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Relaxed far too soon.

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chips
Grafter
Posts: 43
Thanks: 9
Fixes: 2
Registered: ‎26-04-2018

Relaxed far too soon.

Yet again (4th time in a year) I am disconnected at 11.20pm.  Despite receiving the "payment has been taken..." messages regularly it seems YET AGAIN that bills have been rolled over for three months and disconnection follows on 3rd due date. I have not changed anything - same payment card - same contract ---- same notices confirming that payment has been taken  - same nonsense from plus.net.  When oh when will this be sorted.  Again I have to resort to a stand-by pay-as-you-go connection even to complain.  Thought this was sorted in May and posted a gratified note here. Cancel the gratified note. I repeat the payment account has not changed and is in funds.  I repeat - when I get notice that plus.net has withdrawn payment from my account I budget accordingly.  When I find plus.net has been putting the bill on the slate that is a very unwelcome adjustment. If plus.net is trying to bully a pensioner into taking out a direct debit this is an underhand way to proceed.

8 REPLIES 8
chips
Grafter
Posts: 43
Thanks: 9
Fixes: 2
Registered: ‎26-04-2018

Re: Relaxed far too soon.

"We're getting a lot of calls at the moment..."   I bet you are - and wasting a lot of customers' time.  Checking just now I find my last three payments displaying as "payments received" - see attached  - elsewhere three months worth appears (in the red) as "payable".  To bank account shortly to find which is true.  Good job I'm here to look after you.OctGrab.jpg

 

Octgrab2.jpg

 

 

chips
Grafter
Posts: 43
Thanks: 9
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Registered: ‎26-04-2018

Re: Relaxed far too soon.

Yup - £14.99 paid out of bank account on 09/09/19.  No paper bill for october - need to go on-line to check that - you see the problem ?

I have paid and I am wasting a lot of time trying to get what I paid for.  I am not alone.

chips
Grafter
Posts: 43
Thanks: 9
Fixes: 2
Registered: ‎26-04-2018

Re: Relaxed far too soon.

Rough calculation I have paid over £70 in the past year for O2 wifi connect as back-up/replacement while Plus.net sort themselves out.  O2 is of course the parent company - nice arrangement.  How many days service have been lost is not recorded - nor the actual hours trying to make contact with plus.net .  The customer bears the cost of these failings.

chips
Grafter
Posts: 43
Thanks: 9
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Registered: ‎26-04-2018

Re: Relaxed far too soon.

Customer support confirms all payments up to date - passed over to technical dept - tests run - call dropped due to tests - contact re-established - everything test ok -  I am asked to rest the router - nothing - then something is noticed and I am asked to re-set again - bingo - connection.  I am assured that disconnection nothing to do with billing/accounts and if it happens again re-set the router.  Strange that the router has been re-set approx 20 times since connection lost 15 hours ago - to no effect whatever.  Explained politely that no-one from Plus.net can "assure" me of anything anymore.  Glad to be connected - that's what I pay for.

MasterOfReality
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Posts: 1,640
Fixes: 57
Registered: ‎26-03-2018

Re: Relaxed far too soon.

Hi @chips 

 

I'm glad that you now have an active connection again. 

 the router has been re-set approx 20 times since connection lost 15 hours ago - to no effect whatever.  

I'd highly recommend not doing this as multiple drops in connections (such as a reset is classed as in the router logs) can caused more harm than good! 

 

In regards to your other posts above in this thread - i'm finding it somewhat difficult to put everything together. As far as I can see, your account is payed up to date. 

 If plus.net is trying to bully a pensioner into taking out a direct debit this is an underhand way to proceed.

I can assure you that this is not the intention at all - a direct debit is merely the simplest way for all parties when it comes to payment as it is automatic - of course it is your prerogative to pay in whichever was you deem fit and bets for you! 

 O2 is of course the parent company - nice arrngement.  

It's worth noting that we have no affiliations with 02 be it for Broadband or Mobile services. 

 

You also state that when you get notifications that we have taken money from your account, you budget accordingly - forgive me if I'm incorrect here, but if you do not have a Direct Debit set up (as per your mention previously) we are unable to take money out of your account without you contacting us to make a payment. Should you wan this to be automatic, then a Direct Debit would be a possible option. 

 

Could you let me know exactly how you want you account/invoices to be set up and I'll do my bets to accommodate this! 

Kind Regards, 

MoR

 

 

chips
Grafter
Posts: 43
Thanks: 9
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Registered: ‎26-04-2018

Re: Relaxed far too soon.

Thank you for getting back to me.  I'll admit a few slips made in anger but hold they do not invalidate my basic dissatisfaction with persistent recurrences of the same problem.

I'll take the advice (new to me) on rebooting the router. When dsconnected outside of hours what else is one to do ?  Desperation sets in.  I mentioned the fact because your admirable technician claimed this to have solved the "problem".  I find that unconvincing given my previous endeavours.

O2 as parent is an old man's slip - I meant BT as BT profits via my BT wi-fi fon connection adopted each time Plus.net goes off-air.  I raised this point before and got much support on these threads. B makes money and Plus.net makes money and no-one has any real motivation to solve the problem.  At the back end of last year I was off for 5 days if memory serves (long shot) while the buck was passed between companies - on that occasion a billing error was to blame.

Regarding payment - this has been by regular withdrawals via Mastercard - that is how it has been done for around twenty years - I do not issue a monthly instruction it simply happens: perhaps an old arrangement ?  I can see the payment on my monthly bills and receive notice from plus.net so it definitely happens.  That is how I'd like it to continue if possible.  Seems odd that serial disconnections happen on payment day yet plus.net denies any problem.  You cannot deny that payments are up to date yet in the second screen grab posted it appears I am some £29 in arrears with payment due on Nov7th. 

I assure you that for years I have not been actively making payment on demand - however it was set up plus.net has been able to withdraw as required - the wording "plus.net has taken..." is a giveaway.  Perhaps this as a procedure is a relic of simpler days but it worked for the most part well over 15-20 years.

I am allergic to direct debits. A banking friend assures me this is in no way an irrational or Luddite stance.

 

Thanks again for taking time.  I'd love to think I'll not be back gurning here again but life has taught me to expect nothing less.  Plenty of others finding fault with billing - repeated disconnections on pay day cannot be coincidence IMHumbleO

adamwalker
Plusnet Help Team
Plusnet Help Team
Posts: 16,871
Thanks: 882
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Registered: ‎27-04-2007

Re: Relaxed far too soon.

Hello there @chips

 

Multiple disconnections are picked up by an automated system called DLM (dymanic line management) this reduced connection speeds when it detects multiple disconnections to try and mitigate a fault so we don't want that to compound any issues that you've already noticed. 

 

With regards to any restrictions for payment issues, we don't have any automation or manual processes that mean you would get disconnected as soon as there might have been a problem with payment. Each and every customer gets a 14 day grace period if there's such an issue and no restrictions or other actions are taken during that period. 

 

The disconnections you've mentioned sound like they're due either to line conditions or wireless connectivity. A single disconnection everyday can be quite normal as broadband isn't a guaranteed always-on service. However in that event your router (or wireless device as appropriate) should automatically reconnect you within a few moments without any input from yourself.

 

Here's a view of our connection logs which show a few disconnections but nothing that should cause any disruption to you, however if anything I've mentioned differs to your experience then please do us know. 

 

If this post resolved your issue please click the 'This fixed my problem' button
 Adam Walker
 Plusnet Help Team
chips
Grafter
Posts: 43
Thanks: 9
Fixes: 2
Registered: ‎26-04-2018

Re: Relaxed far too soon.

Fix

Thank you for a detailed reply.  Connection failed again during the night (on my wife's watch - you don't want me set her on you believe me.).  It took several reboots of router to re-connect.

Regarding 14 days grace - what has happened before is that payments were not taken (no idea why) for three months running and connection removed on the dot on next billing date.   When that happened I'd receive emails to the effect "plus.net will take monthly payment of xx in the next few days..." but then didn't so I was unaware of any problem until .

If I read the diagram correctly short breaks in service are indicated at 11pm on Monday and 2 pm on Tuesday - in effect I had no service between those breaks.  What the technician suggested at 2pm on Tuesday had been tried several times in the interim: I'm out of my depth on the intricacies and report what I experience in practice.  Thanks again