Mysterious rise in cost after referral discount applied

[#1]

In November 2020 I signed up for a new 2 year contract (expires 20th November 2022). This was agreed at £21.99 per month. Apparently for some reason my bill has to be manually adjusted every month and this has gone wrong before. I also have a referral of £1.25 which has just taken effect so my monthly bill, as we don't make phone calls, should be £20.74. The July bill, however, has an outstanding balance of £22.46 and contains the following under "Monthly charges":

Line Rental -£14.20
Line Rental £14.85
Line Rental £21.22
Line Only £0.00
Voicemail £0.00
Caller Display £0.00
Unlimited Fibre -£11.36
Unlimited Fibre £11.89
Unlimited Fibre £16.98

Discount £10.17
Discount -£10.64
Discount -£15.20
Plusnet Call Protect £0.00

Under "Other items" it contains:

Balance brought forward £20.74
My Referrals -£1.25
Payment -£20.74

The total apparently comes to £22.46!

The "broken down charges" section is fascinating. It shows:

1 Balance brought forward £20.74
1 Line Rental 30/06/21 20/07/21 -£14.20
1 Line Rental 30/06/21 20/07/21 £14.85
1 Line Rental 21/07/21 20/08/21 £21.22
1 Line Only 21/07/21 20/08/21 £0.00
1 Voicemail 21/07/21 20/08/21 £0.00
1 Caller Display 21/07/21 20/08/21 £0.00
1 Unlimited Fibre 30/06/21 20/07/21 -£11.36
1 Unlimited Fibre 30/06/21 20/07/21 £11.89
1 Unlimited Fibre 21/07/21 20/08/21 £16.98
1 Discount 30/06/21 20/07/21 £10.17
1 Discount 30/06/21 20/07/21 -£10.64
1 Discount 21/07/21 20/08/21 -£15.20
1 Plusnet Call Protect 21/07/21 20/08/21 £0.00
1 My Referrals 21/06/21 20/07/21 -£1.25
1 Payment 28/06/21 28/06/21 -£20.74
Total £22.46

I am mystified. Why is a simple contract for one line so complicated? Please correct it so that I pay £20.74 per month. Thank you.

[#2]

@rjheald 

Is it a fixed price contract or, as I suspect, one withe the CPI increase clause, see https://www.uswitch.com/broadband/guides/plusnet-price-increase-what-consumers-can-do/

Have a look at the welcome email that you received or look for it in your account, it should be in a closed ticket.

[#3]

@rjheald  There was a 4.6% price rise at the end of June that is why the bill shows various refunds and part month figures to adjust the bill pro rata for the different rates during the month. It looks a mess but I checked mine and it is correct, that doesn't mean yours is though but it probably is.🤔

[#4]

Plusnet agreed at the start that the price would not go up at all during the two years, so no annual increases.  I think that's the reason they manually adjust it each month.

[#5]

There were various problems in October before I re-contracted in November last year on the same agreement but this message was part of the solution:

[CSA Removed] - Sales & COT Analyst

11:29am, Friday 23 Oct 2020

Dear Mr *****,

Keep the customer price at £21.99 for full term of the contract as on this ticket he was offered fixed price but system did not complete his re contract had to be manually done again in October.

So if price goes above £21.99 pleaser credit back.

Kind regards,

[CSA Removed]

Moderators Note: CSA name removed as per Forum rules

[#6]

@rjheald  So Plusnet have added the price increase when they shouldn't have, they will have to sort it out.☹️

[#7]

Hi @rjheald

Thanks a lot for reaching out and I'm really sorry for the inconvenience caused here. Looks like the account has not been handled very well since the initiation of your latest contract with us. I've sorted things out now and have sent you an email if you'd like to have a look.

Please respond to the open ticket on your account and I'll have a look again this afternoon.

You'll find the open ticket here.