Plusnet cancellation fee much higher than what I signed for

erik85

Hi all,

hope you can help me with a contractual issue I'm having with my current broadband provider, Plusnet.
I wanted to quit with them and sign up with a different provider to get fibre to the premises, however the cancellation charges that Plusnet has issued me is by far not what I thought it was going to be.

I renewed my contract with Plusnet in June last year for 24 months.
I believe the conversation happened via phone.

For the life of me I cannot find an actual contract in my email box or online platform.
The closest thing I have to a contract is this pdf that I saved down when we were digitally signing my 24 months renewal.
It is a 16 pager document, where on one page there is literally a headline (for example, "You have up to 14 days from tomorrow to cancel your order" and on the following an audit trail with the name of the Plusnet operator, date timestamps, My name, Ip addresses, and my approval).


On the first page of this document there is a recap of the Customer Basket and it reads "Plusnet Unlimited Fibre Extra
Broadband - Description: The Early Termination Charge is £ 0.00" and then a couple of rows below "Plusnet line rental - Description: The Early Termination Charge is £9.12"

I genuinely thought I was going to be charged 10 pound for terminating the contract.
It turns out Plusnet wants to charge me £159.87 and in the same email they provided a link to how the early termination charge is calculated (is complicated, but in a nutshell it is factoring in how many months of contract I have left, minus VAT, costs etc).

Small digression: another interesting bit is, a month before my contract was about to expire in June last year, I received an email from Plusnet informing me of that and also providing me with a "best price" of £24.99 p month on a 12 months contract.
The contract I signed with them on the phone call I had with them is for £26.99 p month for 24 months! For exactly the same service!!!!

So to recap: I signed up for a 24 months broadband term, I don't actually have a contract anywhere to read, I only have an audited trail pdf document that states that The Early Termination Charge is £9.12 and I signed up for a broadband from a new provider thinking I was going to pay £9.12 as cancellation fees! How can I now challenge Plusnet that are trying to charge me instead £159.87 ? How can they enforce that based on a webpage, rather than what I have written black on white in that audited and digitally signed document? Thanks!

400ixl

The early termination fee will be the administrative change, but you are in a fixed length contract so you also have to pay for the balance of the contract that you are trying to get out of. That remaining contract cost obviously reduces every month you are into the term, the administrative charge is a static amount.

You will have had those contract terms available, whether you chose to read them is a different matter. You can try to claim that they misled you, you may be successful, you may not, only way to find out is to make a formal complaint.

One other thing to consider is that Plusnet themselves have reportedly done a quiet launch of their FTTP (Fibre to Premises) service and you may be able to request that and avoid all of the termination costs. It appears not to be online, but some people have been able to get it over the phone. A recent article on it is https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2022/05/isp-plusnet-in-low-key-uk-launch-of-fttp-broadband-packages.html

Neil_Jones

erik85 said:

Hi all,

hope you can help me with a contractual issue I'm having with my current broadband provider, Plusnet.
I wanted to quit with them and sign up with a different provider to get fibre to the premises, however the cancellation charges that Plusnet has issued me is by far not what I thought it was going to be.

I renewed my contract with Plusnet in June last year for 24 months.
I believe the conversation happened via phone.

For the life of me I cannot find an actual contract in my email box or online platform.
The closest thing I have to a contract is this pdf that I saved down when we were digitally signing my 24 months renewal.
It is a 16 pager document, where on one page there is literally a headline (for example, "You have up to 14 days from tomorrow to cancel your order" and on the following an audit trail with the name of the Plusnet operator, date timestamps, My name, Ip addresses, and my approval).


On the first page of this document there is a recap of the Customer Basket and it reads "Plusnet Unlimited Fibre Extra
Broadband - Description: The Early Termination Charge is £ 0.00" and then a couple of rows below "Plusnet line rental - Description: The Early Termination Charge is £9.12"

I genuinely thought I was going to be charged 10 pound for terminating the contract.
It turns out Plusnet wants to charge me £159.87 and in the same email they provided a link to how the early termination charge is calculated (is complicated, but in a nutshell it is factoring in how many months of contract I have left, minus VAT, costs etc).

Small digression: another interesting bit is, a month before my contract was about to expire in June last year, I received an email from Plusnet informing me of that and also providing me with a "best price" of £24.99 p month on a 12 months contract.
The contract I signed with them on the phone call I had with them is for £26.99 p month for 24 months! For exactly the same service!!!!

So to recap: I signed up for a 24 months broadband term, I don't actually have a contract anywhere to read, I only have an audited trail pdf document that states that The Early Termination Charge is £9.12 and I signed up for a broadband from a new provider thinking I was going to pay £9.12 as cancellation fees! How can I now challenge Plusnet that are trying to charge me instead £159.87 ? How can they enforce that based on a webpage, rather than what I have written black on white in that audited and digitally signed document? Thanks!

You can go back through the Help Assistant:

https://www.plus.net/wizard/?p=search

Last time I renewed I didn't get a 16 page document (online or by phone) so not entirely sure what you're looking at.

Re: the £26.99/£24.99 thing - your loss, should have took £24.99 online.

The termination charges are documented here:

https://www.plus.net/help/my-account/early-termination-charges/

The £159.87 if I follow the formula on the website (the wholesale costs is the unknown) but I can get it using their figures to £136 so it sounds plausible.

That £9.12 figure sounds far too cheap for line rental ETC.  AFAIK they don't do it on their own, it has to be taken with broadband.

iniltous

TBH , if you have 11 months of a minimum term left , and pay £25-27 a month then if you fulfilled your minimum term, PN would receive at least another £275-£297 from you , removing VAT and the fact that ETC isn’t just a multiple of the months left x monthly cost , the figure they quote, £160 seems reasonable.
As stated , PN may now offer FTTP themselves, or as part of BT Group were offering upgrades to BT FTTP with no penalty , but if you don’t want to go down that route , the amount doesn’t seem inflated…, there is a link provided so you can work out the exact amount if you disagree with PN’s calculation
I would think the vast majority of all ISP customers don’t ‘sign’ a contract , the T&C are available on line , not having a paper contract is irrelevant, you don’t seem to dispute that you are within a minimum term until June 2023 , so it’s not clear what the issue is.

kroggy

@Erik85 you entered into a contract and the exit fee is lower than they have potential to charge you, they are particularly bad on cancellation of TV with some being asked to pay over £500 when leaving due to a price rise.  I believe that if Plusnet increase the price of your contract midterm you are entitled to cancel within 30 days.

The way I would deal with this is to wait the 1 hour it takes to call them and ask for the retention department and wait another 45 minutes, then say you need to leave but ask if they will do you an upgrade to fibre for a special deal, mention other providers deals.  Typically they will not charge you a break fee if you stay with them, only if you move to another supplier.  

wild666

The £9.12 is multiplied by the number of months left on the contract. I remember back in 2016 when BT upped their price I would have being paying £73 per month and I was out of contract so I jumped to Plusnet but BT still wanted over £250 of me for early termination fees, that was until I complained and added a part that said that if the company put's up it's price you can leave without penalty and emailed the CEO. They dropped the price to just £2.50 as my change to Plusnet happened one day after my monthly fee was due.  

brewerdave

wild666 said:

The £9.12 is multiplied by the number of months left on the contract. I remember back in 2016 when BT upped their price I would have being paying £73 per month and I was out of contract so I jumped to Plusnet but BT still wanted over £250 of me for early termination fees, that was until I complained and added a part that said that if the company put's up it's price you can leave without penalty and emailed the CEO. They dropped the price to just £2.50 as my change to Plusnet happened one day after my monthly fee was due.  

And that's why they have all "baked in" an in contract price rise of RPI + 3.X% per month now to stop that escape route !!