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First Monthly Payment with no service

yarib
Newbie
Posts: 2
Registered: ‎15-12-2020

First Monthly Payment with no service

I joined Plusnet and ordered broadband on 2 Dec 2020 with the first month fee of £24.99 being paid upfront. I was emailed on 9 Dec 2020 to notify me that my line was active but my broadband would only be activated on 5 Jan 2021. My next DD will be taken on 9 Jan 2021 but I will have had no Broadband service for the entire first month. I believe this next DD should only be take on 9 Feb 2021 as the first payment should cover January 2021 once the Broadband becomes functional.

A phone line is of no use to me as I ordered Broadband.

Please advise.

3 REPLIES 3
MisterW
Superuser
Superuser
Posts: 14,575
Thanks: 5,411
Fixes: 385
Registered: ‎30-07-2007

Re: First Monthly Payment with no service

A phone line is of no use to me as I ordered Broadband

@yarib  Whilst that may be true, if we exclude FTTP (and possibly SoGEA) , then there is no way to get broadband from any ISP without taking a phone service as well, whether you use it or not.

In terms of new orders, where an existing phone line is present, the phone service can be activated quickly without any BT engineer. The broadband activation requires a BT engineer and is sometimes delayed in the current situation.

With that in mind, I'll try and explain how PlusNet's billing works, but bear in mind I'm just a customer like you.

Firstly, your billing date is set when your first service goes active, in your case the phone on 9th Dec. You pay monthly in advance so your upfront payment covers the first month. On 9th Jan you will pay for a further months service, however because your broadband wasnt activated until 5th Jan, you will get a credit for the broadband part from 9th Dec until 5th Jan.

Don't get excited though, the credit won't be very much due to the way the phone & broadband parts are priced. Only the broadband part of the contract is discounted so your £24.99/mnth is made up of phone at £20.99 (I think!) and broadband discounted to £4. So in reality, your credit for Dec 9th to Jan 5th  is only going to be around £3.50.

I'm afraid that the way all ISP's price their products, not just PlusNet.

Hope that helps explain, even though its probably not wanted you wanted to hear.

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.

yarib
Newbie
Posts: 2
Registered: ‎15-12-2020

Re: First Monthly Payment with no service

Thanks MisterW,

I appreciate the explanation, I do think it's an unfair practise though. I'd rather have the reverse be true and pay a small sum for the phone line as they can charge for any calls made anyway although they lose if I only receive.

Nonetheless it seems a case of the consumer needing to suck it up. I have broadband at my previous house and will continue to use that until it expires on 10 Jan, I'm just fortunate that I can drive to the old place whilst waiting otherwise I would be unable to work at all.

MisterW
Superuser
Superuser
Posts: 14,575
Thanks: 5,411
Fixes: 385
Registered: ‎30-07-2007

Re: First Monthly Payment with no service

I'd rather have the reverse be true and pay a small sum for the phone line as they can charge for any calls made anyway although they lose if I only receive.

I'm sure a lot of people would!. The problem is that someone has to provide and maintain the phone lines. BT Openreach do that and charge the ISP's for that service. That charge is a fairly large part of the monthly costs for providing a phone and broadband service.

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.