Broken Billing System & Contract Renewal

[#1]

I have not had a correct bill from Plusnet since August 2018. The September 2018 bill was incorrect and since then billing on my account has been suspended. I also look after my elderly father's account and while he is on a different package his billing has also been suspended since September 2018.

I am fairly happy with your promise that when (if) you resolve your system issues neither of us will be back billed more than 90 days but I am now concerned that both of us are approaching the anniversary of our re-contract date.

Is it possible to discuss re-contracting in the usual way or will we need to make special arrangements this year if we decide to stay with Plusnet.

[#2]

Thanks for reaching out @idxPN 

I'm sorry to see we've not billed you or your father in so long.

Unfortunately as far as I'm aware this is going to cause a complication with recontracting, so I've discussed this with a colleague from a back-end team and I'm afraid we won't be able to process the recontract until the issue is fixed.

Once your billing account has been unsuspended, we'll email you to let you know and at that stage you should be able to call us on 0800 013 2632 to recontract. We'd also be happy to discuss a gesture of goodwill if appropriate, although I suspect that shouldn't be necessary as we won't charge you for 8+ months of bills. 

Hope this helps.

[#3]

Hi @Gandalf 

Thanks for your prompt reply.

As both of us had paid the line rental saver up front, the free 8 months does not work out as generous as it might seem - at least in my case as I just have basic broadband and make virtually no calls. In fact, by my arithmetic, 3 months at full list price would more than wipe out the 8 'free'months.

Would it not be possible to agree, for example, to re-contract for a further 12 months at the same discounted rate as last year and for us to pay line rental saver at the current rate? Then, if necessary, when the system is finally fixed, a manual adjustment is applied to the account to reflect what we have agreed.

Or alternatively, we agree to pay a lump sum to reflect the next 12 months line rental saver + the next 12 months discounted package price + the last 3 months that we owe. Then, with the exception of any call charges outside the package, you do not need to bill us for another year and we don't owe you anything.

[#4]

Hi @idxPN 

Thanks for getting back to us and for the explanation. While I'm all for out-of-box thinking and I appreciate what you've said, I'm afraid it's not really feasible for us to agree a contract now and apply it at a later date. 

I think what we'd need to do is discuss an appropriate gesture of goodwill when the time comes that your account (And your father's account) has billing unsuspended. Feel free to PM me when that time comes and I'd be happy discuss this.

[edit]

Just to add I’m sure we can come to an amicable resolution with a goodwill gesture once the billing issue is sorted out. 

[#5]

@Gandalf  i am sure there will be quite a few with frozen accounts due for renewal ,, Can you confirm Customers would or would not be free to leave ?

there have been hints that you can leave if you pay the last 90 days ?

[#6]

@smiffy1 if you’re out of contract it shouldn’t really matter if billing is suspended as you’d be free to leave without any termination fees.

As far as I’m aware we may apply the last 90 days of missed charges onto the final bill when it generates.

[#7]

Its crazy you have not had correct bill for this long.Iv been with plusnet from when they first started and customer service was great but as gradually fell away and is now very poor. I don't understand this its like they don't want any customers. Why can it be so hard to issue the correct bill. my bill is £17 too much this month they havnt applied the discount but still waiting after a week to put it right. Don't they have enough staff to cope with all the complaints. Look after your customers and they wont go elsewhere.

[#8]

Hi @phil9

Thanks for raising this - I'm sorry that you were overcharged.

I can see that my colleague has already picked this up for you and raised a ticket on your behalf here.

As soon as this is resolved, my colleague or our billing team will be in touch accordingly.

Best wishes

Dave

[#9]

@Gandalf I too am affected by the billing system problem since Oct 18, and will be out of contract in Sept 19 for both line rental saver and broadband. If this carries on after Sept. then my "last 3 months" will also be at the full rate for both.

Can you confirm that if I re-contract when fixed, I will also be looked on favourably?

[#10]

Hi @Kevin and also @idxPN again.

I've just discussed this with my line manager and we're seeing complications that may arise with the above plan I've proposed, so what we're happy to do instead is agree a contract term, making sure it's documented on a ticket as normal.

Now what's different is that as we're unable to actually process the renewal, you'll still be free to leave at any point until we've unsuspended billing and applied the agreed contract term (obviously should you still decide to go ahead).

As we're going to be charging up to 90 days of charges, we'd be happy to back-date the agreed contract term for up to 90 days. The exact amount of days will be dependent on how long you've had billing suspended, for example if you've not had an invoice for 60 days we'll back date the contract 60 days.

If you want to pay line rental saver we'll also take this into consideration.

Hope this helps.

[edit]
Feel free to post on this thread when the time comes or send me a PM.

[#11]

Hi @Gandalf 

I welcome the fact that you are taking another look at this but want to be clear I understand what you are proposing.

Are you saying that when our current contract expires we negotiate a new rate over the phone as usual and indicate whether we want to pay line rental saver? Both parties have a record of the agreement and when billing is unsuspended the new contract rate and line rental saver term is backdated 90 days (or less if the billing is unsuspended less than 90 days after the end of the old contract).

So if, for example, billing is unsuspended on 31st March 2020, then the contract price & line rental saver term that we agree now would be backdated to start from 1st Jan 2020 - with 4 months package price (3 months backdated plus one month ahead) and the whole line rental saver amount due on 31st March. Assuming a 12 month contract, it would expire on 31 December 2020 as would the line rental saver term.

If so, that seems fair.

[#12]

Yes, @idxPN I think that was more or less my understanding of what @Gandalf posted.

And yes, that seems fair to me too.

[#13]

Hi @idxPN 

@idxPN wrote:

Hi @Gandalf 

I welcome the fact that you are taking another look at this but want to be clear I understand what you are proposing.

Are you saying that when our current contract expires we negotiate a new rate over the phone as usual and indicate whether we want to pay line rental saver? Both parties have a record of the agreement and when billing is unsuspended the new contract rate and line rental saver term is backdated 90 days (or less if the billing is unsuspended less than 90 days after the end of the old contract).

So if, for example, billing is unsuspended on 31st March 2020, then the contract price & line rental saver term that we agree now would be backdated to start from 1st Jan 2020 - with 4 months package price (3 months backdated plus one month ahead) and the whole line rental saver amount due on 31st March. Assuming a 12 month contract, it would expire on 31 December 2020 as would the line rental saver term.

If so, that seems fair.

Yep that's correct, but let us know by posting on this thread or sending me a PM as we'd need to make sure the adviser who recontracts you is aware of this agreement by arranging a call back. Once the renewal for the contract term and/or line rental saver is processed, we'd then shorten the length for the contract and/or line rental saver by up to 90 days.