Farcical Plusnet procedure following missed payment - still unable to resolve

[#1]

2 days ago a direct debit for one of my plusnet accounts failed due to current banking and timing issues. The bank helpfully didn't tell me, but I noticed myself the very next day (yesterday) and also received both e-mails and SMS from Plusnet to let me know and asking me to resolve within 14 days. Well I immediately tried to log in to my Plusnet account but found that the Plusnet web site was not responding, also strangely that the SMTP relay server was report failures to send e-mails through it. Internet access was otherwise fine. I then had to wait some time to get through to Plusnet by phone. I explained that the web site appeared to be down but it seems this was not the case. In fact what had happened is that my access to the Plusnet web site had somehow been blocked, by Plusnet, due to the missed payment!!!

I can't begin to find words to describe this 'procedure'. Farcical is just nice. So.. I want to get onto the web site in order to pay and you block it? How much sense does that make? Quite apart that, to take ANY punitive action one day after missed payment, especially from a customer who has been with Plusnet for many years, has multiple accounts and refered others to you... Words fal me. I'm sure it was an error on your part but it is inexcusable frankly.

Worse than that, after these 'restrictions' were lifted after my conversation yesterday I promptly tried to get to the right place to make the missing payment and was frustrated once again. You'd expect a link in an obvious place but it certainly wasn't in the Bill payments details page. I did eventually find a link via the help section but when I clicked on the button to take me to the payment process I got an error. Today I can't even access my bill information.

And why has live chat disappeared? Why can't you explain this clearly on the notification banner about CoronaVirus issues?

What is going on? Please let me know how I can pay you and I'll be happy to do so (from a professional point of view only).

[#2]

I am still unable to find a way to make payment in respect of a failed DD. Plusnet customer services lines are now unable to take calls, online chat is suspended, related web site links lead to error pages. No proper way to communicate with a big service provider and for them not to be able to take payments seems a bit serious to me. Anyone at Plusnet care to update us on what might be going on?

[#3]

Moderators Note

Two topics on same subject from same poster merged.

[#4]

Hello @karam

I am sincerely sorry to hear that you had experienced an issue with making a payment for your account
and for the inconvenience, this has caused.

Our late payment process can be found here.

Every customer is given 14 days to either make the payment or get in touch with us should they need further support. During the 14 days, a browsing interruption is placed on the connection as a reminder the bill is outstanding. Normally it will give the customer an option to continue browsing normally.

However, there are some customers where their account are affected by a back end issue that we are working
to resolve and it sounds like this account is one of them. I am deeply sorry for any undue stress this has caused.

If you can PM me your account username, I would be happy to look into the account and the payment attempt you have made.

We’re prioritising answering customer calls and have decided to close live chat. We are happy to assist over the phone, however, due to the pandemic wait times will vary.

Alternatively, we can help as much as possible here or other social media platforms.

As advised above please feel free to PM me your account username and I would be happy to look into the account and answer any questions you may have.

[#5]

Thank you for your response. I'm sure you guys must be busy and possibly short staffed, however...

 1. Priority one: Can you please provide me with a link which actually takes me to a working payment process e.g where I can make a one off payment to clear the missed payment (not an explanation of the late payment process). The supposed payment link which I found only in an indirect way yesterday just returned with an error page. There will be nothing for you to see because I have not been able to get past step zero. I already know why the direct debit failed on this particular occasion, I don't need explanation for that. Just some way to pay you...

2. Please pass on my opinion to the policy makers that blocking access to the Plusnet web site did not remind me of anything since I don't normally try to access it - other than when trying to rectify a problem which of course is exactly what it prevented me from doing. I hear what you say about a splash screen which may have let me progress if it had worked properly (but which I can see obviously has failed for others too). In my opinion it is just a plain stupid idea - especially when we can't live chat OR even call by phone (yesterday afternoon calls were simply terminated - no queue even). It is enough to send e-mail and SMS reminders and then if no payment by customer you can start applying restrictions - my suggestion is first step might be to throttle the bandwidth. That might be a good way to get attention without being totally offensive and still allowing a customer to make corrective actions or contact you rather than hanging dirty washing out here... I actually don't like to do it because until now I've had nothing but praise.

3. I think it is unacceptable that you should leave no direct means of contact. I understand that live chat has been down for a while (for whatever reason that you state) but to knock down voice calls as well is a step too far. It left me with no option than the community forum (I'm sorry but I'm not into twitter) which is not a good way to do things. You are a big company, c'mon..

[#6]

""Every customer is given 14 days to either make the payment or get in touch with us should they need further support. During the 14 days, a browsing interruption is placed on the connection as a reminder the bill is outstanding. Normally it will give the customer an option to continue browsing normally.""

if the system worked 🤔 🤔 which it does NOT

[#7]

Again, in my opinion a nonsensical idea (I have already exlained why, and clearly the idea has already failed in a non failsafe way). It is enough to get e-mails and text messages as reminders.

Anyhow, that is not now the main issue for myself. The main issue is that I can't find a way to pay!

I did manage to get the restriction lifted two days ago by talking to someone at Plusnet when they still had a method to talk to them. I then went on to the web site to try and make payment but that didn't work either. Since that time I can't even get through on phone (and obviously not on chat). So only option left appears via forum. I WANT to pay but can't find a way to do it. Crazy!

Once again, please, someone at Plusnet will you provide me with a secure way to pay the outstanding bill, or fix the payment link asap if it is valid but broken.

[#8]

So I get another SMS today reminding me to pay via this link: www.plus.net/pay  Needless to say this DOESN'T WORK. I also find the restrictions back on today so I can't access the plusnet website again with no working method to lift restrictions... again... BTW this payment link didn't work even when you lifted restrictions the day before - all I would get was an error reporting page. So there are MULTIPLE ISSUES.

Seems I can still access the forum page, which I suppose is good but no-one has yet offered a working solution. Phone line method seems to be working now (in the sense that the call hasn't been terminated after the blurb) but I've yet to get to front of queue...

[#9]

@karam 

---

@SammyM wrote:

However, there are some customers where their account are affected by a back end issue that we are working
to resolve and it sounds like this account is one of them. I am deeply sorry for any undue stress this has caused.

If you can PM me your account username, I would be happy to look into the account and the payment attempt you have made.

---

Did you get any response from a Private Message?

[#10]

I did not send a Private Message so no I didn't get a response from such. As I mentioned above, I could not even get to a position where I could attempt to make payment. The www.plus.net/pay link just returned an error page when I tried during the brief period when the account restrictions were lifted. Today the restrictions were re-introduced and I couldn't even get onto the plusnet website at all. I have however finally managed to get through on the phone and made payment that way - although frankly I am concerned about the security of this method as no special measures were taken to secure the phone line during the process. Anyhow payment thus made and e-mail confirmation received but still waiting for restrictions to be lifted. Was told may take up to 4 hours. Why so when the support staff managed to lift them immediately for me on Thursday? Anyhow not bothered by this other than the inconsistency.

This whole exercise has unnecessarily taken days to resolve at a time when neither you nor I can afford the time. The procedure you have in place is ineffectual and counter productive. My suggestion would be to remove it. E-mail and SMS reminders are enough for well meaning customers.

[#11]

Thank you for your honest feedback @karam, I will ensure that it is passed on to the relevant team. Please do PM us your account username should you need any further assistance and we will be happy to help.