Plusnet miss billing / miss selling the credit aspect of the phoneline charges again?

wbowindy

Have sent this to Ofcom today after a period of interaction with Plusnet to no avail. I have had all the call charges wiped by Plusnet, but they are unable to explain why, or what was heard on the calls made in November and December of 2022 when I was told by customer services that the credit was included in my phoneline charge of £18.95. 
I would like to ask if anybody else has had this or similar experience with Plusnet in recent months?
Here is the transcript sent to Ofcom:

Name of your phone company Plusnet Subject Miss billing and miss selling of credit on account Brief summary of your experience/query I was miss sold the credit aspect of my phoneline account, and miss billed for £123 which was for three months of calls that neither appeared on my bills of January, February, or March of 2023 as itemised calls nore appeared on the unbilled section of calls on the Plusnet member website. The Call Listening outcome of calls made to Plusnet in November and December, have not materialised and are not on the Plusnet system according to Josie Payne's supervisor, James. Josie is now off sick with no indication of when she will return to work. No colleague can explain why the call charges were wiped from my account, and I suspect that it is because of what was heard on the call listening exercise which was supposed to be done by Josie. My contract finishes in June, and, whilst the charges have been wiped from the account, I suspect that Plusnet are trying to avoid another huge fine for miss billing and or miss selling of the credit aspect of the phoneline charges. I feel this needs to be addressed by Ofcom as I am unable to obtain an answer from Plusnet and I suspect they have pulled this stunt with many more customers as the billing team say "the call charges were wiped, what's the problem" There does not seem to be any accountability for the billing team of Plusnet. I would ask that you investigate the company. Sincerely, Below services has been selected : Bundled packageLandline,Broadband

...

MorningcoffeeIV

Occasional account errors happen. There's no widespread conspiracy. Ofcom won't be investigating on the back of your complaint.

You may also want to take your real name out of your post.

iniltous

Its not particularly clear what the issue is , you disputed some call charges , PN agreed to waive them , you seem to suggest that this is some sort of ‘cover up’ where they know of some billing data corruption and will waive charges for those that complain, but any customers that simply paid have been taken advantage of, if this were true there are onerous penalties, way more that the value of the calls charged for should Ofcom find out , I would be surprised if there were any systematic coverup.
You ask why  no one can explain why the call charges were waived , TBH , should the PN have the necessary authority, waived call charges are probably ‘ cheaper’ than any official investigation where the Telco foots the bill of investigation, irrespective of the outcome, some for example, if it were deemed the calls were legitimate, but it costs £500 to find that out , even if ultimately you pay £123 , the net cost is £377.
Im not sure what you think the so called listening exercise , that’s calls between you an PN , and generally are to verify claims made by the customer , like ‘The customer service rep said I wouldn’t have to pay’ , if that can be verified by listening to the call , or listening to the call could refute that , in other words the Telco says ‘we’ve listened, and no such offer was made’ , it certainly isn’t the case that the disputed calls can be listened to.

wbowindy

Thanks for your input and advice. To explainfurther: I posted the item regarding Plusnet, because of irregularities of excuses made by Plusnet, and when the call listening was performed I was not given the details of what was heard. During the call in November, I had phoned Plusnet to tell them that I had made some calls in that month and they were not appearing on my account, either as billed or unbilled calls (I usually use the phoneline for broadband only and make very few calls if any at all as I am charged for each call. Any calls I had made would usually be put on my online bill as itemised calls or unbilled calls. Plusnet explained that the phone number they had for me was not the one registered (their mistake) and told me that they would register the correct phone number and I would not be charged for the very few calls I had made,(the number I had originally been given, when I joined Plusnet, had to be changed later in the year prior to November because of unwanted calls) The same thing happened in December and again when I phoned the correct number was noted and changed, except during this conversation the customer services billing department told me that I have a credit in with my Plusnet phoneline, I explained that that was not the deal I signed up for, the deal I signed up for was for £18.95 line only and I pay for any calls made, he then continued " the credit is in with the cost of the Phoneline " I replied " so I can make a few calls and not be charged for them " he said "No" I then replied "that's good, so I can make a few calls and not worry about having to pay for them" this is where the conversation finished. I made a few calls in January, February, and March, nothing appeared on my bill, no itemised calls and no unbilled calls, I did not worry as I had been told I had a credit on my account which was "in with my phoneline cost" then at the end of March I was hit waith a three month bill for £123! to cut a long story short,  spoke with Plusnet and asked for the call listening to be done for the two calls to them in November and December, I don't know if this was done as they have not given me the outcome of the call listening, I have been told various things by Plusnet including "this is the way we always do our billing, we've done it this way for the past eight years" (I know this comment is not true) I have had one customer services agent start laughing at me when I was explaining that the £123 bill had not appeared on my account during the past three months, at a later date I asked that the supervisor of another agent (Josie) who was tasked with doing the call listening, listen to the calls (as Josie had gone off sick and there was no date for her return) He did not phone, I called him and he claimed he could not find the November and December (only two recordings) on the system. The attitude of the billing department is "the calls have been wiped what's the problem". I have noted that PLusnet were fined £880,000 in 2017 (or 2018) for miss billing customers who were no longer with the company, and I decided that it may be prudent to tell ofcom as this may be another case of Plusnet Miss billing again, I posted here to alert people and to ask if anybody else has had a similar experience with Plusnet, one final thing, my contract with Plusnet finishes in mid June so it may be a case of them dragging their feet in replying as to why the calls were wiped so they can dodge another fine.
I would be interested to hear the MSE Forum thoughts regarding Plusnet.
Thanking you in advance.

born_again

wbowindy said:

Thanks for your input and advice. To explainfurther: I posted the item regarding Plusnet, because of irregularities of excuses made by Plusnet, and when the call listening was performed I was not given the details of what was heard. During the call in November, I had phoned Plusnet to tell them that I had made some calls in that month and they were not appearing on my account, either as billed or unbilled calls (I usually use the phoneline for broadband only and make very few calls if any at all as I am charged for each call. Any calls I had made would usually be put on my online bill as itemised calls or unbilled calls. Plusnet explained that the phone number they had for me was not the one registered (their mistake) and told me that they would register the correct phone number and I would not be charged for the very few calls I had made,(the number I had originally been given, when I joined Plusnet, had to be changed later in the year prior to November because of unwanted calls) The same thing happened in December and again when I phoned the correct number was noted and changed, except during this conversation the customer services billing department told me that I have a credit in with my Plusnet phoneline, I explained that that was not the deal I signed up for, the deal I signed up for was for £18.95 line only and I pay for any calls made, he then continued " the credit is in with the cost of the Phoneline " I replied " so I can make a few calls and not be charged for them " he said "No" I then replied "that's good, so I can make a few calls and not worry about having to pay for them" this is where the conversation finished. I made a few calls in January, February, and March, nothing appeared on my bill, no itemised calls and no unbilled calls, I did not worry as I had been told I had a credit on my account which was "in with my phoneline cost" then at the end of March I was hit waith a three month bill for £123! to cut a long story short,  spoke with Plusnet and asked for the call listening to be done for the two calls to them in November and December, I don't know if this was done as they have not given me the outcome of the call listening, I have been told various things by Plusnet including "this is the way we always do our billing, we've done it this way for the past eight years" (I know this comment is not true) I have had one customer services agent start laughing at me when I was explaining that the £123 bill had not appeared on my account during the past three months, at a later date I asked that the supervisor of another agent (Josie) who was tasked with doing the call listening, listen to the calls (as Josie had gone off sick and there was no date for her return) He did not phone, I called him and he claimed he could not find the November and December (only two recordings) on the system. The attitude of the billing department is "the calls have been wiped what's the problem". I have noted that PLusnet were fined £880,000 in 2017 (or 2018) for miss billing customers who were no longer with the company, and I decided that it may be prudent to tell ofcom as this may be another case of Plusnet Miss billing again, I posted here to alert people and to ask if anybody else has had a similar experience with Plusnet, one final thing, my contract with Plusnet finishes in mid June so it may be a case of them dragging their feet in replying as to why the calls were wiped so they can dodge another fine.
I would be interested to hear the MSE Forum thoughts regarding Plusnet.
Thanking you in advance.

A wall & a half of text & very hard to read.

So PlusNet admitted the error was wrong number & refunded the charges you were billed for. Something reps can do as part of their role when a error is picked up. No, I do not work for PlusNet, but in customer service & have a limit on write off for errors etc.

So your error is totally different to the billing customers that have left.

Call recording systems will overwrite calls after so long. As they are not kept forever due to storage space & cost of this. There can also be glitches in these systems that mean calls can not be pulled to be listened too. So the fact that they could not find the calls is not uncommon.
End of the day, they were right. You are not out of pocket due to their error. If it really was a big issue, it would be all over social media etc.

When June comes, just leave & put this behind you.

wbowindy

born_again said:

wbowindy said:

Thanks for your input and advice. To explainfurther: I posted the item regarding Plusnet, because of irregularities of excuses made by Plusnet, and when the call listening was performed I was not given the details of what was heard. During the call in November, I had phoned Plusnet to tell them that I had made some calls in that month and they were not appearing on my account, either as billed or unbilled calls (I usually use the phoneline for broadband only and make very few calls if any at all as I am charged for each call. Any calls I had made would usually be put on my online bill as itemised calls or unbilled calls. Plusnet explained that the phone number they had for me was not the one registered (their mistake) and told me that they would register the correct phone number and I would not be charged for the very few calls I had made,(the number I had originally been given, when I joined Plusnet, had to be changed later in the year prior to November because of unwanted calls) The same thing happened in December and again when I phoned the correct number was noted and changed, except during this conversation the customer services billing department told me that I have a credit in with my Plusnet phoneline, I explained that that was not the deal I signed up for, the deal I signed up for was for £18.95 line only and I pay for any calls made, he then continued " the credit is in with the cost of the Phoneline " I replied " so I can make a few calls and not be charged for them " he said "No" I then replied "that's good, so I can make a few calls and not worry about having to pay for them" this is where the conversation finished. I made a few calls in January, February, and March, nothing appeared on my bill, no itemised calls and no unbilled calls, I did not worry as I had been told I had a credit on my account which was "in with my phoneline cost" then at the end of March I was hit waith a three month bill for £123! to cut a long story short,  spoke with Plusnet and asked for the call listening to be done for the two calls to them in November and December, I don't know if this was done as they have not given me the outcome of the call listening, I have been told various things by Plusnet including "this is the way we always do our billing, we've done it this way for the past eight years" (I know this comment is not true) I have had one customer services agent start laughing at me when I was explaining that the £123 bill had not appeared on my account during the past three months, at a later date I asked that the supervisor of another agent (Josie) who was tasked with doing the call listening, listen to the calls (as Josie had gone off sick and there was no date for her return) He did not phone, I called him and he claimed he could not find the November and December (only two recordings) on the system. The attitude of the billing department is "the calls have been wiped what's the problem". I have noted that PLusnet were fined £880,000 in 2017 (or 2018) for miss billing customers who were no longer with the company, and I decided that it may be prudent to tell ofcom as this may be another case of Plusnet Miss billing again, I posted here to alert people and to ask if anybody else has had a similar experience with Plusnet, one final thing, my contract with Plusnet finishes in mid June so it may be a case of them dragging their feet in replying as to why the calls were wiped so they can dodge another fine.
I would be interested to hear the MSE Forum thoughts regarding Plusnet.
Thanking you in advance.

A wall & a half of text & very hard to read.

So PlusNet admitted the error was wrong number & refunded the charges you were billed for. Something reps can do as part of their role when a error is picked up. No, I do not work for PlusNet, but in customer service & have a limit on write off for errors etc.

So your error is totally different to the billing customers that have left.

Call recording systems will overwrite calls after so long. As they are not kept forever due to storage space & cost of this. There can also be glitches in these systems that mean calls can not be pulled to be listened too. So the fact that they could not find the calls is not uncommon.
End of the day, they were right. You are not out of pocket due to their error. If it really was a big issue, it would be all over social media etc.

When June comes, just leave & put this behind you.

Thanks for your comment, and apologies for the difficulty in reading. As you have mentioned,  I have already put it behind me, and only wanted to alert of possible billing issues with Plusnet (for future reference) for anybody who may have same experience of no billing for three months and then hit with a huge bill by Plusnet. 
Is it appropriate to leave this  post running or should I close it? Kind regards

littleboo

"he then continued " the credit is in with the cost of the Phoneline " I replied " so I can make a few calls and not be charged for them " he said "No" I then replied "that's good, so I can make a few calls and not worry about having to pay for them" this is where the conversation finished. "
I would say that's a rather ambiguous reply. 

brewerdave

Plusnet have always had this very odd way with phone calls of showing a credit limit. This just means that IF you make more than that ££s of calls they will block your outgoing line or take some other action - it seems a little clearer in the newer billing system ,than it was in the past. 
I've been with them for the phone service since 2012 and the credit limit and credit remaining has always been shown somewhere in the system

Neil_Jones

Plusnet's billing system for calls isn't new, that's how they've always done it. And its documented on the website here:

https://www.plus.net/help/phone/about-phone-credit/

That being said if you're making more than whatever the current charges are for all inclusive calls (£12?) on the Pay As You Call option, you're on the wrong package anyway.

wbowindy

brewerdave said:

Plusnet have always had this very odd way with phone calls of showing a credit limit. This just means that IF you make more than that ££s of calls they will block your outgoing line or take some other action - it seems a little clearer in the newer billing system ,than it was in the past. 
I've been with them for the phone service since 2012 and the credit limit and credit remaining has always been shown somewhere in the system

I joined Plusnet last year on a one year contract and was billed for itenised calls, not on a credit basis. I was given the impression at a later date that a credit was included in my monthly like rental, that is why I started to make a few more calls, and was then billed three months later for three months of calls with no record on my bills or on the system of any itemsed calls or any unbilled calls!
It was not the system used when I joined last June in 2022. Not really sure how Plusnet have behaved in this process!
Although to be fair, they have wiped all call charges.

wbowindy

littleboo said:

"he then continued " the credit is in with the cost of the Phoneline " I replied " so I can make a few calls and not be charged for them " he said "No" I then replied "that's good, so I can make a few calls and not worry about having to pay for them" this is where the conversation finished. "
I would say that's a rather ambiguous reply. 

 I agree, which is one of the things which made me question how Plusnet had behavrd in the process of billing retrospectively.