topic Re: Direct Debit changes - A suggestion in Plusnet Feedback

Direct Debit changes - A suggestion

pwatson — Fri, 17 Jan 2014 19:47:45 GMT

PN - There have been many threads featuring customers who have changed DD details only to find that their next payment fails. Often this is because they made the change within 10 days of the payment date.
I've just checked and there's no warning of the 10 day processing time on the DD change page in the Member Centre. The page just has spaces for bank details and a reminder of the Direct Debit guarentee.
Why not add a line that says something along the line of:

Quote
Warning - by clicking 'Continue' you will immediately cancel your current Direct Debit instruction and it can take up to 10 working days to set up the new replacement. You are strongly advised not to proceed if your payment date is less than two weeks away and you do not have valid credit/debit card details stored on your account as an alternative method of payment

May prevent a lot of problems in the future!

Re: Direct Debit changes - A suggestion

kmilburn — Fri, 17 Jan 2014 20:04:43 GMT

If only they'd listen though...
As Jelv put it 3 months ago (clearly to short a period to add a simple piece of static text to a web page!!! ::))

Quote from: jelv
The ONLY fault Plusnet have made (and this has been raised before) is not to put a big warning on the page where you set up the direct debit that at least 10 working days must be allowed for the DD to be set up and that any bills raised before it is fully set up will need to be paid by card.

Re: Direct Debit changes - A suggestion

Alex — Fri, 17 Jan 2014 21:28:11 GMT

Maybe because they'll hope people won't try and claim the £1.50 non-DD charge back
I don't know how much merchant fees are on debit cards (as a cheap example), but I assume that's a hefty mark-up then?

Re: Direct Debit changes - A suggestion

AndyH — Fri, 17 Jan 2014 22:09:31 GMT

There should be a warning about the DD processing time - but I think this is normal for all DDs, irrespective of who the DD is with.

Re: Direct Debit changes - A suggestion

w23 — Fri, 17 Jan 2014 23:54:28 GMT

I'd like to add my agreement to all the above (if it makes any difference).
Plusnet are mostly a decent supplier but their handling of DD changes seems terribly protracted compared to most other suppliers, I think the 'new billing system' will sort this out but it does appear to be causing a lot of trouble in the mean time.
If I changed my bank I think I'd have to plan it around my Plusnet billing date rather than any other consideration.