Charged twice for phone line saver

[#1]

Hi,

I signed up to plus.net fibre and phone line, I decided to take the line saver option to save a bit of money, I paid the £197.88 line rental + £10 for my broadband on my credit card as it was the only option.

Today I have checked my statement and I have been charged another £197.88 by direct debit.

Please advise.

Thanks,

James

[#2]

This has happened to me too.  I posted on another thread about it.  Very poor from PlusNet.

I am speaking to them now on customer support line but it took >30mins to get through to someone, and he has now put me on hold to investigate.

Clearly their new billing system is not working.

[#3]

Not just me then!

I tried to call them but gave up after 20 mins - hopefully they monitor these posts.

[#4]

Their response is they have "teething problems" and will look into it and get back to me once their engineers have investigated.

My response was that is way too vague and the banking system hasn't collapsed and refunding me the money they have taken does not require a software engineer to fix the mess they have made.

He wouldn't put me through to Billing because "they don't have phones" so I am on hold again while he investigates with them... 

This is very very poor.

[#5]

They do.

This variation of billing issues has been flagged for attention to see if it is the same as or different to similar scenarios relating to LRS paid during sign-up.

[#6]

My response was that is way too vague and the banking system hasn't collapsed and refunding me the money they have taken does not require a software engineer to fix the mess they have made.

But is does!  If this is a systems problem, then the system needs fixing and repayments need to be made in bulk, so that none are missed.  That does need a software engineer.

[#7]

Thanks for the response TownMan.  "Flagged for attention" is fine for their software engineers to pick up and investigate, but when PlusNet have taken or billed for money erroneously then they need to resolve that outside of any technical issues.

[#8]

But is does!  If this is a systems problem, then the system needs fixing and repayments need to be made in bulk, so that none are missed.  That does need a software engineer.

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That's only true if you are living entirely inside your own internal systems.

Any business can issue a refund, a BACS or CHAPS payment, without a new software release!

[#9]

Indeed they can, but that needs hand cranking.  Systematic rectification ensures that the job is done comprehensively, covering all impacted users.  The super users are simply watching the issues here and asking if the different variations are actually the same issue.  In software engineering, apparent similarity is no assurance that there is a common cause.

[#10]

Hand cranking is absolutely fine when they owe me over £200.  It's no defence to say we messed up and it's going to take some time to fix, because of bla bla bla.  When money has been taken and is shown in bank records then it needs to be returned otherwise there are legal remedies that could be taken (such as small claims court for example) which would really not pay any notice to the software engineering argument (by the way I founded and have run a software engineering company for 18 years)

Moderator's note by Mike (Mav): Full quote of preceding post removed as per Forum rules.

[#11]

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Hand cranking is absolutely fine when they owe me over £200.  It's no defence to say we messed up and it's going to take some time to fix, because of bla bla bla.  When money has been taken and is shown in bank records then it needs to be returned 

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Assuming the second erroneous payment was taken by Direct Debit then the Direct Debit Guarantee exists for exactly this sort of situation:

• Immediate refunds. You can get a full and immediate refund from your bank (also known as an “indemnity claim”) for any payment taken in error.

Just notify your bank. I have only had to use it once but it was very straightforward and fast.

[#12]

I've only had to invoke it once and they refused, despite being presented with written evidence of the overcharge.  It seems to depend on the bank.

I wonder if the credit card companies would oblige since the service you initially purchased was not delivered, hence the additional DD charge.  With LRS the purchase is over £100 which is - or at least used to be - the lower limit for protection by the CC companies.

[#13]

@JonoH

[#14 · Accepted solution]

Hi Everyone,

Really sorry this has happened, we've spotted this internally and raised an incident to resolve it and i appreciate it's a lot of money to be without. 

Our refunds are processed in the manor they're received, and our support staff don't have the option to refund via any other method, however the direct debit guarantee should see your bank refund the money to you quickly if you contact them. alternatively if we just refund via direct debit or card the usual timescales apply.  

[#15]

I went into my bank and told them about the mistake and I've got the money back in my account through the direct debit guarantee.