2009 Product Refresh - Phase 2

[#1]

Quote from: Bob

Quote from: Wheel_nut Can anybody enlighten us: When can we expect to see the Second Phase? There's no 'Phase 2' in development at the moment.

Bob, In the discussions following the announcement of Value, Unlimited and Pro, condemning the restricted appeal of these products,  it was stated that these were only the first Phase of the product refresh. Was that just eye-wash?

[#2]

No, it's not just eyewash though as Bob said there isn't anything immediately round the corner.

[#3]

I am guessing the refresh of the Business Products was the 2nd phase.

[#4]

No, that's a separate project.

[#5]

OK, So Value, Unlimited and Pro were only the first Phase of the Product refresh.
.... but there isn't a second Phase!
Hmmmmmmmm...... 

[#6]

True - we're hearing nothing... at the moment.

[#7]

My understanding was that some changes would be coming to residential products, but there was no promise of when. As far as I know, that still stands.
Can I suggest that making constructive suggestions of what you'd like to see, would always be a positive move.
Having a pool of well communicated ideas, might help to speed uptake of development.... as they can be incorporated into any future plans from the very beginning. By the time PUG get wind of any changes, there will normally have been a serious amount of behind the scenes work done by Plusnet in feasibility.... get ideas in early and Plusnet will hopefully be listening. If enough people respectfully push for reasonable changes, you might even be able to convince them to start the plans earlier!
PUG can & do press for changes behind the scenes too, but without customer opinions, we would have to give our opinion of what the customers want.... so bring your ideas, and we'll take them to Plusnet too.
So if you get some ideas on the table in this thread, PUG will present them to Plusnet, and see if we can get some movement going...
Mike

[#8]

Could you describe what PUG has suggested since Value and Unlimited were launched for residential customers? We can comment on those for sure.
SW.

[#9]

Mike, just point Plusnet to the mammoth product refresh thread from early in the year - I think that covered pretty much everything!

[#10]

Yes, I second that.
The views of this community have been well expressed there and need not be repeated here.

[#11]

I'm sure they've all been read multiple times, and hopefully notes taken at the time.
But as time moves on, people might find new niggles, or have fresh ideas. Also being real world for a sec, saying "read a mammoth thread from 6 months ago" isn't likely to inspire Plusnet to act quickly now is it. (Would YOU like to re-read that whole thread to find the nuggets of ideas??? No, I wouldn't either.... that is a task likely to sit on the To-Do list for many months without action!)
Having a few well thought out improvements that summarise that "mammoth thread" could well act as a pertinent reminder to kick start the process of tweaks.
Our internal thread on the subject was equally mammoth, but off the top of my head, a few ideas PUG brought to the table in round one, that we'd still like to see:

• Dislike of 18 month Contracts. Push for 12 months. (We were successful for PRO & upgrades from Legacy in round one!)


• Option for 1 month contracts for a suitable monthly premium


• New "option 2" type package in the ~£10.99 (Market 3) & ~£15.99 (Market 1 & 2). For a person who doesn't want "unlimited" but wants better profiles & data transfer quota than "Value".


• New high end package for users who are prepared to pay for more bandwidth, but don't want "unlimited" type profiles.


• Market 3 pricing for PRO

There were other ideas, but I haven't got time to re-read either mammoth thread right now. I'm sure you guys will have other ideas to add too. It must be said that these are just ideas (all of them originate from back in round one... before even the first release!) but we'd still love to see them come to fruition! Hopefully they'll get onto a development radar in due course, whether it be Phase 2, (or Bob's mysteriously intriguing "changes just over the hill"!). Of course, PUG can't promise anything, other than promising to do some badgering behind the scenes, but hopefully we can convince Plusnet there are customers who would happily give them money for products with these changes!
So getting your feedback on those ideas can't do any harm either. If we have a mandate from the people, then we can push that bit harder.... 
Mike

[#12]

I do see your point, but on the other hand we - the forum collective - spent so much time and expended so much effort voicing our opinions over and over again at the time of the refresh that the thought of saying things we've already said countless times before may feel somewhat futile and tiresome - it does to me anyway. As you say, hopefully they took plenty of notes at the time so there shouldn't be a need for us to flog a dead horse. I do however take your point about fresh ideas, if anyone has any... and I must admit I like the idea of that 'option 2'.

[#13]

I think your idea is excellent Mike, and I agree that the thought of reading that long rambling thread that went around and around in circles is not something I would like to do - and i'm sure many others feel the same. And anyway things have moved on since then.
My big gripe with the product refresh was the 18 month contract - which seemingly was justified becuase of setup and hardware costs, .
So I would argue for  a shorter contract period , and in exchange for that pay upfront for the setup and router costs. Give people the choice.

[#14]

As far as I am concerned a product without free activation, house move, router, free transfer, cheaper few months, etc. with a 1 month contract would be ideal and would make a lot of users very happy.
I know I have very few referrals as they seem to be going with Sky but frankly I wouldn't dream of recommending anyone to join Plusnet with an 18 month contract.

[#15]

Same here Jim - I've only ever given a couple of people advice on broadband.
I referred one of my friends to PlusNet .. who is still one of my referrals now.
But he wouldn't have gone near them with 18 month contracts. His main criteria was something he wasn't committed to in case he wanted to cancel broadband at a later date and save money if he had to. Which back in the days ..
I've said before - for the people who are happy with them, then sure, offer them with a financial incentive for the commitment. But then for the people who don't then make them pay a premium to have the flexibility whether it be hardware, setup or whatever. The chances are that the people may stay 12/18 months anyway, and PlusNet then have made more money in the long run.
Obviously management at PlusNet don't care else something would be done about it.
And there was me thinking they'd want business.