Plusnet ripping off customers in billing loophole?.

[#1]

I have just been wrongly charged for exceeding bandwidth, due to a loophole in Plusnet's PAYG billing system.
The bandwidth counter "resets" at midnight on your billing date.
Billing is then done automatically by direct debit.
Ok so far.
Customer Services have just told me that the counter is NOT reset until the previous month's bill has been "processed", which takes 2-3 days by direct debit. If you go over the previous month's bandwidth limit before payment is PROCESSED then you are liable for another GB!?!?
So, every time you reach the end of the month, if you are close to the next GB step on PAYG, and exceed it in the first 2-3 days of the new billing cycle, then Plusnet will CHARGE you, even though you were under your limit on that month up to their midnight cutoff.
I was on something like 8.8GB of my 9GB limit on the night before. I went over 9GB around 3am (after the midnight cutoff), but I have been told this will not reset until at least Monday, so my whole weekend usage is going to be charged to last months bill as "penalty" payments per extra GB.
Customer services reluctantly agreed to refund the extra payment this month, but have warned me this will continue to happen if I exceed LAST MONTH'S bandwidth limit at the beginning of each new billing cycle. They also added there was "nothing they could do" about this, it was "how the system worked"
I am raising an official complaint against their billing department.
Anyone else suffered this problem?

[#2]

Hi,
I'm sorry for the confusion here. I can reassure you that you won't be billed for the extra GB. The way the billing system works is that on your billing date your subscription fee is processed and the usage is reset. The problem is that because we bill several thousand customers every day it takes a few hours to process all the payments and reset all the usage.
That means there's a small window of an hour or so on the billing date morning where you can go over the usage for the previous month because the usage hasn't reset. This will trigger the email saying you'll be charged but when the billing script reaches your account it will reset the usage and remove that charge.
Looking at your account now I can see that you've been billed correctly for the 9GB and today's usage now shows correctly in the August to September month.

[#3]

OK, I'll see what happens next month, but I was going on what your customer services representative just told me, and she was adamant I would be charged every time this happened, suggesting I just "make a complaint".

[#4]

I'll have a word to make sure everyone's aware of how this works. It's the kind of thing that doesn't crop up all that often (you have to hit the usage allowance in a very small window of a few minutes just after 8am on the billing date as it can take up to 2 hours to generate the usage emails which of course won't be generated if the billing gets processed first).

[#5]

Quote from: Peter

This has happened to a few PlusNet users and in no case that I can recall have they actually been charged.

Indeed, I am one of those this happens to most months.
It is annoying and should not happen ... but it does correct itslef by the next time your billing date comes around.
SW.

[#6]

It shouldn't and it's going to be rare, the billing run is normally done by 11am so it will only happen if you hit the allowance between 8am and 9am and then only if you aren't billed before 10am.

[#7]

But surely it has nothing to do with the billing run except the date, so why is it tied to it? If the allowance resets at midnight, then the system should not be sending out "over bandwidth" warnings after midnight, regardes of whether they are eventually not charged for the extra GB.
Thats just going to p.ss off your customers.

[#8]

The problem is that the monthly total isn't reset until it's done as part of the billing. Because there are thousands of accounts billed every day it can't reset them all in one go and so they are processed one by one by a script.

[#9]

Hi Dave,
Wouldn't it be easier if the script was kicked off every night at midnight?
This would mean that the account would be reset during the non-chargeable off-peak hours and avoid this problem.

[#10]

Not sure to be honest, it has to wait until the usage data is all available which means it can't start until after 2am and we wouldn't want it running during maintenance windows so it probably can't start much earlier than it does.

[#11]

Hmm: 10.51 AM, on billing day:
AFTER my bill was sent (10.19)
"Username: xxxxx
Dear Mr Pxxx Dxxx,
Please be aware you have exceeded your included monthly data transfer of 9GB  - there is no need to worry.
An extra 1GB of data transfer has been automatically added to your account for this month at a charge of £1.00.
If you use up this extra 1GB before the end of the month, another 1GB will be added at the same cost of £1.00. And so on, until the end of the month.
If 9GB is unrealistic for your monthly usage, please consider increasing your included monthly data transfer.  "

[#12]

Ah, I think I can explain that. The billing process comprises two parts, the first processes the payment and the second resets the usage. They are usually a bit apart. If you look at the close questions on your account there's a second ticket at 11:55am indicating the usage was reset.

[#13]

if you pay by DD and they (plusnet) over charge you by mistake
you can go or call your bank or building society they will have to give you a refund their and then.
They will try and wriggle out of it just ask them to read the DD guarantee mandate.
If Plusnet continue to bill you wrongly you can complain to BACS.  If they still bill you by DD again incorrectly I will find out who sponsored Plusnet to join the DD scheme
If they still carry on billing by DD incorrectly BACS will terminate Plusnet from the DD scheme i.e. they will no longer be able to take DD payments for 6 months or longer.
Also don't forget plusnet have to give you 5 working days to change your payment i.e. increase your bill.  It’s done like this to ensure if a DD had been incorrectly billed by plusnet it would  give plusnet time to amend the bill before taking the payment

This means your protected should somthing goes wrong
F9 have never overcharged me

Michael

[#14]

Just to clarify, customers affected by this issue are not actually charged for the additional usage.
The confusion arises because an automated email is sent advising that the usage allowance has been exceeded. The billing script ignores this additional GB and doesn't apply the charge.