Account Restricted Despite Direct Debit Being In Place

[#1]

I've recently had to change the name of account holder and direct debit due to a bereavement, and was told everything was in order a few days ago by Plusnet over the phone. The direct debit appears to be correctly set in the control panel, and is also showing as correctly setup in the associated banking app. And yet, at 4am, I get notified that I apparently hadn't paid and consequently my account had been restricted.

I've made a credit card payment to deal with that, but why is my account being restricted at zero notice just because Plusnet apparently can't manage to setup a direct debit?

[#2]

Hi @Parallax,

I have created a ticket on your account detailing what the issue was with the direct debit.

You can view it here: https://www.plus.net/wizard/?p=view_question&id=247371639

I am sorry for any inconvenience caused by this.

Thanks,

Lex

[#3]

Repeating my original point, why did the Plusnet customer service guy say everything was in order, including the direct debit, when I telephoned on the 14th to report the death of the account holder? Not only was it not in order, but you also felt the need to immediately restrict the service without giving me the opportunity to sort it out despite knowing the circumstances and the fact the direct debit has necessarily been changed. So much for your customer service.

[#4]

@Parallax thank you for getting back in touch, I'm sorry to hear about your recent loss.

As I had to go into details, I have opened a question on your account, please follow this link for the full response: https://www.plus.net/wizard/?p=view_question&id=247382467

[#5]

No, he asked about the direct debit and said the change was pending - no card details were mentioned nor asked for. The other utilities companies I have dealt with have taken payments from the old bank account whilst the transfer was in progress, as would be expected. Why did Plusnet not do this? And why did the agent not mention that Plusnet wouldn't be able to take the payment whilst the direct debit transfer was taking place?

By him failing to do this, I assumed everything was proceeding correctly. Every other utilities company - gas, water, electric, voip etc - has managed to carry out these transfers without cocking up the payments during the transfer, and certainly without restricting whatever is being supplied to punish me for their error.

This is very clearly a mistake on your part, but by all means keep pretending you've done nothing wrong.

[#6]

These questions aren't rhetorical, or are you just hoping I'll go away?

[#7]

Hi @Parallax thank you for getting in touch and I'm sorry to hear of your dissatisfaction.

I appreciate and acknowledge that the agent could have double checked that with you on this occasion, and I assure you that feedback has now been passed on to ensure more thoroughness on our calls.

Unfortunately I cannot comment on any of your questions in relations to why other companies have been able to take payment from a previous payment method, what I can confirm for certain is that once card details have been removed and replaced with others, the system will not take payment from the old card, regardless of the situation, this is also in line with Direct Debit Guarantee UK, the link is below for your information:

https://www.directdebit.co.uk/help/cancelling-a-direct-debit/

I really do appreciate the situation and distress you must be going through, please let me know if there's anything else we may look into for you.