Poor Fibre Broadband should enable a switch to Full Fibre at New Customer contract prices.

[#1]

My current Fibre Broadband is very unreliable and at best only reaches 47Mbs download and 2.2Mbs upload on a good day. Every so often it goes through a cycle of disconnections resulting in  the download speed falling to below 1Mbs. Over the years I have had many visits by Openreach to investigate problems on the line, usually resulting in a temporary improvement.

Having looked back at my current contract terms it says I should be getting a minimum guaranteed download speed of 53.5Mbs and an expected minimum upload speed of 9Mbs.

As a long standing customer, now that I can finally switch to Full Fibre you would think that Plusnet would accept that my service is not as promised and would be willing to terminate my current unfulfilled contract and enable me to switch to Full Fibre at the current new customer prices.

But no. It would seem that until my current contract ends they are not interested and will only offer me the existing 'customer offers' to switch which are of course higher.

 I have always recommended Plusnet because of its excellent customer service but I won't be any more!.

[#2]

@chroma2000 

Did you speak to the PlusNet Customer Options Team on 0800 013 2632 to see what was on offer?

Switching to Full Fibre will result in the loss of your landline. Does this matter?

Brian

[#3]

Yes. They were most unhelpful.

[#4]

As we hardly use the landline its not a problem.

[#5]

@chroma2000 

I guess that the devil here is in the detail.

Would it be right to assume that you have agreed to a contract at say £x per month and you now have the opportunity to sign up to a probably faster more reliable full fibre? If so, what is it that is upsetting you? Is the full fibre option more expensive than the current service? If so, how does the speed compare?

Alternatively, is it that having agreed to a contract, you are upset because Plusnet will not release you from that obligation in exchange for you signing up for a better, cheaper service, be that the price on offer to new customers?

[#6]

Since my current contractual level of service has always been below what I should be getting, despite endless attempts to improve it, now that I can actually be moved to a reliable service that would fix these problems it is in both mine and Plusnet's interest that we do so.

I don't see that it's unreasonable to now be offered the same price that a new customer or presumably one who is out of contract, would be offered on the basis that  I should be free to terminate my current contract as per Plusnet's terms and conditions for failure to provide the service promised.

[#7]

If your connection is running below the minimum guaranteed speed you should raise a fault with Plusnet. If they can’t fix it within 30 days, they must offer you the right to exit your contract without penalty.

You could then move to an alternative ISP as a new customer and get whatever their new customer deal happens to be. It would be up to Plusnet whether they offer to match that, and up to you whether you stay or move ISP.

Plusnet, like a lot of other companies these days, do not value existing customers so it is often necessary to change supplier to get the best deal. Customers that are loyal to a company tend to pay more, and are great for the profit figures.

[#8]

Sadly you are so true that loyal customers are not valued.

I will now resume raising faults as appropriate.

Ironically I have of late tolerated poor service in the mistaken belief that Plusnet's solution to my problems would be to move me to full fibre, which of  course would remove my landline. This had been resisted by other family members previously, but they have now agreed that we no longer need the landline.

[#9]

@chroma2000 

If existing customers were to get "new customer" rates then there would be no new customer rates - period.

PN, like other ISPs need to earn money to pay the bills. I suspect new customer rates come for a Marketing budget which only has so much to spend each year.

Brian

[#10]

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If existing customers were to get "new customer" rates then there would be no new customer rates - period.

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Exactly. Wouldn't that be nice?

New customers are attracted by a big discount - existing loyal customers pay for that. Some of the existing customers will move to a new ISP rather than face a big increase, meaning Plusnet have to work hard to attract more new customers by charging the ones that don't move even more so that they can afford the new customer discount.

It used to be the case that customers were loyal because they had Plusnet webspace, or Plusnet email addresses, or a static IP address. Now these are no longer available to new customers the lock-in isn't there (there's nothing to lose if you move ISP) so Plusnet are likely to face an even higher churn rate. 

[#11]

Loss leaders (bait) are very popular in the retail market.

[#12]

Loss leaders may be popular with marketing teams and new customers initially - but they leave a bad taste when your next contract is twice the price and ties you in to 18-24 months.

[#13]

The only sanity is lower prices for loyal customers.

[#14]

I am paying £28.00/mo for a consistent 100Mb/s FTTP connection - less than I was paying for 40/10 FTTC previously - we will see how my price moves in August.

[#15]

With my altnet I have just started a new 18 month contract for a symmetric 600Mbps connection with static IP for £42 pm - so it isn't cheap, but it is £5pm less than the previous contract, and has no in-contract price rise.

Plusnet and most other OpenReach resellers can't offer any broadband service here (only sub-USO SOADSL available) so the altnet could charge whatever it wanted and still get customers, but they don't abuse the situation.