£5 for 5GB

[#1]

I've read through the post in detail and I think this is correct:-

 MARKET 1 & 2

               

Product	Data	Speed	Quality	Current Price	New Price
Value	10GB	ADSL 1	Good	£11.99	£12.99
Extra	60GB	ADSL 2	Better	n/a	£17.99
Premium	80GB	ADSL 2	Better	£19.99	£19.99 (but no longer for sale)
Pro	20GB	ADSL 2	Best	£19.99	£22.99

MARKET 3

               

Product	Data	Speed	Quality	Current Price	New Price
Value	10GB	ADSL 1	Good	£5.99	£6.49
Extra	60GB	ADSL 2	Better	n/a	£11.49
Premium	80GB	ADSL 2	Better	£15.99	£15.99 (but no longer for sale)
Pro	20GB	ADSL 2	Best	£19.99	£16.49 #

NOTES:
Data:
This is the allowed bandwidth of data that can be used per month between the hours of 8am and midnight. Overnight all usage is always free on all these products (eg doesn't use up the data allowance).
Speed:
ADSL 1 = up to 8Mb/s service
ADSL 2 = up to 20Mb/s service (where the exchange is upgraded for this) and up to 8Mb/s elsewhere.
Quality:
Being a shared service, this relates to the priority various traffic is given on the network during peak times (note simple browsing and emails etc will always be "best" on all packages).
I'm not totally happy with the over-simplification of the labels "good, better & best", but it gives a vague idea of relative quality ratings of the traffic shaping.
(if anyone has a better idea for labelling them, let me know!)
Old Prices:
These are the current prices, and will remain in force for existing customers for the next 12 months. ( # exception being PRO in Market 3, where the customers will pay the new lower price of £16.49 from next month)
New Prices:
These are the prices that new customers will pay from April 12th and existing customers will pay in a year's time.
WARNING:
This is my interpretation of the info in this thread that I have gathered into one place, not Plusnet's own marketing bumf...
I accept no responsibility for inaccuracies! It is your responsibility to check all this info with Plusnet, and make your own product choices having researched your needs.

If you spot anything wrong, let me know and I'll edit the post.
Hope this helps...
Mike

[#2]

The increased price of Pro for users on Market 1/2 raises the question about the Pro Lite product which has been raised many times before (speeds like Pro but with a smaller allowance and cheaper price).

[#3]

Quote from: Be3G

The two decidedly customer-unfriendly moves of increasing the extra usage portions and also increasing people's charges with little justification (albeit in 12 months' time) has still left a bit of an unpleasant taste. So I suppose what I'm saying is, well done Plusnet for coming up with what I think is the strongest product range I've seen for a long time… but I just wish you'd stop dropping these small bombshells on your loyal, long-term customers.

I can see the feedback here regarding £5 for 5GB, but as far as I'm aware no-one is complaining that we're not putting their price up right now? I personally think a prize-freeze for 12 months is a decidedly customer-friendly move, and is much better than 30 days notice and then an increase.

[#4]

Quote from: A

Personally, I'm totally confused. Do I stay on the current rates for 12 months or not? Why try to alienate people - I am most unlikely to use 80+GB in a month. If I want my so-called "static" ip-address back, they want to charge me a fiver for the privilege!

From launch Premium is removed from sale, and the price remains unchanged.
We're not trying to alienate anyone.
The charge for the static IP is a one-off admin charge, tbh a lot of ISP's charge a monthly fee for a static IP, so I think we're on the right track with this one. Of course if you want to ask for one before launch you'd get it for free.

[#5]

Quote from: WebDude

Right now, I have a ticket (and had been waiting patiently, since it went into the queue before 8pm Tuesday) asking to upgrade from dial-up (I moved home and had a multi-year break from PN broadband) to the Premium account, but now I am unsure (without confirmation about the cost) as to whether it would be better to close that ticket and wait for the Extra account.

Will Extra be a better fit for you usage-wise?

Quote from: WebDude

Can anyone tell me if there's still a fee to pay for th 'privilege' of a downgrade ?  (OK, I would be locked into Premium for a year, but it's either cancel the request for upgrade now, or be locked into Premium anyway).

There's no cost to downgrade, and you'll only be required to stay for a year if you've taken activation or hardware (or pay the costs).

Quote from: WebDude

Of course, I could use the full 80 GB (I have been running on a 5 GB limit for near 18 months, and it is very restricting, and still have 300+ GB credit for Usenet traffic from one of the news services (Astraweb - heck, forgot their name for a moment, so long since I've been downloading!)  but I am just thinkingabout the possibility PN mightbump up the price in a year's time...

Currently there are no plans to change the price of Premium, but if we did do that we'd have to send detrimental change notices to all customers.

Quote from: WebDude

As for static IP - I thought you could request it once you have an account.  Where's there info about it costing a fiver, please?

It's in the FAQ here and will apply from 12th April.

[#6]

Quote from: xpcomputers

I've read through the post in detail and I think this is correct:-  MARKET 1 & 2                 Product    Data    Speed    Quality    Current Price New Price Value 10GB ADSL 1 Good £11.99 £12.99 Extra 60GB ADSL 2 Better n/a £17.99 Premium 80GB ADSL 2 Better £19.99 £19.99 (but no longer for sale) Pro 20GB ADSL 2 Best £19.99 £22.99 MARKET 3                 Product    Data    Speed    Quality    Current Price New Price Value 10GB ADSL 1 Good £5.99 £6.49 Extra 60GB ADSL 2 Better n/a £11.49 Premium 80GB ADSL 2 Better £15.99 £15.99 (but no longer for sale) Pro 20GB ADSL 2 Best £19.99 £16.49 # NOTES: Data: This is the allowed bandwidth of data that can be used per month between the hours of 8am and midnight. Overnight all usage is always free on all these products (eg doesn't use up the data allowance). Speed: ADSL 1 = up to 8Mb/s service ADSL 2 = up to 20Mb/s service (where the exchange is upgraded for this) and up to 8Mb/s elsewhere. Quality: Being a shared service, this relates to the priority various traffic is given on the network during peak times (note simple browsing and emails etc will always be "best" on all packages). I'm not totally happy with the over-simplification of the labels "good, better & best", but it gives a vague idea of relative quality ratings of the traffic shaping. (if anyone has a better idea for labelling them, let me know!) Old Prices: These are the current prices, and will remain in force for existing customers for the next 12 months. ( # exception being PRO in Market 3, where the customers will pay the new lower price of £16.49 from next month) New Prices: These are the prices that new customers will pay from April 12th and existing customers will pay in a year's time. WARNING: This is my interpretation of the info in this thread that I have gathered into one place, not Plusnet's own marketing bumf... I accept no responsibility for inaccuracies! It is your responsibility to check all this info with Plusnet, and make your own product choices having researched your needs. If you spot anything wrong, let me know and I'll edit the post. Hope this helps... Mike

Looks spot on to me, thanks Mike, saved me a job.

[#7]

Quote from: jelv

The increased price of Pro for users on Market 1/2 raises the question about the Pro Lite product which has been raised many times before (speeds like Pro but with a smaller allowance and cheaper price).

Some people are never happy. 
AFAIK it's still on the ideas list, but we have a similar product on MAAF and it doesn't generate that many sales.

[#8]

I can see an argument for selling additional 5GB chunks to people who usually expect to use 60-80 GB per month. However,  for those who normally use less than 10GB it makes no sense for the customer. It could even prove detrimental to Plusnet - what it gains from some customers going over their limits it may more than lose from other customers taking extra care not to exceed their limits. Better to sell 2GB for £2 than not to sell 5GB for £5.
I do welcome the price freeze for existing customers.  My first thought was that PN had attracted new customers promising Value from £5.99 only to increase the price soon after. With monthly contracts PN could have increased its prices  at one month's notice but it didn't..

[#9]

This is a really dumb move for Plusnet, the argument that it is easier is ball hooks, it is a computer program for goodness sake, there is no human interaction you just get billed by a cron job.
This is offensive, it is is similar to banks charging you £30 for going 1p overdrawn, can't they see that?
Now how does it appear to new customers?
Consider two eBay auctions for a brand new Dell Laptop worth £400, one starts at a penny with no reserve, the other starts at £390 with a buy it now of £400. 
Obviously the first auction will grab the Attention of many people who may be Interested enough to watch the auction, they will review the description and Desire the product which will make it likely that they will take Action and bid for the first laptop.  The second laptop will be ignored.
AIDA is at the root of marketing, but there is another similarity; many people who decide to bid on that first auction will get carried away and may even pay over the £400 and so it is with Plusnet.  The difference is THEY made the decision to spend more not the seller (Plusnet).
I set my Plusnet CP to not allow any excess when they moved from £1 to £2, I am a tight sod, if they had left it at £1 I might have let it overun from time to time.  With inflation at such a low why is it that companies think they can make a 150% up lift on a component that has already had a 100% up lift?  They should be reducing it to 50p per 500k because buyers will perceive value even if they actually download 5gb.
I am still on BBYW and one of the reasons I won't move off it is that I can reach my limit and still get a 128k basic service. 
As I understand it new products don't have this, they just cut you off with limited access to the portal to reload your £5, OUCH!
Sadly I don't think PN will have the balls to admit they were wrong until they see yet more customers fly out the door and wonder why no new ones are signing up.  I can see sites like Money Saving Expert who have recommended Plusnet in the past now putting a warning about the sting in the tail with Plusnet.
It is a dumb idea, just accept it and scrap it.

[#10]

Quote from: Zap

As I understand it new products don't have this, they just cut you off with limited access to the portal to reload your £5, OUCH!

Completely wrong - read the FAQ http://community.plus.net/faq_201003/?WT.mc_id=ec_int_201003_RPR_1&link=faq

Quote

If you’ve set a price limit (or chosen the ‘fixed price’ option) you’ll be restricted until your next billing date (web pages and email will work fine (restricted to 128k) but most advanced protocols such as peer-to-peer downloads, binary news downloads, FTP services and streaming will be blocked.

[#11]

Quote from: Zap

This is a really dumb move for Plusnet, the argument that it is easier is ball hooks, it is a computer program for goodness sake, there is no human interaction you just get billed by a cron job. This is offensive, it is is similar to banks charging you £30 for going 1p overdrawn, can't they see that?

Our billing system is slightly more complicated than a cron job. It is easier in terms of managing traffic, simplified billing, less confusion for customers, and with the tools available it's easy to manage your monthly bill.

Quote from: Zap

AIDA is at the root of marketing, but there is another similarity; many people who decide to bid on that first auction will get carried away and may even pay over the £400 and so it is with Plusnet.  The difference is THEY made the decision to spend more not the seller (Plusnet). I set my Plusnet CP to not allow any excess when they moved from £1 to £2, I am a tight sod, if they had left it at £1 I might have let it overun from time to time.  With inflation at such a low why is it that companies think they can make a 150% up lift on a component that has already had a 100% up lift?  They should be reducing it to 50p per 500k because buyers will perceive value even if they actually download 5gb.

Customers will still be making the decision to pay for extra usage, by using more than their allowance, or by not restricting their spend.

Quote from: Zap

I am still on BBYW and one of the reasons I won't move off it is that I can reach my limit and still get a 128k basic service.  As I understand it new products don't have this, they just cut you off with limited access to the portal to reload your £5, OUCH!

That's actually something that we're changing as part of these changes, from launch any customers who hit DTW will be restricted to 128k rather than being blocked.

[#12]

Quote from: Mand

I can see the feedback here regarding £5 for 5GB, but as far as I'm aware no-one is complaining that we're not putting their price up right now? I personally think a prize-freeze for 12 months is a decidedly customer-friendly move, and is much better than 30 days notice and then an increase.

Well yes, that's a way of spinning it, but you can't deny that the ultimate customer-friendly move would have simply been to not lump a dubious price increase on existing customers at all.

[#13]

Surely ultimate customer-friendly behaviour would be to give free broadband, with no limits, 1:1 support and chocolates and beer for all?
We're a business, therefore we need to make money, this will sometimes mean that we need to increase prices, or change products, but in freezing the prices for existing customers we're trying to do this as well as we can.

[#14]

Boy you just don't get it, this is NOT about the details it is about how a customer feels.  Many are seriously peezed off with Plusnet even though things are beyond your control, but this IS within your control.
The billing is as complicated as you make it, but in the end it is a series of scripts, there is not a little bean counter there typing up invoices; that was my point.  If you want to make it more simple, then do so, NONE of your comments justify whacking the minimum block up to £5.  If you want to talk about media and traffic, those are valid points, what they mean is that your limits are inadequate in future you will have to give people 100gb on value and perhaps charge £1 for 5gb blocks. 
Customers will also be making their decision to ask for their MAC code, I moved my phone line to Plusnet because BT had imposed no less than three late payment charges and left me no means of calling them to complain (unless you count some woman from a call centre in Singapore telling me take it or leave it).  In the past these niggled me but I used this line for project calls and often had to claim the costs and so that was part of the cost.  I did not like to be charged a "payment processing" charge when I did not use direct debit because I paid the money directly into their bank, so there was no payment processing.  I did not like the extra charge of £15 they put when I did not pay the bill within 4 days of receiving the bill and I did not like the extra £7.50 they charged to restore outgoing calls when I got back from holiday. I just paid the bill I did not even realise they had reduced the service. 
Previously I had been happy to pay a premium for the line because of the extra service I got, I could ring customer services and they would credit these charges.  Now I would get some offensive woman reading a script with no facility to escalate the issue.  Now all of these were MY fault and I had the power to stop them BUT they left a bitter taste in my mouth when I got £40 of charges for a bill that had £8 of calls.  I had that account for 8 years, on some quarters I spent £1500 because I was making overseas calls and mobiles and all sorts, that is the nature of my call profile.  A point comes when I say siit you guys have had 10k off me in a year and you are ripping me off and by doing so you are disrespecting me, I think I will vote with my feet.  As a result, not only have they lost the rip off fees but they lost £250+ per annum of line rental as a minimum and I am saving over £100 a year.
So yes I can have control but when a company introduces a process or policy that leave customers feeling they have been shafted it is a dumb policy. Whatever internal or industry issue is causing this change, find another way to address it.  It it much harder to win back a customer you have lost than to gain a new customer, but new business is harder in this information age when people share their experiences.  Consumers can see a rip off tactic a mile off.
As for the price increase, well you live in a competitive market, people will either downgrade or move away, in 18 months time when you are losing customers and not reaching targets I have no doubt you will adjust them again.  Right now it seems that you are trying to get big data users to subsidise your entry level product while introducing the £5 block is what I call a herding technique.  You herd your customers like sheep and punish them for straying.
I am glad to hear that you are changing the absolute cut off, but it still doesn't make this £5 change anything but dumb.  Perhaps you should make the upload a percentage of the customer individual allowance, so 4gb for 80gb customers and 500mb for 10gb customers, right now a value customer is going to pay 50% of their monthly fee for 10k over their limit - again OUCH!

[#15]

Quote from: Mand

We're a business, therefore we need to make money, this will sometimes mean that we need to increase prices, or change products, but in freezing the prices for existing customers we're trying to do this as well as we can.

I suppose, but I think the operative word in my previous post is ‘dubious’. For example, when Plusnet put up the price of the home phone service last year, it was perfectly understandable because it was well known that BTW had put up their prices too – so I had no qualms with that. But I'm just not sure there's a similarly sound justification for the price increases being discussed here… I strongly suspect they're as a result of three things:

• Plusnet forking out for more capacity than expected during past few months owing to network difficulties;


• A need for subsidisation for Extra;


• A loss of subsidisation funds from the Pro customers on market 3 who'll now pay £3.50 less a month.

Both of which could have been avoided with better planning, and by making each individual product self-sufficient in terms of revenue. Of course I could be completely wrong, and I know you're not at liberty to say… although if you can point me to the supposed supplier cost increases mentioned in the Community FAQ, I'll gladly eat my proverbial hat. But either way, I hope you can see where I'm coming from nonetheless.