Back to paying over the odds for broadband again!

[#1]

Hi, I've been a Plusnet customer for quite a while now, but have always had to keep fighting to get my monthly bills down as I live in a semi-rural area.  I seem to pay a £7.00 premium on top of normal prices.
Currently I use your Fibre Optic service.  A year and a half ago I phoned your customer service people who reduced my bill by £7.00 a month with a Special Offer Discount. as I was paying a ridiculous amount for broadband.
This has happened before and it does get annoying, I don't get any warning that my Special Offer Discount is about to end.  I know I signed a new 18 month contract the last time you offered me this deal.  Is that why you've suddenly removed the discount?  I'm guessing the contract has come to an end?

I remember it wasn't much fun on the phone last time, trying to get a reduction in price.  I was passed from person to person, 2 of which told me nothing could be done and they won't offer me anything, and the last person finally gave me a discount (only if I signed a new 18 month contract)
Now, I like your service so that's why I've been loyal, and I really don't want to have to leave. So my question is.........how do I go about getting a bill reduction again?

[#2]

phone customer options - see my sig - and select "I am thinking of leaving"

[#3]

I have no idea why PlusNet persist in charging Market 3 customers over the odds. No other ISP does so, and as far as I can tell Openreach don't charge PlusNet any additional costs - so its a question of ripping off.
However - best bet is (it's what I did)
Identify the best deal you can currently get from another ISP and which you could live with.
Work out what that means in terms of a flat monthly fee for 18 months (remember the other ISP's deal will disappear at some point). Factor in the phone line rental charges, setup, TV if you want it etc.(BT are currently offering to pay you £35 to take 38/10 with a 40G/month limit - £7.50/month on a 12 month contract with a £125 prepaid MasterCard!)
Ring the Customer Retention Team (See Oldjim's post)
Threaten to leave for the better deal
See what they offer - they will probably only offer you PlusNet's existing market 1 pricing.
Make sure they keep you on your current fibre service level - the last twelve months they have been selling 40/2 rather than 40/10 (depends if the upload speed matters to you)
Decide if you want to stay or go

[#4]

Thank guys, I guess I'll have to pluck up the courage to get on the phone next week and do the whole thing over again.
Hopefully they will be able to sort me out  a bit quicker than last time.  From previous experience I need to speak to the 'right' person to get my discount!  Of course threatening to leave should do the trick! 

[#5]

Quote from: wisty

I have no idea why PlusNet persist in charging Market 3 customers over the odds. No other ISP does so, and as far as I can tell Openreach don't charge PlusNet any additional costs - so its a question of ripping off.

I think you've got the facts wrong here.
Market 3 is the lower cost banding.
Few other ISPs discount markets 2&3 compared to what they charge for Market 1.  In other words their Market 2&3 customers subsidise the service provided to Market 1 customers.
There is a wholesale price differential between markets 1, 2 and 3 from BTw.
One matter to consider is that for LLU supplied services the BTw charging model is different than that applied to WBC services provided by BTw.

All that said, with the number of "free" broadband offers about it is all somewhat a mute point.

[#6]

Sorry yes I have, I meant market 1. It will not let me edit the original.
Do you have access to detail on the  wholesale price differential between markets 1, 2 and 3 from BTw?
In areas where the public purse (thank you) has funded the installation of Fibre, I would probably see it as wrong if BTw? were charging higher prices than in Market 3 Exchanges.

[#7]

It is probably Market and B now and the difference is that in Market A it is controlled by OFCOM but in market B the ISP's can negotiate hefty price discounts

[#8]

I thought there isn't any difference in wholesale FTTC pricing between markets A and B?
The price lists are publicly available:
Openreach pricing
BTWholesale pricing Note that Plusnet isn't WBC, they use WBMC
Edit: I managed to find a less out of date WBMC price list, twice

[#9]

Quote from: ejs

I thought there isn't any difference in published wholesale FTTC pricing between markets A and B?

There fixed it for you

[#10]

And I thought the wholesale prices were the same for all providers:
https://www.openreach.co.uk/orpg/home/aboutus/equivalence/equivalence.do

[#11]

No
Where they are not controlled the individual ISP can negotiate and all of them can do that hence the equivalence stands
Of course it may well be that the reduced price is offered to all ISP's who take WBMC but it is only Plusnet who use that the to give a price differential

[#12]

How is an ISP supposed to negotiate when they have no alternative supplier? What are they going to do, use BT FTTC, or build their own fibre network?

[#13]

This has been discussed at length previously and they can and do otherwise why would OFCOM fix the price at all
The point is that the negotiations are with BT Wholesale who would be keen to get more customers at the expense of the LLU suppliers

[#14]

Links to previous discussions please? Did it actually apply to FTTC?
Ofcom fix the price for IPStream where that's the only product available from BTWholesale and there isn't enough competition from other suppliers. This might also lead to WBC pricing being regulated by Ofcom where an exchange is upgraded and there's still no competition.

[#15]

You are making an assumption that  the cost of FTTC is purely related to the cost of connecting - in fact the access charge also includes the network access costs
In the case of LLU fibre the network access costs aren't there as the LLU supplier takes over from the exchange whereas the BTw based ISP pays BTw for the network access and that includes a capacity charge
As I understand it - this last part which is still controlled on Market A exchanges to encourage LLU takeup of either FTTC or ADSL
The LLU/BTw FTTC price is controlled separately