When a referral complains about the service....

[#1]

..... and Plusnet knock money off their bill, it seems I share in the misery by having their whole portion of referral credit for the month taken off me.  Nice one.
I'm sorry I'm not sure that now is a good time to be marketing Plusnet to my friends and colleagues, particularly those saying they're leaving Plusnet firstly because of the disappearing wanted mail, and a few months later, the unwanted additional mail.  It is true that a conscientious ISP does learn from its mistakes but Plusnet now needs to demonstrate a period of stability, particularly with regard to its all important e-mail platforms.
Would it not be better to wait a few months before launching any referral promotion with Plusnet having demonstrated that the issues really have been gripped ?

[#2]

Straws and grabing spring to mind? VARS make up most of PN's income?

[#3]

That's brilliant - making referers pay for PNs own mistakes! Who thought that one up? Surely they'd win the next series of "The Apprentice"...

[#4]

Quote

and Plusnet knock money off their bill, it seems I share in the misery by having their whole portion of referral credit for the month taken off me.  Nice one

Can you give me a specific example of this happening. I am trying to get my head around what is going on here or what you are referring to.
We absolutely do not want to penalise our referrers and I would like to look into this one in more depth.
DPA will prevent me discussing account specifics or detail but if you could PM me with a username or ticket id from the account (s) you have experienced this with I will take a look.
What does spring to mind, is a situation where we give a customer a free month by moving their billing date forward as a gesture of good will or as a retention offer. If that happens, because no payment is transacted for that month, the referral token will not and cant be generated. If a refund occurs, post billing, then the referral token will exist and the referrer will receive credit.
As I said, I'd like to see the account specifics here and determine what exactly happened, with a view to reviewing our processes in cases such as this.

[#5]

> Can you give me a specific example of this happening
I've e-mailed Mark with the ticket ID.  The original reply from Plusnet in this case from October 2006 was: "I've investigated this issue on your behalf and one of your refereals has been credited a months subscription in which case you would not get your discount for this pay period. This is not an ongoing issue and you have £1 waiting to be credited for October."

[#6]

I think what happens is that someone moves the billing date of the referee on a month or two.  Therefore, the billing event doesn't happen those months and the referral token isn't generated so the referrer loses out.

[#7]

The reply from Plusnet at the time stated that the referee had been credited a month's subscription, not that their billing date had been moved.
You may be quite right that if a "billing event" doesn't happen then the referrer loses out, but please check out section 1 of the referrals T&C
 
   ".... you will receive a reduction on your subscription for as long as they remain a customer. The referred account is classed as a customer when still active, on a subscription based account ......."
I'd say that a customer who has been credited a month or had their billing date moved and who has not left Plusnet is still an 'active customer', and referral discount in respect of that customer should still be given under T&C.
Moderators note by John (John_Essex) Full quote of preceding post removed as per the Forum Rules

[#8]

At the same time, this is only taking part of item 1 within the terms into account.
The full statement reads.

Quote

For everyone who joins us on your recommendation, you will receive a reduction on your subscription for as long as they remain a customer. The referred account is classed as a customer when still active, on a subscription based account, at the time of your discount being calculated*. Referral discount will only be paid after we have received the cleared funds from the referred party. Actively paying subscribers of our service only are eligible to take part in the My Referrals scheme.

My bold added for clarity.
Referral credits can only be applied as invoices are generated and marked as paid. Were an invoice is not generated, it is not possible to apply a credit. In addition to this, only one set of tokens can be generated against any one invoice.
It only seem logical that a referral credit can be applied against invoices paid.

[#9]

Quote from: P

It only seem logical that a referral credit can be applied against invoices paid.

True, but logic would also say that the only reason that a customer would not have to pay there bill for a month or more is at Plusnets discretion and this would be due to problems that the person as encountered with the Plusnet service.
Therefore why should a referrer be penalised  for a problem they have no control off or a decision that they can not influence?

[#10]

Not always true, there are situations were a bill does not need to be paid due to reasons that there was no intention to supply service.
Examples of this are house moves.
Were a customer is not able to gain services for a period between properties due to reasons of choice, or even down to issues the processes involved.
At times of fault, again were service is not supplied and the problem is found to have been outside of the customers control, we also investigate on a case by case basis what should occur.
These are not down to ourselves or the customer, and service is deemed not to have been supplied.
Crredits are only generated for the services supplied.

[#11]

In addition to Phil's comments would be an Early Life Failure (where the line is fault in the first few weeks and needs passing to the supplier)

[#12]

I hear what you guys are saying, and fully understand the current system... token is ONLY generated when the customer pays the bill.
I think what the Original Post is saying, is this:-
You have a disgruntled customer, who complains about some aspect of service. So PN give them a month free. The referrer misses out as the billing date is moved. At the same time the referrer might be getting aggro from the referral about the poor service and be having to defend your service so the customer stays rather than jumps ship (I've had to do that a lot in this last year!)... if the referrer is getting shufted by PN through losing that months token anyway, then they might think to themselves, "why bother defending PN!"
This is how it looks from the referrers perspective.
Mike