Worried about upgrade price - misselling?

[#1]

As my Line Rental Saver is due to expire in six week's time I decided to investigate other package options and on checking Product Upgrade saw that Unlimited Fibre is offered at £15.99 - providing a fixed Price for Broadband and Line Rental. Wow, that looked good, so I went through the sign up process to see whether there was a catch - no, it said Broadband was £15.99 and Line Rental Only would be £0.00. Wow - faster Broadband and phone for less than I was paying for the phone alone - fixed for 18 months! So I agreed. The confirmation e-mail confirmed the price and that Broadband and Line Rental costs were fixed for 18 months. Very good!

Of course, it's been nagging at me ever since. It seems too good to be true, so I clicked into the Price Guide and found the Unlimited Fibre package - yes, there it was - Broadband and Phone £15.99. Relax, it's OK.

But wait a minute? On all the packages Broadband only was dearer than Broadband and Phone. That can't be right. It doesn't make sense. Finally, the penny dropped - Broadband and Phone is not the price for Broadband and Phone at all. It is the price for Broadband Only if a separate phone package is also taken from PN!

If my suspicions are correct, this is the most misleading advertising I've ever seen! The last thing I want is to find I'm paying double what I expected. The aim was to save money, not cost more.

[#2]

I suspect line rental will show as £0.00 because you are currently paying for line rental saver and the price is already covered for you.  When that expires you may well be paying £18.99 + £15.99 = £34.98.

Did you commit to a new contract when you upgraded the product ?  If not I suggest you call the customer options team and try and negotiate a better price on the basis of recontracting.

[#3]

Hi @kjpetrie 

Thanks for getting in touch. 

I can confirm that you are currently within a Line Rental Saver contract meaning you paid 12 months worth of this upfront. Your invoices are matching up with this, and you are not being charged for your Line Rental each month. 

I hope this puts any fears you had to rest. 

Kind Regards, 

MoR

[#4]

Not really. As I wrote in my OP, the Line Rental Saver expires in around six week's time, so what concerns me is what happens after that.

I signed up for a "Broadband and Phone" package for which I was quoted £15.99 for Broadband and £0.00 for Line Rental, fixed for 18 months and I agreed on that basis. (See attached screenshot.) What worries me is whether the package even includes the line, without which the Broadband can't work, because it seems too cheap, and I'm worried I won't get what I agreed. The quote implied free line rental and nothing in the process suggested otherwise, but I have doubts because that would make the combined package cheaper than either option taken on its own.

The confirmation e-mail doesn't use the term Line Rental for the price, only in a statement confirming it is fixed for 18 months, so I'm concerned this will be used to argue Line Rental is a separate item from the package, even though the package was advertised as a fixed price for Broadband and Line Rental , and the price guide describes it as "Broadband and Phone".

From  confirmation e-mail:

"We've received your product change request and have now started the process of moving your products to:

* Broadband package: Unlimited Fibre
* Phone package: Plusnet Line Only
* Contract: 18 months
* Hardware: Plusnet wireless router

This will change over on rd  and your new cost per month will be £15.99.

    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."

Does this Broadband and Phone package actually include the phone? If not, in what sense is it "Broadband & Phone"? I have been quoted £0.00 for line rental at every stage of the process. Please confirm that is what I will pay.

[#5]

As mentioned above if you have Line Rental Saver then the phone package will show as being free even if it's due to expire soon.

If you renew your line rental saver then the price will stand as above but if you let the line rental saver expire then you'd be charged £18.99 on top of the £15.99

[#6]

That's really not very clever. If the quote says line rental is +£0.00 it should mean it is free, otherwise it should say it's + standard line rental cost. I think this is blatant mis-selling.

Now, the question is: do I want to proceed or back out under distance selling rules, now it's apparent this isn't the deal I thought I was agreeing to?

Maybe if the cost would increase by no more than inflation at the end of the fixed term it might still be useful, but looking at how other providers raise the price by 50%+ when the contract ends, I think I might just do better to stay with what I've got. After all, it's not as if I need the extra speed. If I do, I can always upgrade/migrate later.

[#7]

Hi @kjpetrie,

You can see the service notice confirming the date of purchase and how long the line rental saver is for on this ticket.

This ticket also advises you of how much you have paid with the date that it is prepaid for (resulting as £0.00 as it is paid upfront.)

I can understand how you may feel that £0.00 should display as standard line rental cost and I will provide this as feedback to the relevant department however, you are already aware that line rental saver is active and the date that it expires with the two tickets provided above.

If you do wish to upgrade to fibre at any point, feel free to call our customer options team on 0800 013 2632.

Thank you.

[#8]

Thank you. Unfortunately, neither of those links works so I can't view the tickets. In the meantime I have completed the cancellation form specifying I wish to cancel the upgrade (product change) and will post that off tonight. If the router has not yet been sent please stop it going out. If it has and I'm in when delivery is attempted I'll try to identify and refuse it. I don't get many packages, so that shouldn't be difficult, as long as a neighbour doesn't accept it on my behalf.

[#9]

Hi again @kjpetrie,

My apologise, the two tickets are here and here. I have cancelled the order for your router. If you decide against cancelling the service, let us know and we will arrange a member of our Customer Options Team to get in touch.

Thanks again.

[#10 · Accepted solution]

Well, unfortunately, this didn't go smoothly. On Wednesday 9th January I tried to access my home page and e-mails, neither of which connected. I then looked at my router and saw that the DSL light was flashing. My ADSL+ had been disconnected.

I phoned the support line and actually got straight through to an operator, who was very polite and helpful. We both agreed the most likely explanation of my sudden loss of service was that the message of my cancellation, acknowledged in a ticket by PN, had not reached OpenReach, and they'd started the migration. He decided to escalate it as a complaint so it would get quicker attention and that someone would phone me later that day as I had no Internet access to check the ticket.

Needless to say, no one phoned. The next day I had to wait 20 minutes to speak to someone. They transferred me to Billing, who transferred me to Options, who explained I couldn't now remain on my previous contract because that had been terminated (admittedly in error) and could not be reinstated because it's not a current product.

I was offered a choice. I could go onto Unlimited ADSL+ broadband at a discounted price or stay on Fibre for a discount for an 18 month period. If I opted to stay on Fibre they would put a modem/router in the post (and waive the P & P) so I could use it in a day or two. As I needed my Internet back on ASAP and I'd be getting FTTC for almost the same price as normal ADSL+ I opted to take the Fibre. I envisaged that having the service switched back would just mean more delay while waiting for the engineering work.

I got the new modem yesterday and was pleased to find the service was working when I plugged it in. I haven't got round to testing the speed or doing any large downloads so I don't know how fast it is, but at least it's working and I can function again. Three days without Internet is surprisingly tough now so much day-to-day activity has moved online. There was an electricity bill waiting for me which I couldn't receive or pay or even know about until my service was back.

Still, after the inconvenience, I suppose I now have a good deal, and I'm grateful for the way staff worked to sort it out, but none of it should really have happened at all.

[#11]

As you cannot have any internet connection without a phone line ISPs should always quote an inclusive cost.  I have allowed my LRS to run out so that I can wait a couple more months for my broadband contract to expire too and see what allin deals are offered.  I have commented before that this "new customer" palaver is a real pain anf if PN are not competitive it is easy to move if all one's family run email via forwarding with domain names.

[#12]

I agree, but this thread started because the price was advertised as providing a "fixed price for Broadband and Line Rental for 18 months", or words very similar to that, so I thought it was an all-inclusive price, though I was suspicious because it seemed about £10/month less than I'd expect for that. I was waiting for the catch but it didn't come. Eventually I had to start this thread to get the answer. So here we are.

I now have my Internet back after a 3-day hiatus and I've spent two days trying to adapt a script on my PC to read the WAN IP address from the new router (a hub one I believe - made by Sagemcom anyway) but it was so complicated that in the end I gave up and 'bought' a static IP instead, so I can just hard-code it into the script.