back if you really need to spend more than a hour at a time on the phone.

If four hours a week isn't enough then the OP needs to either review how they use the phone or find a deal that better suits their requirements.

I'm sure all the info is detailed in the T&C's and pricing structure but it does take a bit of effort to check it out. Look up the account info on t'interweb.

As they say, this is the second time they've encountered the problem, so you would have hoped that they'd have learned a bit of a lesson the first time it happened and made sure that it didn't happen again by checking and understanding their contract - it's not really down to the supplier to keep reminding people

triade

Different issue the first time. Whenever I visit their site,  it feels like a maze,  and even refuses to load some pages. Last time, it wouldn't load the non billed call info. I just get frustrated every time I go there so I try not to. That's what I meant by 'obtuse'. I'm not a money saving expert so I don't know if maybe this is some kind of trickery that companies do, making it needlessly frustrating for users, so they end up incurring costs they otherwise wouldn't. I thought maybe of om had some rules about that or something, because as has been mentioned, this is the second time. I haven't had issues with any other company recently,  only plus.net, so surely this is an indication that something is amiss? I've been with tesco mobile for years, for example.  Not a single issue.

The one hour limit thing, it seems to be hidden in the terms and conditions. As we all know, the majority of people don't read them. I read them when I first joined plus.net. I honestly didn't feel like I should need to read through all that again, I imagined that upon adding a call plan,  the most appropriate information would be presented,  but of course as mentioned, their website is a mess and it's like a maze to find anything,  unless you already know where to look. Isn't it suspicious that the support lady warned me about that on the phone? I mean on that occasion, I was phoning them about another matter and she went out of her way to warn me about the hour limit. She was aware that this is an issue and was proactively trying to save me from it.

This is why I feel there is a major problem with how they present information to the public. I don't have any problem with the vast majority of companies and websites, but I will point out that I have a relative learning disability that makes information difficult to parse if it's presented in a convoluted manner.

It would be nice if ofcom had rules about this and I could demand they remove these charges as well, but I don't think that is the case and that is not my reason for posting here. I'm posting to raise awareness of something that I feel is an issue.

I mean, I received an email from them today 'warning' me that I'm near my 1000 minute limit. Upon checking the website, I see that I was at 15 minutes remaining on SUNDAY. It took 5 days for an alert email to reach me. Something about that seems incredibly fishy, like they wanted to be able to claim they had given me a warning,  but the warning was so late there was no possible way I could have been helped by it.

I feel pretty bummed about this and it would be nice if somebody could be sympathetic at least.

Neil_Jones

Well with respect nobody else has a problem with the Plusnet website which suggests a configuration issue on your end.

The 1hr thing is documented on the website, its in the price tariff section.

Also the bililng system is always behind real usage, and it can take up to 24hrs to show the latest data.  Again it says this on the website.

Perhaps it might be worth considering whether this is the right supplier for you, if 1000 minutes isn't enough per month.

triade

It was just meant to be temporary. My brother is stuck living in another town 50 miles away and doesn't have Internet access. He moves back in a few months, but I really miss him, he's the only family I have. Plus net repeatedly have the best award for Internet and I don't have any issues with Internet. Its just their website and this whole call plan thing. I didn't want to get a whole other service for a temporary thing, we are both very poor.  I thought that all the info I needed to know would be presented to me before I signed up for something, I thought that was the law. I'm still confused as to why people keep saying 'it's on their website'  as if that makes it okay. I really don't think people should have to search through a website every time they purchase something. For example, if I was told I have x amount of minutes and that is what I sign up for, I shouldn't have to be searching for caveats where those minutes have to be used in hour chunks or I get charged. That doesn't make any sense, it's not how it was sold and its predatory. I still don't understand why people here aren't outraged by this, it's supposed to be a consumer focused site.

edit: I take the view that important information such as that, in the tarrif page is 'hidden' since if I signed up for free evening and weekend calls, why would I need to know call charges. I signed up for free calls, they are al free. when it is sold to me as 'free calls evening and weekend' then that is what i believe I have. it wasn't sold to me as 'free calls evening and weekend as long as they are under an hour'. 

edit 2: furthermore, when I am told i'm getting 1000 minutes of calls to mobiles, I expect that when those 1000 minutes that I'm given are used up, I can't phone mobiles any more. on any phone contract I've ever had, when I run out of inclusive minutes, it won't call any more. maybe you think that's naive, but that's how most regular people think.
I know that's not the case of course, but I'm trying to express how This all seems really obtuse and confusing, and possibly designed to catch people out.

Neil_Jones

Well to be perfectly honest landline calls outside of a bundle aren't very good value, you can get significantly cheaper call rates on a mobile phone even on a bog standard PAYG tariff with an add on..  Landline call costs have risen to the point they have because of the rise of the mobile phone.

triade said:

I'm still confused as to why people keep saying 'it's on their website'  as if that makes it okay. I really don't think people should have to search through a website every time they purchase something. For example, if I was told I have x amount of minutes and that is what I sign up for, I shouldn't have to be searching for caveats where those minutes have to be used in hour chunks or I get charged. That doesn't make any sense, it's not how it was sold and its predatory. I still don't understand why people here aren't outraged by this, it's supposed to be a consumer focused site.

Unfortunately a bad experience on your part doesn't make it an "outrage" for other people to get involved.  With all due respect, nobody else seems to have a problem with the arrangements for the calls with Plusnet, because you would have had a link emailed to you.  It is always your responsibility as the customer to ensure you are on the right deal/package/tariff/whatever for you and your circumstances.  If you're not and you're burning through 1000 minutes a month, then you're clearly not (on the right tariff).

Plusnet is not the only provider that has a 1hr "hang up and redial" thing, many of them do also. 

triade said:

edit 2: furthermore, when I am told i'm getting 1000 minutes of calls to mobiles, I expect that when those 1000 minutes that I'm given are used up, I can't phone mobiles any more. on any phone contract I've ever had, when I run out of inclusive minutes, it won't call any more. maybe you think that's naive, but that's how most regular people think.

I know that's not the case of course, but I'm trying to express how This all seems really obtuse and confusing, and possibly designed to catch people out.

Except it isn't because the agreement is you get 1000 minutes included.  It doesn't say you cannot make more than 1000 minutes worth of calls.  Mobiles are different, they've always worked differently to the landline billing wise and the agreement has always been for them you get x minutes inclusive, if you want more you buy them (or seek a better deal).

400ixl

It hasn't worked that way when you run out of inclusive minutes on most contracts ever. Some mobile contracts have the ability to switch off additional charges but they are opt in not out and the one hour thing has been around for over 2 decades on these inclusive minutes packages on lots of providers. 

Just looked at my Plusnet dashboard and the unbilled minutes is just 1 click off of the main page and loads quickly for me. It does however say that may be up to 24 hours behind real time, but that has also been the case for all suppliers I have been with for since online billing was a thing.

I would also expect people to understand the T&C's at a high level for what they have signed up for. I was able to find these for Plusnet in 4 clicks. It does clearly state the fair use policy is 1000 minutes a month or 150 calls (whichever comes first) in very clear terms.

Sorry that you feel hard done by, but I cannot see how Plusnet is responsible for it. They are very clear, in plain English and not buried in pages of T&C's.

triade

You're illustrating the issue, that you have to hunt out the information in order to know where it is. If you're not aware of the information in the first place, you're not going to hunt it out. 4 clicks is a LOT by the way, especially when you have to know what you're looking for beforehand. That fair use policy for example, I'm pretty sure it would need to have a link to that on the sales page with an asterix next to the '1000 minutes' saying 'fair use policy applies'. otherwise, people are purchasing under false pretences. 

I don't expect people to know the T&C's at a high level. I expect most people have not read them at all. I always thought I was an odd duck because I tend to read every agreement every single time I sign up to a new provider. Every single person I know skips the agreement and expects things to be sold as they appear on the sales page.

400ixl said:

Sorry that you feel hard done by,

I appreciate you saying so, it makes a difference to how i feel.

400ixl said:

 but I cannot see how Plusnet is responsible for it.

I made efforts to illustrate, I'm not looking to make them waive any fees and they are probably legally covered by the info that is probably on their website somewhere. I tried my hardest to make it clear, I am warning people that the way the information is presented feels like it is intentionally confusing and intended to catch people out. I tried very hard to be clear about my feelings that they are not entirely forthcoming and perhaps 'dishonest' in their presentation of their services.  I'm not sure how I could have made my intentions clearer.

I'm not talking legal stuff here, I'm talking about normal people with busy lives, who expect services to work the way they are presented on the sales page.  I'll reiterate, the customer support on the phone went out of her way to warn me about the hour long call thing. She would not have felt the need to do so, if they had not already come across a ton of customers falling foul of it. Obviously this is something that is hurting a lot of people, so evidently, the way it's being presented is insufficient, and people need to be warned about it.

southsidergs

The info isn't hidden behind masses of t&c's at all, the above is a screenshot of what appears when you select the calling plans options for more details when placing an order!