I took out an 18 month contract with Plusnet on 31st January 2019. Contract expiry date is 30th July 2020. I was very happy with the monthly Broadband price offered (after a substantial discount). The "products" to which I signed up were Fixed Price- Unlimited Fibre, and free Evening & Weekend UK& Mobile Calls. (I also pre-paid the annual phone rental.)
Back in autumn last year, I reviewed our monthly billings and decided that as we weren't making any use of the "free" evening & weekend UK & Mobile Calls add-on product, we'd be better off without it.
Unfortunately for me, I'm recovering from a stroke, and telephone calls and telephone conversations are exhausting. Post-stroke, my hearing has also significantly deteriorated, and I'm currently awaiting hearing aids for both ears.
What I therefore needed back in November was access to a Plusnet web site facility where it would be quick and easy to make an online cancellation of the phones component of my overall monthly package . Fat chance.
I used Plusnet online Help to find out how to downgrade my Plusnet package and was directed -- unbelievably enough -- to "Offers and Upgrades" -- in other words, to the precise opposite of what I had in mind.
After considerable messing around with a baffling sequence of options thrown up on-screen, I had to resort to online chat, at the conclusion of which I was assured that yes, that's it: the phones package has been deleted with immediate effect and I would no longer be charged for it.
However . . . when I came to glance through my latest Plusnet bill, I discovered that nothing of the kind had happened. I was still being charged.
Remembering the frustration encountered last time around, I hesitantly returned to the Plusnet website today to say if things had improved. This time though, I took a screenshot of every change of page, just so I could be clear in my own mind about what was, or was not, happening. Logging into my account, I saw all the details correctly rendered there, including in "My Products", a tick against the still extant, uncancelled "Evening & Weekend UK & Mobile Calls".
Clicking on the Offers and Upgrades tab so as to downgrade my existing package by removing the phones product I was greeted with a Help & Support screen, packed with large icons and the headline "What can we help you with today?" Icon options were Broadband, Phone, TV, Mobile, My Account, and Email guides. I clicked on "Phone".
Having done so, the screen changed to a page headlined "Change your product" and three option fields each with its own icon: Broadband (under which my current 'Unlimited Fibre' was listed and the invitation 'Change my broadband'); then another field with icon, Call Plan, under which was listed the Evening & Weekend UK & Mobile Calls package I'm still stuck with, and the invitation to 'Change my call plan, and finally a third option field for Broadband and Calls: "Get a full overview of both products at once" and the invitation "Review all products".
Obviously, that third field was of no relevance to me. I know the products I currently have. I also know the product I no longer wish to have. I clicked on the "Change my Call plan" link and waited to see what would happen next.
What actually happened next was that every field link on the page was overlaid with a spinning wheel marked 'Loading" -- this despite the fact that I had clicked only on the single specific link in which I was interested, and not on all three.
Eventually, after the wheels had finished spinning, the screen changed again to "Choose call plan", under which was listed the dratted Evening &Weekend UK & Mobile Calls package I already have and which I wish to be rid of. Next to this was another actionable graphic: Keep this product.
And that was that. Nothing about camcelling or changing it. Just. . . keep it.
However, below that I found a range of phone-related options, including a straightforward one for line rental and pay as you go call billing.
As this was clearly the only way open to a Plusnet customer to actually cancel an existing phones package -- by substituting it with something else -- I clicked on that.
Immediately the screen changed to "Confirm your new products", with a list of three: Unlimited Fibre, Line rental, and Line only.
To my amazement, the monthly charge for "Unlimited Fibre" had rocketed by over 300% to a new and unasked-for "Out of contract price", despite the fact I had made no alterations at all to the terms of my Broadband contract.
I was invited to tick a box to say I approved all these changes -- when obviously, I did not: I had ticked just one link to go to "My Phone" and yet had been taken to every aspect of my package, and now, because I wished to cancel the add-on package, I was being asked to say I agreed to cancelling the whole of my existing Broadband contract and replacing it with a new arrangement under which I would voluntarily pay 300% more per month.
As if.
I find it difficult indeed to believe that Plusnet is unaware of this online shambles, and the major glitch that follows upon a customer ticking but one option only for that link to trigger a Plusnet response involving all aspects of the customer contract with potentially disastrous results.
Thankfully I've been fortunate today to make contact with a lovely lady on telephone support who spoke clearly and calmly, dealt carefully with my situation, and promptly resolved it -- to the extent that I'm to be refunded the monies paid since November (something I never asked for, seeing as it was my own fault for not checking the bill).
Kudos to that lady . . . but none at all to Plusnet senior management for overseeing an unacceptable online customer-facing operation in need of serious overhaul sooner rather than later. My online experienceof Plusnet today has been as time-wasting and as pointless as it was back in November, so it's obvious that whatever might be the system glitch that is causing this shambles was present then . . . is still there, uncorrected, now.
I'm really not sure that OFCOM would think this was a proper way of doing business..
