Seventy Seven Pounds and Fifty Seven pence , for 1 month broadband and calls

[#1]

A good few years back I helped someone with their internet connection, and helped them to sign upto plusnet to save costs on what was then an expensive bill. -te subseqquent plusnet deal was a good price at the time

This person is now in their eigth decade of life, and what was once a good deal fro plusnet, has seen the costs spiral over the years to wheere they are now  - long after the mimum term period came to an endat a monthly bill that alomost matches his age.

Ive just got back after checking his account to be surprised at this extremely high cost, not so much a case of plusnet doing you proud , more of a case of, well - i will let you guess, without having to trouble the forum moderators too much.

When I was with plusnet there was an option under deals/upgrades etc where you could sign upto a slightly better deal - but this option wasnt showing on his account pages .

There is also a complication, the local aea is in a Copper stop sell area with full FTTP coverage 

FTTP would be an option but then there is another issue:

He can not and must not loose his landline number - this number is vital

He can not and must not loose his ( legacy) email address - this is an @ totalise.co.uk email address - he may also be paying plusnet a monthly fee for this included in the £77.57 bill ( due 11th of july) 

Switching to another provider would mean loosing at least the email address and/or the landline number which is not an option

He is on standard ADSL as well 

As far as i know the broadband package is:

Standard slow ADSL broadband with an anceint , to be more precise very anceint ( non pusnet ) router ( netgear dg834g ?)

anytime landline calls

The high costs appear to be from the ADSL out of contract/minumum term price , and some mobile phone calls made form the land line 

Is there any way to get this £77/month or so bill down without loosing the email address or landline number?

He doesnt seem too bothered about the cost ( or at least doent appear to be) but to me a bill of £77.57 for one month of ADSL (not even FTTC./VDSL) plus some mobile phone calls seems excessive to put it mildly

[#2]

Damn ridiculous, @pint .

[#3]

My thoughts are to try and wean him off the legacy email address  - however he has many many contacts with who he would also need to inform to change to a new address - not an easy task as some  are older  as well as being infreqeunt contacts .

So the email issue is a tricky one

and as for voice, then possibly Sky for FTTP with digital voice as he already has Sky TV ?

It doesnt look like plusnet is an affordable option - the big big issue here is the email account

[#4]

I see the problems, but I can't really advise. Without giving anything away, how much is the current amount for BB and phone-line? I assume he doesn't have a calls package, and hasn't re-negotiated a new contract?

[#5]

I dont have access to the full account details at the moment

but all i know is that the contract would have expired a long long time ago (3 or 4 years?) and is now on a rolling contract paying god knows what with no contact to plusnet since the initial sign up and if there were any "offers" ie sign up for 12/18/whatever for a better deal, then these emails would have been ignored and seen as spam/sales rubbish

there is a call package - but its for landline calls only

[#6]

OK. This really needs PN Help Team intervention, but £77.57 for a months ADSL service is extortionate. Without some concrete cost breakdown, I can't really offer any more advice.

[#7]

I think the ADSL is around £50/month and the landline call package adds about £11 on top, bringing it to around £60/month - this is a guess as i only glanced the break down with the rest being mobile calls from the landline with no inclusive package

either which way £77 for a month of poxy ADSL with a few calls is more than excessive

[#8]

Without seeing the detailed bill it is worth ignoring the total headline amount at this time - calls to mobiles may well be the highest part.

Sadly, your mate has found himself in a position many will also find themselves in sooner rather than later. As a staring point, what is available, enter and post the results from the BTW DSL checker - https://www.broadbandchecker.btwholesale.com/#/ADSL  obscuring his number.

Are there any other fibre providers in the area? https://checker.ofcom.org.uk/en-gb/broadband-coverage  and/or https://www.moneysupermarket.com/broadband/check-my-area/ 

Those results will then at least show if there are suitable options - keeping the Landline should be possible with the likes of BT/Sky/Talk Talk and other more specialised ISP's like Zen or AAISP  I think they are called.

Keeping email is a harder solution to find as only sticking with PN will allow that - but setting up a new ISP independent one now will help if/when PN close email down. If he already has a mobile phone then options could be Gmail or Hotmail as a starter, but other options may suit better.

HTH, at least a few things to think about.

[#9]

If it helps, Totalise email addresses (as part of Madasafish) are held on separate accounts to Plusnet broadband / phone, so closing one won’t affect the other. 

Might be worth a call to the Customer Options Team on 0800 013 2632 to see if we can offer a new contract and cheaper deal without upgrading to FTTP.

Although even if we can and I can’t promise we’re able to, stop sell will mean that at some point in the relatively near future, they’ll have to make the leap to FTTP/VoIP.

Also, if the call package is the one I’m thinking of (Anytime) then for £1.29 more a month, he could upgrade to Unlimited UK & Mobiles to include calls to UK mobiles.

(edit)

Doing some maths, out of contract ADSL (assuming unlimited) is £14.57, line rental £26.53, Anytime £10.47, which in total is £51.57, so if the remainder £26 is calls to UK mobiles, definitely would save money upgrading the call package, even if they stay out of contract.

[#10]

---

@pint wrote:

Is there any way to get this £77/month or so bill down without loosing the email address or landline number?

He doesnt seem too bothered about the cost ( or at least doent appear to be) but to me a bill of £77.57 for one month of ADSL (not even FTTC./VDSL) plus some mobile phone calls seems excessive to put it mildly

---

I expect all Plusnet e-mail addresses to go away before too long, so I fear there is no way to keep that.

However, the phone number and lower bill should be possible - I manage an account for my sister, and we have just changed that from a £54pm Plusnet 3Mbps ADSL account to a 36Mbps FTTC BT social tariff at £15pm (it swapped over today!) . If your friend is eligible for a social tariff I'd recommend giving BT a call - they need an NI number to check eligibility, there was no waiting in a telephone queue, and they swapped it over on the day we asked for without any fuss.

The social tariff includes 700 minutes of UK landline/mobile calls.  

Needless to say, the social tariff is one of the long and growing list of things Plusnet don't offer. 

[#11]

I managed to get a breakdown of the costs:

ADSL broadband 10mb download £41.10

Anytime landline calls £10.47 

Total £51.57 

the rest of it being calls to mobile and other non included numbers ( ie France and Scandinavia) 

Average bill is around the £60 mark.

Does not want to loose email, or landline number 

Offers and upgrades only point towards 

Unlimited broadband 10mb keep this product for £51.77

 and a load of offers for full fibre, which will mean the loss of the landline number (01xxx) and email address ( @totalise ) - loosing either one  of these is unacceptable.

However he doesnt seem to fussed at paying £60-£70 a month as this is seen as the cost of internet /email , and changing supplier would cause all sorts of problems

 To me it seems like he is being taken for a ride - an expensive one at that 

[#12]

@pint He's being taken for the biggest ride of his life - even if I had 300Mb/s Full Fibre with Zen (which I can't have as we are not due to get it until 2025), I would only be paying a couple of quid more than he is paying for the SLOW ADSL+phone.

Seriously, I would suggest he calls COTs on 0800 013 2362 and negotiates a better deal for that product. Pity you are in a stop-sell area.

[#13]

It's shocking that some companies still do this. Taking advantage of customers who, for various reasons, do not move or chase realistically priced products.

The plusnet of old wouldn't stoop this low.

[#14]

@billnotben But then it wasn't owned by 'GPO Telephones'.