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Outraged! Over charged by £300 over 5 years and told I will only get £30 back

jasonh_4
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Outraged! Over charged by £300 over 5 years and told I will only get £30 back

Plusnet emailed me on the 23rd of January;

Hello Jason

At Plusnet we believe in being honest, straight talking and doing right by our customers. We've recently become aware of a problem with your broadband, which means you have been set-up on the Unlimited Fibre (36Mbps average download speed) product rather than Unlimited Fibre Extra (66Mbps average download speed).

We will be working closely with our suppliers to correct this and to make sure you're getting the service you should be. The correction process will take around a week to complete.

When your service switches over you may experience a small drop in connection. Usually this will happen overnight and your router will reconnect by itself. If it doesn't don't worry, you'll just need to restart your router by switching it off and back on again. If that doesn't help, please give us a call.

We will be refunding you for the difference in price for the product you've been getting and the product you should've been getting. Once all the changes have been made we'll calculate the refund you're due and send you an email to confirm the amount. The refund will be sent to you via cheque. This should arrive within one month of your service being changed over.

We're really sorry this has happened, but want to reassure you we're working on this as quickly as we can to get it fixed.

Any questions please give us a call on 0800 587 1901.

Best wishes,

The Plusnet Team

 

I was pleased at the time that not only had Plusnet identified a problem without being asked but they were being honest and upfront about it.  I called to confirm what the situation was and it turns out the the service had been set-up incorrectly 5 years ago. The service would be corrected in the next 7 days and the refund would be calculated by the "revenue" department rather than the billing team as it was above their authorised refund amount.

12 days later.... I call to see what progress has been made as I had received no further contact. The first support agent tells me he is very sorry but the service hasn't been corrected but he will organise for it to be done and says he will have to put me through to another agent to enquire about the refund. He says their billing system is down and he'll try to call be back by the end of the day. He has just called me back to tell me that "He knows I won't be happy about it but...". Their billing system only goes back as far as 2017 and as they have resolved the problem so quickly after it being identified they would only be able to process a refund for 6 months worth of the difference.

 

Plusnet have admitted to not supplying me with the correct service for 5 years by approximately £5 a month overcharge (around £300 in total) and all they are prepared to refund is £30!

 

I have 2 accounts with Plusnet, one for 5 years and one for 3, and recommended them to friends and family who did sign up with them. 

 

I will be contacting the bank as soon as I finish work to look at what the Direct Debit Guarantee offers me but does anyone else have any advice on how to deal with this?

 

Kind regards

Jason

24 REPLIES 24
jasonh_4
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Re: Outraged! Over charged by £300 over 5 years and told I will only get £30 back

I have just received a "New question" email containing the internal notes from the support agent:

Customer unhappy with being offered 6 month's service back (@ £5 per month)

BrightonRock
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Re: Outraged! Over charged by £300 over 5 years and told I will old get £30 back

@jasonh_4

Wow!

I would think that your first step should be to raise a complaint (there is a link at the bottom of this web page). If you don't then get a suitable offer, you will need to consider further action. But taking matters further would probably require you to have gone though the complaints procedure first.

I would hope that it doesn't become necessary, but further action could involve OFCOM and possibly legal action. Do you have legal assistance insurance under, for example, your home insurance policy?

However, and I apologise as this may sound rude, I wondered why you hadn't noticed that you were being provided with the wrong service? 

jasonh_4
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Re: Outraged! Over charged by £300 over 5 years and told I will old get £30 back

@BrightonRock

Thank you for your reply. Yes I do have legal cover on the home insurance, I hadn't even thought of that. 

 

No not rude at all... I'm not really sure how you'd know that the service was on fibre vs fibre extra once it had been installed. 

 

I wonder how many more people are unknowingly on the wrong product. The bills state "fibre extra", in my account it says "fibre extra". With it not being a physical product or service seeing the difference isn't always easy. Apparently the original order was to openreach was just put through incorrectly

Plusnet emailed me identifying the problem, telling me they'd fix it in a week and refund the full amount I'd been overcharged. I find it incredible that they have failed to resolve it in a week and go back on saying they'd refund the full amount less than 2 weeks later.

 

Kind regards

Jason

billnotben
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Re: Outraged! Over charged by £300 over 5 years and told I will old get £30 back

This is a shocker. Of course all the money falsely charged has to be refunded along with interest. That's a minimum. Yes interest rates are low but this is more akin to plusnet using you for an unauthorized overdraft or a payday loan so any payment should reflect that.

The only argument left should just involve the wording in the letter of apology and the compensation amount.

It beggars belief that someone at plusnet is blaming the billing system for the refund offered.

I hope you get it all back and more but beware of rubber cheques.

 

BrightonRock
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Re: Outraged! Over charged by £300 over 5 years and told I will old get £30 back

I edited my earlier post to refer to OFCOM not OFWAT.

I think that the difference between the two services is a matter of speed. Have you run any speed tests? What speeds have you been getting? And what does https://www.dslchecker.bt.com/pls/adsl/adslchecker.welcome say that you should be able to achieve? If you post the answer here, make sure that your phone number/other private information is not showing.

Gandalf
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Re: Outraged! Over charged by £300 over 5 years and told I will old get £30 back

Hi Jason.

Sorry to see how this has been handled when you initially called in regarding this.

Ideally the calculation of the refund and the correction of your package should've been left with the back-end team to proactively sort out as per that email you've received, but I fear that the change an adviser has done has stopped this process. 

I can see you called in again following that and the next adviser you spoke to has escalated this with their line manager to discuss with our billing team and ensure that your refund for the overcharges is worked out correctly.

For the record we can currently dig out all the payments you've made since you've signed up.

Apologies for the inconvenience caused and experience you've had.

From 31st October 2022, I no longer have a regular presence here as I’ve moved on to a new role.
Anoush Mortazavi
Plusnet
jasonh_4
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Re: Outraged! Over charged by £300 over 5 years and told I will old get £30 back

@Gandalf

 

Hi, thank you for your reply.

 

So I will receive a full refund for the overcharged amount?

Kind regards

Jason

Gandalf
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Re: Outraged! Over charged by £300 over 5 years and told I will old get £30 back

No worries, yes you should do.

[edit]

We'll work out the correct amount shortly.

From 31st October 2022, I no longer have a regular presence here as I’ve moved on to a new role.
Anoush Mortazavi
Plusnet
Jonpe
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Re: Outraged! Over charged by £300 over 5 years and told I will old get £30 back

Why inform the customer in advance?  Just resolve the technical side of things, calculate the overcharge, and post a cheque to the customer (crediting the amount directly to his bank account would be even better).  Then send the email, or enclose a letter with the cheque.  This would avoid the issue(s) described in @Gandalf's post No. 7,  the customer gets a nice surprise and continues to recommend PN, and PN's reputation is enhanced.  Oh, and make sure the cheque doesn't bounce!

Gandalf
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Re: Outraged! Over charged by £300 over 5 years and told I will old get £30 back

@Jonpe, I don't think the communication is a particularly bad thing as it shows that we're being open, honest and transparent with what we're doing and what we plan to do. I'm just a bit disappointed in how we've handled it initially when they called in and feedback has been passed on regarding this.

@jasonh_4, I understand this should be sorted now and you'll receive your cheque within the next few weeks.

From 31st October 2022, I no longer have a regular presence here as I’ve moved on to a new role.
Anoush Mortazavi
Plusnet
billnotben
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Re: Outraged! Over charged by £300 over 5 years and told I will old get £30 back


@Gandalf wrote:

it shows that we're being open, honest and transparent with what we're doing


I don't think anyone will argue with that but ..................

If we are really being honest it should be................

It shows that we're being open, honest, transparent, and inept with what we're doing.

That's why many of us customers are shocked and amazed when reading the op's post and plusnets initial response.

Sad to say though many of us are no longer that shocked or amazed. We've reached amazement overload.

 

As already said it should have been immediately corrected properly when first brought to plusnets attention. But any resemblance to immediately doesn't seem to apply to any billing matters. Unless the money is owed to plusnet.

jasonh_4
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Re: Outraged! Over charged by £300 over 5 years and told I will old get £30 back

So I'd like to give everybody who offered me advice an update on this issue. 

I still have not received a refund for the overcharge. I have been told numerous lies, including being told that a cheque was put in the post on the 27th of March which I have been told today is not the case. Nobody I can speak to at plusnet is able to deal with it as it has to be dealt with by the revenue team and I cannot speak to them.

 

The bank have advised me to claim the money I have paid Plusnet via the direct debit guarantee and wait for plusnet to start asking for the money back. It seems like a lot of hassle and I'd like to avoid going down that route but quiet honestly they failed to fix the problem in a week like the promised and they have failed to refund me with-in a month and now there is nobody I can speak to who can help me deal with this issue. It feels like I have no other option Sad

jasonh_4
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Re: Outraged! Over charged by £300 over 5 years and told I will old get £30 back

Perhaps @Gandalf can take another look at this for me and get it sorted, not in a week or a month but in the coming days?

Gandalf
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Re: Outraged! Over charged by £300 over 5 years and told I will old get £30 back

Hi Jason,

I'm sorry to see you've not received your refund yet.

I've got in touch with the project owner who arranges the product alignment work on the back of the e-mail you've received on the 23/01/2019 where we're matching any accounts up with the provisioned product and issuing refunds where needed.

I'm advised that your refund request is still in progress with the relevant team and we'd expect you to receive another e-mail to advise on the amount over the course of the next week and a cheque should follow shortly after.

I'd basically sit tight, rest assured we're working on it and will ensure you receive it.

Apologies again for the delays with this though.

From 31st October 2022, I no longer have a regular presence here as I’ve moved on to a new role.
Anoush Mortazavi
Plusnet