Changing call plan delay

[#1]

Hi, I’ve been helping my 92 year old father in law to change his contract. His broadband contract had expired which he hadn’t understood and he was on an anytime call plan with 100 mobile minutes. As his wife is now in a care home and he cannot visit because of Covid he is phoning her a lot on the mobile she has in the home. This has resulted in extortionate bills, the last one being £73. We managed to get him on a £19.99 broadband package plus unlimited calls for £9. Technically and disappointingly this isn’t really unlimited as the mobile calls are limited to 2000 minutes a month, i.e. just over 60 minutes a day which he could easily exceed phoning her. Also the new call plan will not come in till the next billing date, 18.10.20. So he faces another month’s extortionate bill. I read on the forum though that some operatives have the power to affect and immediate change to the calling plan, we obviously didn’t get one! I’d have preferred him to change his broadband supplier but he didn’t want the upheaval. It looks like Plusnet will be profiting from the disastrous care home situation in these days of Covid restrictions, both because of the petty restriction on mobile calls in a so-called Unlimited call plan and the delay in updating to that plan. Also it’s too easy for a 92 year to fall into the trap of payments increasing after a contract ends. 

[#2]

Good morning @fallada9 I am sorry to hear about the recent experiences that your father in law has faced with COVID, the call plan and being apart from his wife. I want to clear up a couple of things for you to hopefully help the situation, we do not offer instant call plan changes if a customer is re-contracting their broadband as our system will not allow it. As for the call plan, there is a 2000 limit however it isn't 60 minutes per day, it is 60 minutes per call. So if your FIL hung up after 60 minutes and then dialed the number again, it'll only dip into the 2000 minutes, as this is a fair usage policy we cannot offer any further minutes for mobile.

If you'd like me to look further into this or to give you a call with any further queries in relation to this that I can assist with, please PM me the username of the account  

[#3]

Hello Noor

Thanks for your reply. 2000 minutes divided by 30 (typical number of days in a month) gives 66.6. So your limit on mobile calls on your so-called unlimited call plan equates to approximately 60 minutes of calls to mobiles per day on average. Isn’t that right? If he makes a call to his wife’s mobile of 59 minutes and then hangs up and redials for another 10 minutes, say, that’ll still be 69 minutes counted against the 2000, isn’t that right? So if he wants to speak to his wife in the care home for an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening every day what will happen? Will he get a massive bill or if he goes over the 2000 minutes will he be unable to call again that month? 

[#4]

Hello @fallada9, 

You can find all info in relation to the call plans here. 

To confirm if he went over the 2k minutes for the month to mobile numbers, he would be charged 18p per minute for a call to a mobile. 

I hope this helps clarify your query, however, if you need further assistance please let us know. 

Thanks.