Product Refresh
Quote from: grahamt and I'm definitely not going to recommend an 18-month PlusNet lock-in to anyone else.
And herein lies a possible problem.
We have been told that referrals are a very important part of PN's business model.
I can see many people taking the same approach - they are not going to recommend PN anymore, so this referral system will wither and die
Quote Our award winning broadband service is now available with unlimited usage.
I wonder how those awards would fare now.
One of the attractions of PN was the one month contract ( fairly irrelevant as most people stop much longer?).
One less feature to push at potential customers in a referral.
Quote from: dusty_bin Can you clarify the clarification
1. Do you keep them all as ongoing entitlements? e.g. if you aren't using IP block at the moment, do you have to get the block before transferring or will you still be able to get the block after transferring?
2. For the ADSL2+ trial. If you are on the trial, will you stay on it or be taken off? If you transfer to Value before being enabled, will you still be able to participate when enabled?
3. If I've transferred my Fax2Email from PAYG to BBYW, can I still keep it after a transfer to Value
1. You keep them when moving if you're currently using them. If unused they'll be removed.
2. If you're on the trial you'll stay on the trial. The trial is open to all customers currently. When the product is fully launched we will communicate the position for all customers.
3. Yes.
Quote from: Mand ...........
That's not the way the products have been built, currently you will automatically get the new pricing, with the introductory discount, and the free house move etc. Therefore the contract is also necessary (the products have to be profitable, we are a business after all ;)).
That's not to say we can't look at it, and I can assure you we are looking at all your feedback on this.
Mand, The imposition of a new 18 month contract upon changing to a different product is outrageous!
If the change of product EXPLICITLY includes an item such as a Router or Activation or some other EXPLICIT cost which is being supplied "FREE" and amortised over the contract tie-in period then that may be justifiable but please stop trying to rip off your existing loyal customers with this.
Loyalty has to be EARNED. If you impose these ridiculous terms, many of us will be off to another provider as soon as the term ends.
Currently, any PlusNet customer who can get O2 Standard (or even TalkTalk LLU) should seriously consider migrating. I have tried both of those services and have to say that I am impresed.
These offerings run completely counter to your previous strategy which ditched all of the Usage hogs and freeloaders and instead attracted users who were willing to pay a fair price for what they use without leaching off those who regularly use less than they pay for. You are now going to attract the locusts who swarmed to Entanet and having destroyed that, are in the air again looking for fresh fields.
Having lost Ian, you have lost the voice of reason in your product design. Oh well! only 11 months 19 days to run on my initial contract.
Quote from: EvilOfAxis I think PlusNet have made a major error with this offering.
I assume BT head-office had a hand in this.
Some ISP's rely on a lot of "churn" and poor customer support - "Don't bother with support, they'll be gone in 18 months"
Other ISP's such as PlusNet used to rely on offering good value - including excellent customer support.
An organisation that contemplates signing up the suckers who didn't read the small print will soon
discover that they don't need to bother too much with expensive support costs
Well - our customers are locked in for 18 months aren't they?
In all honesty there would be no point signing up thousands of customers with just as many flying out the other way. We concentrate on reducing churn, and increasing customer satisfaction, not the other way round.
Support is not changing, and will continue to be exactly what you expect from Plusnet.
Quote from: Mand
Quote from: dusty_bin Can you clarify the clarification
1. Do you keep them all as ongoing entitlements? e.g. if you aren't using IP block at the moment, do you have to get the block before transferring or will you still be able to get the block after transferring?
1. You keep them when moving if you're currently using them. If unused they'll be removed.
Further clarification... if my current BBYW account allows 5 domains, and if I'm already hosting 2 domains will I be able to host 3 more in the future if I move to a new product? Or am I stuck with the two I have?
Currently I'm on BBYW3 (Cost £16-55 after £3 discount).
I could (if I was crazy) pay £15-99 for "Unlimited"
I am prepared to pay 56p per month just to get certain protocols delivered at twice the speed - or in some cases to get no
choking of my connection.
But in about 11 months time, especially I will need to reconsider my position.
The thing I really regret is using PlusNet email accounts.
Will cheap/free dial-up accounts exist in a years time that might allow mail forwarding?
I could (if I was crazy) pay £15-99 for "Unlimited"
I am prepared to pay 56p per month just to get certain protocols delivered at twice the speed - or in some cases to get no
choking of my connection.
But in about 11 months time, especially I will need to reconsider my position.
The thing I really regret is using PlusNet email accounts.
Will cheap/free dial-up accounts exist in a years time that might allow mail forwarding?
Quote from: Mand The change of product includes the introductory price, and a free house move. Both significant costs which have to be costed in. In addition customers can carry over existing deferred contracts. So there is something which needs to be amortised here.
There should be an option which does not include the introductory reduced price. If an existing user moves over it should be on the same basis as their current contract, so if they are currently on something which requires them to stay a year and that has 8 months to run it still has 8 months to run.
You could say that people on monthly contracts are not entitled to a free house move until they've been a user for x months, or they have to pay for the house move if they leave within a year.
Please don't insult our intelligence by pretending that there are not ways of offering contracts free of risk for Plusnet without the 18 months minimum. It's quite clear that this has come from BT. You don't have to look around far to see how unpopular the 18 months is on the BT contracts so why didn't Plusnet stand up to BT and point out that this would go down like a lead balloon?
