Longer contracts?

[#1]

Hello,
Hope I'm in the right forum for this...
Now I've not been 'reading the mail' for a while - my broadband generally works well so I have time to do other things...
Recently I had a prospective customer interested but when he contacted PlusNet he was told he would be required to sign an 18 month contract.
Now I assume things have changed since I joined - pay for router and connection and payg on a monthly basis or free connection/router and stay with PN for 12 months.
I'm sure if this 18 months issue is fact it will have been discussed on the appropriate forum - I wonder what people's views were generally?
Certainly in this case it lost PN a customer 
John

[#2]

Hi John,
There's a 72 page long thread here surrounding the Product Refresh.
http://community.plus.net/forum/index.php/topic,74056.0.html
There's also a briefer version, summarising the recent changes since the product launched:
http://community.plus.net/forum/index.php/topic,74429.0.html
Feel free to have a read if you have a bit of spare time.  The whole contracts debate has been covered numerous times, but to summarise, both Value & Unlimited are on an 18 month contract, whereas Pro for new customers and any customers who move onto the new products, are entitled to take a 12 month contract.

[#3]

Thanks Jameseh,
I'll stay away from that 72 page thread...
Just read the shorter one and I think I have the gist of it.
Would certainly have thought twice when I joined if the contract length had been 18 months tho'
It would be interesting if PN did some sort of survey (and they might already have?) to see how this has affected new customers.
Thanks again,
John

[#4]

i've just moved from Option2 to Value which I presume means a 18 month contract,which doesn't bother me as I would be staying with PN anyway,I can also see that such offers as Value and pro are such good offers that PN must need people to stay longer to make them worth while.

[#5]

Ted - I moved you onto a 12 month contract.
I just forgot to tell you I had

[#6]

OH!! Thanks James,thats good to hear,I intend to stay with PN but its nice to have an option.

[#7]

Sorry to add my bit here, to the already long discussion on the new contracts.
However, I thought it worth noting that I have now just lost a referral that I was planning on under the old packages. A friend has been looking at changing from dial-up for some time, and has been looking at various options. I had originally recommended PlusNet's Option 1, but they've just shown me the latest Post Office bundle of Line rental, phone call, and broadband at £19.53/month. I just checked this out, and I'm sorry to say, it does look like an overall better deal now. The bandwidth limit is irrelevant, as I know they'll be a light user, so the 5GB vs 10GB doesn't matter, phone calls are pretty similar, and the total cost is as well (after the promotional period, and they're not in low cost area). They also get no contract for phone, and 12 months for broadband, with a free modem.
They're off to apply for this tomorrow, and I can think of no reason to stop them at this time.
Like some of the others, I don't expect I'll be changing any time soon, but it is very hard to justify this to potential new customers who understand little about such things, other than the figures they see presented. Of course it's all swings and roundabouts, either have a contract, and pay costs to escape, or don't have a contract and charge when you leave (or up front if preferred). Essentially there's no real difference, but I find that some of the oldies I help out get put off very easily by such things as a longer term contract.
Best regards
Andy.