Cessation charge - please clarify

[#1]

Dear Plusnet

Is the unfair cessation charge really payable for ceasing plusnet services or not? 

My account summary shows the following 

            - - Cessation charge £30.00(upon cancellation) Activated What's this?

When searching your online help it states:

“Your question: Cessation

Sorry to hear you’re thinking of leaving us. Can we tempt you to stay with the great perks available to you as a Plusnet customer?

If not, you can normally see if an early termination comes with charges by checking your Account Summary page. Under the cost column you’ll see something that looks like £XX.XX (upon cancellation). If that number is zero, you won’t have to pay an early termination fee for that item.”

However other posts contradict this (e.g. https://community.plus.net/t5/ADSL-Broadband/Cessation-charge-quot-active-quot/m-p/1579858#M327459)

Please clarify which is correct. Thanks

[#2]

Hi @Ihu55ain, thanks for your post and Welcome to the Community!

Cessation charges would only apply if you were within the minimum term of your agreed upon contract - it's by no means a blanket charge that's applied to anybody ceasing their services if they were out of contract.

[#3]

Sorry to contradict but the Cessation Charge has nothing to do with being in contract or not.

This is a specific charge for 'CEASING' a broadband service, that is stopping all broadabnd on a phone line rather than migrating via the standard process to another ISP.

The main time this comes into play is if a user migrates from Plusnet (or any othe provider using BT (Openreach) lines) to a Cable provider such as Virgin Media using a totally different physical local network.  Openreach levy this charge and most (if not all) ISPs pass the charge on to their customers.

[#4]

Thanks for your reply @w23  - I've clearly gotten mixed up with the sentence:

If not, you can normally see if an early termination comes with charges

@Ihu55ain - Are you completely ceasing (i.e not moving to another provider) the line?

If so, regardless of what the Member Centre or other literature says - I've checked and we would not charge/enforce a cessation fee. (It was done away with around 2 years ago)

**EDITED to add further information that we would not charge a cessation fee**

[#5]

I'm actually planning to move home soon and despite my loyalty Plusnet is offering my current fibre package (albeit slower speed guarantee) for more cost at the new property. Therefore I am leaving my options open including cancelling or moving to another ISP

[#6]

@OskarPapa , are you saying that the cessation charge is definitetly no longer applicable?

It still clearly shows in my account summary, perhaps this needs to be updated:

[#7 · Accepted solution]

Thanks for getting back to us @Ihu55ain 

If you’re out of contract and wanting the new customer deal, there should be nothing stopping you signing up a new account online at your new address then requesting we close your existing account on your move out date.

Although ideally it’d be a better experience to keep your account the same so I’d be happy to arrange a call back from our house moves team to discuss this further and see if there’s anything we can do. Feel free to PM me the best contact number to get you on and a rough time when you’d be free for call if you’d want to go ahead.

@w23 Yes, we no longer charge a cessation fee as of September 2018. It’s likely still showing in the account summary from the legacy days, but we won’t charge this as final fees are worked out automatically now and the cessation fee isn’t a charge the new billing engine knows about. We’ll pass feedback onto the appropriate people.

Hope this helps. 

[#8]

@OskarPapa  This contradicts what you stated earlier. So can you confirm 100% the cessation charge no longer applies (in every circumstance)? If so then the Products & Services section of the Account Summary should reflect this.

[#9]

@Ihu55ain As per Owen's edit and my response, we don't charge a cessation fee anymore because it isn't a fee the billing system knows about since September 2018 and feedback will be passed on regarding this.