Good, honest broadband from Yorkshire

[#1]

We’re proud to unveil our new-look website today. All the features you’re used to are still here, but we’ve given it a bit of a spruce up so it integrates with our new marketing campaign. The first ever Plusnet TV ads will also make their debut today. We’re really excited about our ads. Click 'More' to have a look. We'd love to know what you think of them. Our new campaign shows, in a no-nonsense yet entertaining way, how a small broadband company with a proud Yorkshire heritage offers great value broadband. We summed it up as ‘Good honest broadband from Yorkshire’. Oh, and one more thing. We’ve got a new price promise that’s the cornerstone of our new campaign: We won’t be beat on price. Put simply, if you find a lower price for standalone broadband we’ll beat it hands down. If you’re already using our Plusnet Value service in one of our low cost areas, you don’t need to do anything – you’re already getting the lowest priced standalone broadband available in the UK. If you’re on an older service, take a look at the features of Plusnet Value, Extra and Pro products to see if they suit your needs. You can swap over anytime using our handy Account Change tool. Or, if you’re not in one of our low cost areas and you’ve seen standalone broadband advertised at a cheaper price – contact us using the Help Assistant and we’ll beat it. 

We’ve put together an FAQ too for any question you might have: 1.How much will the reduced price be? In our low cost areas we’ll continue to offer our Value service at £6.49 a month. Elsewhere it’s £12.99 a month (with the first 3 months at £6.49). To honour our price match commitment we’ll have a new price of £10.79 in certain exchanges. If you’re in one of these exchanges you’ll be notified in the signup process. If you’re an existing customer you’ll simply see the £10.79 price when you use our Account Change tool to change to a Value Family product. If you are already on £12.99 Value and want to see if you're on a price-matched exchange, go to https://www.plus.net/home-broadband/ and type in your details to find out pricing in your area. Contact us using the Help Assistant if you see a lower price for standalone broadband and we'll beat it. 2. Am I eligible for this? We’re committed to providing the lowest price standalone broadband at every exchange, this applies to new and existing customers. 3. What about bundle deals? This offer only applies to the standalone price of broadband. 4. I have Home Phone, does this still apply to me? Yes it does, but we’ll just price match on the broadband part of a bundle. 6. What about special offers? We’ll match any offer that is available to the general public which our staff can verify. 7. Which products will be made cheaper? Our price match offer applies to Value only. Extra and Pro will be discounted but not guaranteed cheapest. 8. I have a special retention/loyalty deal at a non-advertised price. Can you beat that? Sorry, we can only match prices offered to all customers on your exchange.

[#2]

Hi Tom S, If you could tell me the ticket ID I can look into that for you. Jojo

[#3]

@Christopher Gooch, I live in Sheffield too and my own personal opinion is that it does have that northern feel albeit a bit rural, which I don't think is a bad thing; but when you look at a lot of ads nowadays you couldn't tell whether they were British or American as they're so glossy and airbrushed. Jojo

[#4]

@jojopillo the 2 exchanges concerned are : ballynahinch ( NIBNH ) downpatrick ( NIDP ) thanks

[#5]

HI ardglass, I see them as market 2. If you get both of them to raise tickets on their account and then give me the ticket numbers I'll sort it out for you. Jojo

[#6]

@ jojopillo thanks jojo there a a lot of them. 60% of my referrals are on these 2 exchanges. thats about 140 !!

[#7]

I'm surprised your advertising majors on price. There will always be someone willing to start a price war. Your real strengths are Customer Service, Reliability and Speed. All anyone need do is use the Compare Broadband tool on www.thinkbroadband.com to see for themselves In your attempt to get volume I trust you will never compromise your real strengths. Brands with a superior product rarely sell on price. Look at Apple, Mercedes and Intel.

[#8]

@ardglass, Oh, that is a lot, the thing is they are both showing as market 2 so they shouldn't have any trouble getting the cheaper price where applicable. Jojo

[#9]

As for 'won't be beat on price', personally I don't find illiteracy to be a good recommendation. 'Won't be BEATEN on price' is surely correct!

[#10]

@Basso, grammatically it is but in this instance we've intentionally used a colloquialism.

[#11]

@jojopillo ok i will raise a ticket on one then give you the ticket number and see how you get on. ok ? Leo

[#12]

@jojopillo i have raised a ticket for username mcgrady6. ticket num 36286931 she is on the downpatrick exchange which is listed as MARKET 2 in Sam Knows. she is on plusnet value thanks Leo

[#13]

Bob Pullen said; “Hi Joanne, Sorry to hear you've had a bad experience…I'm sorry if the situation hasn't been made clear to you when you've spoken to us, but by my reckoning there's not a great deal here that trading standards would have any interest in.” Well Bob, I intend to complain to the Regulator about the appalling service I have received from plusnet of the past six months or so, since your parent company, (BT), and yourselves allegedly upgraded our exchange, and completely cocked-up my broadband connection, and phone bill, the details of which I have no intention of sharing with the world, as I suspect Joanne was not expecting you to do, by publishing her personal business on a public forum!!! I would hope that trading standards would be VERY interested in such unprofessional and inappropriate action? I for one will be looking for a new ISP after many years of excellent pre-BT service from plusnet.

[#14]

@jojopillo well surprise surprise the price change for that EU to 10.79 mth on the market 2 exchangewent ahead. should the regrade in pricing for other EU's on a market 2 exchange not be automatic ?? thanks Leo

[#15]

@ardglass - 140 referrals! 8-O Plusnet should be paying you I would guess! ;) Although there is some ambiguity over price matching give the 'options' team a call (08451406002) to see if they can't help reduce your broadband price anyhow. Worked for me thankyou plusnet and now the monthly bill is a little easier to gaze upon. It usually works with Sky - saved £10.50 p/mth with them for 3 months by phoning and asking for a deal on my TV only package. I don't think I would entertain Sky for broadband from what I've heard about speed/throttling/cust service and don't want to line Murdoch's pockets any more!

[#16]

You have the nerve to describe your company as 'honest'. After signing up for the 'no contract' option with no modem, a pending £25 'deferred setup' fee appeared on my account. Then after connection another £25 fee appeared for 'cessation' on cancellation if I don't move to another ISP. Are there any other hidden fees I should know about? I have got nowhere talking to customer service about this and I promise I shall be taking it further beyond Plusnet.

[#17]

@ardglass, the regrade in pricing isn't automatic. You need to raise a support query for each of the accounts in question - see the FAQ's in the main article. @GS, information about the deferred set-up fee is made pretty clear both during the signup journey and at the bottom of our home page under the "Stuff you need to know" section. What you're saying doesn't make a great deal of sense though because you pay the £25 activation up front if you opt for a monthly contract, are you 100% sure you didn't choose the 12 month option? The cessation fee is listed in the terms and conditions and is a charge that's applied to us by our supplier. Given the low margins on the monthly subscription costs, it makes sense to pass this charge onto customers. I'd disagree that these are 'hidden' fees, but to answer your question, the only other possible deferred charge that you may be subject to would be the cost of the router (which you didn't opt for). Must admit, I'm extremely surprised that customer services were unable to provide you with the answers to these questions

[#18]

@chickendippers - "...I prefer the direction of the "no contract" advert; being the cheapest is not a unique selling point, no contract and quality of service are..." The 'no contract' is definitely a selling point in these hard times but this is also FACT. 'Won't be beaten on price' is an OPINION.

[#19]

What a complete load of rubbish this company is. I have had an average 600kbps speed since activating my broadband. Called up today to wait 10 mins and be cut off with no explanation or apology. So I called again waited another 20 mins and be told I have to answer a set of questions by email. On receiving the email the questions were all things I had answered over the phone to start off with. Everytime and call and ask to speak to a manager I get told they are in meetings. I am not called back when I have asked for callbacks. And after all this I am still left with a useless broadband connection. Spend less on the absolutely crap advertising and website redevelopment and stop profiteering from having customers call premium rate phone numbers to be left queuing and being cut off - train your staff to actually want to help those with technical problems. Being from Yorkshire myself I am gutted that you guys are making such a big deal about your origins. From the experience I have had I hardly think Plusnet is a shining beacon of success for Yorkshire.

[#20]

Hi Iain, I'm sorry to hear your not happy with your speeds or the level of support you've received :( If you can provide me with a support ticket reference or the username to your account then I'll be happy to take a quick look and see if there's anything I can do to help? Our support numbers aren't premium rate. They're 0845 and geographic 0114 numbers. Not sure if your have your phone service with us or not, but if you do then calls to both of these numbers are part of your inclusive call allowance.

[#21]

#36647418 is the one i received with a list of questions, but was sent to me as a closed ticket which made it impossible to respond, so i opened ticket #36648449 and sent my response in on that. There is also another ticket open - #36647619 - which is a referral for a manager to call me back as I would like to get the money refunded for the phonecall I was forced to make after the first call got cut off. I have to call off my mobile as in the past when calling Plusnet my landline hamdset battery has run out due me having to hold for so long (i know that sounds dramatic, but it genuinely has happened).

[#22]

HI Iain, I have sent a ticket to you via your account and left a voicemail in your mobile. I'm sorry I couldn't get through as I would have like to chat to you about this. Jojo

[#23]

Hi Jojo, I got your voicemail, and then I got another one from a team manager (well I had a voicemail asking me to call her, but leaving no number on which to call her, meaning I had to call the god awful call centre and wait 18 minutes to speak to her). When I did manage to speak to her she says she cant deal with faults as she is not technical support, and she cant deal with complaints as i have to put those in writing. I have searched for your CEO - James Ford - and have found his email address and so have sent my complaint into him. Probably won't reply, but lets see. I wish I had never bothered taking my Broadband and Phone with Plusnet - just done another speed check and getting a whopping 600kbps.

[#24]

HI Iain, I will look into this tomorrow when the manager you spoke to comes in. As for the fault, I believe we have sent you a replacement router to try to pinpoint the fault, so hopefully this will edge us towards a conclusion. Jojo

[#25]

Hi Iain, Having spoken to the manager in question, it seems she never left you a number because she said she would call you back. Regarding the call that was cut off, we can't find any records of that call. Were you able to pass the security on the call where you were disconnected? because we can't see who accessed your account at this time. The manager was able to deal with complaints but in your case felt it better to put your complaint in writing. As far as your fault is concerned, I believe it is in hand and as far as I am aware she was calling you with regard to being cut off, not because of your fault. She does not have faults training, as her day to day role is managing the team, resources, rotas etc. Jojo

[#26]

All these people ranting about Talk Talk. My husband had an account with them a few years ago. They took money from his account (a payment method was set up without his permission) without notification and threatened to take him to court for £18. Go ahead and go to Talk Talk.... You'll be very very sorry doing this to scrimp and save a couple of quid.

[#27]

"We Won't Be Beat on Price" is a grammatically incorrect slogan. The idea that this somehow reflects the company's Yorkshire heritage seems quite laughable and frankly an insult to the intelligence of Yorkshire people. It begs this question - If Plusnet cannot get their slogans right, how will they be able to service customers' broadband needs accurately and professionally?

[#28]

Neil, the 'grammatical error' is intentional -http://community.plus.net/blog/2010/10/06/tv/#comment-24155

[#29]

Like your new marketing, but am really annoyed by the "can't be beat on price" - the correct grammar is "beaten", whether you're from Yorkshire or not. It makes you sound ignorant. Any hope of changing it?

[#30]

@Amanda, I'd be surprised if we were to change anything at this stage of the add campaign. The use of 'beat' is intentional, it's meant as a colloquialism to fit in with our Yorkshire heritage. Having said that, its use isn't grammatical frowned on by everybody, and some would argue that either 'beat' *or* 'beaten' is valid in this context.

[#31]

I had talktalk for a couple of years my average bills in the end were around £30 a month, that was for phone and broadband. Since talktalk wasn't available at my new place plusnet seemed the best alternative. I think I'm going to be paying around £5 - £10 a month more due mainl;y I think to call charges.

[#32]

I just can't imagine a Yorkshire call centre. "I had a problem for one day last month, could I have a refund?" "A refund? Don't be so bl**dy soft! Of course you can't have a refund! Now, do you want me to cut you off or not?"

[#33]

I've had the distinct misfortune of being a Plusnet customer for 6 months now. I've never had such slow and unreliable broadband. And I live in central York, so no excuse! I've never had such expensive broadband either. I'm living in a shared house and I didn't get a say in the provider. Suffice to say that I'll be moving to a better, cheaper ISP as soon as I move out. It's so slow that it won't stream iplayer without constant pauses. I've compared it to my dongle speed and the dongle is 4 times quicker. It's a complete joke. Last year, I lived in the same area and had O2. Average download speed was 7 times faster than what I get now. And it was a damn sight cheaper too. Sigh

[#34]

Hi Steve, Sorry to hear you're having problems :( Have you reported your issues to our helpdesk to see if there's anything we're able to do to help? If you've a support ticket reference you can provide me with then I'd be happy to take a look at your account for you?