Home phone - but Plusnet pulling the plug

Howarewetoday

Thanks all. I spoke with EE this afternoon to test what's on offer. Figures are Full Fibre 74 £27.99 pcm / 150 £29.99 pcm. With £4 prices hikes annually (basically). Unlimited calls £18 pcm. So £46 pcm / £48pcm

They also offer a full tv package (Sky, TNT Sports etc) for £51 pcm. So total not far off £100 pcm!

The fella I spoke with was pleasant enough but didn't do the usual ' let me see if I can do anything' bit. It was more ' and that's how much it is'. I pressed very hard.

I'm hoping that EE aren't lining up Plusnet customers who will lose their phone service for a premium priced service / no discounts. I did say that the email from Plusnet implied that EE would look after them if they shifted over and that he seemed to be just giving me the standard prices. He didn't disagree.

I'll be calling EE again tomorrow to see if they do any better. I'll post the outcomes when time allows.

more wisdom on here is always handy and very much appreciated

thanks in advance

Howarewetoday

Update. EE Full Fibre 74 is £24.99 pcm with gift card from MSE, USwitch and also Money Supermarket. Full Fibre 150 is £26.99 pcm with a gift card through the three intermediaries.

Yorkie1

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81964458#Comment_81964458

Figures are Full Fibre 74 £27.99 pcm / 150 £29.99 pcm. With £4 prices hikes annually (basically). Unlimited calls £18 pcm. So £46 pcm / £48pcm

That's really interesting - looking online for my address, Full fibre 74 is £31.99 pcm / FF 150 £33.99 (the £18 for unlimited calls is the same online, or £5 pcm plus calls for PAYG).

I'm considering Zen internet but they are more pricey.

Neil_Jones

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81964555#Comment_81964555

Zen are more pricey but you don't have the whole price hike annually thing that you find at the budget end of the market, though you pay more from the outset in the first place at the other end of the scale. You may find it works out about the same over the length of the contract.

FrugaiMacDugal

Thanks for the info on EE prices.

If I just let Plusnet do the switch is there a special deal, no mention in email?

Is it penalty free to switch now if I go direct to EE?

Spikeygran

If you let plusnet handle the switch to ee there are no penalties. It says it will be a comparible service and will not pay more at least until end of contract.

Spikeygran

I'm really annoyed and upset with it all. At 70 plus I'm worried silly to the point of tears to be honest.

I renewed a phone/bb package in november at a good price. The only thing stated was that I wouldn't be able to sign up for phone when that ran out. which I understood. I thought it would give me until later in the year to make my mind up about loss of phone ie stay plusnet port the phone out or just go mobile.

The safety back up (the whole point in a low population rural area with erratic mobile signal) of being able to plug an old phone into the socket during a power cut will go when its voip. The ups offerings from ee give 1 and 8 hours of back up not the days that are actually needed, so not sure its any use continuing. Still trying to decide. I like phones up and downstairs but thinking a spare mobile left on charge next to the bed will do the job. A& A can port the landline number to a mobile for £1.80 a month.

I dont want to go to ee. The whole point of plusnet in the first place was a call centre with staff whos first language is english. However helpful the foreign call centre staff are, its an issue. I've still got good hearing but with a heavy accent its not easy either I dont get everything they are saying or they dont understand what I'm saying.

This is what plusnet have sent

Quote:

Why we're moving you to EE
EE are the fastest growing broadband network, and they can give you a combined broadband and Digital Home Phone service allowing you to continue to make and receive calls over your broadband connection. You'll get smoother calls and reliable broadband all for the same value you have today.

Don't use a home phone? Stay with Plusnet.
If like many you don't use your home phone, you can stay with Plusnet by switching to a broadband only package.

If we haven't heard from you about remaining with Plusnet in the next 30 days, we'll begin moving your broadband and home phone to EE.

End quote

So the only options I'm being given are move to ee with phone or sign up for new bb contract. The option of continuing on my existing contract seem to have been removed. At present they are giving feb 2027 as final date.

Yorkie1

I agree with your points!

I want to keep my landline and BB with the same provider, at least for now, because I want to replicate the experience for my elderly mother. Her contract officially comes to an end in January (so she has not yet had a formal letter to say she must make an urgent decision). My contract comes to an end in just over 2 weeks - I will not lose my landline at that point, but will pay the out of contract monthly fee from the following bill.

Although it would be more straightforward to let Plusnet manage a switch to EE, I don't trust EE if things do not go smoothly. There have been pieces of information on here that they have left vulnerable customers high and dry completely, or request a charge of £75, for an engineer visit.

I need to speak with Zen, but I gather their customer service is generally better, and they make a big point on their website of having UK based call centre colleagues. They are more expensive but, when I did the maths of a 12-month EE contract vs an 18-month Zen contract, there wasn't that much in it (the savings with EE were significantly greater with a 24-month contract).

southsidergs

The EE (& BT) call centres are all in UK/Ireland as well

tichtich

In case it's of interest, I switched to VOIP nearly 2 years ago. I was with Plusnet before, and switched to BT for the sake of VOIP.

Our bill has recently gone up to £25.99 for broadband plus £18 for all-inclusive UK calls, total £43.99. That includes a £5 discount, which they say will continue if I renew the contract for another 2 years, and I assume the same discount would be available to new customers.

This is for the basic part-fibre broadband, which is perfectly fast enough for my needs. But I suppose it might be poorer if you're in a remote location. We haven't had any problems with the broadband, except for occasional brief breaks in the service, which I've had with every broadband supplier I've ever had. So far we've never had a break in the broadband while making a phone call. Nor have we wanted to make a call during a power cut. Anyway we have mobile phones available and good mobile service.

The VOIP was easy to set up, and we don't notice any difference from a normal landline. We wanted new landline phones anyway, so we bought a set of BT phones with a built in WiFi for VOIP. I think that if you don't have built-in WiFi then you need to either connect the main phone station to your router by cable or use a WiFi adaptor. But using an adaptor shouldn't be a problem.