Failure of my direct debit

[#1]

I resigned up to Plusnet in May- I had left because of declining value and customer service. 

The sign up was relatively painless I filled in all the online forms including the direct debit instruction.

Then I swapped over- there was a glitch my old provider handed it over but Plusnet did not put us on,but an note was put on the account that the switch over was successful. That was along and frustrating day getting it sorted out, a nice and very efficient lady helped and got us put on (several hours late), but I thank her for her dilligence.

I got the usual email notifications informing me of the switch and one to say the direct debit instruction was to go live in a few days and to check the details are correct- I did, they were., so I forgot about it May's and June's bills were notified and fine. Then a few days ago I got an email saying that the direct debit had failed and my service would be affected if I didn't pay. Confused I checked May and June's bills and found they had actually been card payments (despite my not giving my card details- somewhat worrying) I tried the links to pay the bill online- but the servers were down, two more days went by more ominous emails threatening blackout all this time there was no online chat available and the phone lines were blocked (still are) I used Facebook messenger set my problem out- a flag cheerfully assured me Plusnet "typically" responds instantly- I put my message on over 24 hours ago and have still heard nothing. So it seems no one at Plusnet is at work- including the engineers because the servers are down or not working properly. I finally managed to get my card payment through this morning in a rare window with the website working. I know Plusnet has good value deals but without customer service support of any kind this is meaningless. The direct debit has failed because no one at Plusnet has activated it- it is there on my bank acoount. I have made several other DD instructions since May and they have all been successful-mso the problem is definitely Plusnet's.Without people doing basic administration the whole system will collapse- threatening people with denial of service when the problem is yours is completely unacceptable. I expect the DD to set up properly and an apology , if this happens next month I will change provider and sue for any charges and the inconvenience- you have been warned.

Yours sincerely

Laura Holland

[#2]

Hi @lauramolonlabe

Sorry to hear about problems with your direct debit. Unfortunately Direct Debit is not something we activate/approve, we are passing provided information to your bank with information provided by you - which is then send back to us by your back with confirmation if they accepted or rejected this requests.

As per this service notice, request to set up Direct Debit was rejected by your bank with this note

" Your bank/building society didn't approve your Direct Debit instruction at this time. There can be many reasons why this happens, but the most common reasons are incorrect details or your account type doesn't support Direct Debit."

Based on this notice, your bank rejected this request - not us.

We are unable to remotely set up DD for you as we do not know your full sort code and account number. You can check all details and set it up again here or here

There was no payment made on your account between first initial payment in May mentioned by you and now, so I am not sure what card payments for May and June bill you are referring to.

I am sorry but I am not sure which servers you mean that are not working properly. Our website is online, member centre is working and your connection is stable as per this graph.

If there is anything else we can help you with - please let us know and please accept apologies for this inconvenience.