VAT Increase & Price Changes - January 2011
Quote from: A Will they also repair your credit rating etc?
If you're talking about what would happen in the event of us taking a payment in error then no, I doubt we could do anything to repair your credit rating - in exactly the same way we couldn't if the same thing happened with a card payment. I'm not entirely sure I understand what you're getting at with this one if I'm honest so hopefully I've understood correctly?
Quote from: Oddball
Quote from: Bob The situation has been handled as was intended, so from a project perspective Jamie has no cause for concern (or any need to apologise).
Of course the loss of some customers due to the "situation" will have been accounted for and deemed insignificant compared to the new customers signing up. Other existing customers will not like the change but will remain because it easier than changing... devil you know!
Yes, a certain degree of churn will have been anticipated, however in the case of Unlimited the vast majority stand to benefit from a product change. The £1.50 credit card processing charge can also be avoided by moving to Direct Debit.
Quote from: Oddball
Quote from: Bob I'd like to think that most people understood the messaging though given the relatively few people that have posted to this thread.
That is an interesting comment Bob.
Only a small percentage of your customers use this forum and even less people are frequent contributors.You seem to be assuming that there is little resistance to the changes you are making because of relatively small number of people commenting here.
I didn't say there was little resistance, however the communication we sent out was quite particular in pointing customers to this specific thread if they were unsure about anything. I would expect most customers to contact us via the official support channels if they have problems/concerns and that's something we're keeping an eye on too. I think you've taken my comment the wrong way, it was intended as a response to any suggestion that Jamie should be apologising for the way the emails were written/customers were notified.
Quote from: Bob Most people will be aware of the VAT rise but many of your customers will be unaware of these other changes in pricing and T&C.
I've tried to make all of the changes as clear as possible in the accompanying FAQ I wrote.
Quote from: Bob The people who will react to these changes are not your new customers. they won't care necessarily. The people who are reacting are mostly your longer standing customers, they seem to be the victims in plusnets strategy to win customers, it seems, at any cost.
With the obvious exception of Unlimited everybody seems to be completely neglecting the fact that we haven't increased broadband subs on residential accounts? This applies to the vast majority of customers.
Quote from: thisoldman What people are forgetting is that many customers on the value package, whom i assume are eldery and not well endowned financially face a hike of 25% on their costs.
It's certainly a minority that would find themselves in this situation. As I've mentioned elsewhere, a good 85% or so of the customer base are Direct Debit payers. I'd warrant a guess that the percentage is higher for Value customers too. In addition to this the £1.50 can easily be avoided by switching to Direct Debit. We've also frozen broadband prices for Value customers.
Quote from: VinylLover I apologise if I have missed it but I still haven't seen an answer to the question a number of people have asked -"what is PN's justification for increasing the Unlimited package by £5/month?"
I don't think it'll come as a surprise to people when I say that it's not one of our most profitable products, even if the majority are more suited to an Extra profile!
Usage is on the up (an ever increasing trend), and we've frozen everything else so have to make accommodations somewhere. Whilst the price hike is above the increase in VAT, the commercials will have been thought out thoroughly. There's some respite in the fact that the majority can avoid the hike by moving to Extra.
Quote from: ITWorks ISPreview now have a piece on this
http://www.ispreview.co.uk/story/2010/12/07/plusnet-adjustment-could-lead-to-higher-uk-phone-charges...
I noticed they neglected to mention that we'd frozen most broadband prices too (until I commented that is)
Quote from: ritz Bottom line: I am billed on the 24th each month. I want to know by which date I can ask for the upgrade to the NEW Talk Anytime and when it will be activated in my case. I understand that it will cost me:
Line rental - £11.99
New Talk Anytime - £3.50 / month
Offer - First 3 months free.
Bob, can you clarify once again the above please, and why am I getting potentially confusing info from Support?
First billing date after the 4th as per the information on the page where you register your interest. I'll have a word with the person you spoke to to make sure they don't make the same mistake again.
Quote from: coastergrotto I've signed up today for the New Talk Anytime offer from the link in my email for 3 free months. As I understand it will commence on my first billing period after Jan 4th, which in my case is January 21st. I assume until then I'll be on Evenings and Weekends and my free 300 minutes of International calls to the Top 20 Destinations will continue until that date. Am I correct?
You'll lose the international minutes on the 4th January, but you will still be on Evenings & Weekends until the date of the account change.
Quote from: Bob With the obvious exception of Unlimited everybody seems to be completely neglecting the fact that we haven't increased broadband subs on residential accounts? This applies to the vast majority of customers.
I think every one get this as it has been mentioned a few times in this thread :), whilst the vat saving you are giving the customers rangers from 11 to 43 pence depending on product type and market area, PN are more than getting this back by increase the phone line charge by 50 pence or so and giving customer less if on eve and weekend!!.
Quote from: Bob I noticed they neglected to mention that we'd frozen most broadband prices too (until I commented that is)
I see you have neglected to point out the price rise for unlimited on your post at ISPreview? (£5)
Sorry my bad i see this was mentioned by ISPreview in the original post
Regards
Mike
Quote from: Oldjim Bob,
Here is the screen print with the errors marked - my present phone charge isn't zero, I am not on PAYG Standard and that isn't my old monthly cost or my new monthly cost
The line rental won't be £11.25 on the new package it will be £11.99
Actually the only parts which are correct are the old product line rental and the new Talk Anytime price.
Not a good example of quality control is it
Jim, can you check this again as I've been unable to replicate the problem this morning? We did roll out some code changes and I'm wondering if it's inadvertently fixed whatever was causing the problem?
Quote from: David Just went to upgrade and, yeah, it told me the line rental would be £22.50/month!
Again, can you give things another go David?
Quote from: ITWorks
Quote from: Bob I noticed they neglected to mention that we'd frozen most broadband prices too (until I commented that is)
I see you have neglected to point out the price rise for unlimited on your post at ISPreview? (£5)
It's already mentioned in the main article, so I didn't see the point in doing so.
Quote from: Bob
It's certainly a minority that would find themselves in this situation. As I've mentioned elsewhere, a good 85% or so of the customer base are Direct Debit payers. I'd warrant a guess that the percentage is higher for Value customers too. In addition to this the £1.50 can easily be avoided by switching to Direct Debit. We've also frozen broadband prices for Value customers.
And 85% is what in customer numbers?
And what is the profit part of the £1.50 because we doubt that even 50p is anywhere near the actual cost there _might_ be to process payment by Credit Card.
And consider this: if the customers you want to rip off all changed over to DD then you lose that money. If you then don't increase charges it shows that you didn't need the income on the first place.