Billing Shambles

[#1]

HI,

I joined Plusnet in November after so much positive content on their customer service. I must say that sign up and activation was quick and painless as was setting up a fixed IP and "the price was right"

However, I am seriously unimpressed by their billing system. During sign up I signed up for Direct Debit and then sat back and waited for them to take payment. Yesterday was bill pay day and yesterday evening I started getting "failed.billing.plus.net" when some sites refused to load. After about 30 mins waiting for an answer on the help line I was told that there was a problem in setting up Direct Debits and could I pay by credit card which I did. Normal service was resumed shortly after.

1. This is a known problem at Plus Net, for some time, why is it not fixed?

2. The practice of cutting off service on the day the bill is due is a bit heavy handed, especially when it is Plus Net's fault

3. An email and text was sent to tell me to pay up, but only on the day that service was stopped,  so I didn't see it, not everyone lives on their phone!

4. Although I have paid, the web page still tells my I need to pay my bill.

5. The payment part of the web site does not work

6. My direct debit is still shown as pending activation, after two months!

I would suggest someone needs to look at the way you interface with your customers and certainly sort this out by the time my Feb payment is due.

[#2]

Moderators Note

This topic has been moved from ADSL Broadband to Accounts / Billing

[#3]

Hi @willip5

Thanks for getting in touch and I am so sorry to hear about the issues you have experienced with your recent invoice and payment.

I have reviewed your account and have responded via a ticket on your account that you can view here

If you have any further questions feel free to get in touch.

[#4]

Going round in circles!!.  Apparently the billing system has a fault that they have been unable to fix since December.  I have a new contract, but because I had one before this is called a "migration".  In migrating they have put the amounts from the previous contract and are taking £8+ per month overcharge from me.  I have had one refund, but now apparently it is "not their policy" to issue refunds due to this error.   This I can understand - there must be many thousands.    I can also understand systems errors ( I worked in IMT and know they can be complex), but

-- I cannot understand why it takes months to correct the data so the error does not persist.  I am told it is a platform problem - I am too much of a lady to repeat a one word reply to that rubbish.

-- I cannot condone the fact that nobody bothered to tell me that this was the issue and that it would keep happening, despite phone calls and assurances, and refunds - not ONE word, nothing on the website, nothing in the billing emails, NOT ONE WORD.  Just as well I have enough money to cover the overcharging,  (It has stopped me from creating a new regular saver, so I shall lose 5%).  but for those clever people who manage their money tightly and for poor people this could have put them into overdraft. 

[#5]

Hey @franpaterson,

Thanks for getting in touch with us.

I truly sorry to hear about the recent experience you have had with our billing system and I apologise for the inconvenience caused.

I have checked over your account and as my response includes some account specific info I have created a ticket with further info. You can view the ticket here.

Thanks

[#6]

@franpaterson  this debarkle has been going on since SEPTEMBER last year , but Plusnet still say its only a small amount of customers ? , there is NO fix and no ETA for a fix but most are here every month with same problem

[#7]

Perhaps they would care to define "handfull".

We see new customers comming on here too, so the number appearing here is not the only customers affected.

[#8]

Ditto here as well.

Can I suggest that a member of the fine Support Team here grasp the nettle, and spill the beans anonymously to somewhere like The Register or PrivateEye?

Providing the full story on who is responsible for this debacle of a billing system, and so enabling outside news sources to publicise it is clearly going to be the only way to sufficiently kick the rears of senior management to get them to do something (and hopefully get at least one of them fired)

Very simple -search 'The Register' and click on the Contact Us with a Story link...

This goes for a lot of other things that aren't working in this country - amazed that nobody has the gumption to leak to the newspapers, except MPs apparently...

[#9]

I worked in IT.  I understand that there is the bug that take ages to find and sometimes a rebuild to fix.  My issue was with the lack of communication not just to us but to the customer services folks - who I think are great by the way 

Contact 1 - I was not told there might be a billing issue when I changed my contract.   

Contact 2 - I was told that it was an error by the guy who renewed my contract - not true.  I got a refund but the problem was not fixed.

Contact 3 - yes there is this bug, no you cannot cancel your contract even though we are overcharging you without letting you know.  No you cannot have a refund - it is not our policy (yes I can understand that they may not have the resources for huge numbers of refunds, but I have had one before) Yes Ofcom know and they are OK with it. No the data cannot be fixed, it is a platform error - also not true.

Contact 4 through here - The lovely Mads agreed there is an issue, apologised and arranged the refund.  Thank you.

I guess it will keep happening.  I can see that the error cannot be a quick fix but as it seems to have been more than SIX months, it must be serious, but a separate team could be working on manual data fixes from outside of the system.  I have done this myself elsewhere, so I do know what I am talking about.   

Still, my thanks to customer services who are clearly doing what they can, even if not all of them seem to know what is going on.  Someone in IMT needs to have the guts to stand up and explain

[#10]

NO one has the GUTS to ADMIT to a problem as it would make them look bad .

There should have been a Sticky post on https://community.plus.net/t5/Community-Announcements/bd-p/Announcements But instead they keep it quiet and hope customers will just go quiet and stop posting  

By posting updates it would keep customers informed

[#11]

Hi @franpaterson,

Thanks for getting in touch and providing us with your feedback about your recent interactions with us. I've let Mads know you thanked her.

I appreciate your candour and apologise for any of the inconvenience you have had with your account, I realise that certain issues have let us down and could have been handled better. I can assure you that that is our priority focus going forward and we are continuing to do what's necessary to resolve any longstanding issues, as you are aware this can be a slow process but work is continuing to progress.

Thank you for your patience as we deal with such issues and also for taking the time to get back to us.

If you require any further assistance, please let us know.

Thanks - LF

[#12]

all apologies, but still no announcement.