Contesting bill and other billing queries

[#1]

Hi
Upon checking this months bank statement I noticed that I had been billed £96.40 rather than my usual £25 odds. My initial reason for checking was to let my Mother knew the cost of plusnet so i could sign her up, given that I had had a great customer experience with you guys, until now.
This is strange for multiple reasons. Mainly because for most of January I was away from home. As my wife passed away at the end of last year, aged just 26, from cancer. My family does not stay locally so I left to visit to get away for a while and take stock.
Im not sure how the usage has ended up so high whether i have neighbours leeching or whatnot.
On top of that. When i signed up Im certain that I chose the option to have my account slowed when I hit limits , rather than charged for extras.
And as well as this. I see now that when opening a new account, the Unlimited broadband option is now actually cheaper than what I am currently paying for a limited subscription. Which makes this issue even more of an annoyance.

Anyways. I have tried repeatedly to call over the weekend to rectify this issue & repeatedly i have spent between 10-20 min intervals on hold. Only for my call to be dropped before i have even spoken to. Pulps common people and Embraces all you good good people are now engrained in my head such is the frequency i have listened to your hold music.

Anyways. I've had a decent response on the forums so hopefully I can get the issue resolved here

My second query is regarding my account. I am going to be out of the country for 3 months from this week onwards. I'd rather stay with you guys, assuming the above problem gets sorted, and i'd rather not have the hassle of getting a new line connected when i return to the UK.
Is there anyway I can get my account suspended for the duration of my time away.

Thanks in advance for all your help
Chris

[#2]

Hi Chris,
Awfully sorry to hear about your wife and apologies for any hassle/concern caused by the inflated bill.

Quote from: chrisharkins1

Upon checking this months bank statement I noticed that I had been billed £96.40 rather than my usual £25 odds. My initial reason for checking was to let my Mother knew the cost of plusnet so i could sign her up, given that I had had a great customer experience with you guys, until now.

Don't you receive the advance billing notices we send out, or the warning emails when you're approaching or have exceeded your usage? If you don't then we may not have the correct email address on file. Something we should probably check.

Quote from: chrisharkins1

This is strange for multiple reasons. Mainly because for most of January I was away from home. As my wife passed away at the end of last year, aged just 26, from cancer. My family does not stay locally so I left to visit to get away for a while and take stock. Im not sure how the usage has ended up so high whether i have neighbours leeching or whatnot.

I can provide an hourly breakdown of a few of the days in question if it would help? The traffic would also be split by upload/download. Might be an idea for you to double check that your wireless network is secure too. Failing that, installing a free local network monitor like the one here might shed some light on things.

Quote from: chrisharkins1

On top of that. When i signed up Im certain that I chose the option to have my account slowed when I hit limits , rather than charged for extras.

The only thing I can see having happened here is that you've changed account type at some point. There's a known 'problem' where any usage limit is removed when an account is upgraded without any notification being sent to you. 

Quote from: chrisharkins1

And as well as this. I see now that when opening a new account, the Unlimited broadband option is now actually cheaper than what I am currently paying for a limited subscription. Which makes this issue even more of an annoyance.

As long as you're OK committing to an annual contract then we can easily move you onto the new Unlimited product?

Quote from: chrisharkins1

Anyways. I have tried repeatedly to call over the weekend to rectify this issue & repeatedly i have spent between 10-20 min intervals on hold. Only for my call to be dropped before i have even spoken to. Pulps common people and Embraces all you good good people are now engrained in my head such is the frequency i have listened to your hold music.

I've heard a few similar grumbles recently about calls being dropped/ It's something we're looking into.

Quote from: chrisharkins1

My second query is regarding my account. I am going to be out of the country for 3 months from this week onwards. I'd rather stay with you guys, assuming the above problem gets sorted, and i'd rather not have the hassle of getting a new line connected when i return to the UK. Is there anyway I can get my account suspended for the duration of my time away.

There's not I'm afraid.
If you fancy raising a support ticket about the above and posting the reference here then I'll pick things up tomorrow for you and see what I can do to help.