VAT Increase & Price Changes - January 2011

[#1]

and my last couple have been at a weekend, so no chance of getting anybody to rectify the mistake

[#2]

Sorry folks... that is both a commiseration with those who pay by card and a comment on some who are moaning.
Yes it is a shock to you, but as I wrote earlier, other companies charge more, and some do not allow card payments
Of the moaners, take responsibility for your own affairs. It's your duty to ensure that the means of payment you use to settle any debt is/will be valid when it reaches your account.

[#3]

Hi, my post on page 6 yesterday, it was moved here, no replies yet that I can see - can I ask again please for a little clarification -
got an email from plusnet saying my broadband Unlimited charge is being increased by £5! a month. Am I reading this right? I'm in a Market 3 area and pay about £16.49 for Unlimited now. That's a big percentage increase. I hope I'm wrong. Is this really happening?
is this the right place for my question?
Thanks for any help.

[#4]

Ther's been hardly any response to those complalining about the £60 a year increase in the unlimited package which affects some of the most loyal customers and already the highest payers.  Why have we had no explanation of the reasons behind slamming us with this increase?  It really is no good saying most will be better off on a more usage restriced package when we clearly want the security against additional usage charges. For example, at  £5 for 5gb, a game downloaded from "Steam" for a fiver near the end of the month could cost us nearer £15............... As for being better off - I'd be better off with a moped but I still drive a car! - it's about customers having what they want rather than what's good for them in Plusnet's opinion. Some explanation please just so we know what is behind the decision. If 80% of unlimited cistomers are using less than 60gb, (and paying more than they need), then surely the other 20% can't be making a disporportionate loss requiring a 25%-30% price hike. Wasn't the "extra" package (or its equivalent) an 80gb package a little while ago - how long before you drop the 60bg to 40gb.  We have no reason to trust you anymore.
If we do switch then what is involved technically?  I currently enjoy 6.5gb download speeds, but when looking at the "switch to Extra pages" I am estimated to get only 5gb, so is there some detrimental re-engineering involved?

[#5]

As staff are a bit light on the ground this morning - unlike the snow and ice in Sheffield  - I will answer a couple of the above questions
1. Yes the £5 increase is correct and the options are either pay it, move to extra if your on peak usage is under 60GB or change supplier (if you have Be at your exchange you are really lucky)
2. The estimated speeds are from the BT system and are notoriously pessimistic. Moving between products will have no affect on your sync speeds except in the case of moving from a legacy product to a current one (unlimited to extra for example) where you will be able to get ADSL2+ which may well give a significant speed increase if you are currently seeing sync speeds over 4,500kbps

[#6]

Quote from: Lolaan

Quote Card payments are 8 times more likely to fail than DD payments - you can sympathise with PN for preferring DD! Plusnet has nothing to do with it, it's BT being at it again. Quick, someone must warn all those companies which are still allowing card payments to force their card paying customers into DD by overcharging them on each of the transactions they insist on doing with their cards It would be interesting to know which percentage of payment failure Plusnet is experiencing with their 15% card paying customers. Are we all bad boys and girls then?

Why did you selectively quote my post? You cut out the quote from Bob part of which stated

Quote from: Bob

The failure rate of card transactions is about 12%.

[#7]

Quote from: lucerne

It's your duty to ensure that the means of payment you use to settle any debt is/will be valid when it reaches your account.

Hard but true in the current climate.
Obviously there are  cases where an inaccurate bill can cause a problem which raises the long running debate about time between invoice and payment request.

[#8]

Firstly I must register my displeasure with the price hike and the dropping of the free International calls.
I can accept a VAT change.
My question is, If I change from free evening and weekend calls, to anytime how long will the free international calls last?
I dont want to switch and find that this is stopped one month later.
Clive

[#9]

At present - and nobody is going to go further than that - you will keep the free international calls as the product isn't being cancelled just changed to a legacy product which will not be available for new sign ups from Jan 4th

[#10]

1. Yes the £5 increase is correct and the options are either pay it, move to extra if your on peak usage is under 60GB or change supplier (if you have Be at your exchange you are really lucky)
the email suggested changing to 'extra', I download less than 40gb a month, would this 'Extra' be cheaper than this 30% increase to £21 a month plusnet are making?
I checked my exchange Melrosegate York and it has  O2/Be.

[#11]

Yes it costs £15.79 or £17.99 a month depending on whether you are on a Market 3 exchange

[#12]

I'm in a Market 3 area, also I checked my exchange Melrosegate York and it has  O2/Be.

[#13]

Of course they tried once before to charge for card payments, then it was £2 but it got quietly dropped after a lot of protest. It's not just the charge for card payments it's all the other sneaky increases in phone charges above the 2.5% VAT increase. PlusNet have the history off doing this hoping people will not notice or bother to work it out. They also think people are stupid by saying not increasing BB charges will make up for it. On BB Extra the increase would be around 30p far less than the above VAT increase in Line rental alone.
What gets up my nose is companies treating their customers with contempt and this is exactly what PlusNet are doing. Slowly, bit by bit the extras such as inclusive international calls, removal of web space, the removal of inclusive VOIP calls and the sneaky 'lets hope they won't notice' price increases is typical of PluNet. What used to be a good for value company is now becoming a cheap and nasty clone of BT. I have not reffered anyone to PlusNet for a long time, since they started their dirty tricks.
Now where are  the  offers TT reps left?

[#14]

Quote from: jelv

Quote from: Lolaan Quote Card payments are 8 times more likely to fail than DD payments - you can sympathise with PN for preferring DD! Plusnet has nothing to do with it, it's BT being at it again. Quick, someone must warn all those companies which are still allowing card payments to force their card paying customers into DD by overcharging them on each of the transactions they insist on doing with their cards It would be interesting to know which percentage of payment failure Plusnet is experiencing with their 15% card paying customers. Are we all bad boys and girls then? Why did you selectively quote my post? You cut out the quote from Bob part of which stated Quote from: Bob The failure rate of card transactions is about 12%.

Because it was more about the fact that you thought Plusnet was responsible for the imposition of the fee, when it is BT that is responsible for that one, this time.
On the email I've received, it is stated that the charge is to cover the extra cost of processing card payments, and not to specifically cover for card payments failures.

Quote

[Posted on: Today at 12:04 Posted by: glloyd Insert Quote Of course they tried once before to charge for card payments, then it was £2 but it got quietly dropped after a lot of protest /quote] Instead,  Plusnet will probably have included the charge in their pricing to cover the "high" cost of processing cards payments. I still think that it cost less than £1.50 a month to process a card payment, therefore it's a rip off. Quote Quote from: mitchell20 on 02/12/2010, 19:06 It's also doesn't cost you that much extra to process credit cards (and most certainly NOT debit cards) Bob's answer : If we hadn't frozen the price of your broadband product then you'd probably be looking to pay an extra pound or two anyway wouldn't you? £30 + 17.5% = £35.25 £30 + 20% = £36 36 - 35.75 = 75p Nothing near £1.50 On a broadband value package, it makes you pay 13p more. So, can we have the VAT rise instead of the £1.50 charge then?

[#15]

Why do Plusnet say the cost of my "Extra" broadband won't go up before 2012?
If they mean "never", why not say so?
If they mean it increases in 2012 why not tell me now so I can happily spend a whole year looking for the best deal?