Miss leading Package Deal

[#1]

Just a heads up on paying upfront for 12 months line saver.Don't. .....

I signed up for a new customer broadband package, 18 months @ £29.99 pper month which included line rental ( £359.88 per year)

I then payed £197.88 upfront for the line saver package for 12 months.

If you deduct the two it comes to £162.00 per year or £13.30 per month.

Imagine my surprise when on querying my first bill I was told I was being charged £18.50 per month for my package.

I was told that quote ": 

"The advertised deals are for customers who pay their line rental and broadband monthly, you have paid your line rental up for a year"

So basically for what should have been £162.00 a year with my line saver included has now turned out to be £222.00 a year with my line saver included because I paid up front.

The chat line operator made it clear that because I paid for the line saver they have decided that I should pay the full package price of £34.99 per month instead of the advertised £29.99 per month that I signed up for.

So to put it in plain English if you take out one of their advertised deals and then pay for 12 months line saver you will end up like me being £60 worse off just for paying your line saver upfront.

 Please see below the deal I signed up to through Uswitch which is still available today.

As you can see I should only be paying £11.00 per month for the broadband for the first 12 months instead of the £18.50 per month that Plusnet are now charging me just because I paid for the line saver to try and save a few pounds.

 

Plusnet Unlimited Fibre Broadband Extra

Upfront costs

Phone line installation (if required)

£49.99

Activation Fee

£15.00

Monthly payments

Months 1-12

Unlimited Fibre Broadband Extra

£11.00

Pay As You Talk

FREE

Line rental

£18.99

Total

£29.99

Average monthly cost

[#2]

Please see attached the actual screen shot of the package I signed upto.Note £11 per month for Broadband Extra...so why I am now being charged £18.50 per month for Broadband Extra just because I was told by a Plusnet operator that I would be better off paying 12 months line saver upfront.

[#3]

I'm afraid the quoted costs you've attached a screenshot of are for the low cost area pricing, I'm afraid as the exchange your service connects back to is not in a low cost area the charge is higher for this, there's some information on this here: https://www.plus.net/help/broadband/broadband-prices-around-the-uk/

[#4]

I can't  quite understand how you are able to offer a customer a fixed price for a product all the way through the signing up process without telling them that once they have signed up and paid their first months bill in advance you are then able to then inform them that their price has increased because you neglected to tell them  at sign up that they lived in a "high cost area".

Surely when you give a customer a set price based on their post code and address given you should honour it.Not wait until they query their bill before telling them "well sorry but you live in a high cost area so the price you signed up for is not applicable ".

I agree you sent out an email of my contract charges the next day but they did not show or explain  that the £18.50 per month for my broadband was an increase from the package I signed upto.

The one qoute in your terms and conditions that was in the email is below

"We may make changes to prices, content and terms at any time during your contract. We'll tell you about important changes before they happen and if a change is detrimental you'll be able to end your contract without any fees. "

I hope you accept that due to this miss selling of your agreed original price that I may cancel my contract without any cancellation fees incurred. 

[#5]

Hi there.

After you put in your address details in the signup journey online, we'd have advised you of your monthly cost you'll be paying before the order was submitted to us, which is also documented in your welcome email here.

It looks like the additional charges on your invoices is not line rental, because you've paid that up front. Have you checked a breakdown of your invoices here?

[#6]

PN provide the white label service for Jhn Lewis and they proudly make the point that you pay the same with them wherever you are  - no high cost or low cost exchanges for them.

I would LOVE to see someone explain or justify why PN charge more for customers like us in more rural locations when they don't pass those charges to customers who sign up via third parties like John Lewis.

[#7]

Hi...

Yes I'm so disgusted with Plusnet on this subject of only advertising the price of lower band areas on their website.

As in my case all the way through sign up they never informed me of the  increase in prices to those advertised because of my post code area.It stated all the way through that my total price would be £29.99  and even on the final invoice page there was no information or wording to suggest that my price had been altered due to my post code.

Yes I saw the final invoice and signed up to it,but be warned they lay the final invoice out in such a way that you don't even realise they have increased the price from the one you had started out with.Very clever marketing on their part but also very underhanded and miss leading. (They tend to break the final invoice down into seperate catorgeries that are worded total differently than those on the special deals page that you think you are getting.)

Like you I have seen the John Lewis offer and am even considering leaving Plusnet to move over to them.

I may be at the beginning of my contract and will have to pay a large leaving fee,but I do not like the way Plusnet seem to think they have done nothing wrong.

[#8]

I believe if you're within 14 days of signing up you may cancel without incurring fees?

[#9]

@Kpfran Apologies for my response, I think I misunderstood there.

Mind sending me a PM with your address so I can investigate this?

Thanks

[#10]

Thanks for your private message.

I've taken the time to go through the signup journey myself.

The current offer for Unlimited Fibre Extra is £29.99 per month.

When using your postcode, I'm seeing the below cost for Unlimited Fibre Extra.

Before the order is finalised and the account created, I'm also presented with the below breakdown of costs.

Whilst I appreciate the above isn't the offer you signed up for, it provides an example where throughout the signup journey, after the system knows your address, it's added the £7.50 Market 1 charge on.

I hope this helps clarify things.

[#11]

Your using an example of today's website offers breakdown.(conveniently now showing an increase from £29.99 to £37.49

When I signed up 2 months ago the price remained at £29.99 all the way through my sign up ,not the £37.49 that you are showing above from today's example.

Also as you can see from the breakdown of your example no where does it itemise £7.50 for an added Market 1 charge.

As I originally stated,"miss leading"

.I appreciate that your never going to admit to underhanded sale's marketing, but I just want to highlight to people who are considering joining Plusnet to beware of this problem

I see after doing a bit of research that Ofcom have warned you about this type of marketing practice in the past,relating to not showing Market 1 charges.