£1 faster

[#1]

Hi all,

I've been a 75mbps customer for a few years now and have just received a notice of a £1PM increase (aside from others over the years.

I'm just wondering, what can I expect to get in return? I seem to be subsidising PN who I'm sure to very well while offering what they do and making a fortune off the back of us and openreach but when am I going to get the 'expect 100mbps service' email?

[#2]

You can expect nothing in return. However that extra pound you are paying will help cover the rising costs in people and the maintenance of the system you have benefited from these past years.

[#3]

It is rather cute in the way you suggest they're doing me a favour by charging me an extra quid a month.

You have to stop and wonder at what point we should be getting something other than what we expect for an ever inflated cost.

[#4]

Moderator's note by Mike (Mav): This thread is now in the appropriate board.

[#5]

The cost of everything has risen and I think that the pound increase is very fair, regardless of the possible motive behind it (i.e. to recoup the cost for the free provision of caller display).

Of course if you're not happy with the cost and or quality of service being provided then there are alternatives out there and who is to say they won't increase prices in the not to distant future.

[#6]

It's not the cost what I'm bothered about; it's what I'm getting - or not, in return for said cost.

As for the mention of caller display - it's either free or it's an extra £1 a month to recoup the cost of it, a little contradictory. However the email does mention specifically broadband; nothing to do with the cost of the phone use, which I'll add some don't bother with.

[#7]

Providing the Caller Display service won’t come for nothing to the provider, so for them to cover these costs they have passed these on to the customer as is normal practice.

If the provider is being told by external bodies that a service such as caller display must be provided ‘free’ to the customer their own cost of providing it does not go away so it needs to be recovered, hence my comment, but my assumption here may well be wrong.

However the point made in my first reply still stands. As for what you are getting for the additional cost is a continuation of a service that has, I assume, proven reliable for you. A service whose running costs will only increase as time goes on based on rises in wages, hardware costs, energy etc.

If, as I said above, you’re not happy with the service, you are free to move provider (within 30 days of the email) without penalty, as per the terms of your contract.

[#8]

Hi there.

I'm sorry to hear you're not happy with this.

As well as making caller display free of charge, we're investing in new products and technology. With the amount of technology in the average household, we need to make sure we can offer a reliable product for every type of customer.

If you would like a new deal I'd recommend calling our Customer Options Team on 0800 013 2632 within 30 days of receiving the price refresh e-mail.

[#9]

See quote in here - https://community.plus.net/t5/Plusnet-Feedback/Price-increase/td-p/1529064/jump-to/first-unread-mess... - of an industry review of the price change which clearly reports that Plusnet is not alone in raising prices, but the Plusnet increase is less than many.

If you can find cheaper for the same, the 30 day exit period allows you to vote with your boots, but do be careful to ensure that your alternative supplier has not got their price increase still in the pipeline.

[#10]

You’ve been a 75Mb customer for several years and, presumably from your tone, have not had a price increase during this time.

Whether you have or haven’t, did you consider that during those years, inflation and RPI effects mean that you have essentially been paying less and less each year? You might also have heard of something called Brexit, which has seen a rather large decrease in the value of the pound of which you speak.

I am not one to defend large, greedy corporations and don’t condone regular and large price increases. But £1 is rather modest and frankly, you are overvaluing it and coming across as extremely entitled in the process. By all means there’s nothing stopping you from shopping around for a better deal but PN are one of the more keenly priced providers. Plus your new cheaper provider will probably charge an activation fee in the range of 30 to 50 quid, so you’d best hope they undercut PN by a good bit else you’ll need to exercise patience before you break even on the deal.

[#11]

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@stewakemanwrote:

A)  something called Brexit, which has seen a rather large decrease in the value of the pound of which you speak.

B)  But £1 is rather modest and frankly, you are overvaluing it and coming across as extremely entitled in the process.

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(A) I'm not sure Brexit really comes into this, too much, because this is a UK business with UK customers so we are all affected in a similar way.  Exchange rates certainly can make a difference, I'll give you that, but the drop since June 2016 has pretty much been wiped out (I looked at a 5 year graph on XE.com which showed $1.42 then and $1.41 this week) so even PN buying equipment from wherever is likely to be at prices hardly affected by exchange rates, just general inflation worldwide.

(B)  I agree it is a fairly low amount, especially as a percentage of total expenditure, and while I only made the jump to fibre (up to 38 Mbps) quite recently (ordered mid January and took a month to be upgraded) and am getting around 25 Mbps (compared with a guarantee of 27.4 Mbps) it seems a bit OTT to make the extra pound (when getting 70+ Mbps) a big issue when the service being supplied hardly seems that bad...  If the original poster had suffered months or years of lowering speeds then I'd see there to be more reason for complaint.

[#12]

The Brexit mention was put in there mostly to demonstrate that more than a single factor will contribute to why the price has to increase.

Topic creator may disagree with any and all suggestions that would explain it but I think they just need to consider the value of the pound that they're so miffed about giving up every month. Unless, as you say, they've got low speed or bad service, but then nobody should put up with that whatever the cost.

My instinct is that since the focus is solely on what they want for the extra quid, that all else is equal and they have no such glaring issues.

[#13]

£1 in the UK is £1 in the UK Brexit has darned all to do with it,

Over the years there’s been an ‘annual’ increase of about a £1 originally every September, but over the last 4 years the industry has crept it forward year on year. I note that Talk Talk back in 2016 put up line rental to that presently charged by Plusnet and that was their 3rd increase in 16 months. https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/broadband/2016/10/talktalk-to-increase-prices-by-up-to-33yr-f...

[#14]

Many ISPs have adopted the "bump up line rental and bundle broadband" over the past 5 (?) years or so.

It has allowed their (somewhat misleading) claim of giving the customer "free broadband" which seems great when trying to poach customers from rivals, but we all know there are costs involved, which are sometimes reduced (by pennies, eg OFCOM pressure on BT Wholesale for rental charges on services) but mostly increase in line with inflation and numbers of customers.

I have no doubt that staff costs have been a major factor and opening a second call centre (along with training and supervision) has stretched PlusNet resources, and has led to some downsides (I used to only call in the middle of the night when I needed to reach Customer Services, but now find it rather poor with lengthy queues and seemingly no point in calling after 21:30 (it may have been earlier) as despite being in a queue, I gave up at around 22:45 one night).

I have only recently switched my phone line to PlusNet because my old service provider (Primus, originally, then renamed Fuel Broadband) dumped its "line rental" option and moved me to The Post Office, thereby doubling my monthly charges from about £8 to over £16.

BT Wholesale charges around £7 +VAT / month for line rental, from memory, which meant that Primus was not making much from me (and earlier, for 3 years I believe, had been charging me below cost, at about £5.99 inc VAT).  I've watched UK Telecommunications services for the last 30 years or so, and the "bundling" pricing policies mainly serve to confuse end users, while simplifying (until they had to show line rental) the "marketing message".

We are (mostly) stuck with line rental even if we never have a phone plugged into the landline socket, and that hardware has maintenance costs which need to be charged for.  All in all, we get quite a good deal, most of the time, from ISPs like PlusNet, and while some others undercut (because of their own data networks) I have limited proof of them all being as open as PlusNet is (in general) about things like maintenance work, problems, and charges.

Adding a pound may not be liked by customers but PlusNet (like all ISPs) is in a very competitive market and I have little doubt the accountants forecast problems over the longer term if the charges are static, and while some might suggest it is "cartel like" for them all to increase their charges, it's something which is unavoidable, for a company to invest in new equipment, add capacity, and pay increased staffing costs, without passing some of the cost on to the end users too.