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Billing issue; Please advise [Resolved]

Mav
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Billing issue; Please advise [Resolved]

Hi
Could one of the team here please check my billing as there has been a problem and I wasn't happy with the reply from CS.
Basically, after fraudulant activity on my bank account I was unsure whether funds would be available for the Direct Debit payment until the investigations were over and money returned by the bank. I made a manual payment by credit card on 11th Oct for which I received an email confirming this and was informed that the Direct Debit was not cancelled but that payment would not be taken till November.
However, £29.99 was taken today (the bank has refunded  this under the DD guarantee), I checked the online transactions and there is a payment showing for the 9th of each month but there is nothing to indicate that the last payment was by credit card. The CS guy said it can clearly be seen as such but it doesn't show that on my list. I asked for a copy of what the CS guy could see to confirm payment has been made but he said there was no point as I should be able to see this detail.
This isn't a complaint as I understand that mistakes can happen but I want to be assured that you have the £29.99 via credit card and that my account will not be suspended when you received notification by my bank that the Direct Debit was unsuccessful.
Thanks.

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Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear - Mark Twain
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9 REPLIES 9
Not applicable

Re: Billing issue; Please advise

If its anything like my recent experience, you are right to be on top of them over this.
My mother was in a similar situation back in April. Much much later on PN decided to put her account on stop after the invoice had remained 'unpaid' for a few months.
Obviously the invoice had been paid, but by credit card and not by DD - but the systems got all confused and cut her off anyway.
Keep at em - you might be able to trust the people to get it right, its the automated processes that'll catch you out.
Mav
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Re: Billing issue; Please advise

Agreed, James
The online transaction list shows as 'Paid' but it is dated 9th, 2 days before I paid by credit card. There really should be a way for us to see confirmation of how the payment was made.
Had to tell Barclays their job as their CS told me they will have to cancel the direct debit and wait 5 days for the refund. I quoted the DD gaurantee from the BACS website and, hey presto, the refund showed up on-line 30 seconds later lol

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Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear - Mark Twain
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mal0z
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Registered: ‎02-10-2008

Re: Billing issue; Please advise

I had a similar problem - where an incorrect DD was raised after I had made a payment by debit/credit card.
I agree PN's billing system needs tightening up to check account before actioning Direct debits .
Mark
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Registered: ‎04-04-2007

Re: Billing issue; Please advise

Hi Mav
Sorry for the difficulty.
I've flagged this internally and one of the Comms team will do a bit of digging and get back to you.
bobpullen
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Re: Billing issue; Please advise

@Mav, firstly sorry about the confusion and sorry about the incorrect advice you were given.
It seems to be a case of agent-error I'm afraid. Your invoice is raised on the 9th and it's the same date that the request for payment via your Direct Debit gets submitted to your bank (unlike a credit card payment these take a while to clear).
You called us on the 11th and the agent you spoke to manually took payment via card despite the fact that the invoice in question already had a pending transaction against it that had been submitted via Direct Debit. This is why you were billed twice. Unfortunately your account still looks a little odd as we've not yet received the response from your bank regarding the chargeback and the system still shows that a payment (for £0.00) is in the process of being taken via your Direct Debit instruction. If I'm honest I can't be 100% sure what's going to happen when this comes back but it /might/ put your account in failed billing. If it does though give one of us a nudge as it should be pretty easy to remedy.
I'll make sure somebody educates the agent accordingly so that they know not to do this in future.
At this end we can see a list of transactions that have been requested using your Direct Debit instruction so using a minimal amount of deduction it's relatively simple to see what method was used to make a payment. That functionality isn't mimicked on the portal though. If you've access to your bank statement then you can check the transaction listing for a reference number. If it was taken from Direct Debit then there will be mention to the reference number that's associated with your Direct Debit details that can be seen here (assuming you have one set up of course!)

Bob Pullen
Plusnet Product Team
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Mav
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Re: Billing issue; Please advise

Hi Bob and thanks for the reply.
The strangest thing is that accessing the portal through your link or directly from www.plus.net shows a message as follows:
Quote
Sorry to interrupt your browsing…
You have been brought to this page because we've got an important message about your PlusNet service.
Your last subscription payment could not be taken. As a result, we've put your account on hold until the overdue amount is paid. Until you arrange for this overdue subscription to be taken, you will continue to see this page

Then there is a link to make a payment.
What is strange about this is that I cannot access any other part of the portal yet I still have internet access: email being downloaded as I type along with a couple of files!
I understand my timing wasn't the best in making the payment manually by credit card 2 days after the DD was actioned but I had no choice as my account had been emptied. Thankfully all payments taken fraudulently have now been returned (yesterday, in fact, and just in time for the PlusNet DD - Sod's Law strikes) and I am just waiting for the bank to refund all charges incurred by this activity.
I was sure that if I hadn't made the payment by credit card that the DD would have been bounced causing yet further charges to be incured and my account suspended hence I wanted to stop this. It seems either way I ended up with some issue on my account  Sad
Perhaps there could be a better system installed at your end to deal with such situations so that we experience less hassle on top of what we are already dealing with?
Meanwhile, could one of you please look into rectifying the issue on my portal access and make sure that full internet activity will not stop any time soon?
Thanks
Edit: Just received 4 emails from PN about the failed DD. I really didn't want all this to happen especially as I had already received an email on the 11th thanking me for my payment!!

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Mav
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Re: Billing issue; Please advise

Sorry to push this but...
As I don't have a lot of trust in the guys that answer the phone to deal with any issues correctly could one of the team here sort out my portal access, please?

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bobpullen
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Re: Billing issue; Please advise

Taking a look now Mav...
Edit: Should now be sorted.

Bob Pullen
Plusnet Product Team
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Mav
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Re: Billing issue; Please advise

Just checked - been out since around 5pm.
All now seems OK.
Thanks Smiley

Forum Moderator and Customer
Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear - Mark Twain
He who feared he would not succeed sat still