Using my Line Rental Saver to pay my fibre broadband and bt sport

[#1]

on the 7th Aug I paid for line rental saver of 197.88 they even sent me a confirmation email ,when I view my bill on the 21st Aug plusnet had taken out my broadband and bt sport monthly charge out of my line rental saver money left me wilth 171.37, after I phoned up for some reason they then credited me with 19.99 and assured me it would resolved next bill ,guess what it wasnt they have now taken a futher 21.00 for broadband and bt sport out of the 171..37 leaving and outstanding balance of 150,37 ,so the 197.88 I paid for line rental at 16.49 per month is being used for my broadband and bt sport with no money going towards line rental ,I do not want this going on for another month as I know plusnet will want the line rental paid for the months which they have mucked up,

   I contacted plusnet tonight regarding this matter and was told it would escalated to be  resolved which would take 3-5days,I realise some plusnet staff view these forums and hope they will chase this up for me as i dont  feel confident it will be as plusnet has a poor record for billing problems 

[#2]

@hooverman 

I hope you do get this resolved quickly, but don't hold your breath! Issues with LRS payments etc., seem to be a known Plusnet problem

For my part my bill has been taken for the last 11 months from the large LRS credit applied to my account last October with no corresponding charge applied. There has been no resolution and no updates from Plusnet for the last six months despite three PM requests to the CS analyst who was dealing until PN closed the ticket that addressed that billing issue and the other issue of the wrong discount being applied (seemingly my recontract had got stuck in the system) that has now been ongoing for seven months. I have raised this as a new topic two weeks ago on these forums, supposedly a valid support route, but there has been no Plusnet response to date.

Incidentally, this is the second year that the LRS payment was credited to my account without the corresponding charge being made but at least they sorted it out the first time in three months.

Unfortunately, I now feel the that I will need to open a formal complaint as a third issue is now affecting my billing - I renewed LRS in August at £197.88 as requested (on a fixed price contract), but they then applied a charge of £209.88 on my next bill in September meaning they now owe me another £12 refund. Plusnet's systems are an absolute shambles and I have very little confidence that any bill will be correct. Also the Customer Service is in no way "award winning" unless it is for the wooden spoon.

[#3]

@hooverman @jgb 

If you paid by credit card, you should contact your provider.

See https://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/advice/can-i-claim-on-my-credit-card-when-something-goes-wro...

That is one of the things that I will do if my renewal get messed up.

Dave

[#4]

@daveplus 

The correct amount (£197.88) was charged to my CC but Plusnet decided to debit the wrong amount (£209.88) to my account. Therefore I require that the extra £12.00 is refunded to my Plusnet account. There is absolutely nothing my card provider will do, nor would I expect them to.

[#5]

blimey

[#6]

@daveplus  and @jgb thanks for your replies I paid via debit card so a claimback via item 75 on the credit card is not possible,but i feel that it not the fault of my card provider ,more plusnet I paid for a service which they have failed to provide ,I will give them the opertunity to resolve it ,  If they cant I will take it further ,I would like a revised bill 

[#7]

@hooverman "I renewed LRS in August at £197.88 as requested (on a fixed price contract) "

I think that you will find that fixed price always applies only to broadband and not to LRS

HTH

Dave

[#8]

hi daveplus that is not my understanding a fixed price contract applies to line rental as well as broadaband as per my contract below

Your new fixed price contract

Great news, you're on a fixed price contract! That means the cost of your broadband and line rental won't go up while you're in contract. We'll send you an end of contract reminder, and offer an account review too, to make sure you're still on the right package for you.

[#9]

@daveplus 

LRS is covered provided the fixed price contract was extant before the price increase and still is when renewing. I have had this confirmed by two CS staffers in a ticket and it is also stated somewhere in Plusnet's conditions (or in the LRS renewal email - see message 4 by RealAleMadrid in the attached thread. - https://community.plus.net/t5/My-Account-Billing/Billing-Errors-on-my-Account-for-the-Past-11-Months... ).

[#10]

Had this problem myself a year or so ago, took 3 monthly payments out of my line rental and then I get a direct debit in one month for those 3 payments so not out of pocket but if someone failed to check their account a total of 3 payments all taken in one month could leave some overdrawn with all the problems that entails.

Perhaps we are being a bit hard on PN and they need to be given time to sort this and other recurring payments out, after all it’s only been going on for a few years.

[#11]

@jgb 

Thanks. You are right.

[#12]

I have had the same problem since I renewed my Line Rental Saver in October 2019 and it's still not been fixed. The balance of my LRS payment has now been all used up and I am actually being charged for monthly direct debit payments again. However there is still a large number of months that I owe payment for.

I do have a ticket for the problem which gets taken off hold each month, but all that happens is they add a comment to the effect that the issue hasn't been fixed yet and the ticket gets put back on hold.

After virtually a whole year, I have very little confidence that PlusNet will ever fix this problem.

[#13]

@RichT 

I have exactly the same problem also since paying LRS in October 2019. I have another problem in that a recontract in March 2020 got stuck somewhere in Plusnet's systems and so the correct discounts are not being applied and also I have no start or end dates for that contract on my Member Centre Dashboard. The third billing issue is that I renewed LRS in August, paying the £197.88 requested (the fixed price contract rules applying hence pre December 2019 rate)) but in my next bill this month the charge on the bill was £209.88 (the current rate and so Plusnet now owe me a £12 refund to my account (the CC charge is correct) for that. I had a ticket that dealt with the first two issues and was being monitored by CS monthly but Plusnet closed that in March as they wanted to concentrate their CS resources on fixing technical issues rather than accounting ones

Re the lack of billing due to the LRS issue, I have seen posts on these forums by Plusnet staff which suggest that they will not seek to recover more than the latest three bills - e.g. see post 4 in this thread:

https://community.plus.net/t5/My-Account-Billing/Line-Rental-Saver-funds-added-against-Fibre-Extra-p...

What will happen now that your LRS credit has run out and bills are reappearing only Plusnet know (or do they!?)

For my part, I finally raised a formal complaint having had no response to a thread I started on these forums or to three PMs to the CS analyst who had been dealing with the now closed ticket. That has generated a new ticket which is being looked at but no substantive answers as yet. Like you I have my doubts as to Plusnet's ability to fix their errant billing systems.

[#14]

BD from Plusnet help team  regarding the information @jgb put on the item regarding LRS from an item on the 15/4/20   ,it was indicated that Plusnet would not seek to recover more than 3 missed payments where money was taken out of LRS to pay BB bill ,is this plusnet policy to help overcome the issue ,whilst I understand the need to recover lost income,I  would like some idea of the end date for a fix because your staffs time could be better spent on other issues in regard to covid etc ,I have been happy up to now with the service I have received from plusnet which is why I paid 197.88 LRS and I realy dont want the issue going on for months

[#15]

I received an email from PlusNet today which said:

"We now need to take your Line Rental Saver payment from your account but we’ll only take a pro rata payment for the remaining months on your Line Rental Saver. You’ll see this charge on your next bill".

So maybe, just maybe, they have finally fixed the problem.

Not holding my breath, though and I shall be watching what payments they take like a hawk!