PlusNet Billing Systems - not fit for purpose

[#1]

Sadly after many, many years I am no longer a PlusNet customer.  My phone and BB provider is now a FTTP connection with GigaClear.  I changed not only because I now get a much faster, better quality and cheaper service, but because I sensed over the years the once renowned PN customer service was slipping and slipping.

I left PN just a matter of 2 days or so before my contract ended.  I expected to pay a small charge for early termination which I have done.  I expected a final bill very soon after the contract ended and kept my Direct Debit open to facilitate either me owing PN something or them owing me something.  THAT WAS A BIG MISTAKE!

PN proceeded to make 2 more monthly DD payments covering BB - thankfully they stopped the line rental charging.

All attempts to rectify the situation have not worked and the real worse point is that PN have no mechanism whatsoever to refund me, other than to wait in a queue of indeterminable length for a"batch process" to be run (with no promise that will work)

In short the PN Billing System is not fit for purpose as evidenced by the posts on this forum, Trustpilot, etc.

There is no customer service ethos within PN to simply issue a manual refund and sort out the billing system later.

I urge anyone reading this to consider cancelling their Direct Debit at the same time as they cancel their PN contract.

[#2]

Billing system issues seem to be an ongoing "feature" with Plusnet.
I am repeating my advice from 2018!

"In the first instance you should contact your bank and get the incorrect direct debits reversed as a Direct debit liability claim. It will be quicker than waiting for Plusnet to refund you.

You may continue to get ongoing automated mails with escalating bills for non-payment of your non-existant bill until the P/N billing team get around to actioning the cancellation..

The helpful PN CS staff on this forum can raise and escalate tickets on your behalf , however my understanding is that its only the Billing team that can action refunds etc."

Only cancel the direct debit once you have received the refund. In fact your Bank may advise it to prevent further issues.

HTH

[#3]

@boavon 

Do GigaClear run an alternative network and not the OpenReach network?

If so, did you tell PN you were leaving? If moving between providers on the OR network the "gaining" ISP does the notification

Brian

[#4]

@bmc 

I used the "one touch" system (I think that is what is called)  ---- you only need to talk to your new provider and they then handle everything.  GigaClear have their own network - cables, trunking, etc - although in a few cases I believe they may use OR telegraph poles - rare as everything is mostly underground - on my property just six inches underground.  GigaClear mostly operate in rural areas.  I am paying £32 monthly for 500mbs up and down and a VOIP phone keeping my old telephone number.

Having said all that PN were well aware I was going to leave - I asked GigaCkear to take over a month or so before my PN contract was due to end.  PN tried twice to get me to change my mind and stay.

In discussions with PN customer services they have been at pains to point out it was not the one-touch service at fault here but equally so they really cannot explain what happened to continue with 2 monthly direct debits.

PN billing system is simply not to be trusted.  During my subsequent conversations with PN they have not hidden the fact that none of the existing staff have a clue how the existing system works and what processes trigger other processes - just yesterday I had an email saying sorry I had left and asked for feedback - 3 months after I had left - clearly a sub-process of something they were fiddling with to produce a final bill.  I have made constructive suggestions how they could improve their system by stopping DD immediately when a contract ceases and revert to manual billing.  Falls on stony ground.

My advice remains - no matter who you are moving to using whatever method - stop your DD mandate.  (God knows how PN would cope if they had to deal with somebody executing a will and dealing with probate)

[#5]

UPDATE

Some good news!  Less than 48 hours ago I raised an issue with my bank about the fact that PN had deducted money without authorization and without providing a service on 2 occasions.  My bank were very helpful and very sympathetic (a good lesson in customer relations).  Now my money is back in my account.  I did sense with the agent they had heard very similar stories about PN before and that PN were on some form of list of companies who took money via DD without permission.

So now, PN can take as long as they like to sort out all their digital red tape and if they dare to contact me again I will simply reply "sorry, I cannot help you right now; the matter is being investigated by the back-office team who will contact you as soon as they can."  Let's see how they like it!

[#6]

Reading on this form on a regular basis it would seem that Plusnet’s billing system is indeed broken? I do wonder though how often successful transfers and closures go without a hitch.

In my personal experience not often! On several occasions over the years when I’ve renewed my contract and there has been a price change it usually takes at least two billing cycles to get to the price agreed and on each occasion it’s always Plusnet taking too much and crediting the next bill.

On one such renewal it took three months and several phone calls to resolve and in the end the account was in such a mess that they decided to ‘re-contract’ me starting a new two year contract before the correct amount was taken each month.

My most recent renewal involved a simple speed increase and once again the first bill on the new contract was gobbledygook with +ve and -ve discounts which I completely failed to understand except that overall I was charged a couple of pounds too much which I really can’t be ar…ed to pursue as it’s now settled at the correct amount.

According to a quick AI search Plusnet has around 1 million customers, true or not I wouldn’t know. However, reading on this forum alone Plusnet seem to take, in some cases, tens of pounds too much for a month or two before correcting the situation with credits. Makes me wonder, at any one time how much of other people’s money are Plusnet holding?  for how long and who gets the interest on that? I believe that even HMRC pay interest when restoring overpayments H’mm….

On the plus side I should say though that over the years I’ve had varying numbers of ‘referrals’ and they always seem to ‘credit’ them correctly!

[#7]

Given that the phone service was ceased on migration, it rather begs the question did Gigaclear process the service takeover properly via OTS?

if the broadband service had been terminated correctly by the migration process, the billing would have ceased.  A more appropriate question would be is Ofcom’s OTS service fit for purpose?

Rectifying other people’s mistakes probably requires orthogonal exception processes within the billing system.

[#8]

@Townman I may not have made it clear that when asked PN made it fundamentally clear to me that the OTS was not the culprit here.  And regardless as to whether it is or not, PN have made it clear they have no idea how to generate a final bill other than to go through some "batch process".  The Customer Service people have no clue what this is, but they have heard of it.  They merely trot out what the back office finance team tells them.  They fail to ask the back office when this is scheduled for and have no idea how many other "problems" are awaiting this batch process.  

So, I standby the phrase "PN billing systems are not fit for purpose" and furthermore customer service is also not fit for purpose.  I was told more than once that no billing or computer service is perfect.  It was said in such a way as to intimate I was being unreasonable to expect a final bill on the date of the service being stopped or shortly afterwards - almost 3 months now is an utter joke.

At least PN did not try to shift the blame elsewhere.

[#9]

For the record, there has been a clear history of OTS failing where the gaining provider is not using the BT wholesale network.  That’s not a passing of blame, it’s recognition that there’s a history of the new OTS methods failing between new altnet and old BT providers.

[#10]

@Townman At the risk of going off topic, I'm sure there is a history of OTS failings.  A good business billing system would still by now manage to cope with such failings.  A customer should not be adversely  financially impacted by a continuing inability to deal with repetitive issues.  You have also missed the point the billing system managed to charge me for the early termination of the contract and yet still continued to bill me for BB and in the following month also.  PN have acknowledged all this and that they should have not continued billing me and that they should have simply provided a final bill.  They are ringing their hands trying to find out why and have admitted it is nothing to do with OTS.  They are at a complete loss on how to deal with it - other than the mystery batch process.

The point of this thread though - in case I have not been perfectly clear is that when a business is contacted by a customer regarding a billing/payment dispute the emphasis (after acknowledging the customer to be right) is to reimburse the customer immediately - not to keep fobbing the customer off with woeful tales of their systems not able to cope.

I would hope PN operates  a risk management process.  If so, I imagine one of their biggest risks should be a "loss of reputation"  IMHO there have been many things that have adversely impacted on PN reputation.  A billing system which cannot refund customers with 48 hours of an acknowledged over payment is just one continuing issue damaging the reputation - that effects the bottom line and it also impacts on other BT umbrella companies.

And just in case you have not managed to fully read the whole thread - when I alerted my bank just 2 days ago to the issue they managed to reverse the 2 Direct Debits within 48 hours.  Now that is the customer service PN could learn from.