topic Re: billing shock... in My Account/Billing

billing shock...

PNnewbie — Sun, 30 Jul 2023 13:57:22 GMT

I joined Plusnet some years ago then bought both my kids over and paid for all three accounts via a direct debit from my current account. I've also sent a couple of other customers over. I get an email when my contract is drawing to an end and I call Plusnet and negotiate a price for the next 18/24 months. I never heard anything from them about the other two accounts and only realised a few weeks ago that I was paying £41 for one daughter – just for internet access alone and £26.99 for the other – again for internet access only. Neither used the phone – merely the internet. Why the difference in prices I don’t know - and Customer Services themselves didn’t seem to know either… I get unlimited fibre and calls for less. I have since put both accounts on contract at a reduced price obviously and will move all three accounts when the contract ends. I would have cancelled but one of my grand kids uses the internet for her studies and I didn't want a break in service.

Customer Service said that they had been sending reminders – but to another email address. This was an old Freeserve email address I used before joining Plusnet. Two separate people at Customer Service suggested that I write to Head Office saying they might possibly consider a partial refund – if only a token one. However the reply I got from Head Office was “it is the customer responsibility to keep their details up to date…” and promptly closed the ticket.

A few minutes ago I sent an email to my old Freeserve address. Freeserve of course disappeared ages ago so it bounced – “recipient rejected – domain has no delivery address”. Would this not have flagged up an issue at Plusnet when outgoing mails were being bounced? Both my daughter’s accounts were set up by me and they also obviously have my address so would they not have considered mailing me about the two accounts?

I do appreciate that I should have found out sooner so I accept it IS my fault but I do feel perhaps they should/could have realised there was a problem.

Moral of the story? Check your bank statements regularly because if something goes wrong you’ll get little sympathy from Plusnet… They'll just say its your fault - end of.

There, I feel better after a good l o n g moan...!

Re: billing shock...

Anonymous — Sun, 30 Jul 2023 16:38:41 GMT

@PNnewbie

"Would this not have flagged up an issue at Plusnet when outgoing mails were being bounced?"

I doubt it.

Those emails from Plusnet are automated - there is probably a paragraph at the bottom of them saying something like "do not reply to this email because the mailbox is not monitored".

It is very common with bulk generic emails from businesses - have a look at other similar emails that you receive.

Re: billing shock...

corringham — Sun, 30 Jul 2023 16:58:34 GMT

In my experience, most reputable companies do monitor bounced e-mails. Repeatedly sending mails to non-existent addresses is likely to lead to a lowering of your domain's reputation - it is something spammers do.

Most companies also want to keep in contact with their customers, it's how you sell them more things. every few months I get a snail-mail letter from one company that claims an e-mail they sent bounced - I have no idea why as they do actually have the correct address registered, and other e-mails get through OK. However, that shows that a bounced e-mail is noticed and acted on by some companies.

A mail-box that is not monitored usually means it isn't routed to a person - not that it isn't monitored at all.

Re: billing shock...

PNnewbie — Mon, 31 Jul 2023 06:19:41 GMT

Mr_Paul/corringham - thanks for your inputs.

>>> "do not reply to this email because the mailbox is not monitored" <<<

I've certainly seen that but if automated mails are regularly sent to an email address and they bounce I would have expected that the sending software would flag up a possible issue which would be examined by a human at some time... . Certainly if I worked for an institution that sent out a lot of email I would I would consider it good housekeeping to run a check on bounced/undelivered mail every for example 3 months. That way a mailing list could be kept up to date and any possible issues followed up. This does not appear to have happened. Maybe it doesn't happen..

Thanks again for sharing your thoughts.