Ofcom Rules Breach

[#1]

On April 25th I ordered Phone and Infinity 1 from BT, and selected an activation date for the last working day before the end of my Plusnet billing period. So activation was May 20th, billing period ends May 22nd. During this 4 weeks the communication from BT has been exemplary and the switch went ahead on Friday 20th without any problem. However during this same period I have had no communication whatsoever from Plusnet, be it by post, email, or ticket. I believe this to be a flagrant breach of Ofcom rules as set out below:-

Once you have contacted your new provider to begin the switching process, both your new provider and the provider you're leaving must both send you a notification letter to inform you of the switch.
The letter from the provider you are leaving must include details of:
• the services which are affected,
• the services which are unaffected, and
• any applicable early termination charges that relate to the services you currently take.

As if this was not bad enough I have today had notification of my bill for the period beginning May 23rd. Despite both phone and broadband being migrated on 20th May I am still being charged for broadband.

So could a Plusnet rep answer the following questions:-

1. Why do Plusnet choose to ignore the Ofcom rule regarding notification, which I believe is designed to reduce the chance of Slamming?

2. Why do Plusnet intend to charge me for a month’s broadband when the service is no longer provided by them?

[#2]

That,s shocking,didn,t you cancel your DD.:

[#3]

@geoffa, Given that they (PN) have both not sent you a letter and are continuing to bill you, I suspect that they haven't realised you've actually left, it's as simple as that!. It could be that they've not been notified by BT Wholesale/Openreach about the migration or that they've lost the notification.

[#4]

Does it not occur to you that perhaps Plusnet were not advised of the transfer by Openreach

[#5]

So they were notified about the phone migration, which has been dropped from the bill, but not the concurrent broadband one? I don't think so. Even if that was the case I have had no notification from them regarding either phone or broadband migration.

[#6]

Hello there. Sorry to hear that we're still billing you for your broadband service, this sounds like an issue I've come across in the past.  If one of my colleagues doesn't pick this up today, I'll take a look at your account tomorrow morning when I'm in the office.

[#7]

Thanks Anoush, I look forward to your explanation and answers.

[#8]

I'm having difficulty in finding your account. Could you PM me your username please?

[#9]

PM sent

[#10]

@Anoush what is PN's policy when customer are switching to another provider , do you send out an email , letter or both ?

Kind regards
Mike

[#11]

We would send out an automated email, however it appears that the system failed to do this. I apologise for this.

@geoffa A ticket is currently in hand with our billing team, however as there is currently a payment pending via the direct debit, they are unable to close the account until it has been cleared. This can take 5-7 working days. Once this has completed, they will provide any necessary refunds and close the account.

Moderator's note by Dick (Strat): Full quote of preceding post removed as per Forum rules

[#12]

@Anoush  sending an email , is that not a breach of the rules on its own.
As Ofcom state " both your new provider and the provider you're leaving must both send you a notification letter to inform you of the switch.."

Kind regards
Mike

[#13]

http://www.revk.uk/2015/02/ofcom-drop-ball.html may help

Also, these letters need to go by post unless the customer has agreed we contact by email. Well, all of our customers have agreed this. It is in our terms and very clear, and we email invoices and DD notices and so on. But OFCOM are saying that being in our terms is not good enough, we have to have explicit consent from the customer for this. Well, that is easy for new orders, but are we going to have to contact all existing customers to get this explicit consent - that will be a pain for us and them. We're asking OFCOM to confirm.

[#14]

Ah thanks for the info Oldjim

Kind regards
Mike

[#15]

Presumably this "system failure" can happen to anyone being migrated from Plusnet, leaving customers open to Slamming?

Whilst you have given a reason for the non-compliance of Ofcom rules you have not explained why the broadband charges did not cease whilst the phone charges did.

In addition I could not find any reference on my account regarding contract end date, although I believe I was in the final month. If this was not the case I would expect any termination charges to be waived as I was not informed about them in advance, as per the Ofcom ruling. Would you please confirm that this is the case.