Explain my bill increase ?

[#1]

Hello,
I signed up for fibre broadband in January @ £24.99, fair enough. Also recently had RPI + 3.9 % to add.

Why am I being charged £29.12 this month ?
(Phone is not plugged in, so no calls, have or can be made)

Any ideas ?

Thanks in Advance

[#2]

Have you looked at the breakdown of your latest invoice - on page 3, if I remember correctly?

[#3 · Accepted solution]

I suspect it is due to the way Plusnet apply the increase - it confused me (and many others judging by the number of questions about it).

Plusnet charge for the month in advance at the rate that is current on the date they raise the bill - even if the rate will increase during the period for which they are raising the bill. That means that any days between the date of the price change and the end of your billing period were billed at the old rate, so you have underpaid for those days.

In the next bill they refund the amount you paid for those days at the old rate, and charge you for them at the new rate. Any discounts that are applicable are unapplied and reapplied just to add to the confusion.

So in the month after a price increase you will pay more than the ongoing monthly rate - you are paying for the coming month and the amount underpaid for the days  in the previous period since the price increase.

I suspect that it would be cheaper for Plusnet to not back-date the rise rather than dealing with hundreds of complaints from customers believing they have been overcharged.

[#4]

Thanks @corringham. I could not work out with the price increase and the £29.12. It makes sense in what you have explained, just seems a weird way of doing things !! Will see what happens next month !!! Thanks again

[#5]

corringham

"I suspect that it would be cheaper for Plusnet to not back-date the rise rather than dealing with hundreds of complaints from customers believing they have been overcharged."

So would you be happy if the increases were applied to your account up to a month before those with a later billing date?

[#6]

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@DelT wrote:

So would you be happy if the increases were applied to your account up to a month before those with a later billing date?

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Personally, yes. Having a clearly presented bill is worth more to me than the thought that someone else has paid a few pounds less than me.

In any case many other people do pay less than me as they may have signed up when there  was a better deal on offer than when I signed up. Most people can live with that.

I do realise that there are some people that will fret at the thought of someone else suffering the rise in price days later than they do, but that is offset by the large number of people that get upset at the higher than expected bills in the month after a price rise.

P.S. I should add that the alternative which solves both problems is to apply the pro-rata price rise in the bill that straddles the price rise. That means the rise is applied to everyone on the same date, and (hopefully) avoids confusing bills that are larger than the new rate.

[#7]

Plus is being sleazy.  We have a contract for a year and I assume somewhere in the fine print we have agreed to an increase. I did not even get a notice. Strangely they are offering the same service to new subscribers at the price I was paying earlier + a £75 gift voucher.  This is all a swindle.  When I subscribed in Sept. 21, I did not receive the gift voucher of £60. When I queried, I was told that when I applied the system did not put through the gift voucher function. So I lost out there. Today I tried to call 4 times and after 4 tries of 15 to 20  mins waiting each time, I just gave up!!!!!. I'm certain nobody is attending the billing option because they are inundated with calls.  Horrid service.  In January/ February I suffered a total breakdown of both internet and phone for 25 days. I was compensated @£8 for 23 days. Now they increase the prices without warning.  It would take a miracle for me to renew my contract when this one expires. 

[#8]

Was not in the fine print - it was made pretty clear in the sign-up journey that annual price rises apply in March of each year CPI+3.9%.

[#9]

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@corringham wrote:

P.S. I should add that the alternative which solves both problems is to apply the pro-rata price rise in the bill that straddles the price rise. That means the rise is applied to everyone on the same date, and (hopefully) avoids confusing bills that are larger than the new rate.

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There is a good deal of sense in that suggestion - it would be both simpler to understand and improve cashflow.

In the month BEFORE the increase have two part charges in advance...

1. Billing date to price increase date at the old rate
2. Price increase date to next billing date at the new rate

It is simplest to understand, there are fewer transactions to process and Plusnet get the cash flow early.

However someone somewhere around here will complain that they were having to pay the higher charges before the price increase date!!

[#10]

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@Townman wrote:
However someone somewhere around here will complain that they were having to pay the higher charges before the price increase date!!

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There will always be something that someone will complain about.

However, if you compare the Plusnet community forum with those from other ISPs, the complaints are pretty similar EXCEPT that the Plusnet forum is full of people querying their latest bill. Lots and lots of them. 

Presumably lots of other customers phone in too - making unnecessary work for the Plusnet staff, and giving other people a poorer customer service experience as they have to wait longer than usual to get through.

[#11]

It has been raised as a SU discussion point…

The process is sound just somewhat confusing … out of a laudable attempt to offer a summary (which works well in normal months) before finding the pertinent details.

[#12]

@corringham wrote:

"In the month BEFORE the increase have two part charges in advance...

1. Billing date to price increase date at the old rate
2. Price increase date to next billing date at the new rate"

This seems fair, after all with the current system we receive service after a price increase date for part of a month before the increase for that part month is added to the next month's bill, seeming to cause confusion for those who do not look at dates applying to the adjustments, provided in the later part of the bill.

This change would just mean that our contracted sums, including agreed increases, were paid in advance.

The increased amounts are emailed before the affected dates so for someone with a billing date this year of 15 March could have been billed on March 15 for 15/03 to 30/03 at old rates and for 31/03 to 14/04 at new rates, meaning that the 15 April bill would only have the new amounts, rather than having to wait until 15 May for this to be clear.

[#13]

Same here. Contact in October at £22.99 now £27.99 after months of drop in connection which after several open reach visits turned out to be I had been given an old router instead of the new BT type router

[#14]

@Aa65, I'm really sorry for the issues you've had.

The difference in cost looks to be due to the price increase, which has taken effect from 31.03.22. You can check your new monthly cost by logging into your account here > https://www.plus.net/member-centre/login/

It's worth noting that if your bill generated in April then you would likely see a higher than normal bill but that's nothing to worry about because it'd just be a pro-rata increase from the 31.03.22 to your bill date, since we bill in advance. 

Regarding your router, I can see we sent you a Hub One last September, which was our latest router at the time. We've recently as of a few weeks ago sent you a Hub Two which is now our latest, has that sorted things out for you? 

[#15]

It looks ok a the moment. If I upgraded to a faster speed would a new contract be started or would my current one continue