Complaint

[#1]

I'm very new to plusnet having transferred my services from sky only in April this year.  This is my first months billing period, and i understand i cant change my direct debit date which is crazy in this day and age.  I called up last week to be told i need to cancel it with my bank which I've done. Now i log into my account to pay (which there doesn't seem a way to do this) and you are going to charge me £1.50 a month because i'm not using your direct debit date.  Your dd date is 2 days before i get paid? Also i received a letter after being with you for only 2 weeks telling me you are putting your prices up by £1. Surely 2 weeks in is a little crazy... I'm not happy with your service so far.... I'd like to think the £1.50 charge for paying via card is cancelled as its your fault i cant pay by DD.

[#2]

And on top of this, when i cancelled the dd last week i was asked to add card details so that i could pay by card instead.  These have been added and it reads that you will "automatically" take the money from this card on the invoice date. Isnt that the same as the dd situation? I'd like to pay my bill after the 26th.  Your dd will take it on the 24th, or you will take it "automatically" on my invoice date????? If you cant change the dd date then i would like to take charge of when it comes out of my account and pay you myself on the date of my choice after i've been paid.

[#3]

@Butlinsbabe

If it helps to know, my invoice/billing date is the 21st of the month, but my direct debit payments get taken from my bank account on 4 or more days later.

[#4]

Hi Butlinsbabe and welcome to the Community Forums.

Firstly I'd like to apologise that we're currently unable to change billing dates and for any inconvenience this has caused you. Although we appreciate this is something customers have requested previously, I'm afraid we don't have a set date when this functionality may be available.

At the moment you mentioned you have card details saved on your account and it would attempt to take the invoice on the first day however if you remove the details from the account it will prevent this and when your invoice date comes you will have a 14 day grace period to clear the invoice before any additional fee's or restrictions are put on the account.
When doing so if you log into the member center on your invoice date or later the first thing you see at the top should be the outstanding balance with an option to make a one off card payment.

Although it's unfortunate timing for the price increase, as you've just joined, we did add a note on to the sales page advising of this as soon as it had been decided that it was going to be rolled out.

In terms of the £1.50 non direct debit charge, although I can remove it from your last invoice as a good will gesture being that it was an agent who advised you to clear the balance that way but I imagine didn't make you aware of the charge. I can't remove this in the long run as it's something we charge all of our customers that clear their invoice this way.

Let me know if you'd like me to issue the goodwill gesture and if you'd like I can remove your card details from the account this side for you so no automatic attempt is made to clear an invoice straight away for you.

Kind regards,

Ben

Moderator's note by Mike (Mav): Font size corrected

[#5]

BEN FROM CS EMAILED ME, TO WHICH I'VE REPLIED HOWEVER THE EMAIL FOOTER SUGGESTS I MUST EMAIL HERE INSTEAD.....

Hi Ben

Thank you for your reply regarding my complaint.

Please delete my card details and I will pay after I’ve been paid on every occasion.

Can you confirm if the previous bill amount (the one I cancelled the DD for) has not been taken as its saying something about my next bill but not saying I’ve overdue etc, and there’s no link to pay?

(I was going to add a screen shot here of what I’m looking at - but unfortunately a new screen is in its place saying I have been placed on restrictions????)

CANT ADD SCREENSHOT IN HERE

I’ll obviously take the goodwill gesture for last month’s bill, but I still feel very let down that we’re only a month in to using you and so far you are charging me an extra £2.50 a month more than you said you would when I signed up.  How do I know that in 6 months’ time you won’t put the price up again? There was no mention of an imminent price increase when I signed up?

So effectively your saying to customers we can take payment for free on the 24^th (dd date) or you can pay us an additional £1.50 and pay when you want. Id like to speak to the idiot that decided the 24^th was a good date to take payments? The 28^th or the 1^st would have been a lot better.

To be honest, all this is very off putting – can you advise how long a contract I signed into, was it 12 or 18months?

[#6]

Also could you send me a link to your terms specifically where it highlights exiting the contract if you (plusnet) change your contract with me. i.e a price increase after 2 weeks (when i would still have been in my cooling off period). I've found the early termination fees/cancellation fees etc but no mention of when you deviate from the contract? 

[#7]

@Butlinsbabe

Also i received a letter after being with you for only 2 weeks telling me you are putting your prices up by £1

You have 30 days from receipt of this to inform PN you are leaving due to the price rise , and can do so penalty free. 

[#8]

Hi Butlinsbabe,

I've responded to your raised questions via email and opening a ticket on your account as it does mention some account specifics I can't mention on the forums. You can access that here if needed.

Kind regards,

Ben