40GB usage allowance not quite enough?

[#1]

I'm sure I can't be the only person in this position
I've been with PN for several years now (since 2004, in fact) and have just moved to the Value fibre 40/10 service from an old legacy "Premium" account.  I had some real "Humming and Hawing" about whether the 80/20 or 40/10 was the best fit for me: The predicted speeds for 80/20 (53Mbps at best according to the engineer's line tests when he installed the new master socket) didn't really seem to justify the extra cost and the 250GB usage was complete overkill, as we were typically using 25-30GB per month.  But, with the improved speed from fibre we're obviously going to want to "do more" but there's not much headroom vs my 30GB current usage, and I'm sure my son could quickly burn through a couple of GB in a day via his XBox (and has done in the past).  The Premium account had 120GB of usage included latterly (I think it was maybe only 20GB to begin with) so I never needed to give usage much thought.
So, OK, I could cough the £3.50pm to upgrade to an 80/20 package that I'm not really gertting best out of or pay the £5.00 per 5GB "overdraft" and the latter isn't a very attractive option.  What I'd like to have seen on offer is something like a "Value Plus" Add-on that would, say, double the allowance on the Value product for maybe £1.50pm to offer a staging post between the two main products. 
I don't know how PN work out their pricing plans, but in my simple way of thinking that appears to be a good deal for both the customer and PN ;).

[#2]

So...  obviously I am the only one who thinks there's a need for something between the Value and Extra fibre products.
I quite like the idea of retaining the better SNR and line stability of 40/10 but would like to have a bit more daytime usage available, and don't mind paying for it.  80/20 is clearly a better "deal" than paying for monthly overuse of the 40GB limit on 40/10, but 250GB is way more than I need and I probably won't see much, if any, benefit from the speed difference.  I'm not a big "downloader" and my internet use is mainly interactive, real-time stuff, not really things I can set to run overnight.

[#3]

I really can't see us producing a product to fill that small price gap between Value Fibre and Extra Fibre to be honest, adding extra complexity to the products isn't something we want to do.

[#4]

Is there nothing you could schedule to run / download overnight (like iPlayer shows) so you don't eat into your 40GB?

[#5]

Not really,  I don't do much downloading and don't use iPlayer or similar.  Most of the usage is general web/email use plus I do a bit of open source software work and resynching with large repos can mean a largish and unpredictable download/upload.  Probably the biggest hitter is my son's XBox - unlike a PC it's more difficult to tell what on that is actually generating the traffic but overall it seems to be able to burn 400-800MB per day with over 3GB on one particular day recently (apparently he downloaded some trial game that day).  I have a suspicion the dashboard munches bandwidth.
I understand about not making the products more complex, but thought an appropriately priced "Add-on" would still be a money earner.  I'll guess I'll maybe need to look at upgrading to 80/20, but I'm a bit put-off by reports here of people actually getting poorer performance after upgrading :-\.

[#6]

Another way to look at having 250GB available on Extra Fibre is to treat it as "enough" - enjoy whatever takes your or your family's fancy at a particular time without needing to weigh up its bandwidth implications.
I think a lesson from Broadband Your Way days was that too much flexibility confuses users and can, in fact, drive them away.

[#7]

Yeah, I don't really want to keep watching the usage - life's too short.  I've found the culprit though - YouTube music videos via the Xbox at around 35MB a time.  Two and half hours of that will get through a GB, and currently my son is only at college three days a week so is home most of the time.  The result is inevitable ::).
So, having only just started the 40/10, do I just put through another product change in the Member Centre?  I presume it would take effect from the next billing date (about 3 weeks hence).  Does it affect the expiry of the 18 month contract (not that I've got any plans to go anywhere else at the end of it)?.

[#8]

Quote from: mcintoshuk

So, having only just started the 40/10, do I just put through another product change in the Member Centre?  I presume it would take effect from the next billing date (about 3 weeks hence).  YES Does it affect the expiry of the 18 month contract (not that I've got any plans to go anywhere else at the end of it)?. NO

[#9]

Yes, going through the Product Change wizard in the Member Centre seems the way to go.
However I thought going from Value Fibre to Extra Fibre did involve starting a new 18 month contract. See...
[quote=http://www.plus.net/support/service/policies/product_change_policy.shtml#residentialBroadbandProductChanges]
Fibre Broadband
* Product changes will be scheduled to take place on the billing date after the change is requested
* Customers who are on Plusnet Value Fibre or Plusnet Extra Fibre (sold before 14th August 2012) who change to Plusnet Extra Fibre (sold after 14th August 2012) will be subject to a new 18 month contract. Customers who want to move from Plusnet Extra Fibre (all dates) to Plusnet Value Fibre can do so without charge or effect to their existing broadband contract
* Customers can change products once per month

[#10]

Going away to check as going by the first post

Quote

I've been with PN for several years now (since 2004, in fact) and have just moved to the Value fibre 40/10 service from an old legacy "Premium" account

Two ways of looking at that
First way you are correct
Second way - moving from Plusnet Value fibre contracted after 14th August to Plusnet Extra Fibre doesn't recontract
and I can't find anything which clarifies it

[#11]

Seems like maybe the key bit there is "(sold before 14th August 2012)" - I'm assuming that maybe is the date that the products changed to the new specification.  Since my Value Fibre was more recent than that then it doesn't seem to apply, making Oldjim's reply more probable.  But as I've only just changed anyway, it matters little.

Quote

Customers can change products once per month

Seems fair, nobody wants messed around on a whim.  I changed to fibre on the morning of the first day of my new billing period (by chance, not planning) - it's maybe debatable whether or not another product change request would be acceptable at the end of this period or would have to carry over into the next.

[#12]

My understanding is that the 14th August 2012 date relates only to the Extra Fibre product. That product was effectively relaunched on 14th August 2012 with 80/20Mbps (nominal) speeds, 250GB allowance and a new price point - see blog Superfast Plusnet Fibre gets even faster.
No changes were made to Value Fibre alongside that launch.

[#13]

OK, I'll ticket my questions and report the response back here in case it helps anyone else.

[#14]

I will be very interested in the response as this scenario could happen given that you could change products every month
Month 1 sign up to Value - 18 month contract
Month 3 move to Extra (son home from college) - triggers a new 18 month contract
Month 5 move to Value (son back at college) - no new contract
Month 8 move to Extra (son back again) - triggers a new 18 month contract
and so ad nauseum and you never get out of contract

[#15]

Yes, I guess that's what would happen in those circumstances. Potentially the user could be requesting new hardware with each move to Extra Fibre.