Failed payment but not sure what for

[#1]

Anyone else getting this message:

We couldn't take a payment that's due on your account. So that you can browse without restrictions it's best to make this payment as soon as you can.

I am not sure what the payment is for, it is for apprx £10 which is a lot less than my monthly payment which seems to have been taken. However, I can't get into my bills to see what it is for. I tried to contact customer services earlier in the week and was told it might be an error as there was currently a problem with plusnet's billing system so they could not check. 

We are now intermittently getting a plusnet failure page when searching.

We keep getting emails and text messages that a payment is due but there is currenlty no chat service available and the call wait time is 50 mins. I don't feel like paying an amount that I don't know what it is for.

Any suggestions would be welcome!

Thanks

[#2]

I have a broadband only contract and I'm getting the same thing, although the supposedly missing payment is for £3. I contacted support but they were unable to check the system and passed it on to another support team. I still haven't had a response to the logged ticket.

According to the Bills and Payments section of my account (and my bank), normal direct debit payment was taken on 31 August, so it's a mystery to me what this £3 is for; it certainly has never appeared in any bill.

I've also started to get intermittent PlusNet failure pages when visiting other sites.

It does look as though something has gone wrong with the switch over to the new billing system. I'm tempted to pay the £3 and argue about it later but I've no confidence that this would actually resolve the issue.

If I don't get a response tomorrow I'll follow up with a phone call.

[#3]

In response to a "we shall shortly be taking payment..." message this morning I realised a defrauded card was still listed as source.  Logged in to my account and changed details to current card. Arrive home tonight - no connection - 50 minute wait time on phone - no chat service - error message on "settle an unpaid bill" page. Found my old defunct card was still listed as payment method - tried to update yet again - message telling me I can only update once in 24 hours - so the system knows there's been an update but it has not been effected.  So I have no connection and no means of contact - and this is progress ??   By the by it is listed/stated/decreed that I pay by direct debit.  never have never will.  I have paid by credit card for 18 years plus.  Yet again I am forced to fall back on a pay by the day BT hot spot: hasn't been a good year for plus.net.

[#4]

Helpline closes at 10pm -helpful.  12 hours later call waiting time is 40 minutes.  Plus.net/pay still has error message. View Bill still shows a blank screen.  Chat is unavailable. I now have a screen grab of the current correct payment card having been registered so that's a step forward I hope.  I'm connected via a BT wifi hot spot which costs money.  Will I receive either comensation reduction or refund - from fairly recent experience of being disconnected for 10 days the answer is no.  There is no indication that I can find of a service status issue.  Dear Plus.net - is there anybody there ?

[#5]

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@dluog wrote:

I am not sure what the payment is for, it is for apprx £10 which is a lot less than my monthly payment which seems to have been taken.

Hi @dluog and welcome to the forums, I'm sorry that this has happened, even I'm confused and I work here. I've sent this off to review to find out whats gone wrong and I'll get back to you once I get a response.

We are now intermittently getting a plusnet failure page when searching.

You should be able to close this splash screen on a computer, it will then not show for several more days.

We keep getting emails and text messages that a payment is due but there is currenlty no chat service available and the call wait time is 50 mins. I don't feel like paying an amount that I don't know what it is for.

We've currently turned chat off so that we can concentrate on reducing the call wait times. I'm really sorry as I know it's not ideal.

@Pivot Welcome to the forums, I'm sorry about your issues I've looked at your account and can't see any outstanding balance but we are having some problems at the moment.  If you're still having issues on Monday please tag me and I'll do my best to resolve this for you, or at least get you an update.

@chips Hi I believe I've answered you questions via social media  

Thanks for your patience everyone.

[#6]

Thank you Jonoh but I'm not seeing "failed to pay" splash screen anywhere.  Got an email from Plusnet a few minutes ago saying payment would be taken late this time around. That would be fine if I wasn't paying BT through the nose to have a slow connection hired by the day.  I think a ticket has now been raised - tried to do that all day with no success - the old round the houses troubleshooting routines that bring you back to where you started five minutes before.  The customer feels utterly futile with no means of contact whatever.  Your twitter message was timed hours ago and received here 30 minutes ago.  Perhaps coincidence but a bunch of messages followed quite quickly after my facebook outburst. That's bad PR that could have been prevented by communication.  Plus.net is after all part of the Communications Industry is it not ?  Thanks for your efforts albeit not understood by this old curmudgeon.

[#7]

Haven’t had an email (yet), but the d/d which PN show as paid on 31/8 still hasn’t hit my bank account.

[#8]

Hi @chips

Sorry about the delay in our responses over social media, and the wait times over the phone.

It's worth noting that posting to us on every platform won't necessarily get you a quicker response, it's likely to simply slow down the response times of the social media team(Myself included) to help both you and other customers.

From what I can see your account isn't in failed billing. Mind sending me a screenshot of what you see when you go to browse the web? Either post up on here, send me a PM, or DM us over Twitter please.

That said, I've checked your line and there seems to be a fault somewhere as your connection is dropping and your line is currently not in sync to the exchange. Can you try the steps Here letting us know how you get on?

[#9]

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@chips wrote:

Perhaps coincidence but a bunch of messages followed quite quickly after my facebook outburst. That's bad PR that could have been prevented by communication. 

I assure you it's coincidence, and the reason that there was a delay between responding here and responding on facebook was because I closed the window and could't find the thread again. 

[#10]

My sister-in-law and father-in-law both have these failed payment emails (separate accounts) is there a problem @JonoH following the billing system upgrade?  My sister-in-law relies on her broadband in order to work from home sometimes so it is especially important Plusnet maintains her connection.  I don't have the email and also am a Plusnet user.

Thanks for any information.

[#11]

Hi @ColaCube

If you can PM me their usernames and/or full addresses I'll be happy to look into this.

[#12]

Connection restored.  Many thanks to whomever.  A ticket was raised - haven't seen any diagnosis as yet. Tried to view my bills out of curiosity - still a blank screen.  I have little doubt that everyone at plus and on the forums is working flat out - but we on the outside have no way of knowing what's going on - if anything. The frustration of that is so hard to convey - but the feeling remains long after a fix has been found.  This outage has occupied most of my time for two days.  I'm of an age where days cannot be taken for granted.  But thank you to whoever did their job.

[#13]

From what I can see there's no recent fault report with our suppliers and no open fault ticket with ourselves.

But I'm glad to hear this is resolved. Looks like someone's looking out for you.

[edit]
There is a fault ticket but it's not been picked up yet.

[#14]

Thanks for sorting out the issue @Gandalf, glad it isn't a billing system upgrade issue

[#15]

No problems, let me know if I can help again.