Direct Debit Guarantee

[#1]

Well I am not on PAYG, its a pity that they dont make repayments quicker than the end of the month plus many days to get all the signatures

[#2]

I said a PAYG billing system, not the PAYG product
BBYW does other a PAYG system, hence why the original billing system applies.

[#3]

Personally I've not had any problems with PlusNet's billing system - the point being made by the OP relates to Direct Debit guarantees and how long in advance one should be notified of variable payments.
Frankly I think that people should keep proper records and know themselves when payments are due - it's not difficult to do and a lot easier than  it was in the pre computer £sd days when I first had a current account.
The DD Guarantee isn't designed to be a substitute for taking personal responsibility - it's there to stop traders taking erroneous payments from one's account as my former ISP did to a great  many customers. When people started asking their bank to reclaim payments, and complain to the sponsoring bank, something was actually done and everyone got 14 days advance warning by email.
I am, however, taking about an ISP where the accounting system was so fouled up that they failed to collect payments for months on end and then tried to collect them all at one go with no warning.

[#4]

Hi guys,
I've checked this in detail with our finance team and as a result was presented with the BACS manual (not light reading I can assure you ;)).
This states that advance notice should be agreed between payer (you) and originator (us) and that this notice must be stated in the Direct Debit guarantee. Two days has been our notice period for sometime now, although due to the way that the BACS system works this will actually be a minimum of three days.
The ten day notice period is the default period where no agreement is specified, and is not a requirement.

[#5]

Thanks for that clarification, Mand 
When I ran a courier service the info went into BACS at Edgware on tape - wonder what happens nowadays.
I used to have a customer who's head office was in Sheffield (parcel company with green vehicles) and I used to pick up their BACS tapes from Leighton Buzzard and take them to Edgware in my car 

[#6]

Thanks for finding that out, Mand, I am sure many firms believed the same as I did or they would collect their money 8 days earlier. BT and utility companies could save loads of money by using 2 days instead of 10 working days to collect payments.

[#7]

Quote from: nadger

Thanks for that clarification, Mand  When I ran a courier service the info went into BACS at Edgware on tape - wonder what happens nowadays.

As I'm sure you'd suspect, it's done electronically. Up until last year our company used and ISDN connection for the transfer, though now it's done using a secure connection across the internet.

[#8]

Quote from: Mand

The ten day notice period is the default period where no agreement is specified, and is not a requirement.

What  would happen if customers wish to vary their plusnet  DD to10 working days notice before taking the money from the bank
PN should know contracts work both ways!!! and as for saying it’s the way the computer has done it.  Computers are run by people, reprogram it
puddy

[#9]

Quote from: puddy

What  would happen if customers wish to vary their plusnet  DD to10 working days notice before taking the money from the bank PN should know contracts work both ways!!!

I would surmise that PlusNet would politely suggest the customer take their business elsewhere. A contract is an agreement, and if the customer does not accept PlusNet's terms, then there is nothing he or she can do to make them change them. Contracts only "work both ways" when both parties agree to the same terms! When I (and presumably you, if you're a DD PlusNet customer) signed up with PlusNet (or Force9 in my case) we accepted their terms and conditions - we're not in any position to insist that PlusNet change them! (Though if there was enough customer pressure, and the possibility of loosing business, they might, at their discretion).

[#10]

Hi there,
If the two day notice period is not suitable for you then there are other payment methods available, but yes this forms part of our terms when you elect to pay by DD.
I'm sure if there was enough feedback from customers requesting that this change then we'd look into it but to be honest it's not something that we get a lot of feedback regarding.

[#11]

I would like 10 working days notice or 14 days before amount disappear from my bank
DD setup was a saftey issue if you got a bill that was wrong you should be given 10 days notice in which to query it with the company concerned and then the correct payment would be taken.
I have 10 DD a month and on checking the dates none were less than 7 working days to query, so why Plusnet so very different?
Puddy

[#12]

Puddy, out of interest how many of those DDs are for services on a variable amount per month contract?
I think one of the problems (if I understand correctly) is that Plusnet take your connection charge in advance (easy to give extra notice for) and additional usage in arrears. Because the additional usage / charges are all based around your billing month, it is only at then end of the month they know what the charge is. Consequently with a 10 day notice period, if the person defaults on their DD payment, they have had 10 days free usage.
Even with 10 days notice of a DD claim it is normally impossible to stop that claim being made by the company as it is already in the companies DD system. Sometimes I do wonder how much of that is a technical problem rather than the rep you are speaking to is unwilling to try.

[#13]

Following Mand's post I looked at the DD guarantee and it does say 2 days so it's part of the contract I agreed to on joining.
Two days notice isn't causing me a problem but the problems involved, for PlusNet, in changing this would, imho, make it a non starter or, at the very least, low priority.
I can calculate fairly accurately what my bill on 18th April will be - additional phone calls are now the only variable.
Were PlusNet to try and take several times the correct amount I could still stop payment by phoning my bank but, to date, have no reason to suppose this would happen. Minor errors could be resolved by normal means.

[#14]

Quote from: Spider

I think one of the problems (if I understand correctly) is that Plusnet take your connection charge in advance (easy to give extra notice for) and additional usage in arrears. Because the additional usage / charges are all based around your billing month, it is only at then end of the month they know what the charge is. Consequently with a 10 day notice period, if the person defaults on their DD payment, they have had 10 days free usage.

If you add into that the fact that we wouldn't know if a DD failed for a further 7 days you could have over half a month of free usage. From a credit risk point of view that could be very problematic.

Quote from: Spider

Even with 10 days notice of a DD claim it is normally impossible to stop that claim being made by the company as it is already in the companies DD system. Sometimes I do wonder how much of that is a technical problem rather than the rep you are speaking to is unwilling to try.

Once we've sent you the notification that the DD has been submitted we cannot cancel it as it's in the system. That's not us being difficult, it's just not possible (even manually by our finance peeps this cannot be done). As such if you had such an issue the best recourse would be to get your bank to stop it, or make a claim under the DD guarantee.
Billing mistakes will happen from time to time, with the number of systems we have and the number of customers this is unavoidable unfortunately, but we will always go as far as we can to rectify these and recompense customers accordingly.

[#15]

Quote from: Mand

If you add into that the fact that we wouldn't know if a DD failed for a further 7 days you could have over half a month of free usage. From a credit risk point of view that could be very problematic.

Other businesses in the same line do cope with 10 working days, and to use a failure as an excuse not to use the industry standard is bit heavy handed.
The 10 days was obviously not just put in for fun, presumably it was deemed to be a reasonable period for the customer to have chance to check out the money being taken before it happened.
For many who have a fixed price BB and nothing else this is not important because it is only for a change in amount. It does seem a bit like saying one needs a sledge hammer to crack a nut, if what is being said is  effectively if you disagree with the amount and cannot get to check it in the two days and say you dispute one of the telephone calls, then one calls the bank and asks them to refund the money and claim back from PN whilst it is sorted out. The 10 working days allows the customer adequate time to check the bill and raise an issue before the sweep is made.
I agree that we signed up for it, but one does wonder why every other company I have dealt with has offered 10 working days, when they could have money brought in much quicker if they only offered one or two days notice. I am a little surprised that no eyebrows are raised by the sponsoring bank or the banking system.
I guess its a customer service issue really.