Why is it so difficult to get a refund from Plusnet

[#1]

In February I took advantage of the £3 discount for staying another 12 months. The discount was missed on my invoice raised 15 February and within minutes of getting the email advice of the invoice I raised a ticket:-

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Question topic: How Much Have I Been Billed This Month? | ID: 27876110 Open Your original Question 10:21am, Sunday 15th February 2009 I have just been advised that my monthly DD is about to be taken with the amount quoted being £14.15. You will see from Question 27667189 that I have agreed to stay for another 12 months for a £3 discount on my bill. You appear to have forgotten the £3 discount and would be grateful if you could correct the DD. Many thanks. XXXXXXXXXX  CSC Analyst 10:52am, Sunday 15th February 2009 Dear XXXXXXXXXXX, Please be advised that I have had a look into your account and have noticed that you have agreed to a £3 discount for 12 months. Unfortunately, these discounts were not allocated to your account. I have allocated the necessary discounts to your accounts. Please note that the payment is currently being collected via the direct debit and once this has been received, we will process a refund of £3. I do apologise for any inconvenience caused. Kind regards, XXXXXXXXXXXXX

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Your comment 6:54am, Wednesday 25th February 2009 Could you please advise when I should receive the £3 refund. I presume it will be a credit direct to my Bank account rather than a credit note against my next bill. XXXXXXXXXXXX    CSC Analyst 2:36pm, Thursday 26th February 2009 Dear XXXXXXXX I have looked into your query and it appears to have been setup for your next invoice date of 15/03/2009. Kind regards, XXXXXXXXXXX

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Your comment 3:28pm, Thursday 26th February 2009 But what about the refund due following the incorrect invoice this month? I was told a refund would be made as soon as my direct debit had been taken from my account. XXXXXXXXXXXXX CSC Analyst 3:59pm, Thursday 26th February 2009 Dear xxxxxxxxxxxx Thanks for getting back to us again, and sorry that the refund was missed in our previous response. I can confirm the £3 monthly discount is now in place, and I have refunded you £3 against the recently taken invoice. Apologies this wasn't actioned sooner. If we can help with anything further, please don't hesitate to let us know. Kind regards, XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

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Your comment 2:43pm, Thursday 5th March 2009 We seem to be making very slow progress with this ticket. My previous comment:- "Could you please advise when I should receive the £3 refund. I presume it will be a credit direct to my Bank account rather than a credit note against my next bill." still has not been answered. I see a credit note has now been raised. When will I be receiving the refund? XXXXXXXXXXX CSC Analyst 4:06pm, Friday 6th March 2009 Dear xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, As the first of the 12 £3 discounts was unfortunately missed, this was actioned as a refund on your last payment. The refund was sent to your account on 26th February, and will take 7-14 working days to credit back to your account. The remaining 11 discounts have been added to your account, and will take effect from your next billing date of 15th March. These will work where-as the £3 will be removed from your monthly fee before it is requested via your direct debit instruction. I hope this answers your question. Kind regards, XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

It is now exactly one month on. My March invoice has had the £3 discount applied but the £3 discount due in February still has not been refunded to me.
Could someone from Plusnet please have a look at this (Question: 278761100) and explain to me why it is so difficult to get a refund from you and when can I expect to be paid. Next time an incorrect invoice is raised I think that I will just cancel the DD payment and refuse to pay until a correct invoice is raised.

[#2]

Quick bit of advice is don't cancel the DD but reclaim the payment via your bank. If you cancel the DD an automatic notification is sent to the company and usually creates more problems than it solves due to the companies automatic processes.

[#3]

Would second that, get your bank to take up your case

[#4]

The banks are unlikely to be interested in a dispute on the value of any invoice or any refund due?  If it was a case of an erroneous e.g.. a second DD payment taken in a single month, then the bank is obliged to act if you request them so to do.
M

[#5]

Correct the banks are not interested in the actual dispute however if the DD claim is invalid (wrong amount, unauthorised claim, etc) the bank will refund the DD was notified by the customer. To protect yourself it is advisable to notify the company as soon as you spot the error, inform them you will be stopping that payment via the DD guarantee and clearly state you expect them to collect the correct amount via DD. Some companies, however will treat the stopping of the incorrect payment as a default on payment even though this is not the case.

[#6]

Well after one month and one day from the original mistake I have finally got my refund. It is in my bank account today.
I still think it is very poor that the mistake took place in the first place and then for it to take so long to correct the position. But at least it has now been resolved.

[#7]

Strangely, exactly the same has just happened to me. Here is the PN response to my request to take the correct amount
"Thank you for you update on this matter, I do apologies (sic) fro (sic) this problem. there are currently 3 options
1. have the discount applied for the next 12 month.
2. have the discount applied for the next 11 month and refund £3 once the direct debit has cleared. (please not direct debit refund can take up to 14 days to clear back into you account.)
or
3. get a refund from the bank of the total amount paid. the we will contact you to take the correct fee. (this may also result in the loss of your broadband connection)
I hope this helps."
A contract works both ways. If I ignored my side of it I'm sure PN would be on me like a ton of bricks. When I state my intent to make PN adhere to their side of the contract by invoking the DD guarantee, I am threatened with loss of connection. Option 3 says it all and clearly shows what PN think of their customers. It is crystal clear what PN considers as their obligations under a contract.
Do I really want to commit to a long term contract with this outfit - I have a month to make up my mind.
Does anybody from PN want to comment on the threat contained in option 3?

[#8]

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3. get a refund from the bank of the total amount paid. the we will contact you to take the correct fee. (this may also result in the loss of your broadband connection)

I take this a warning not a threat.
Refund from the bank for the whole amount paid may be seen by the Plusnet systems as a failed payment and a failed payment will stop broadband access unless there is an alternative payment method on the account such as a credit card

[#9]

Quote from: Oldjim

... I take this a warning not a threat. ....

I would use the word threat. Plusnet basically are saying that we claimed the wrong amount, you got a refund by your bank so will debit your CC for the wrong amount or if that is not available we will suspend your connection. As I stated earlier, business's do not like honouring the DD guarantee as it put the onus on them to get it right first time and accept the consequences if they do not. They prefer to put the customer in the wrong.

[#10]

i they had said
this will also result in the loss of your broadband connection
I would agree but it actually said
this may also result in the loss of your broadband connection

[#11]

True, but it is a threat not a promise and automatic systems are only as good as their programmers. With the companies I have dealt with the majority deal with guarantee refunds as a default payment rather than an error on the companies part. Hence the reason they try to get the payment by other means rather than reclaiming the correct amount by DD.

[#12]

as an aside ...
I use my Credit Card to pay for Metronet and now Plusnet services.
the initial overcharge on my new Plusnet Value package (£9.75 was taken instead of £5.99) was refunded within 1 working day ...
which I think ias as fair as it could get really.
John

[#13]

Glad to hear about the fast refund but I hope you are not on a Continuous Authority Agreement.

[#14]

In that latter case, I don't think there is any choice in the matter of continuous authority along with the possible consequences if it happen to be a very bad company. Well that isn't the case with PlusNet (at least at this time), but I wouldn't trust Orange, Tiscali or TalkTalk if reports by some people are anything to go by!