topic Re: PN are charging me for their error in Plusnet Feedback

PN are charging me for their error

onlyme — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 12:37:44 GMT

I have been billed £1.96 for my Home Phone Call Features package i.e. Caller Display and
Anonymous Caller reject for the past 4 months. However, this month I have had an email stating
that PN have made and error for the past 4 months and should have charged me £4.99 per month
and they are going to charge me the extra on my next bill. I raised a ticket and stated that I
assumed the £1.96 per month was correct and had no reason to question it and felt that is was
unfair of PN to charge me for their error. PN would not give any ground on this, they insist I have
to pay for their error and, "I should have read the amended tariff" linked to the Service Notice
SN6733340; they have admitted that the incorrect charge was their fault:-
Excerpt of email from PN follows:
**************************************
Following our recent price changes the cost of your Home Phone calling
features should have been adjusted.
However, due to a temporary problem with our system this didn't happen,
and you were incorrectly charged for a feature bundle. I'm sorry for any inconvenience caused by this error.
*****************************************
Note the word "temporary" in the last paragraph; it took PN 4 months to find their error, and now
they are charging ME for their error.
I have been with PN for 2 years and this is my first real complaint I have hade with the service,
but because of this..............I could go on forever, words fail me.

Re: PN are charging me for their error

James — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 12:40:43 GMT

Hi Onlyme,
Firstly apologies for any distress that this information may have caused you.
As you have mentioned, it is our fault for incorrectly charging you less, however, it is within our right to recoup the charges that we did not make. If this had happened the other way around, in that we were charging you £3 too much, I'm sure that you would expect us to amend our error as soon as possible.

Re: PN are charging me for their error

itsme — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 12:46:49 GMT

Sorry James but it not as clear cut as that and I don't know the legal situation, only I do know that for Council Tax there is a limited on under payment but not overpayment.

Re: PN are charging me for their error

onlyme — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 12:49:39 GMT

Yes James, but if PN had charged me £3 extra, I would have picked up on it immediately, asked them to correct the error, and request a refund. I would not have left it for 4 months.

Re: PN are charging me for their error

VileReynard — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 21:59:30 GMT

Surely you are only liable for the payment of invoices for services etc rendered?

Re: PN are charging me for their error

craigyoung — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 08:10:29 GMT

No - you're liable for the agreed cost of the services, even if not invoiced immeidately. There's some time limits on it generally, but more than 3 months.
I'd consider it as an interest free loan for four months.

Re: PN are charging me for their error

jelv — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 08:22:34 GMT

Was the OP explicitly notified of the cost of the service in advance - that's not clear to me.

Re: PN are charging me for their error

James — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 08:31:38 GMT

Yes, the exactly cost was referenced and advised that it would be charged on his next invoice date.

Re: PN are charging me for their error

jelv — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 08:38:32 GMT

I'm not clear if you are referring to the amount that should have been charged four months ago or the back payment amount for which he received notification recently. I was referring to the former.

Re: PN are charging me for their error

James — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 08:49:46 GMT

I'm not sure of the former. The latter was notified of as per my above post.
The cost of ACR is documented on our website though.

Re: PN are charging me for their error

jelv — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 08:53:20 GMT

Somebody had better look in to the former because if he wasn't notified in advance of the cost you are on very dodgy ground claiming the back payments!

Re: PN are charging me for their error

itsme — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 09:09:27 GMT

Probably why other companies normally write off back charges after an increase as they have to prove the customer is aware of the charges for a service and therefore knownly being undercharged. If the customer believe they are being charged correctly and are hit by a bill sometime in the future for repayment of undercharging then they have an agrument that if they know the true charge at the time they would have cancelled or modify the service.

Re: PN are charging me for their error

onlyme — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 09:38:54 GMT

# Jelv , #itsme. In reply to some of the above, I was not notified directly of the price increase of the
Anonymous Caller charge which was increased to £4.00 per month at the same time as
SN6733340 was issued in May 2009, although there was a link on the service notice leading to
the new tariffs. As my next 3 months billing showed my Call Features as £1.96 per month, I
assumed this was correct and did not feel I had to check (PN are saying I was at fault here).
# James, your reply No. 7. Yes, I was notified, but only 4 months after the incorrect charging
was applied and PN are claiming 4 months back payment for their error. You are inferring in your
reply that the error was discovered 1 month after the issue of SN6733340.
I would not be complaining if the error was discovered the following month after the price increase
and I would have just shrugged it off, but to leave the issue for 4 months and then charge the
customer for an error which should not have occurred in the first instance, I feel that PN are being
very unfair in charging me for their error.

Re: PN are charging me for their error

jelv — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 09:57:36 GMT

Could you post the contents of the service notice please.

Re: PN are charging me for their error

pierre_pierre — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 10:09:25 GMT

Quote from: Jameseh
I'm not sure of the former. The latter was notified of as per my above post.
The cost of ACR is documented on our website though.

but the web site has only just been corrected, it has been wrong since May

Re: PN are charging me for their error

jelv — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 10:16:40 GMT

If that's correct Plusnet haven't got a leg to stand on - in fact if anyone who had a SN notice that only linked to the website without giving the actual cost and who has been billed the higher amount from the start may well have a case for claiming a refund!

Re: PN are charging me for their error

onlyme — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 10:19:08 GMT

#jelv. This is a copy of the email from PN, is this what you want? Sorry I do not know how to insert HTML.

Important Information about your
Home Phone Service
Dear xxxxxxxxxxx,
Here at Plusnet we have always done our best to give you the highest quality of service and great value products. We're writing to you to let you know that on the 11/05/2009 we will be making some important changes to your Home Phone Anytime package.
Free voicemail
As well as your 240 anytime minutes to UK landlines*, from the 11/05/2009 we'll be making voicemail (1571) completely free of charge and reducing the cost of caller display to just 99p a month**. If you don't already have these features you can add them via the Member centre. Please note, this page will show the current call feature prices until 11/05/2009.
Inclusive calls to customer support
Your package will also include calls to Plusnet support at any time of the day, so if you ever need to call us for any reason it won't cost you a penny extra.
Line rental changes
From the 13/05/2009 your line rental will be increasing to £10.95. This is the first increase in line rental price since we launched our Home Phone products over 2 years ago. We'll also be making some other changes which you can read all about on our Community site.

Read more about how we did
in the 2009 uSwitch awards

Great value broadband
You may have heard about some recent changes that we've made to our broadband products, and that we now offer the UK's cheapest standalone broadband. If you'd like to find out more then please click here. If you want to switch to either of the new products then simply select 'Check availability' and follow the steps.
Finally, if you've got any questions about these changes then have a read of our FAQ or contact our support team by using our online help assistant.
Kind regards,
Anthony Vollmer
CEO, Plusnet
P.S. Remember, your package includes all calls to other Plusnet Home Phone customers at any time*. That's another reason to recommend Plusnet to your friends and family and save money on your monthly bill.

Award-winning services year after year
View details of all our awards
* Calls to UK landline numbers beginning with 01, 02 & 03. All inclusive calls have a maximum free call length of 60 minutes for 01, 02, 03 and Plusnet Home Phone customers. After this they will be charged at the standard prevailing rate. Please check the Home Phone FAQs for more details about Home Phone call charges.
** Voicemail currently 98p a month. Caller display currently £1.47 a month.
This email has been sent as it contains important information about your service from Plusnet. Please do not reply to this email, as this is an unmonitored address.
Plusnet plc
Registered Office: Internet House, 2 Tenter Street, Sheffield, S1 4BY
Registered in England no: 3279013

© Plusnet plc. All Rights Reserved. E&OE

Re: PN are charging me for their error

onlyme — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 10:29:26 GMT

Sorry guys, the Service Notice is SN67333440. The text is the same as the email though.

Re: PN are charging me for their error

pierre_pierre — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 12:36:30 GMT

they completely mucked up mine, also on the 24 package, charged me 1.96 for the caller display,

see below, both taken off net 11th Aug

Re: PN are charging me for their error

onlyme — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 15:02:03 GMT

Yes, that's right, pierre_pierre. That's what they did to me, charged me £1.96 for Caller Display but did not charge for Anonymous Caller (ACR) @ £4.00 per month. They have refunded my (or are going to) £1.96 x 4 and then going to charge me £4.99 x 4 on my next bill. Had PN made it perfectly clear from the outset that the Anonymous Caller had increased to £4.00 per month, I would have cancelled ACR at once. The fact that I was being charged £1.96 per month, I assumed that they were charging me £0.99 for Caller Display and the remainder of £0.97 for ACR. So they couldn't even get the charge for Caller Display correct; they did the same to you; I assume they have put yours right. This is why I am so peeved with them, I still maintain PN should not charge me for their error. Had they charged me the correct amount of £0.99 for Caller Display only, I would have picked up it and sent them a ticket. Has anyone else had the same problem?