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Problems downloading bills

rna2019
Hooked
Posts: 8
Registered: ‎01-06-2022

Problems downloading bills

I can see this is a recurring topic here but I can't see many recent posts about it - for some time now whenever I log in to see the latest bill, all I get after clicking on "View bills" is

Need some help?

Our handy video demonstrates how to check your bill.

Watch video
 
- and no sign of the bill.
 
It may be relevant that this is in Firefox on Linux (openSuse), but behaviour is identical when using User-Agent Switcher plug-in to masquerade as Chrome on Windows.
 
Is there some other way of accessing the bill? We are especially interested in reviewing closely given the huge price increase recently.
 
Thanks
Richard
 
17 REPLIES 17
djcjuk
Rising Star
Posts: 91
Thanks: 6
Fixes: 5
Registered: ‎05-03-2014

Re: Problems downloading bills

I don't know what happens on the system you are running,  On windows 10 pc you go to the bills section and view your bill. To download the pdf file you click on the date at the top and that opens you bill details . At the top right of that view there is a Download Button to save as a pdf file.

I hope this may help in your case.

rna2019
Hooked
Posts: 8
Registered: ‎01-06-2022

Re: Problems downloading bills

Thanks djcjuk ,

That's the problem - from https://www.plus.net/member-centre/billing-payments I can select "View bills", "Change bill date" or "Change payment method".

When I select "View bills", all I get is a purple "Need some help" dialogue(*), with a "Watch Video" link which just takes me to an FAQ page (doesn't show a video). Nowhere is the bill actually displayed, let alone a PDF offered.

(*) tried to post a screen-shot inline, but character limit is exceeded.

I appreciate I'm not using Chrome on Windows or Safari on Apple, probably the only platforms the site is tested on, but wondering if anyone else who uses a less common operating system has similar problems? We must have some Ubuntu users here surely?

 

Cheers

Richard

jab1
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Posts: 16,976
Thanks: 5,426
Fixes: 253
Registered: ‎24-02-2012

Re: Problems downloading bills

@rna2019 I'm a Linux (Zorin) user, and never had a problem with viewing my bills when I was a PN customer, using Ubuntu Firefox.

Can't try it now, obviously, but I can't see what is going wrong in your situation, unfortunately. FF will have been tested, as it is still a very popular platform, despite being overtaken, apparently by Chrome - which I can't get on with.

John
Longliner
Seasoned Pro
Posts: 586
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Registered: ‎22-10-2014

Re: Problems downloading bills

I could never view bills with Firefox after version 70 (or around there). My problem was the same as yours. Around middle of last year we found there was so much fiddling with 'improvements', in particular the double line spacing of menus where we were given the choice of take it or leave it, so we left it after many years.

Vivaldi has proved a great success for our needs, it's fast and reliable and we like the absence of spying which is why we joined FF in the first place, Pnet bills and everything else run without a hitch. Maybe this would help?

rna2019
Hooked
Posts: 8
Registered: ‎01-06-2022

Re: Problems downloading bills

Thanks John

Good to know it can work on a similar platform (or at least it did - sounds like you're no longer a Plusnet customer?) even though Longliner's experience mirrors my own.

It may be worth trying Vivaldi, or I suppose in extremis I could even fire up Chrome, much as I detest it. By using it in a single-purpose VM I can control much of the snooping.

I will try both (in that order!) and report back.

Cheers

Richard

jab1
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Posts: 16,976
Thanks: 5,426
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Registered: ‎24-02-2012

Re: Problems downloading bills

Richard - up to a couple of weeks back I could log in and view my old account with no problem - including the last few invoices - but today the PN system has decided that although I still have an email only account, it won't let me past the initial main page, and then defaults to a 'headings only' page. Don't understand it, and have updated a topic on the subject.

John
rna2019
Hooked
Posts: 8
Registered: ‎01-06-2022

Re: Problems downloading bills

It seemed to work in Vivaldi (vivaldi-stable-5.3) - more info on the bill page, including contact details etc., but clicking on "View Bills" results in "There has been an issue; please consult your system administrator"

This was initially with the middle option for security, tried also with Minimum setting.

PS Marked in haste as Fixed - how do I reverse this?

Cheers

Richard

 

 

jab1
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Posts: 16,976
Thanks: 5,426
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Registered: ‎24-02-2012

Re: Problems downloading bills

@rna2019 It was @Longliner 's suggestion, not mine. As an aside, that is a seriously old  FF release - even I have 100.0.2 on here, and Ubuntu are not known for being super-fast with update releases.

John
rna2019
Hooked
Posts: 8
Registered: ‎01-06-2022

Re: Problems downloading bills

That is the opensuse way - the version looks old but has backports for security...

jab1
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Posts: 16,976
Thanks: 5,426
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Registered: ‎24-02-2012

Re: Problems downloading bills

OK - different distros work different - I understand.

John
rna2019
Hooked
Posts: 8
Registered: ‎01-06-2022

Re: Problems downloading bills

Update after trying using Chromium in a VM with Mint Linux (used for sites I really need to get to that won't work in FF, and zapped regularly to sanitise): It worked (AFAICS) as intended initially, allowing me to download several recent bills as PDFs, then started behaving as Vivaldi (above) with the Error "There has been an issue; please consult your system administrator". I will try both Chromium and Vivaldi again over the weekend and see if that "issue" goes away. So "partially fixed" is probably the best way of putting it. It would be interesting to hear Plusnet's take on this issue, presumably after the holiday weekend. Cheers Richard
Longliner
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Posts: 586
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Registered: ‎22-10-2014

Re: Problems downloading bills

Further to my post of Thursday I should add that when FF began non-display of PN bills I tried Edge and Chromium which worked fine on every occasion (like monthly!) In the end I moved to Vivaldi for stated reasons.

rna2019
Hooked
Posts: 8
Registered: ‎01-06-2022

Re: Problems downloading bills

I can confirm Vivaldi seems to be able to download the bills as expected - thanks for the suggestion.

Chromium also seems to work but I really don't want to use software that I trust so little.

A shame Firefox no longer works properly in this respect.

Thanks both for your help in this.

Longliner
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Registered: ‎22-10-2014

Re: Problems downloading bills

Glad Vivaldi worked for you. Really sad about Firefox which we used for years; incidentally, also found it would not run the bank's Rapport security software though Internet Explorer of the time had no problem. I posted a couple of questions on Rapport but general impression I gained was that Rapport was a rather dated IBM programme which could not cope with FF's latest programming.