Transparent Pricing

[#1]

1. Why are the product prices on the home page never as clear as I would like them to be.
Cost of premier option?
Ex VAT or + VAT?
Yes I know you can find the information if you look hard enough.  Why not make it obvious and save me a bit of irritation when I am pricing things up for your potential customers.
2. I have a customer who is on a PlusNet Business Premier Option 3 paying £75 a month.
The product costs 100% more than the Business account advertised on the home page.
Is  there any difference?
Have you told existing account holders they could be making a substantial saving?
This is not going to make Plus.net look too good when I hand in the comms review.  Would you blame my (your) customer for taking the view you are profiteering.  They might even decide to move ISP.  I don't mind, those sort of savings will easily pay for me to reprogram the routers.

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[#2]

Hi,
All of our business packages are priced excluding VAT, whereas all of our residential packages are priced as including VAT.
Regarding Business Premier Option 3, I don't believe that we have sold this product for over 2 years and some responsibility has to fall on the customer to ensure that they are using the correct product.  We help out with our customer services and forums teams, but we can't take the full responsibility.

[#3]

So what you are saying, Jameseh, is that customers should keep abreast of the changing products? Have you got any tips on the best way to do that?

[#4]

sign up for marketing emails - or just log into the website from time to time ?
At least PN let you move products easily - unlike some other ISP's I have been with.

I look after a business account with PN and log in once a month to check billing / usage etc etc. I have a shortcut on browser toolbar - it only takes 30 seconds

[#5]

Hi James
Thankyou for the response. 
Please don't take this the wrong way.  The Devil is the customers advocate, if you know what I mean.

Quote from: Jameseh

All of our business packages are priced excluding VAT, whereas all of our residential packages are priced as including VAT.

I was not asking for the information.  I was asking why it was not made more obvious.  I would think it not too difficult to put +VAT in the banner.  The Enhanced care option is clear enough.  Why not Premier and what Premier means?  By not making these things obvious the assumption is that Plus.net are trying to hide something.

Quote

Regarding Business Premier Option 3, I don't believe that we have sold this product for over 2 years and some responsibility has to fall on the customer to ensure that they are using the correct product.  We help out with our customer services and forums teams, but we can't take the full responsibility.

That's rubbish.  Plus.net are responsible for billing customers fairly.  The gas company do not invent a new product name every time they change the price.  I do not expect to have to ask the milkman if he is overcharging me every week, do you?  No, we expect to pay a fair price for the service we receive.  Business people have their own businesses to run.  Acknowledge it or exploit it, the choice is PNs.  Even most of the banks have stopped playing this particularly underhand game.
Yes, this customer has been paying PN for 5 years without complaint or question.  They have a number of outworker accounts too.  Sounds like easy business to me.  By taking the opportunity to profiteer, Plus.net have abused the customer's trust and robbed them blind.  Still, it make's my fees look worthwhile.  What should I recommend as an independant consultant though?
Please pass it up the line.

[#6]

Decided to have a quick look myself by quickly changing from looking at the Residential pages to the Business's page and I had to hunt on the Business page to find the "(All prices exclude VAT)".  On the other hand I could not find any mention that the price is inc VAT. I agree with msssltd that the VAT issue should be made a lot clearer.
With regard to the price paid on old products I am more in agreement with Plusnet here as usually when they change the current products the pricing changes. The old and new products do not usually have compatible features. Plusnet do advise customers of the new products (unless you opt out) and then it is up to you to make an informed decision whether the new product is suitable for your needs. The cheapest product is not necessarily the most suitable, neither would I want to be moved automatically to a new product that does not suit my needs.
Personally I would say the accusation of over charging would apply if the product you are on drops in price but Plusnet continually charge you at the old price rates. These recently applied to the Max Premium upgrade, so it is a possibility.

[#7]

I am going to carry on debating the case for the customer.
Is the supply cost of a 2 year old product much different to the latest product?
If the answer is yes, fair enough, Plus.net should carry on charging the old price and inform the customer EXACTLY what the difference is between new and old.
If the answer is no, which I believe it is, the fair thing to do is bring the price of the old product in line with the new, automatically.  By all means charge a SMALL premium for the increased admin or whatever.  Maintaining a 100% difference is simply profiteering and an abuse of a loyal customers trust in the supplier.
I maintain, business customers should not be penalised for being in-expert in the day to day runnings of their ISPs.  They pay expert suppliers so they can continue to mind their own business.