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New service - activation date vs billing date mismatch

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Bobsta
Grafter
Posts: 61
Thanks: 6
Registered: ‎23-12-2011

New service - activation date vs billing date mismatch

Hi folks,
I recently ordered new phone and broadband from Plusnet.
As it required a new line to be installed to my house, OpenReach needed a total of 5 visits/attempts to get me service.
- I placed my order on 2 August (including 12 months line rental saver) and paid my initial fees.
- The phone service was activated on Sat 29 August
- Fibre Broadband was activated on Mon 14 September
I received my next bill on 19 September and whilst there's no charge for line rental due to my line rental saver, there is a charge for fibre covering 19 Sept - 18 Oct (which is then refunded as I'm on the 6 months free deal). To me it seems that Plusnet are billing me as if my services all started on the 19 August  - which just so happens to be the day after the first engineer visit was scheduled (when he turned up, sucked through his teeth and said "ooh, it's going to take a bit more work than I can do to get your service live", then promptly left).
I enquired about this when I called customer support a week or so ago to change my phone package and was assured everything was fine. But it doesn't seem fine to me. Is this standard practice for Plusnet to begin billing for services before they've actually been provided? Shouldn't my 12 months line rental service begin from 29 August and my 12 months broadband service begin 14 September?
Can anyone advise before I go through the pain of calling into support please? (bring back "Ask a question"!!)
Cheers,
Bobsta
11 REPLIES 11
spraxyt
Resting Legend
Posts: 10,063
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Registered: ‎06-04-2007

Re: New service - activation date vs billing date mismatch

I am not a staff member so what follows is simply an opinion. You will have to contact Plusnet to get this resolved.
Plusnet's billing system seems rather intolerant of the provisioning upsets you've unfortunately had to go through. Normally your billing date would be the date your phone service goes live, then the first broadband payment would be a pro rata one taking you up to the next monthly billing date. That should cope with LRS automatically; with broadband to avoid being short-changed on the first "free month" the free months should run from months 2 to 7 with the first part month paid for pro rata.
In your case billing was started before your phone service went live. So you are due a refund of the down time involved. I reckon that's 10 days which based on £15.95 over an average 30-day month means £5.32 is due. That would mean your LRS runs for slightly under 12 months but the refund corrects for that. The pro rata payment and delayed discounted months should mean broadband payments are OK.
Hope this helps
David
David
adamwalker
Plusnet Help Team
Plusnet Help Team
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Registered: ‎27-04-2007

Re: New service - activation date vs billing date mismatch

Hi Bobsta,
The way we deal with such a discrepancy in billing dates is by reducing the payment on the second bill pro-rata.
That should happen automatically and I apologise if as it seems it was unclear this would happen.
If this post resolved your issue please click the 'This fixed my problem' button
 Adam Walker
 Plusnet Help Team
Bobsta
Grafter
Posts: 61
Thanks: 6
Registered: ‎23-12-2011

Re: New service - activation date vs billing date mismatch

Thanks David and Adam for the guidance. I'll let things run for another couple of billing cycles and check the pro-rating kicks in. If it doesn't, I'll raise a call.
Thanks again,
Bobsta
Bobsta
Grafter
Posts: 61
Thanks: 6
Registered: ‎23-12-2011

Re: New service - activation date vs billing date mismatch

Well... I left it until my six month free fibre period finished but I still don't believe this issue has been resolved.
I got into an online chat with one of the PlusNet agents earlier. We spent 90 minutes (yes, really) discussing it but didn't reach resolution. He was adamant that everything was billing correctly... whereas my maths says it isn't.

So could someone who knows the way PlusNet billing works please explain whether this is right?:

 - Initial order placed 2 Aug with invoice showing charge (and refund due to 6 months free offer) for fibre of £14.99

 - no service received for 7 weeks
 - Second invoice issued 19 Sept (when service went live) showing charge (and refund) for fibre of £14.99

 - Third, fourth, fifth and sixth invoices issued, all on 19th of the month, showing charge and refund.

 - Seventh invoice issued on 19 Feb 2016 showing charge (but no refund) of fibre - labelled for service from 19 Feb to 18 March.

 

My maths says that as service went live on 19 Sept I should receive 6 months free service from then, meaning I should start paying from 19 March.
The invoices imply I'm paying for service from 19 Feb - one month too early (as if service had started 19 Aug).
However, Matt, the agent I chatted with felt that everything was in order. I'd received six "free" invoices so everything's fine. My argument is that having the first free period running from 2 Aug to 19 Sept when I had no service means it's definitely not fine.

Thoughts?

HarryB
Plusnet Help Team
Plusnet Help Team
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Registered: ‎25-03-2015

Re: New service - activation date vs billing date mismatch

Fix

Other than the small fact that the service seems to have gone active on 14/09/15, not 19/09/15, I do agree with you. The discounts are incorrect as the first 'month' of service the broadband was actually only active for 5 days, when the bill was generated on 19/09/15.

 

I'll make sure a refund is issued on your account (This should appear back in the bank account it was taken from) within the next 10 working days.

 

I hope this helps.

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 Harry Beesley
 Plusnet
Bobsta
Grafter
Posts: 61
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Registered: ‎23-12-2011

Re: New service - activation date vs billing date mismatch

Thank you HarryB. I also agree with the 14 Sept start date. It was the agent I chatted with earlier in the week who was adamant it was 19 Sept.

Appreciate you resolving this.
Bobsta
Grafter
Posts: 61
Thanks: 6
Registered: ‎23-12-2011

Re: New service - activation date vs billing date mismatch

Sorry to revive an old thread... but the same thing is now happening on my line rental.

 

I purchased Line Rental Saver at the outset and have just been notified that it's expired and monthly billing has begun - even though I've had my service less than 12 months.

This weekend I purchased another year's Line Rental Saver and in my view that should start from 29 August - 12 months from when my phone service went live. Not from this (previously discussed) 19 August date that PlusNet's systems seem to be fixated with.

 

HarryB or another mod - I don't suppose you could get this rectified for me again please? Thanks.

 

Strat
Community Veteran
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Registered: ‎14-04-2007

Re: New service - activation date vs billing date mismatch

For future reference HarryB is a member of Plusnet staff, the mods are not staff but customers.

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HarryB
Plusnet Help Team
Plusnet Help Team
Posts: 5,199
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Registered: ‎25-03-2015

Re: New service - activation date vs billing date mismatch

Hi @Bobsta, apologies that I didn't pick up on this when I previously went over the account and issued the refund against broadband cost.

 

The billing date will always be the 19th as we unfortunately cannot change this, however I do appreciate that the way this has worked out results (Currently) in you being owed some line rental.

 

In the interest of keeping this simple, I'll make sure the line rental payment currently processing on your account is refunded back to you once it has cleared on the account.

 

I hope this helps.

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 Harry Beesley
 Plusnet
Bobsta
Grafter
Posts: 61
Thanks: 6
Registered: ‎23-12-2011

Re: New service - activation date vs billing date mismatch

Many thanks HarryB... I really appreciate your work in rectifying this. The refund has been received.

HarryB
Plusnet Help Team
Plusnet Help Team
Posts: 5,199
Thanks: 1,466
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Registered: ‎25-03-2015

Re: New service - activation date vs billing date mismatch

Glad to hear that @Bobsta Thanks for letting us know Thumbs_Up

If this post resolved your issue please click the 'This fixed my problem' button
 Harry Beesley
 Plusnet