Increase

[#1]

Random increases today, it’s supposed to be around 14%

My account went from 23.49 to over 30, that’s 28%, way above the legal rises!

I’ve had to try-contract to get it back to 26 but this is unacceptable for a new customer of only 4-5 months!

Everyone reading this, check your account!!

[#2]

Are you referring to what is shown in your Plusnet dashboard?

fwiw, it also seems to show the wrong increased amount on my dashboard.  Around 28% higher.

. 

The new monthly amount shown in my dashboard appears to be just above the official 14.4% higher than the price currently advertised to new customers (£26.99 + 14.4%  = £30.78).  I don't think the figure reflects any discounts.

I think it is a 'glitch' in the dashboard.  It will hopefully be resolved before my next bill is due.

[#3]

ps. I just checked my old emails from Plusnet and the notification I received on 6th Feb 2023, advised me of the exact increase in ££ price, equal to 14.4%.

[#4]

Yes, the figure on my dashboard does not reflect a 14.4% increase in my Unlimited Broadband inc. Line Rental but rather an increase of around 28% - £28.00 cf £21.99 prevously (should now be £25.16). Curiously the figure for Unlimited UK & Mobile calls is correct at £11.76 which is a 14.4% increase on the previous price of £10.28.

Hopefuly billing chaos is not coming!

[#5]

Both mine and mum's have gone by by 24.4% so an extra 10% on top of the previously advised. Mine is due for renewal in 5 days so I can move elsewhere as my renewal deals have also increased nearly 25% in price.

Is the an biling debacle or a sneaky/illegal rise?

[#6]

I don't suppose it's worth phoning them? My dashboard also shows £30.85 😖

[#7]

I have just messaged them. I will let you aĺl know if/when I get anything back.

[#8]

Same here - won't contact CS until my actual bill appears on the 5th.

[#9]

 If this erroneous pricing does carry through to the actual bills then we (and possibly all customers) are in for a roller coaster of a ride before it is sorted. The next bills were already going to be complex as they will include adjustments for the period from 1 April onwards to implement the increase on the period already covered by the March bill. Therefore if the increase so applied is wrong the following bill will need an adjustment both to correct that and to correct the erroneous full month charged in April. 

Can Plusnet's  precarious billing engine cope? I had a prolonged period of billing chaos which was resolved only six months or so ago after a formal complaint ticket lasting the best part of two years. I hope that the actual bills are correct in April because I am not prepared to tolerate a prolonged dispute yet again. If not I will be raising a formal complaint so that all discussions are recorded and visible on a ticket.

We need a formal Plusnet response to this thread.

[#10]

Annual billing increases

Users will find the first bill following the price changes on 31st March odd because the brief summary presented at the top of the bill is just that - a summary. It does not reflect the important details of each line as fully described on subsequent pages. The first bill after the price rise will have: refunds, discount chargeback (if applicable), new part charges and a proper full month increased charge and discount...

1. A refund for the charges already paid on the previous bill (at the old rate) for the period from 31st March to the billing date
2. A discount chargeback for that period (if applicable)
3. A re-charge in arrears (at the new rate) for the period from 31st March to the billing date
4. A discount for the period at the new rate (if applicable)
5. The charge at the new rate for the following month (charged in advance)
6. A discount for that period (if applicable)

Consequently comparing this months bill with last months bill will create the impression that it has gone up more than the expected increase. The user needs to compare the last bill before the increase with the second bill following the increase.

It is also possible that the annual price rise is coincident with the end of the discounted minimum term, making the increase appear much larger.

[#11]

@Townman 

Your post succinctly sets out what the April bill will include and is a useful tool to allow customers to interpret that bill. Yes, the true comparisison for monthly costs follwing the price increase is to compare the March bill with the May bill when that arrives.

However, the issue here is that the Dashboard (in my case and in the case of at least those other customers that have contributed to this thread) shows increases in the "Your Products" box above and beyond the 14.4% price increase (although in my case it appears to be a problem with the broadband price but not the call plan price!). The dashboard prices are not those for the April bill but those appertaining to a normal month under the new price regime.

As I said if this carries through to the billing cycle, things are going to become considerably more complicated to fix than if Plusnet actually get the billing correct. If  a great proportion of customers bills are wrongly generated then CS could become overwhelmed.

Plusnet need to respond to concerns regarding what is now showing on the Dashboard and whether or not corrective action is needed before billing meltdown.

[#12]

As last post. It is not the bill which we are questioning but the dashboard information which states the ongoing monthly amount for the period of the contract, which has increased far in excess of the expected 14.4% per month.

[#13]

@jgb 

"the Dashboard shows increases in the "Your Products" box above and beyond the 14.4% price increase"

Might the following explain the apparent confusion?

• The figure in the dashboard is 14.4% of the undiscounted price
• The user is comparing what they paid in March with the figure on the dashboard, not what they have (or will be) invoiced in April?

I just took my UNDISCOUNTED changes (Broadband £24.35, Line £23.19) and compared that to the new price £54.39, which is an increase of £6.85.  Those figures exclude the introductory  / minimum term discounts.  Such figures always have and regularly cause a stir as people expect (quite reasonably) to see the price they have to pay.

IIRC last year the fact that the discounts also increased by the CPI+3.9% was not as clear as it might have been.

If you can verify that the above does not explain your apparent discrepancy, I will escalate the matter.

[#14]

@Townman 

I have just examined my March bill which shows Line rental at £23.19 discounted by £1.20 to £21.99, and Fibre at (18.56 discounted by £18.56 to £0.0 meaning I paid £21.99 as contracted. If I apply an increase of 14.4% to that figure, I pay £25.16. 

However if I take the total cost of £23.19 for line rental and £18.56 for fibre, totalling £41.75, and calculate a 14.4% increase, that increase equals £6.01. If I add that to my current £21.99 discounted I get to £28.00 which is the figure now showing in the Dasahboard.

That means that Plusnet have not applied the increase to the net cost of the product as they are required to do but to the gross undiscounted cost. They have not applied the 14.4% to the discounts. This is not as previously done last year and is incorrect and needs to be sorted.

[#15]

According to an email that I received from Plusnet on 23rd February, my £24.99 per month was due to increase by "£3.60 a month" from yesterday - ie now £28.49 per month until my current deal expires in December 2023.

Having seen this thread earlier, I checked my own account to see that it said that my new price was £31.84 per month!

I called them, and the lady changed it to the correct amount - but while she was doing that, I clicked on "Edit My Package" on my dashboard, to see an offer to re-contract at £26.99 per month if I agreed to a new 18 month contract.

I asked the lady if that was available to me, as it was less than my new increased price, but she said it wasn't because I still had more than 6 months contract to go. She thought that I had seen an advert for new customers, but when I pointed out that this was an offer in my account, she put me through to the Customer Options Team.

The COT said that they could honour the offer, if I accepted a 24 month contract instead of 18, which I was happy to do.

I assume that other customers will also have similar offers on their accounts if they look in to it?

So I'm going to be on these forums a while longer it seems 😀

****EDIT***

One change that I did notice is that the annual price increase date has changed from 31st March to 1st March under the new contract.