Failed billing restricted service

[#1]

Hi usual restrictions after failed billing.
Dont want to sit on phone for an hour and no access to failed billing screen.
Seem to get a different story every time I call customer services just want restrictions removed and pay within the 14 day period.
Thanks

[#2]

Thanks for getting in touch.

I'm sorry to hear you're experiencing connection problems. Once a payment fails, your account goes into 'failed billing'. On Days 1, 5 & 10 of failed billing your browsing will be interrupted by a 'splash screen'. This splash screen is a reminder that payment is due, but can be bypassed by you selecting the option to 'acknowledge and continue browsing' (this is only view-able on an internet browser and not apps) and once done your browsing will return to normal.

We are aware of a small number of customers that are not seeing the splash screen when interruptions are applied meaning this cannot be bypassed on your side. I've raised a task with our infrastructure network engineers to manually remove the interruption from your account. This task should be picked up within the next 3 working days.

Apologies for any inconvenience caused.

[#3]

You do not get any splash screen just get restrictions applied from that moment

Get this problem fixed as its happenning  too many people maybe we should be talking to OFCOM

Moderator's note by Mike (Mav): All caps title/text edited as per Forum rules.

[#4]

Hi @haywardsteve

We are sorry to hear you feel this way and can completely understand your frustration. We do our utmost best to resolve any query as quickly as possible and I am sorry this has not been the case regarding the issue with the restrictions that's affect a handful of our customer base. I can assure you that the relevant team is aware of the issue and are continuously working on a fix.

I am sorry for the inconvenience this is causing.

[#5]

Set up a direct debit or card payment arrangement and you’ll not encounter this issue each month. Payment is due on the day the bill is generated not 14 days later. The “I don’t get paid until later” concern can also be addressed by moving your billing / payment date using the new manage billing options.

Why is this thought to be an issue for Ofcom? If the bill is correct there’s nothing to report - you just need to pay it when it’s due. Inevitably they way DDs work it’s not going to leave your bank account until 10 days after the invoice is raised.

[#6]

I have a card payment arrangement in place ( as I have had for the past 7 years ) if the system fails to get the payment due to a timeout or other problem .

This is not only happening to me BUT there are other people who have the same problem posting on here with the same trouble so its a greater issue than people think

[#7]

Are you suggesting that the billing system is attempting to take payment via a registered card, but the Plusnet process times out, does not retry and then puts your account into failled each month.

@JonoH ?

[#8]

@Townman  any DD would NOT stop the incorrect payments taken from customers accounts , there is not just the a DD is needed to fix the Error with billing system , a DD would not stop customers not even receiving a Bill, nor would it stop the inability to return overcharged payments

[#9]

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@Townman wrote:

Are you suggesting that the billing system is attempting to take payment via a registered card, but the Plusnet process times out, does not retry and then puts your account into failled each month.

I'm not sure and I'm not in the office to check now until Wednesday. @Gandalf  drop me an email please Monday or Tuesday with what's happening and I'll see if we can make sense of it together,

[#10]

A DD indeed will not stop a bill not being raised, but a bill not being raised does not cause service restrictions. I should know - I have a DD in place, but have not been billed since November 2018. I am though putting aside what might be required to cover my charges.

Having a DD in place (or not) is not going to alter the amounts on the account to be paid. That needs contact with support.

The poster here did not suggest that their reason for not having automatic payment set up was predicated on incorrect billing. If that’s the case here, then may be there is a different angle to be taken. I suspect that many are simply seeking to put off paying their bill until what they see as the last possible time.

The T&Cs are very clear - payment is due on the day the bill is generated. The 14 days is not a ‘grace’ period - a time for people to ‘optimise’ their cash flow - but a time to allow automated payments to be processed and any failure rectified.

Many suppliers totally cease service if bills are not paid on time. I recall a time when EE screwed up processing my mobile contract most months due to their billing failures - nearly every month the service was cut off - on investigation they found the payment had not been reconciled. I wonder if they used the same billing technology as Plusnet?

[#11]

@haywardsteve wrote:

I have a card payment arrangement in place ( as I have had for the past 7 years ) if the system fails to get the payment due to a timeout or other problem .

Do you have card details stored on your account when you go here: https://portal.plus.net/my.html?action=mybillsandpayments From what you've said it sounds like you're under the impression you have both a direct debit and stored card details. As of 1st September 2018 we no longer keep two types of payment methods on an account. 

Having said that we never used to try to take a payment automatically via stored card details if a direct debit had failed. 

Happy to look into this further tomorrow as @JonoH has suggested when I'm back in the office.

[#12]

Plusnet state this is happening to a handful of customers... Care to say how many?
10, 100 or thousands. Come on plusnet let's have the truth...

[#13]

Well the pedant in me says that it should be 5 or less, but I somehow doubt that.

[#14]

@Anonymous  there maybe a few zero,s missing from 5

[#15]

I think you may well be right @smiffy1 but the questions is how many, my money is on 3, so does anyone want to play a game of Higher or Lower?