topic Re: Product refresh - charge for excess usage in Plusnet Feedback

Product refresh - charge for excess usage

jelv — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 09:21:40 GMT

Time and again we see complaints about going over the usage allowance by a small amount incurring a £5 penalty. A product refresh is due later this year. This poll is to allow users to express to Plusnet how we would like to see extra usage charged.
At the moment (on the currently sold products) extra usage is charged £5 for each extra 5GB or part thereof with no carry over of extra allowance, so if go go over by 1GB one month and again the next month you are charged £5 for both months. This is option 1 in the poll.
Carry over would allow for the extra usage paid for to be carried forward and used in following months (so in the example above the user would only pay £5 once and pay no more until the 5GB was all used up). It would be fairer to the user and for Plusnet it has the advantage that they get the money sooner. This is option 2 in the poll.
A hybrid would allow the extra allowance to be carried forward to the following month only, if it wasn't used that month it would be lost as at present. This is option 3.
Option 4 is how it used to be on older products, 1GB chunks (at £1 per GB) with no carry over.
I've added an option 5 to allow for other suggestions. If a suggestion emerges which is popular I will edit the poll (I've already set it to allow you to remove and recast your vote if you change your mind).
Please not this poll is about how extra usage should be charged on products with a set allowance, NOT whether usage should be unlimited. Posting unlimited as a suggestion would not be helpful and I will ask the moderators to remove any post along those lines.

Re: Product refresh - charge for excess usage

w23 — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 09:30:15 GMT

'Other', with the specific change being to set the default on additional useage to zero and require user input to allow additional charging.
Additionally some easing of the throttling for over-limit useage so those on a limited budget would be inconvenienced rather than punished when hitting the limit, maybe even with a pop-up when hitting the limit advising why things are running slow but offering to take a payment to cover current billing period only.

Re: Product refresh - charge for excess usage

EnglishMohican — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 09:40:30 GMT

In a way, there is not much difference between option 2 (5GB unlimited carryover) and the 1GB chunks option. In both cases it minimises the loss that the customer faces, in one case by giving him the usage eventually (when he gets round to needing it) and in the other by reducing the amount he loses to a smaller chunk (assuming that option does not carryover far).
£1 per GB seems pretty expensive (at present I pay £12 for 60GB though do not use them all). To then lose this expensively purchased possession is pretty unreasonable.
I do not accept that the process of extending the allocation costs Plusnet anything real. Sure, a computer clicks and whirrs for a millisecond or so but it was there and turned on in any case running idle cycles - so why should the cost be anything more than the 20p per GB that I pay routinely or whatever the customers normal £ per GB rate is?

Re: Product refresh - charge for excess usage

Anonymous — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 10:09:58 GMT

It should not be seen as £5 for a little over limit, but a total of say £11.49 (£6.49 + £5) for 10gb plus a bit !
Which is not too expensive at all.
And as has been stated, the information is there, you just have to read it.
It took me all of 5 minutes upon joining to check limits and extra charges !
Personally, I would like to see everyone, especially newbies, not allowed to go over limit, then being sent an automated
"Do you want to go over your limit ? If so... This is what it will cost you"
And possibly allow a "limited" over limit usage for the last few days before monthly refresh.
Say 1GB.
It's a bit like strikers, they don't seem to realise if they want 10% and are offered 8%, they are in fact only going on strike for 2%, not 10% !

Re: Product refresh - charge for excess usage

dsw — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 10:16:54 GMT

I also wonder why the excess usage is priced so highly? It obviously doesn't cost them 5GB for the bandwidth if you can get 60GB for £11.49! I assume this is to encourage people not to go over the limit?

Re: Product refresh - charge for excess usage

Strat — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 10:20:49 GMT

If you hit your limit a day before the reset and use an extra 250MB that works out in supermarket terminology at £20 per GB

Re: Product refresh - charge for excess usage

ajsvoice — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 10:22:17 GMT

Quote from: dsw
I also wonder why the excess usage is priced so highly? It obviously doesn't cost them 5GB for the bandwidth if you can get 60GB for £11.49! I assume this is to encourage people not to go over the limit?

It's a good way to make money - 10GB is very small in this day and age and easy to go over.

Re: Product refresh - charge for excess usage

dsw — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 10:25:59 GMT

Looking round at other ISPs though they all seem to charge between 50p and £1 for extra usage so PN aren't alone in this.

Re: Product refresh - charge for excess usage

jelv — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 10:26:40 GMT

Quote from: EnglishMohican
I do not accept that the process of extending the allocation costs Plusnet anything real. Sure, a computer clicks and whirrs for a millisecond or so but it was there and turned on in any case running idle cycles - so why should the cost be anything more than the 20p per GB that I pay routinely or whatever the customers normal £ per GB rate is?

Plusnet have to buy the capacity on the links from the exchanges to the Plusnet gateways. The cost of increasing that is pretty steep - that's why they have to charge for extra usage - or everybodies connection would slow down at busy times.

Re: Product refresh - charge for excess usage

davidj66 — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 10:47:20 GMT

Quote from: PlusComUK
It should not be seen as £5 for a little over limit, but a total of say £11.49 (£6.49 + £5) for 10gb plus a bit !

On Market 1 its £17.99 for 10GB plus a bit!!! -or upgrade to 60GB for £17.99 - but I know I'd never get near 60GB on a regular basis

Re: Product refresh - charge for excess usage

avatastic — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 10:51:13 GMT

Quote from: jelv
Plusnet have to buy the capacity on the links from the exchanges to the Plusnet gateways. The cost of increasing that is pretty steep - that's why they have to charge for extra usage - or everybodies connection would slow down at busy times.

I thought BTw's pricing model for ISPs was based on charge/Gb not the amount of available capacity?

Re: Product refresh - charge for excess usage

Strat — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 10:54:38 GMT

My daughter is within 1GB of her 10GB limit because of the school holiday and has received an email.
Her account resets on the 13th of this month so I have advised her to restrict her son's PS3 activity until then rather than buy 5GB, most of which she won't use.
~~I have also told her son not to download the new MW3 map package until later in the week~~. Edit: Fortunately not out until the 15th.

Re: Product refresh - charge for excess usage

EnglishMohican — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 11:08:35 GMT

Quote from: PlusComUK
It should not be seen as £5 for a little over limit, but a total of say £11.49 (£6.49 + £5) for 10gb plus a bit !
SNIP

Why?
They are two almost separate transactions. One transaction buys 10GB for £6.49 and the other buys 0.1GB (in the OPs case) for £5. Why on earth should I see it as one transaction of £11.49.
The second transaction is appalling value though it gets a lot better if the OP actually uses the 5GB he has theoretically bought. The problem is that at 1 minute to midnight on the final day of the month using up 5GB is a bit tricky.

Re: Product refresh - charge for excess usage

EnglishMohican — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 11:18:51 GMT

Quote from: jelv
Plusnet have to buy the capacity on the links from the exchanges to the Plusnet gateways. The cost of increasing that is pretty steep - that's why they have to charge for extra usage - or everybodies connection would slow down at busy times.

What!!!
Your statement is correct but is a non sequitur to my statement which you quoted. I totally agree that a customer should pay for what they use. They should even pay extra for the trouble they cause by changing their mind. But that extra charge should be reasonable and related to the costs Plusnet incur in handling the change of mind. What I was saying was that that extra should not be very much as the process is undoubtedly totally automated.
Sorry if this is a duplicate. I have typed it once already but it seems to have got lost so trying again.

Re: Product refresh - charge for excess usage

leng — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 18:29:16 GMT

I'm almost invariably well within the limit but occasionally I go over - I think only twice since I went onto fiber. I'd like to see some mechanism where you are only charged if you exceed the max on a regular basis or your averaged usage over a longer period (3 months maybe) exceeds the cap.

Re: Product refresh - charge for excess usage

Anotherone — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 20:51:00 GMT

Well I've voted for 1Gb chunks because If I regularly go over I should increase my usage allowance by the necessary number of 1G's or change to a higher usage package, and I don't expect it to be a rip-off fee per G, £1 max, preferably a lot less!
And as I've said in the other thread, the cap should be the default option at sign up, and you get a nice big heading email if you hit it.

Re: Product refresh - charge for excess usage

Mav — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 23:02:25 GMT

I hope it's OK posting my thoughts on this even though I am not currently a customer - but will be back next year.
Would it not be possible for a system to calculate (based on the usage so far that particular month) at the moment you reach your limit how much extra you would need - rounded up to the nearest GB - till the next billing period and be offered that as an option at £1/GB as well as Option 4?
e.g. If, by the 23rd day of June's billing cycle, you have used 10GB then it would be reasonable to expect that you could use 10/(24)*30 (12.5)GB by the 30th day so why not be offered the chance to buy an extra 3GB so that you don't have to change any download habits.
If this has been suggested before my apologies.
Edit: I haven't submitted a vote as I am not, strictly speaking, a PN customer.

Re: Product refresh - charge for excess usage

pjmarsh — Sat, 09 Jun 2012 05:50:50 GMT

The problem I can see with that Mav is out of the ordinary usage sending you over the limit, such as school holidays or one off large downloads. For example my wifes a teacher so our usage always goes up a fair bit when shes on holiday and potentially home all day for a week (or 2, or 8!). Also I occasionally work from home, or do the odd like project/experiment at home and could be downloading and extra 5 or 10GB, this could then push the daily average that would be calculated to work out how much extra would be needed, so the extra amount I need is far too high. Maybe also I'm just heading off on holiday for the last week or 2 of my billing period!
Having said all that I do like your thinking Mav!
I'm unsure on how to vote on this one as I can understand both sides of this. Plusnet will want a low headline price to make the products attractive. This may have to rise if the extra usage was sold in 1GB chunks or rolled over in order to keep Plusnets margins the same.
Phil

Re: Product refresh - charge for excess usage

Trevor — Sat, 09 Jun 2012 07:27:43 GMT

Like Leng, I would like to see usage assessed over a longer period. I am asked for an estimated annual mileage for car insurance purposes and incur no penalty if I do 50% of that in three months. If I am prepared to sign up to a 12 month contract with Plusnet, then I think like my usage level should be assessed over 12 months too.

Re: Product refresh - charge for excess usage

dfunked — Sat, 09 Jun 2012 09:01:49 GMT

It's definitely a bit too expensive at the moment, but still pretty much on par with other ISPs
I think the main problem is that it's switched on by default - as was said earlier it should be off by default with an alert sent out when you're nearing your usage limit advising on how to turn it on if needed...