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Excessive Early Termination Fees

MajorA-Gibson
Hooked
Posts: 9
Thanks: 1
Registered: ‎22-05-2020

Excessive Early Termination Fees

I live in a very rural area. Our Broadband speeds have always been abysmal at c 0.40 Mbps and less. Openreach have connected villages within 5 or 6 six miles of us with Fibre but have consistently reneged on their promise to connect us. I have a contract with Plusnet who, from a customer service point they have been good, even though they are owned by BT. Whilst accepting the fact they could not improve the speed I just accepted it and lived in hope that we would get Fibre eventually. Then out of the blue we were all contacted and advised that each household qualified for a Government grant of £1500.00 for the installation of "wireless" Broadband with a minimum speed of c 30 Mbps. How marvellous, so I contacted Plusnet and asked to terminate my contract earlier. I knew they might be a little frosty about this as I had only renewed in February for another 18 months. In mitigation I explained to them that I was disabled, unemployed and in the Covid 19 at risk group as prescribed by the NHS. I could work from home but as I explained to them  their speed was far below the minimum required by prospective employers. So with this in mind I rather foolishly thought they would be a little more sympathetic and exhibit a little Christian charity. However, I could not have been more wrong, I was politely and firmly informed that nothing of what I had explained was relevant and that I had to pay an early termination fee of c £131.00, he also told me it would be a waste of my time to appeal as it would be rejected. Surely I cannot be the only person in this situation during this national crisis.

13 REPLIES 13
tinytaco
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Posts: 457
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Registered: ‎30-03-2020

Re: Excessive Early Termination Fees

Hi @MajorA-Gibson I am sorry to hear about your recent experiences in customer services, I hope this message reaches you in good health. I understand that you now been offered a grant which can support you in giving you a better service, however the contract you agreed upon is for the service you signed up for so leaving early without there being an actual issue with the service provided on that line would require you to pay the early termination fees. I am sorry but the charges will stand as the speeds on your line are within the package you agreed.

 Noor
 Plusnet Help Team
MajorA-Gibson
Hooked
Posts: 9
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Registered: ‎22-05-2020

Re: Excessive Early Termination Fees

Good afternoon. Many thanks for your response. I am quite well thank you apart from the stress caused by Plusnets intransigence.

Firstly may I ask what Plusnet is doing to help and support vulnerable and isolated people during this national crisis, as many other companies and institutions are? 

Your answer to my post is of course a type of stock answer quoting the rules without any other real consideration. I do understand that is what you and your colleagues are instructed to do. As Harry Day a very famous WW1&2 Pilot once, so wisely, said "....rules are made for the observance of fools and the guidance of wise men..." If everyone stood rigidly "by the rules" we would not have the freedom we have in this country today.

However, as far as the service provided - the Broadband Speed did fluctuate considerably and was rarely @ or near 0.40 MBPS, according to the tests I and other customers of Plusnet were able to carry out, also as reported there was a fault in as much as when and incoming telephone was received the Broadband dropped out for a time. This was duly reported, naturally I expected and engineer to call and test the telephone line etc. This was not to be as I was instructed carry out some convoluted procedure in order to rectify the fault myself. Of course this did not work.

In any reasonable, caring and community oriented organisation there is always some form and flexibility built in to rules and regulations. There are always individuals of seniority in most companies who are willing to see past the rule book and look into the mitigating circumstances to see if they can genuinely offer any help to someone less fortunate especially in times like this National Crisis.

I sincerely hope that you all come through this emergency safe and well.

Kind regards.

Major Allan Gibson LLB, JP (Retd.)

tinytaco
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Posts: 457
Fixes: 29
Registered: ‎30-03-2020

Re: Excessive Early Termination Fees

Hi @MajorA-Gibson I am sorry if you felt it was a ' type of stock answer' but I actually typed that response personally for you. For anything relating to COVID19 and how we are supporting our customer you can see more here. I have tested your speeds and they are performing over 0.4bmps, if you do not inform us about a broadband issue we cannot do anything about it. Unfortunately we do not have the staff to monitor 1.7mil customers lines and running tests would mean it would impact your service further. Together with our network partners at Openreach we are prioritising customers who don’t have a phone line or broadband connection, meaning there might be a delay in Speed Faults being fixed. In the meantime, please raise your speed fault online at faults.plus.net

 

Take care.

 Noor
 Plusnet Help Team
MajorA-Gibson
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Posts: 9
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Registered: ‎22-05-2020

Re: Excessive Early Termination Fees

Good afternoon. Please accept my sincere apologies if I inadvertently failed to express my meaning thus causing you some distress.

What I meant to convey by review of  your comment was that it was almost verbatim to the verbal comment made by one of your colleagues. Therefore, one would be perfectly reasonable in assuming, no matter how written, it was taken from a set  of answers to be given to customers in certain circumstances. 

My last speed test via OFCOM was shown at 0.30 after several attempts yesterday.

What are your thoughts on the telephone line causing the internet to drop out? I am not the only person to suffer with this issue locally. 

Regards.

dvorak
Moderator
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Re: Excessive Early Termination Fees


Moderators Note


This topic has been moved from Everything Else to My Account/ Billing

Customer / Moderator
If it helped click the thumb
If it fixed it click 'This fixed my problem'
MajorA-Gibson
Hooked
Posts: 9
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Registered: ‎22-05-2020

Re: Excessive Early Termination Fees

I would be interested to know the rationale behind this action please.

Regards.

wakeman
Aspiring Pro
Posts: 264
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Registered: ‎20-04-2020

Re: Excessive Early Termination Fees

@MajorA-Gibson 

The reason I suspect is very simple you have raised a billing/account issue so its been moved to the correct subject area.

Nothing strange or underhand about it.

MajorA-Gibson
Hooked
Posts: 9
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Registered: ‎22-05-2020

Re: Excessive Early Termination Fees

Ah, thank you. I did not understand. I am very new at this sort of thing as I have never posted in these forums before today.

Regards.

MajorA-Gibson
Hooked
Posts: 9
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Registered: ‎22-05-2020

Re: Excessive Early Termination Fees

So do I just await Plusnet to make a further response?

RichardB
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Registered: ‎19-11-2008

Re: Excessive Early Termination Fees

Hi @MajorA-Gibson

If your internet (I would not call 0.4 mbps broadband) disconnects when the telephone rings or a call is in progess, then there is a fault.

Raise a fault using https://faults.plus.net

Follow the troubleshooting  steps to ensure the issue is not within your property.

If BT Openreach find the fault is within your property then the technicians visit would be chargable.

Follow the process, if the fault is in the Openreach line plant and if Openreach cannot resolve it, PN have been known to allow customers to leave without early termination charges.

This will take persistance, patience and probably multiple visits from Openreach.

Regards

Richard

 

tinytaco
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Posts: 457
Fixes: 29
Registered: ‎30-03-2020

Re: Excessive Early Termination Fees

Hi @MajorA-Gibson as advised previously: 'Together with our network partners at Openreach we are prioritising customers who don’t have a phone line or broadband connection, meaning there might be a delay in Speed Faults being fixed. In the meantime, please raise your speed fault online at faults.plus.net'

 Noor
 Plusnet Help Team
MajorA-Gibson
Hooked
Posts: 9
Thanks: 1
Registered: ‎22-05-2020

Re: Excessive Early Termination Fees

Hello Richard.

Thanks for your response.

I did register the fault on the Plusnet site. They gave me instructions of how to perform tests, all of which seemed ok. 

In the village I live in our telephones etc are always giving issues. Openreach are regular visitors to the area. Sadly any fixes they claim to have made are never permanent. Even the engineers confess there is little they can do because the network infrastructure is not fit for purpose and needs considerable investment, something that Openreach will not commit to. So we have all had to grin and bear it. Just to rub salt in our wounds there is little or no mobile coverage either. Our fault for living here I suppose.

Regards.

Allan

MajorA-Gibson
Hooked
Posts: 9
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Registered: ‎22-05-2020

Re: Excessive Early Termination Fees

Hello. I did understand your instructions regarding the speed test.Actually I wanted to know how to resolve the actual phone line.

Regards.