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PN not competitive enough at the moment

blackrat999
Grafter
Posts: 38
Registered: ‎08-06-2007

PN not competitive enough at the moment

I have been with PN for about 6 years and i am up to almost £50 a month in referrals. I have been working hard at it for a while but for the first time ever i am seriously thinking about moving away.
I am on an old product (PlusNet Broadband Premier Option 1 ) which costs me £21.99 a month. I get 13gb of peak allowance before my speeds get cut and my service is unusable. This happened this month - i have kids what can i say!
I could change products to Premier Pro which would be £19.99 and get a mere 2gb (15gb a month) more but sign up for another 12 months for that when the opposition is so hot now ? I wont use the "unlimited package" because of the throttling on p2p
for instance why not move to O2 - http://broadband.o2.co.uk/home/packages.jsp where i could get UNLIMITED up to 8mb connection for £12.23 - or £5 off that if i have an O2 phone. I know i get a free static Ip with PN but i dont really need it and if i did it would be another £5 with O2 so still cheaper than i am on and i am not going to get throttled back EVER.
Every now and then Pn have a re-jig and put up some new accounts, i am hoping one of those is in the offing imminently otherwise im gonna jump ship and unfortunately i cant recommend what i dont use myself now can i ?
13 REPLIES 13
goberpiles
Grafter
Posts: 108
Registered: ‎24-03-2009

Re: PN not competitive enough at the moment

Really wish I had looked around more before I joined up, ISP offereing more bandwidth and no throttling for cheaper, PN packages now look rather poo to say the least.  I have nothing but problems with the PS3, a rubbish router provided which has stayed in its box after 3 days of using as it could not do what support were telling me to do for my PS3, as soon as I can go im gone.
SparckZero
Grafter
Posts: 184
Registered: ‎15-07-2009

Re: PN not competitive enough at the moment

Quote from: blackrat999
sign up for another 12 months

The 12 month minimum period only applies if you take a free router or house move. See http://www.plus.net/support/customer_service/using/terms_update_sept09.shtml?WT.mc_id=ec_int_200909p... for more info.
HPsauce
Pro
Posts: 6,998
Thanks: 146
Fixes: 2
Registered: ‎02-02-2008

Re: PN not competitive enough at the moment

Quote from: blackrat999
why not move to O2

Are you in an O2 LLU area?
If not you will only have the "O2 Access" product available and they have just started traffic management on that. It also costs more
Though to be fair I think that management regime is being forced on them as O2 Access is provided through BT.
blackrat999
Grafter
Posts: 38
Registered: ‎08-06-2007

Re: PN not competitive enough at the moment

well it was a PN customer service rep who told me it was a 12 month contract, the website (when i tested the click through for an upgrade) wanted to charge me for the pleasure £30 odd and that said it was an 18month contract !
i doubt if where i live is an LLU O2 area but i am currently getting 7.5 mb and would be delighted to keep getting that all the month and not about 0.5 which is what i am getting at the moment in the evenings, cant use Iplayer, cant download important files or edit my websites reliably.
my current contract expires on 6th Dec so unless there is a rethink of current packages i will be off.
James
Grafter
Posts: 21,036
Thanks: 5
Registered: ‎04-04-2007

Re: PN not competitive enough at the moment

It is currently a 12/18 month contract.
From October 22nd, there will be a 10 day notice period, however, if you have received a free router, house move, activation or migration within 12 months of requesting cancellation, you will need to pay for the cost of that.
blackrat999
Grafter
Posts: 38
Registered: ‎08-06-2007

Re: PN not competitive enough at the moment

Thanks James - it will be shame to leave PN in December when my current contract expires so hopefully there will be a new look at packages available. The more i look the more i can see that i cant recommend PN for price and allowances anymore - my first was 09/04/03 and my last was yesterday - total 135 referrals, strewth !!  Embarrassed
James
Grafter
Posts: 21,036
Thanks: 5
Registered: ‎04-04-2007

Re: PN not competitive enough at the moment

Hiya,
Thanks for your time on the phone earlier and hopefully we've come up with a compromise that will keep you happily with us.
Feel free to shout up if there's any problems at all.
blackrat999
Grafter
Posts: 38
Registered: ‎08-06-2007

Re: PN not competitive enough at the moment

I wouldnt get that service from O2 !!
thanks James, thats why i have done so well out of the referalls, PN are willing to talk and always friendly.
Result.  Cheesy
mar7t1n
Rising Star
Posts: 106
Thanks: 5
Fixes: 1
Registered: ‎09-08-2007

Re: PN not competitive enough at the moment

I've always found PlusNet good value, and they do what they say they will. I have my PC on all day every day as work from home and still can't break that 15Gb monthly limit. Nowhere near in fact. I don't live in spitting distance on the exchange so throttling doesn't affect me anyway. So it's all down to personal circumstances, but I still don't get how people can possibly manage to consume so much bandwidth in a month.
julesandtash
Grafter
Posts: 83
Registered: ‎12-10-2009

Re: PN not competitive enough at the moment

I think the pro package serves me fine. So far in 10 days I've only used 2.5GB and its all at full line speed. If I do want a large download (like some software from my microsoft Technet membership) then I just download it overnight and it doesn't affect the usage anyway.
Last month I rebuilt four computers for family members and even with all the windows updates for them and the wife downloading some musica I still only used 16GB
xpcomputers
Grafter
Posts: 461
Thanks: 1
Registered: ‎13-04-2007

Re: PN not competitive enough at the moment

People often think of throttling in a negative way, but the opposite is also true. Networks that don't do any active traffic management, often find that everything slows down in peak times due to hogs with multiple peer 2 peer connections saturating their connections in peak times, everyone else can be left with scrag-ends to load websites etc! The beauty of the Plusnet system is that it prioritises real-time traffic like gaming, voip & browsing, so that it always stays instant & speedy like it should be! I am here BECAUSE Plusnet do good traffic management!
Obviously Plusnet have had a few problems recently with their network, but that should mostly be in the past now with all the changes they've made, and a few more tweaks are on their way too.
For those following on behind, Plusnet also now have replaced "Unlimited" product with "Premium", which includes 80GB and a better traffic profile set. Obviously not as good a traffic profile as "Pro" is, but gives a much bigger data margin for busy families. "Pro" also has 20GB included now, rather than 15GB, which could make all the difference to an average family! Both of these products get instant ADSL2+ faster connnection (if enabled by BT at your exchange). All contracts have now been reduced right down to 10 days (where most providers trap you for 18 months!)... unless you've taken any free router or house move in the last year, where you just have to pay that back if left within 12months (free after 12 months). This applies to existing contracts too, not just new signups.
Plusnet packages really come good if you live in the most competing Market 3 type exchange, where the prices are much cheaper... but they are still reasonable if you live in Market 1 or 2 areas.
I think the only thing missing is a really great affiliate special deal like we've had in the past... especially one of the "cash bonus" type ones! I reckon  I could find you a few more people to sign up if I had the right incentive!  Wink
I'm sure a few of the other affiliates would agree with that....
Mike
nathan1111
Grafter
Posts: 57
Registered: ‎02-08-2007

Re: PN not competitive enough at the moment

Quote from: xpcomputers

For those following on behind, Plusnet also now have replaced "Unlimited" product with "Premium", which includes 80GB and a better traffic profile set. Obviously not as good a traffic profile as "Pro" is, but gives a much bigger data margin for busy families. "Pro" also has 20GB included now, rather than 15GB, which could make all the difference to an average family! Both of these products get instant ADSL2+ faster connnection (if enabled by BT at your exchange).

Having Said that when you do have Upto 20mb Available to you, your more likely to download more as it would take less time then before to download files of the same size.
I agree with blackrat that PN are not being very competitive, and I too am thinking about moving away.
Im in a similar position with the Same amount of Usage, and on Old Premier Option 1 package (Except for me paying £10 extra for better upload)
Surely the off Peak Hours are good, but anything over 13Gb, and Its very limited.
Having Said that, I have not seen any announcement of migrating Older Legacy Customers to "Upto 20mb", or any compromise.
Maybe I'm asking for too much ... Higher Download Speed, and more Usage.
But from what I see, for what I'm paying o2 looks very good, or Be/BeThere, which is in Fact owned by o2 and from Users, and critic reviews have heard nothing but good things about them.
xpcomputers
Grafter
Posts: 461
Thanks: 1
Registered: ‎13-04-2007

Re: PN not competitive enough at the moment

Some older products will get migrated in due course, but "which" products will get that hasn't been decided yet. That will be like a "phase 2" migration once the existing phase of initial connections is all sorted. The decisions about that phase & timings, and which products will qualify, haven't even been made yet!
I suspect some of the decisions will be made once Plusnet have had a chance to model the new platform and expected usage patterns, to decide which products will remain competitive on the faster speeds, and which will not! (They haven't said that, it is just my hunch!). SO I expect it to take a little while longer before the stats are available to them to make informed choices. But the older products are looking less good value for most now anyway!
The only  way currently to be sure of ADSL2+ speeds on Plusnet is to go for Premium or Pro. I think you might find that "Premium" is a good product.  Also my understanding is that if you move to ADSL2+, whilst by default you get the same upload, you can get the faster upload speed for free by just requesting it (with caveats about stability & upload speeds). So this might save you the extra £10 too. So you could put the saved money towards extra bandwidth on "Pro", or pay less, and have the "premium" product with 80GB (which should do most people!). Remember on all products you get free overnight usage from midnight to 8am which doesn't count towards your limits either...
Plusnet won't suit everyone, but they have some very good high end packages  now (Pro & Premium) and a very reasonable low/mid product in "value". It is just the gap between the two that is missing for the more middle of the road user who need over 10GB, but wants to pay less than £16 a month.
However, if you are in an area that can get the "proper" LLU O2 (rather than the more expensive BT provided version), then you are most likely to be on a Market 3 exchange, which means you get the cheaper prices from Plusnet too!
Mike