Pay your outstanding subscription to reactivate your account

[#1]

I have just gone on-line today (Sunday @ 14.00hr) after 2 days of not using my PC only to find an email from Plusnet saying,
"Pay your outstanding subscription to reactivate your account
Your account is temporarily disabled because you have an overdue subscription payment for your Internet access. Details of this payment are shown below.
To restore your account, please choose one of the options below.
Payment due: Sunday 5th August 2007
Your current payment method: Direct Debit "
I have been a plusnet customer for a good few years and as far as I know this is the first time this has happened.
The email message telling me to pay up by Sunday (Today) isn't spam because I have tried to log-on to my "members account details" by typing in the URL rather than clicking on the link in the email I got (I'm not that daft) also, I've looked through this forum to see if anyone else has had the same notifcation like this one http://community.plus.net/forum/index.php?topic=526.0
Surely for such long standing and loyal Plusnet customers we ought to have a bit longer grace to enable you see that we've not cancelled our membership or that our bank or building socity may have made a mistake instead of cutting us off just like that.
Of course not having been cut off before how do I know whether I will be able to contact PlusNet if I can't get web access?
The email notifcation only gives their postal and web address, no phone numbers to query why why they have not received payment or whether it could be a problem at their end.
Of course it being Sunday I can't contact my bank or building socity to see if paymeny has been made.
See what I mean??
Big Fred.

[#2]

This is a failure with the billing notification system, apologies for the hassle here. If you visit the portal and click the take payment manually button this will go through in the normal time, no billing has actually been run so you will not be charged twice.
This issue is also in hand with our developers.

[#3]

Same thing happened to me this afternoon, been a member for 3 years and never missed a payment, I just went to the portal and made the payment there, I'm just hoping that it doesn't get taken out twice! I also thought the email was a bit harsh and abrupt especially as I knew there was nothing wrong with the Direct Debit and payment wasn't actually due until the 7th August.

[#4]

Quote from: TomH

Same thing happened to me this afternoon, been a member for 3 years and never missed a payment, I just went to the portal and made the payment there, I'm just hoping that it doesn't get taken out twice!

Me too, I didn't click of the "PAY NOW" button just in case it was taken out twice.
Well we'll have to see.
Interestingly no sooner had I click the pay by credit card I got two emails, one saying,
Thank you for choosing to pay your account's outstanding
balance by Direct Debit. We have submitted your Direct
Debit request to your bank/building society. Please be
aware that your account is not reactivated yet.
When we receive confirmation of this payment your account
will be reactivated. We will send you an e-mail when your
payment has been taken and we have reactivated your
account.
If your Direct Debit instruction is not successful for any
reason, we will send you an e-mail immediately to let you
know what happens next.
At the same time I got this one,
* Advance notice of your Direct Debit payment *
This advance notice is to let you know that a payment of £XX.XX, for your
PlusNet Internet account will soon be taken, on or after 07/08/2007.
This email is for your information only, as no action is necessary on your part to complete this payment.

Glad to hear it's "In Hand" though and there is a record of the problem here.
Big Fred.

[#5]

This incident was very unsatisfactory - what was worse there was no message sent out indicating that there had been a significant number of erroneous messages sent out to subscribers.

[#6]

Yep - I think we need to take that point on the chin. We'll have a review and work out how we could have communicated this issue better to the affected folks.
Thanks, and sorry for the hassle. 
Ian