Price creep (leap!)

[#1]

The Plusnet charge if the fault is found to be with your equipment is quite a bargain compared to what other providers might charge e.g. £129.99 for BT retail's "Engineer Home Improvement Service"! You shouldn't be charged (by any provider) if you've done all the checks and the fault isn't with your equipment. Ultimately, however, it is up to the supplier whether or not they pass on any costs incurred by the engineer visit to the end user. £50 probably doesn't cover the full amount of the charge passed to Plusnet.

[#2]

Quote from: The

yes @chrcoluk I agree... It also annoys me that I pay for 450m of cable... I could use the equivalent of a years LR to put my ethernet to the cabinet up the road and not will it just be shorter but better quality too. Note: I don't use the phone so the bit running to the exchange in my eyes is probably more of an inconvenience and probably degrades the line prior to the cab for all we know.

You are paying for the rent of the cable, the ongoing maintenance and upgrades of the phone system.
I very much doubt that for 16*12 = £192 you could pay to put your cable anywhere near anything.
Take this example.
The pole and DP at the top serving me and 3 others was replaced a while back.
Pole cost was £600 - they come from France which as the only EU plant capable of doing the preservative
Add in the rest of the work with two people, plus the pole replacement lorry and the DP + downcable and you are talking around £2000 for the job.
Line rental of £16 pm. So for 3 properties that is £576 gross income per annum.
So 1 repair has wiped out the gross revenue from all 3 properties for 3.5 years.
If you assume gross profits to be 30% of the revenue then the repair has wiped out 10 years of profit from these three properties and if you work on net profits then the figures are even worse.
Now you see why BT bodge things up and try and mend rather than replace.......and why line rental will keep on going up.
Try asking for you electric/gas meter to be moved a few meters and you will end up paying several hundred pounds and you will be getting a better idea of the real costs of doing things.

[#3]

Strike 3! First 40/20 reduced to 40/2, then a cut of C/S support lines and now price hikes!
I only noticed this today (http://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2015/06/customers-of-uk-isp-plusnet-braced-for-september-price-hikes.html) - just got off the phone to C/S who said that once I receive notice of these price rises I have 30 days to leave without being charged to pay to get out of my contract.
Being a relatively new customer to pn (and wanting to support the small guys) I now have to leave - so bye bye.
Rick.

[#4]

Quote from: x47c

You are paying for the rent of the cable, the ongoing maintenance and upgrades of the phone system. I very much doubt that for 16*12 = £192 you could pay to put your cable anywhere near anything. Take this example. The pole and DP at the top serving me and 3 others was replaced a while back. Pole cost was £600 - they come from France which as the only EU plant capable of doing the preservative Add in the rest of the work with two people, plus the pole replacement lorry and the DP + downcable and you are talking around £2000 for the job. Line rental of £16 pm. So for 3 properties that is £576 gross income per annum. So 1 repair has wiped out the gross revenue from all 3 properties for 3.5 years. If you assume gross profits to be 30% of the revenue then the repair has wiped out 10 years of profit from these three properties and if you work on net profits then the figures are even worse. Now you see why BT bodge things up and try and mend rather than replace.......and why line rental will keep on going up. Try asking for you electric/gas meter to be moved a few meters and you will end up paying several hundred pounds and you will be getting a better idea of the real costs of doing things.

I no what line rental is for.... why would I pay for something that sounds so stupid in the first place unless it had grounds to be on my bills, however I wasn't being serious... I think people need to try having a relaxed view on things and not take everything so damn serious... 

[#5]

Will the £15.49 equivalent LRS still exclude (remove) any call package (eve or eve/weekend) included with Broadband packages?  As far as I can tell, BT (whose LRS will become cheaper than Plusnet's) don't remove call packages included with broadband when taking LRS.

[#6]

The money for all these cash back payments has to come from somewhere... what is being charged for broadband simply does not cover the cost.  One support call can wipe out a fully year's subscription and that is before an engineer attends.
Sadly though, people seem to not want to pay a fair price for broadband - something along the lines of paying in proportion to what you consume.  If we all paid in line with our consumed bandwidth (as per the wholesale market) I am sure that phone lines could be much cheaper than they are at present and will be after September.
No doubt that thought will bring about the same sort of bitching which surrounds water metres - another area where people seem to believe they have a right to unlimited use for a fixed fee.  No one would consider unlimited gas and electric for a fixed fee to be sensible, so why do we think it makes sense for broadband usage?

[#7]

Well last straw for me, I will be moving the phone when my lrs ends, 22nd Sept.
Madasafish looks good to me £11.99 for what I am paying more for at the mo. (equivalent to £12.99 a month)
No way I can afford to pay the full LRS this year anyway.

[#8]

Whilst PN do offer these extremely low monthly rates for broadband, those of us stuck on a Market 1 exchange pay much much higher prices. It makes all these PN changes (change in support, 40/20 to 40/2, peak time slowdowns, price hikes) much harder to swallow.

[#9]

Does anybody know if you are hit with the £2 surcharge if you move the phone to MAF? (the BB surcharge for not having phone with PN)

[#10]

it is £2.50 and I think that you will get hit with it
Having said that phone +anytime with Plusnet and LRS = £21.49 equivalent
phone + anytime Madasafish = £16.99 add in £2.50 = £19.49
So a saving of £2 per month

[#11]

There's no way they'd let that slip through (though it's not a 'surcharge' it's apparently a 'discount' for not having your line rental elsewhere).
I think you'll find it's £2.50 'undiscount' and you won't be eligible for special retention deals (certainly not as good as if you continue to subsidise other services pay line rental at the higher rate)

[#12]

I am a loyal customer of many years and pay the full price for my phone and broadband.
I therefore hate the idea of me and other like me subsidising ultra cheap broadband and large cash-backs to new customers who, at the end of their contract may well change supplier for the latest deal.
£18 a year saving on my LRS....WOW...that is some incentive

[#13]

In my case - checking the details and cost of the lost 5 months LRS - it won't pay to leave
However moving from LRS to standard monthly at the end of the year seems to be a no brainer as it will give me much more flexibility in the future when they increase the price again

[#14]

Just remembered that when I signed re-contracted I agreed a special offer, does this still stand or will I have my price hiked too?

[#15]

Quote from: jafreer

Whilst PN do offer these extremely low monthly rates for broadband, those of us stuck on a Market 1 exchange pay much much higher prices. It makes all these PN changes (change in support, 40/20 to 40/2, peak time slowdowns, price hikes) much harder to swallow.

and we have pathetically slow service to boot in most cases
(1st I knew BT's Poles were French; shame on them. No doubt some France/EU Reg stitch up; would they ever use an English Pole in France 🐵