Billing Errors on my Account for the Past 11 Months

[#1]

I am forced to post on here to try to get a meaningful response from Plusnet concerning progress on fixing two long-standing billing issues. One issue has been going on for the past eleven months and the other for the past seven months.

My account was being monitored via ticket #194265778 regarding these two billing issues but that ticket was closed in April by Plusnet as they wanted to concentrate their resources on customers’ service problems rather than administrative issues. The final post on that ticket on 10 April 2020 by the CSC analyst who was monitoring the account said that if I needed to contact Plusnet about these issues then that post summarises the position at that time.

It is now six months since the ticket was closed and neither issue has been resolved nor have I had any substantive information from Plusnet regarding progress. I have twice sent a PM to the CSC Analyst who was dealing with it – once in mid-June and another in mid-August - but have had no reply at all.

I have been patient and have given Plusnet adequate opportunity to fix these issues and now ask Plusnet to tell me when both problems will be fixed. I would like Plusnet to open a new ticket on the account, and keep it open until my billing has been fully sorted, so that progress, or lack of it, can be clearly seen and any comments made without further recourse to this public forum.

In addition, a third problem has now arisen with my billing. I renewed my LRS on 23 August paying £197.88 as requested. This is the correct amount as I am on a fixed price contract that predated the December 2019 price increase. However, on my last bill, 7 September 2020, which shows that payment there is also a charge of £209.88 for LRS which is the post December 2019 price. I refer to the ticket I mention above which confirmed that when I renewed LRS, the charge should be at the pre-December 2019 price (again see the final post on that ticket by the CSC analyst). Thus I have been overcharged £12.00 in my latest bill as well as the other ongoing billing issues. I await the refund of this excess charge.

Plusnet and their chaotic billing systems are beginning to rankle to say the least. I await the meaningful response from Plusnet (via a new ticket on my account as requested above) that I feel I am now due.

[#2]

@jgb 

I think you will find you are wrong regarding LRS. Its *not* part of your fixed price contract, and never has been, since its normally a 12 month facility compared to your normal 18 fixed price contract for broadband.

My LRS was not part of my fixed price contract as it is separate.

Some peoples billing issues like mine are now being dealt with by a special team - it depends on what the issue is. Mine was on changing anything, it broke the bill payment system.

[#3]

@wakeman 

Regarding LRS I am only going on what two CSC analysts have told me on separate occasions on the ticket I referenced and also what has been said by Plusnet staff in posts on these forums in the past regarding the effect of fixed price contracts on LRS renewals during the term of those contracts. I am well aware that the fixed term contract, of whatever duration (they can be 12, 18 or 24 months depending on what you negotiate) does not in itself include the LRS element but the very existence of a fixed price contract being in place at LRS renewal does affect the LRS price you pay according to Plusnet themselves.

I shall see what the outcome is if Plusnet staff ever respond to this thread. 

[#4]

The OP is perfectly correct, I am about to renew my LRS, I recently received an e-mail, the following is an extract.

"If you are on a fixed price contract, during the minimum term of your fixed price contract the price of your line rental won't change and you can renew your Line Rental Saver at the price you signed up to when you started your contract."

Whether Plusnet's unpredictable billing systems can cope with this appears to be in doubt. I expect to have to fight to get the correct price when I renew.

[#5]

@RealAleMadrid 

When I renewed my LRS the requested amount was £197.88 but when my next bill arrived it showed £197.88 paid but showed £209.88 as the LRS charge. Therefore the Plusnet systems definitely cannot cope but given the chaos in my billing since the "new" system arrived two years ago, and particularly in the last eleven months, I already knew that!

[#6]

@jgb  I will have to keep an eye on the bills over the next month or two. Since coming back to Plusnet last October I have had no problems with my bills, however as you have experienced others have had endless problems which they seem unable to fix.🙄

[#7]

Well it is now over a week since I started this thread seeking a substantive response from Plusnet Customer Services on these two long standing billing issues and the more recent overcharge for LRS renewal. So far not a peep out of them. I'll give it another few days and then I shall have to resort to the complaints process as that appears to be the only way that I might elicit any customer service.

[#8]

Having now reached two weeks without any response from Plusnet, I have raised these billing errors a formal complaint - see ticket #206311214. Hopefully this will now elicit a response from Plusnet within the five working days specified. However I am not holding my breath given the lack of customer service thus far.

[#9]

Thank goodness that my cheap fix, to match the Now offer, meant that I couldn't use the saver, as at the start and now the end of the offer,my bill is a mess.

I can see what they are doing by calculating payment day to end of offer, then end of term onwards, but they have calculated the discount on the payment package to what seems a date between payment day and end of my term, so the discount should be higher. However. even leaving call payments out, the cost of line and broadband for 23/09 to 9/10 ( only 16 days ) is £1 more than for a whole month on the offer. So there is a large overcharge.

[#10]

@jgb  it seems you have been very patient ,with a similar problem which I am experiencing , but I am not prepared to wait as long as yourself  ,its my money they have mucked up ,I used used the LRS quite a number of years no problems ,is the issue that Plusnet have told comparison sites to quietly drop  reference to LRS that we are now in this state,What complaints procedure have you used  the one mentioned on Plusnets site or ofcom 

[#11]

After posting on here I did some calculations of my own and found that working out my special £17.99 inc calls, came to  a pro rata of 59p per day. All they needed to do was multiply this by the days from 21/09 to 09/10 and then do pro rata on the new prices for 10/10 to 20/10 the day before the next billing day.

I called and actually got through, I gave the rep the info above and he told me to wait a minute now he had my account up. I assume he wanted to do the calculations, but I was cut off quite soon. I think this was intentional. as it would be perfectly simple to call me back. Then as you've been billed for a month which will cost less with a fix and rental saver (if on a 12 month contract),you expect another mess up to be sorted by Next year,if lucky.

PS The website is now throwing a wobbler. I can't access my bill.

[#12]

@hooverman 

I have raised my complaint using Plusnet's procedure via a ticket as I want a written response and a ticket left open on my account until all issues are resolved to my satisfaction. See the Complaints Code of Practice link at the bottom of these pages. This seems to me to be the next stage of escalation. If they do not respond to my complaint, as they have not to three PMs and this thread, then I shall have to consider what to do next. As I said terrible customer service not to mention the whole problem being that Plusnet cannot fix their systems.