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Failed Bill / Bad Redirects / Connection Issues.

Townman
Superuser
Superuser
Posts: 22,918
Thanks: 9,535
Fixes: 156
Registered: ‎22-08-2007

Re: Failed Bill / Bad Redirects / Connection Issues.

Are there automated payment facilities (Direct Debit or a payment card) registered on your account which fail each month, due to some reason other than insufficient funds?

Accounts are payable on the date that the invoice is raised and the majority of users having payment facilities registered on their account do not encounter these issues.

If you do not have payment facilities registered then you will receive a payment due notice when the invoice is raised.  Possibly a contributory factor in such circumstances - are you on a static IP address?

Superusers are not staff, but they do have a direct line of communication into the business in order to raise issues, concerns and feedback from the community.

jellybeanz
Grafter
Posts: 44
Thanks: 26
Registered: ‎08-12-2018

Re: Failed Bill / Bad Redirects / Connection Issues.

I've had the payment due notice, and a payment reminder, both of which link to your main plus.net site which is blocked. I just need you to unblock it so that I can pay, or provide another link for payment. Thank you.

Townman
Superuser
Superuser
Posts: 22,918
Thanks: 9,535
Fixes: 156
Registered: ‎22-08-2007

Re: Failed Bill / Bad Redirects / Connection Issues.

Thus has been noted by a number of users, but the barer of why it impacts some and not others does not appear to have been identified.

Those with pre-registered payment arrangements so that invoices can be paid when due (they date they are raised) do not encounter these difficulties. For those whose payment arrangements fail also do not universally fall into the difficulty of not being able to access the payment page.

One wonders what is different about your circumstances which leaves you in this situation every month? Are your pre-registered payment details failing?

Superusers are not staff, but they do have a direct line of communication into the business in order to raise issues, concerns and feedback from the community.

jellybeanz
Grafter
Posts: 44
Thanks: 26
Registered: ‎08-12-2018

Re: Failed Bill / Bad Redirects / Connection Issues.

It doesn't happen to me every month - it's happened once this year and a few times in the past (perhaps a year ago) and I don't know why. I don't pay by direct debit, I pay when the bill is issued - except I can't, because I don't have access to plus.net. Could you please provide an alternative link for payment? Thank you.

Townman
Superuser
Superuser
Posts: 22,918
Thanks: 9,535
Fixes: 156
Registered: ‎22-08-2007

Re: Failed Bill / Bad Redirects / Connection Issues.

There are no other links. Pay by phone is I think the only other option.

The SUs have had this matter under intermittent discussion with Plusnet trying to identify patterns. Some users who (for whatever reasons) do not have automated payments see this problem each month. Accounts in failed payments seen to get routing restrictions applied ... and things go wrong. Given the priority is always to work around the problem, personally, I suspect the issue has not been fully profiled.

Superusers are not staff, but they do have a direct line of communication into the business in order to raise issues, concerns and feedback from the community.

jellybeanz
Grafter
Posts: 44
Thanks: 26
Registered: ‎08-12-2018

Re: Failed Bill / Bad Redirects / Connection Issues.

I'm able to view my account on the main plus.net site now - thank you to whoever fixed that issue for me! Now I'm unable to see where to pay - usually when I sign in when a bill is due, there will be a box on the front page. Can't find it now... have you moved the payment area? Many thanks.

jellybeanz
Grafter
Posts: 44
Thanks: 26
Registered: ‎08-12-2018

Re: Failed Bill / Bad Redirects / Connection Issues.

This is how my dashboard looks currently:

 

plusnethomepage.png

I would usually see a link to make payment somewhere around the top, near the 'renew your contract' section.

Townman
Superuser
Superuser
Posts: 22,918
Thanks: 9,535
Fixes: 156
Registered: ‎22-08-2007

Re: Failed Bill / Bad Redirects / Connection Issues.

This is all rather odd!

I have been reviewing the long history of the SU discussions on this topic which reminded me that there are two different characteristics encountered when payment is due and there are no payment arrangements on the account or the arrangements which are there have failed...

  1. It is not possible to navigate to they pay now page http://www.plus.net/pay - you see a page not found error
  2. You can navigate to the pay now page but you see an error page like this...

Capture pay now no bill.JPG

The first is due to browsing routing restrictions.

The second is due to the billing status having been modified to get around (1) and thereby the system finding no bill in over due payment!

 

As one of the SU's I have interest in understanding why some people encounter (1) whilst others do not.  Such insight should inform how to address the issue.  I suspect that there is a flaw in the routing restrictions for some users.

 

You might now be able to use the above link but find you encounter condition (2).  If that is successful, I wonder if you have had a router resync and thereby obtained a new IP address ... which somehow circumvents the routing issue?

 

Looking at another way of skinning the cat, my review of the SU history on this matter recalled discussions about prepaying bills - it was suggested that given this is a ledger based system that this should be possible, though there is no clear means of doing so.  It therefore seems likely that "topping up" your phone account (see https://www.plus.net/my.html?action=mybillsandpayments) would add credit to your account which will be 'consumed' on the next billing round.

I did this once (to test out the process when my account was stuck with the not-being-billed issue) and the top-up credit was taken as payment against the next bill.  Therefore this might work as an approach to manual pre-payment so long as it is processed BEFORE the invoice is raised. 

Superusers are not staff, but they do have a direct line of communication into the business in order to raise issues, concerns and feedback from the community.

Townman
Superuser
Superuser
Posts: 22,918
Thanks: 9,535
Fixes: 156
Registered: ‎22-08-2007

Re: Failed Bill / Bad Redirects / Connection Issues.

Capture phone top up.JPG

Superusers are not staff, but they do have a direct line of communication into the business in order to raise issues, concerns and feedback from the community.

Warrinja
Dabbler
Posts: 23
Thanks: 2
Registered: ‎15-12-2013

Re: Failed Bill / Bad Redirects / Connection Issues.

Must pay to continue using internet, but can't pay because plusnet block access to their own website for people to be able to pay the bill...kinda frustrating and confusing.

Can I please get access to the payment options?

Thanks.

boo1
Rising Star
Posts: 100
Thanks: 19
Registered: ‎16-08-2019

Re: Failed Bill / Bad Redirects / Connection Issues.

hi warrinja   it   looks   like   the   payment   page  is   down   again   it   is  something    they   can't   fix   have   you  been   in  contact   with   them   about   this   if   not   pick  up    any  of   the   forum   that   are   going   through   the  same   as  you   i  hope   that   the  plusnet   help  team   will   respond     there   are   a   lot   of  members  having   the   same   problems   are  you   still   within   the    14  days    i  hope   this   works   out  for  you   from   boo1

bealie21
Newbie
Posts: 3
Thanks: 1
Registered: ‎09-10-2020

Re: Failed Bill / Bad Redirects / Connection Issues.

I don't know if this has already been said yet but a really easy fix for this issue is to use a private browser like Tor browser. I was having the same problem as everyone else unable to pay my bill until I tried using Tor browser, it worked straight away with no problems.

HojoNorem
Grafter
Posts: 25
Thanks: 15
Registered: ‎08-04-2014

Re: Failed Bill / Bad Redirects / Connection Issues.

@Townman , condition 2 is pretty much what I am seeing myself. For some reason or another the billing system completely forgot my CC details.  The system didn't alert me to this fact until AFTER my regular billing date.  I re-entered my details as soon as I saw the eMail, but apparently it was too late as later on that day I got both eMail and SMS stating that the billing attempt was unsuccessful.

 

Now most of the member area just shows the same error message in your screenshot and I can only get to the billing section if I take a exact route through the PN website or via direct link.  I can manage to fumble around and get to the "Sorry to interrupt your browsing" page at https://www.plus.net/failed_billing.php , which has the 'Arrange payment' link at https://www.plus.net/my.html?action=take_payment .  Clicking this takes me to https://www.plus.net/tpar_error.html which has the message "Sorry, there has been a technical fault that has meant we have been unable to process your payment.  This problem has automatically been passed to our internal systems admin team. We will contact you as soon as possible with details on how to make this payment."

 

The thing is, this has happened before, nearly a year ago.  That time the bill failed because the CC at the time had been declined (bank had issued a new one but deactivated the current one instantly).  Again I managed to enter the new CC details and the balance was cleared on the next billing cycle,  but I was stuck in this limbo of having of having most of the account management pages error out and parts of the site still thought that I was still owing money.  It was like this for nearly a year until I finally decided to raise a stink over on the FTTP subforum, where @Gandalf waved his magic wand and the problem disappeared...  Until it re-appeared again.

 

What is it that he did that the multitude of agents I dealt with over the phone / eMail / ticket system couldn't?

 

 

Townman
Superuser
Superuser
Posts: 22,918
Thanks: 9,535
Fixes: 156
Registered: ‎22-08-2007

Re: Failed Bill / Bad Redirects / Connection Issues.

In such circumstances call support and insist that they take payment over the phone. If they refuse please post back here. I’m told categorically that they should be accepting payment over the phone. There is an on-going discussion on this point.

Superusers are not staff, but they do have a direct line of communication into the business in order to raise issues, concerns and feedback from the community.

HojoNorem
Grafter
Posts: 25
Thanks: 15
Registered: ‎08-04-2014

Re: Failed Bill / Bad Redirects / Connection Issues.

I managed to get through on the phone while at work today...  Couldn't make a payment.  I can't remember the entire conversation due to a constant stream of customers coming in, but after being put on silent hold while the operator conversed with his manager the consensus was that the 'system' still wasn't allowing a payment to be made and that they would have to wait for a 'bounce back' or something like that.  I'm sorry if I'm not being very descriptive.  The only other suggestion he could make was that I wait 19 days from the original billing date, where the system will pass it back or something...

 

Thing is the failed payment email said the connection could be cut off within 14 days from the billing date.

 

I was lucky when this happened a year ago.  I don't fancy my chances this time.