Out of contract but still incurring leaving charges?

[#1]

Hi all.
My contract ends on January 13th. I received my monthly bill yesterday and it has more than doubled although I’m aware I’m paying a month in advance.
So I registered to join up with virgin for multiple reasons and immediately received an email from Plusnet saying “we’re sorry to see you go oh and by the way you’ll incur charges if you leave now.
I’d be grateful if anyone can explain to me please how when I’m supposedly out of contract and my bill has more than doubled I’m going to have to pay leaving charges on top of this outrageous bill? Surely if I’m out of contract then I’m free to leave without extra charges??
They’re that sorry to see me leave that they pull this stunt. Great way to keep a customer.

I don’t know what has happened with Plusnet, I’ve been a customer for years and the service has been absolutely terrible the past two or three years. My broadband is ridiculously slow and the only way of contact is a telephone call.
Thanks anyone that can advise. I’m done now with this company.

[#2]

There's devil in details, notably the billing date, which your posts suggests is the 16th of the month.

"My contract ends on January 13th"

In that case, you are not out of contract until after the 13th Jan, therefore if you leave before then you will be subject to ETCs.  There is also the 14 day notice period to be considered as well.  Notification from Virgin could have triggered the notice period and the final billing process, but that does not usually happen until 20 days after the service termination.

When have you asked Virgin to commence service from?  You have nearly a month left on your contract, which is longer than 14 days prior to the end of your Plusnet contract.

There is a possibility that the final month IN contract has been charged at the OUT OF contract price, something seen occasionally due to errors setting up discounts manually at the commencement of the contract.  Did you join on-line or via the call centre?

If all is well with the original set up of the discount, you should be getting charged...

• Pro-rata IN contract rate 16th Dec to 13th Jan
• Pro-rata OUT OF contract rate 14th to 15th Jan

You have not indicated the detail of the charges / absence of discounts compared to previous months.  If there are missing discounts, you need to check with support to see if there was indeed a manually error setting up the initial discounted period.

If ETCs do become payable, that will be pro-rata for the time between the service being ceased and the 13th Jan ... which is likely to be less than the advance charges, so the final bill might show a credit due to you.

[#3]

@DanielleJacqui8 The invoice you received yesterday was for service next month - you are invoiced a month in advance, as you say, and when that was prepared, PN were unaware you were leaving. PN will not 'cut you off' until the VM connection is live, so it is possible they may still be supplying you after 13/1/2025 if there are any problems getting your VM connection up.

Once you have actually moved, within a fortnight you will receive a final invoice, with any unused days after 13/1 shown as a credit. Do not close your PN Direct Debit mandate until after such due repayment has been credited back, otherwise they will have to do the credit by cheque, and this can take a while.

The 'leaving charges' warning is there as the 'sorry you are leaving' email is a machine generated one sent to all departing customers, some of whom may still have time left on their contract.

Any further questions?

EDIT: @Townman beat me to it.

[#4]

Thank you for replying. I’ve been a customer for years and always renewed online, used to do it with online chat but my last 24 month contract was done over the phone.
I was getting a discount because I was going to leave. This time round they not only won’t renew at the same price they want to increase it, and I’m only on copper BB. Speeds are comically slow and it drops constantly, my line went down for days because of a fault not long ago and I was charged for them sending me an updated router to fix it and this billing carry on is the last straw. Virgin have offered me fibre and at a lower price so of course I’ll take it.
My bill was sent yesterday and the money will leave my account 23 December.
I feel they’re punishing me for leaving I can’t make sense of it unless it’s like you say they’ve taken my discount away early. They’re taking just under £70 this month it’s a massive jump from 20.99 and shock I could do without on top of Christmas I haven’t even got that kind of money it’s absolutely disgusting.

[#5]

Have you called support?

Sounds as though BT Openreach have not rolled out FTTP in your area, or there are few local cabinets.  Such is typical of some areas where Virgin has all of the wayleave rights for certain products.

For example, there are swathes of properties around Runcorn only served by BT long copper circuits (either ADSL or VDSL) with Virgin being the only 'high-speed' provider ... when it works.  One of my drinking mates is in that locality on Virgin and every week he complains he is not getting the speed he's paying for ... but the refunds he gets, keeps him quite for a while!

[#6]

@DanielleJacqui8 £70.00/mo seems rather excessive, irrespective of the service you are on, TBH. without seeing a breakdown of this bill, it is difficult to comment, though.

You say you are on 'copper BB' - do you mean ADSL  or FTTC?

[#7]

Thanks again.
My other worry is as I’m going onto fibre will Plusnet close my phone line as well as the BB? I rang yesterday and said I want to close my account when my contract is up. They said I didn’t need to do anything but I’ve been reading reviews on trust pilot and it seems they’re still billing people for having a Plusnet phone line. It’s hard getting them to listen on the phone to concerns they just keep saying virgin will handle it but I don’t want any more nasty surprises from Plusnet I’ve had enough.

[#8]

If you are going with Virgin, you will have to check with them what they offer in terms of a 'phone' service.

[#9]

I have no idea what kind of BB sorry I just know it’s copper and ultra slow the speed check gives me 4 sometimes 5 I’m not very well clued up but I do know my service is shocking.
The high bill this month is my new rolling contract and £20 something leaving charges. It comes to just under £70.
I just wish I could email or chat because you’ve no proof whatsoever of what’s said on the phone.

[#10]

I don’t need a phone service do I? For fibre?

[#11]

If you log into your account, it will tell you what service you are getting - sorry I can't tell you exactly where on there, as I am no longer a PN customer, with the result that much of the detail is missing from the data I can still access.

[#12]

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@DanielleJacqui8 wrote:
I don’t need a phone service do I? For fibre?

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If you don't use a 'landline' then you don't need a phone service with Virgin, no - but I would check exactly what you have signed up to with them.

[#13]

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@DanielleJacqui8 wrote:
Thanks again.
My other worry is as I’m going onto fibre will Plusnet close my phone line as well as the BB? I rang yesterday and said I want to close my account when my contract is up. They said I didn’t need to do anything but I’ve been reading reviews on trust pilot and it seems they’re still billing people for having a Plusnet phone line. It’s hard getting them to listen on the phone to concerns they just keep saying virgin will handle it but I don’t want any more nasty surprises from Plusnet I’ve had enough.

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You really need to proceed with caution and be clear about what you want ... against what can be supplied.

• Ceasing the broadband over copper WILL cease the the POTS / PTSN phone line - this not not specifically what Plusnet will do, but more a matter of what is / is not doable
  • BT Openreach no longer offer voice over copper services (POTS / PTSN) except in exceptional circumstances
  • Plusnet has never offered voice only services, even when such was available
• If Virgin fail to notify BT Openreach reach that they have taken over the telephone number, Plusnet will not be advised that the service has moved ... and therefore will keep billing
• Virgin are NOT taking over your existing broadband service, therefore there is a risk that the usual service cease initiated by the Gaining Provider Lead managed migration will not be sent to BT Openreach to similarly advise Plusnet

Indeed there are many reports on Trust Pilot related to failures in Virgin's processes not notifying the losing provider than the service is being provided by a different network ... which is not the same as it being moved or migrated.

You are right to be concerned about the risk of Virgin getting this done in a tidy manner.  Going off BT's network can be a mine field.

[#14]

I’ve looked at my account I can’t find anything that says what kind of BB I’m on just unlimited BB

[#15]

Going off BT's network can be a mine field.

OTS (One touch switch) is supposed to sort that🙄