topic Re: Why you always treat new customers far far better than your loyal customers? in Plusnet Feedback

Why you always treat new customers far far better than your loyal customers?

Zerinth — Tue, 31 Dec 2019 13:35:56 GMT

Been with you guys 5 years. Usually you offer a deal for contract renewal. Not this time.

Unless you call a deal which is more expensive than just about every other deal of 90% of other ISPS out there. (under equivalent fibre broadband 36mb package)

For keeping a customer you offered me an "exclusive" (lol) deal of £26.99 a month 18 month contract. Nothing else.

For getting a new customer you offer £21.99 18 month contract. £70 cashback no activation fee. new customers only provision

Also on your website you offer £23.99 18 month contract £60 plusnet reward card (credit card i guess) and have to pay £10 activation fee. It doesnt say new customers anywhere. Does say online exclusive.

It was a bit bizarre that your call agent [CSA Removed] didnt mention that one to me at all as if it is for current customers then that would have saved me money. She just said ok and hung up.

Interesting way of retaining customers.

I also must have missed the account review you do at the end of the contract because you guys just seemed happy to have me pay the high out of contract rate for a few months lol £36.25

Time to look elsewhere i guess (obviously this will cancel my mobile package with you as well but hey no worries)

Moderator's note by Dick (Strat): CSA name(s) removed (to an area staff can see) as per Forum rules.

Re: Why you always treat new customers far far better than your loyal customers?

VileReynard — Tue, 31 Dec 2019 13:33:22 GMT

Mystified why you are paying more whilst "out of contract".

I've been "out of contract" since about 2013. The price has never changed since the contract price.

(With one exception - one year Plusnet decided to put up everybodys price by a pound).

So I currently pay £20-99 (Broadband only).

If Plusnet wanted to make me pay £36 I'd be off like a shot! - especially if it was for the half-speed version of fibre.

Re: Why you always treat new customers far far better than your loyal customers?

Zerinth — Tue, 31 Dec 2019 13:34:51 GMT

Because i negotiated £22.99 for last 18 months. When deal ends you get put on their highest rate or something. There was also an increase of £1 ish to their line rental in Decemeber (November price was £34.99).

Only good thing is i'm out of contract so i can leave without any hassle ie FREE......*disclaimer* as long as it is to one of the other openreach isps otherwise Plusnet slap on a cessation fee when you leave. (that almost got me the last time xD)

Re: Why you always treat new customers far far better than your loyal customers?

Baldrick1 — Tue, 31 Dec 2019 14:54:51 GMT

@Zerinth

Pick the lowest mainstream competitors price then ring Plusnet customer services and select the I'm thinking of leaving option.

Reject the initial silly offer that they make then quote the competitor and their price. Asl if they will match it. Chances are that you will get to an acceptable deal.

Don't bother quoting new Plusnet customer deals, that avenue does not work.

Re: Why you always treat new customers far far better than your loyal customers?

Townman — Tue, 31 Dec 2019 17:04:39 GMT

"Because I negotiated £22.99 for last 18 months. When deal ends you get put on their highest rate or something."

Two points...

The end of contract review only applies to contracts started after September 2018 so yours does not fall within that process
The deal you "negotiated" was a discount against whatever the after the minimum term price was as advised at that time - it is not a matter of "put on their highest rate or something", rather it is getting put on what you agreed to

But in principle, you are not wrong - I note that there is an "exclusive offer" of £33 for existing users - compared to just £28 for new users with a cash back to boot!!

Re: Why you always treat new customers far far better than your loyal customers?

Gandalf — Fri, 03 Jan 2020 06:13:57 GMT

Thanks for your post @Zerinth

I’m sorry to see you weren’t happy with your renewal offer you’ve been made.

When did you agree to your contract? We only started offering fixed price contracts and account reviews for any contracts which started on or after 8th August 2018.

If you can PM me the best contact number to get you on and a rough time when you’ll be free for a call I’ll be happy to arrange for someone from our customer options team to call you back and discuss this further although I can’t guarantee we can price match you with a new customer deal as they’re simply ‘introductory’ offers.

If you do choose to leave us and you’re out of contract then I’d like to wish you all the best with your new provider and you won’t incur any cancellation fee because we no longer charge a cessation fee as of 1st September 2018.

Moderators Note: Date corrected

Re: Why you always treat new customers far far better than your loyal customers?

VileReynard — Fri, 03 Jan 2020 00:04:41 GMT

So it seems that everybody is dangling sucker deals - hoping that the customer will miss re-contracting (is that a word).

I can remember when a Service Provider was able to quote (and charge) a price for providing a service without any obfuscation.

Re: Why you always treat new customers far far better than your loyal customers?

Townman — Fri, 03 Jan 2020 02:59:55 GMT

That was back in the days of the price is the price. These days there is an unhealthy focus on attracting new customers (at any price) ... whilst allowing existing customers to drift away ... having forgotten the cost of acquiring them.

As an approach to growing market share it simply barking mad.

Re: Why you always treat new customers far far better than your loyal customers?

Zerinth — Mon, 06 Jan 2020 17:12:46 GMT

**update**

I got a call from Plusnet (thanks Gandalf) and they offered £25 for my current fibre (36mbps i think) or £27 for speeds between 63 - 72 mbps. Not bad not great but not bad.

Signed up with Vodafone superfast 2

£23 per month 63 mbps (50mbps "guaranteed")

managed to do it via an affiliate to get £100 amazon gift card (90 day wait) as well.

Should hopefully be the newer vodafone router. As their old router had a few complaints from what i found.

Anyway there is a 14 day cool off / cancellation clause if i dont find their broadband up to it.

Its been an alright 4 1/2 years Plusnet i guess cya! xD

Re: Why you always treat new customers far far better than your loyal customers?

Townman — Mon, 06 Jan 2020 17:25:08 GMT

@JonoH

Another one bites the dust!

This charging loyal customers more than new customer is totally incomprehensible - not just for Plusnet but anyone in this game. The general sentiments that "we [any business] just cannot afford to offer old customers the same price as new ones because we make next to no profit in year one" really does show just how daft such a strategy is - if they leave after the initial discount period any opportunity to make decent margin is totally lost.

Organisations chase after new customers with really attractive offers and incentives and seem completely indifferent to keeping them thereafter - indeed companies seem to discourage them remaining.

How about a new 2020 vision here? Do something sensible which supports market share growth by not making remaining appear so unattractive?

Re: Why you always treat new customers far far better than your loyal customers?

VileReynard — Mon, 06 Jan 2020 17:45:47 GMT

Unfortunately once a couple of ISP's offer silly prices to gain a temporary gain in market share, it means that all ISP's who lack foresight are going to follow suit.

Result - customer is offered high prices at end of contract meaning that they are persuaded to switch to the low price ISP's.

Of course the ISP has to rely on customer inertia to fund all this and savvy customers have to hope that switching won't foul up.

So everybody loses - except the bean counters who can say that they successfully got a lot of new customers signed up.

Re: Why you always treat new customers far far better than your loyal customers?

TeeGee — Mon, 06 Jan 2020 18:05:42 GMT

I have just renewed for a year but it was a monumental hassle to get a half decent deal. The whole process will start all over again then. I am on a 12 month contract to coincide with 12 months Line Rental Saver. If you are on a 18 month contract it takes three years to get back in sync again. It is worth noting that "including line rental" actually includes LR at full price and there is no effective discount for it being necessary for broadband. New customers could get an even better deal if they knew about LRS.

A crucial matter with all ISPs is who provides the email account? PN email works very well for me and I would be reluctant to lose that. I also believe I have historic webspace but even if it still exists I have no idea how to access it!

It is not all about price but a bit more clarity and consistency would be appeciated!

Re: Why you always treat new customers far far better than your loyal customers?

Zerinth — Mon, 06 Jan 2020 18:15:26 GMT

Heres a question...regarding the 14 day cool off (industry regulated time i guess?)

Vodafone forums can be interesting reading and quite a few unhappy campers (basic routing to sites going through unnecessary steps and ppl requiring VPNs to sort it is one thread ....another is the discrepancy between sync speed "guaranteed" and dl speed "not guaranteed" by VF uhhh lol?)

Given the possibility Vodafone fibre will be [-Censored-]. What happens if i cancel within the 14 days then say to myself...oh i quite like the Plusnet deals for *new* customers....

Will i be categorized as a new customer? If so why doesnt everyone do this? (seems to be a loophole) However i suspect not? If not then...what then????

Re: Why you always treat new customers far far better than your loyal customers?

idonno — Mon, 06 Jan 2020 18:27:46 GMT

@TeeGee wrote: I have just renewed for a year but it was a monumental hassle to get a half decent deal.

A crucial matter with all ISPs is who provides the email account? PN email works very well for me and I would be reluctant to lose that. I also believe I have historic webspace but even if it still exists I have no idea how to access it!

It's the reason I don't bother nowadays. I just switch. It really is extremely easy nowadays to switch. I'm currently saving nigh on £100 a year over what I was paying PN for essentially same same. Only a 12 month contract as well. I also got a very nice router to boot and for some strange reason my speeds have gone up by nigh on 10Mb/s - using same equipment.

One thing I never use is the ISP supplied email address. Have had my own domain (and plenty of other free accounts) for years. Means I can just up sticks and away.

Like @Zerinth I was very tempted by the extremely cheap offer of Vodafone. It looks a very good deal. Unfortunately I don't know much about them supplying as a fibre ISP, so its wait and see. But who knows, come next year I might be back with PN or I might not. But then my new ISP says no price increases all the while I'm with them.

Deal or no deal. Stupid system, One price for all customers would make far more sense.

PN loss.

Re: Why you always treat new customers far far better than your loyal customers?

TeeGee — Mon, 06 Jan 2020 18:29:42 GMT

@Zerinth

Simple! You have to gone from PN for 12 months IIRC.

Re: Why you always treat new customers far far better than your loyal customers?

VileReynard — Mon, 06 Jan 2020 18:42:38 GMT

@TeeGee wrote:

A crucial matter with all ISPs is who provides the email account? PN email works very well for me and I would be reluctant to lose that. I also believe I have historic webspace but even if it still exists I have no idea how to access it!

It is not all about price but a bit more clarity and consistency would be appeciated!

Why not make a gradual switch to a webmail account - gmail will spy on you & offer lots of storage - or you could get a free account at protonmail (500MB) and get some serious security & privacy?

Other webmail offerings are available...

Re: Why you always treat new customers far far better than your loyal customers?

Gandalf — Mon, 06 Jan 2020 22:29:12 GMT

Hi @Zerinth I’m sorry to see we weren’t able to offer you a deal you like for us to keep you as a customer and you’re leaving as a result.

Technically once you’ve left you can re-sign up as a new customer straight away with us, there’s no time limitation.

Personally there are loads of things to consider as well as cost when deciding whether to renew or go such as the hassle with switching if something goes wrong during a transfer or afterwards, not to mention you won’t have the benefit of our pretty amazing customer support.

If you do decide to go, I’d like to wish you all the best with your new provider and fingers crossed your transfer will go smoothly and hope we’ll see you back at some point in the future.

Re: Why you always treat new customers far far better than your loyal customers?

Townman — Mon, 06 Jan 2020 22:59:40 GMT

"another is the discrepancy between sync speed "guaranteed" and dl speed "not guaranteed" by VF uhhh lol?)"

There will always be a discrepancy between sync speed and download speed.

Sync speed is the raw transfer speed between the router and the exchange in pure bits. In the case of ADSL the number of bits then available for data is limited to 88.2% of the raw data speed. I do not know what that metric is for FTTC, but I doubt it is 100%.

The Download (data) speed then also factored by your internal network, the capability of your device, the capacity / congestion of your exchange up-stream for your chosen ISP. Also add to that the routing capacity of your chosen ISP and the difference between sync speed and data speed can be quite marked and very variable.

Re: Why you always treat new customers far far better than your loyal customers?

Red_devil — Thu, 09 Jan 2020 10:11:38 GMT

I'm interested that a price match or near price match might be available.

I have been with plusnet over 20 years and have always found them to be helpful at renewal until this year.

I rang this week and was firstly told that the best they could do for me was £41.99 a month (fibre extra including calls).

I checked around and could get that speed with calls for £28 from Vodafone (and £80 cashback).

I rang plusnet back and told them this (not mentioning the cashback) and the guy just said "that's a great deal - take it".

I don't particularly want to leave plusnet but even with my c£5 a month referral discount I feel that they are pushing me out.

Is there a reason that they didn't even attempt to get near the Vodafone deal?

Obviously if I leave I will also lose my referrals which makes it much less likely that I would ever return.

Some way to treat a loyal customer eh?

Re: Why you always treat new customers far far better than your loyal customers?

VileReynard — Thu, 09 Jan 2020 12:24:11 GMT

I don't know if it works, but it might be possible to convert your account to an email-only account after leaving.

You would need to look at your emails every few weeks (months?) - but you might keep your referrals.

I might be completely wrong about this - probably am!