cant pay for my bill unless i call?

[#1]

What I do not understand, that where the option, to NOT store the active card details on PN's server for DD, they still try to take a payment (although no payment can be made) in the 1^st instance
If they do not want to present you the pay now button until after said payment could not be made,(which is clearly after the Bill has been generated, then they could send one an email or other agreed correspondence to say that your bill is now ready & can you please pay @ your earliest convenience / Failure to pay within 5 working days will cause restrictions on your account & any further failures to pay after 3 weeks could cause suspension of all services,
If you have trouble paying your bill, please get in touch & let us know, so we can work with you to help you make suitable arrangements for you to pay your bill
As the would look much better than the current state of play
(We couldn't take a payment for your plusnet a/c (username xxxxxxxxxxxx). To pay go to http://my.plus.net (which will redirect you to more secure https://portal.plus.net/my.html as we have not updated our system to provide you the correct https link in the 1^st instance) or call 08451400104) Text or Email
& in the meantime on the day yes the day the bill is generated some services like visiting the forum is automatically restricted (for NO FAULT of your own, due to our Neanderthal computer system(s))
(which we have to wait for before we can pay our bill)
If it were like a week after the bill was generated I could understand the restrictions being in place (but not the same day as the bill is generated)
As that show mis-trust towards your customers & desperation for their money
I know we have the option to remove the restrictions on the same day the bill is generated & it is designed to have a follow up (I think 4 - 5 days later / IIRC) & for no fault of our own it is a real nuisance to say the least
& considering that some pay the extra to NOT PAY by DD
It actually feels like PN are punishing those that (DO NOT) want to set up a DD
Which puts the whole "Good old Honest Broadband" statement under dispute

[#2]

For me the worst is on the due date if you dont pay you dont have access to member center  
my bill is generated 11th each month, but being disabled my money gets payed every 2 weeks so its no always in sync , so hence DD is not best option , if my disability is payed 2 days  after 11th i get bank charge £30 .
it may be easy for some to say leave it in bank until due date  , YOU dont know Bill amount untill Due date ! and is hard on a tight budget to have cash in account that could be used for food , waiting until you find out  what bill is.
So if my bill is 2 or 3 days over i click  " accept and continue browsing "  until i pay the bill .
It may be a daft system but it works  
but my 02 phone is great because they text me  a week before due date to tell me what the bill is , so i budget for that because i have prior knowledge , pity PN cant do same

[#3]

im offline for afew hours and boom
im sorry adam but you your self know full well what happened with my account.... as you where the person who changed my billing date... then sorted the issue out when money was taken from my bank without my approval.... (but i still stayed with plusnet after that) as you sorted it and that was end of,,,,
there is no reason what so ever why plusnet can not have a option to click pay when we veiw a pending bill... i host afew websites for people i have payment options on most and it is not that hard to implement
and when momney was taken from my account im pretty sure DD was set up at the time...... and i cancled due to the issue
and as above comments good honest broadband.... im about to take business broadband out and i was all set for plusnet (as ive been here 5 year) but im not too sure atmo
and the £1.50 charge (unless you use DD) dose seem to me that PN are trying to force people to pay DD... if you dont set up DD we will penalise you`(although ive had this argument with PN before) and you tell me its a card processing fee....
can i ask how?
as far as im aware i enter my bank detail your computer talks to my banks computer you get the money? no one from plusnet has to do a thing
(i know you are prolly gonna be anoyed with me adam... i know you done alot for me in past but i have my opinion and im going to put it forward
p.s i should not have to have active payment details... i should be able to make one off payment my bill was due on 17th its now 23rd and your system wont allow me to pay

[#4]

Quote from: _Adam_Walker_

@warbleeder, Are you aware that we don't give an option to pay if there's no active payment details on the account?

Adam.
I have regularly gone into failed billing over the last several months.
I DO NOT have any active payment details on my account, in fact when I just checked my payment details it  says "You are currently paying your subscription by cheque."
But each and every month when I have visited the members centre I have always been prevented from accessing the members centre but have instead been presented with a failed billing page which always contained a link giving me the option to "make a payment". If what you say is correct then this can only be a recent alteration to your systems.
And as for the £1.50p card processing fee. How do they justify that amount when my local corner shop only charges £0.50p for using a credit/debit card, many other retail outlets only charge if below a certain amount, maybe £10.00p, and the supermarkets dont charge at all.

[#5]

Hi guys,
@warbleeder - If you want to add a card and make payment, I'll make sure it's removed for you. Alternatively, if you want to pop me a PM we can try and arrange a time for me to call.
A lot of people have raised points here. Our billing system is tailored to suit Direct Debit a lot more than any other payment methods, and IMHO I think this is the brunt of the problem. I think it's because the system is ancient, above preferred payment method or anything else.
Ideally, I think that for card payers there should be a middle ground in between the stage of before the bill being due, and the stage of "failed payment". This would make life easier for people like rongtw and Devonports.
All customers who opt to pay their monthly invoice by one off debit and credit card payments, instead of Direct Debit, are subject to a £1.50 surcharge on each invoice. This is partially a processing fee sent to us by the bank. I can't attest to how much of it goes to the bank in all honesty.
I was pretty intrigued by this, so I did a bit of digging and I found this that told me that pretty much every provider charges for card payment. I don't really intend on this being an excuse, but it does seem industry standard.
Matty

[#6]

Quote from: Devonports

And as for the £1.50p card processing fee. How do they justify that amount when my local corner shop only charges £0.50p for using a credit/debit card, many other retail outlets only charge if below a certain amount, maybe £10.00p, and the supermarkets dont charge at all.

Supermarkets will have very low card processing rates because of the volume of transactions they put through.
It's not just the card processing fee, but there are additional costs payable to the card merchant as well as banking charges. Added to that, there is probably a staff cost as I would imagine that someone needs to check all the manual payments.

[#7]

so mat bank details are on there and i cant make payment?
if you dont want payment its fine by me save me £40
and if you wanna call and take payment the any time is good as landline diverts to mobile
how about you update your phone system so it has a automated system that takes payments?.... (i would also advise)
if you where to think about the above make sure it warns people theres a sur charge
but then again if website wont let me pay unless in failed billing i cant see the above been any differant

[#8]

Thanks for your call today, warbleeder

[#9]

no porblems mat thank you for your help

[#10]

Matty C this is interesting reading 
http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/cardsloans/article-2363930/Why-pay-use-credit-debit-card.html

[#11]

I think in the past there have been other reasons mentioned as well, such as Chargebacks and failed payments on credit cards costing more, and having a higher percentage of them happening on credit cards.
I don't know if this is still the case (or if I've misremembered that!)
Phil

[#12]

Have just spoke to a Accountant friend of mine , he reasons that for every £100 you spend in a shop , the actual cost to the retailer is 8p for debit card processing   

[#13]

Sorry, your accountant is quite wrong.
Based on my experience running a pub, 8p just about covers the cost of printing the card payment receipts.  PDQ rolls cost about £3.50 each and on some machines, you only get 60 transactions out of a roll.
The minimum authorisation charge is 4p per transaction, including payments, refunds and cash backs.
The minimum transaction charge is 35p - depending on card used it can be much higher, 2.5% or more of the transaction value - Amex and Dinners Club are the highest which is why many merchants do not accept those cards.
There is also the rental cost of the PDQ device, to say nothing of the cost of mandatory industry security verification (PCI-DSS is an onerous costly burden - an area I specialised on before leaving the IT industry).
When VAT is added in the minimum cost of the transaction to the merchant charged by the payment processor is circa 50p using a manual PDQ device.

[#14]

Quote from: Townman

When VAT is added in the minimum cost of the transaction to the merchant charged by the payment processor is circa 50p using a manual PDQ device.

My small family-run local has decided to charge customers £1 if paying by card to cover such costs; haven't heard any complaints yet.
And they still don't take Amex, though they did briefly.

[#15]

My local corner shop charges 50p for debit card use