Will Plusnet penalise me for accepting a Plusnet offer?

[#1]

I've just looked at my August bill from Plusnet. The total is £41.75 made up of Line rental: £23-19p and Unlimited Fibre: £18.56.

The Plusnet broadband service I'm on is described on the bill as "Unlimited Fibre inc. Line rental'. Estimated download speed is 38-40Mbps.

As my wife and I are in our mid-70s as fixed income pensioners who need to watch the pennies increasingly carefully what with the way household costs are starting to rocket, it pains us to have to keep paying out more than £23 a month for a BT landline service that we don't use because we can't afford and won't on principle pay BT's 23p-per-minute call charges. We have PAYG mobile phones on Asda Mobile's standard 4p a minute tariff (no data, we don't need it) and estimate that we make perhaps 20 calls a week.

Our present Plusnet  contract began in May, 2021, and expires in mid-November this year -- 3 months from now. As we don't make any calls on our landline we would very much like to stop forking out that £23 a month sooner rather than later.

Going online to our account today, I see we are being invited by Plusnet to "upgrade to faster fibre from only £24.99 a month". Asking for further information yields the following: "Unlimited Fibre Extra: 43 - 49Mb estimated download speed: £26-50 a month."

So. What started out as £24.99 magically transforms into £26-50p, without further explanation. Delving deeper into the offer, the following details emerge: "39.5MB minimum guaranteed speed; 18 month contract; Phone line included; Hub Two router included". Quite why Plusnet cannot speak plain English escapes me; 'phone line included' makes it sound as though a new unwanted phone line is going to be installed here free of charge -- when in truth I think the phrase Plusnet is looking for is: 'Line rental included" but for some reason is desperate to avoid the word 'rental'..

If it is the case that I can actually reduce my monthly Plusnet outgoing from £41-75 to £26-50  then obviously I should be taking advantage now of the offer Plusnet has kindly volunteered to place on the home page of my online account.

What perplexes me a little, however, is this statement accompanying the offer:

Unlimited Fibre Extra (12 and 18 month contracts)

Prices and terms are subject to change during your contract.

For Plusnet customers that sign up for 12 or 18 months (as appropriate). Line rental is included in the price (line only, no calls included). Price from month 13 or 19 (as appropriate) currently £47.54 a month (incl. line rental). Outside of your 14 day cancellation period, if you choose to end your service within the minimum period, you will have to pay an early termination charge.

Yet again, what's gone wrong with plain English, Plusnet? I have absolutely no idea what is meant by "Price from month 13 or 19 (as appropriate) currently £47.54 a month (incl line rental) actually means.

If the company is attempting to say that once a 12 or 18 month contract has concluded, the monthly charge will rise from £26.50 to £47.54." If it really is as simple as that, why not say so, Plusnet?

Hopefully, I can get plain English clarification from the good folks here in the community -- and in particular, some clarity about what happens if I respond now to plusnet's invitation with 3 months still to run on my existing contract.

Will Plusnet penalise me financially because I accepted a Plusnet offer to (in its words) "upgrade to a new package?"

And does the Plusnet phrase "phone line included" definitely mean "phone line rental cost" included?

[#2]

@Zebra7  I'll try and answer your questions

If the company is attempting to say that once a 12 or 18 month contract has concluded, the monthly charge will rise from £26.50 to £47.54."

It is

And does the Plusnet phrase "phone line included" definitely mean "phone line rental cost" included?

It does, but there are no calls included. Any calls are on a PAYG basis.

Hopefully, I can get plain English clarification from the good folks here in the community -- and in particular, some clarity about what happens if I respond now to plusnet's invitation with 3 months still to run on my existing contract.

if you are still in contract , I don't understand why your monthly cost is £41.75 , that looks to be an out of contract price.

Do you have an additional call plan on the phone line e.g Anytime calls ?

[#3]

Mr W: Many thanks indeed for providing the kind of plain English clarification so sorely lacking in Plusnet's onlline communications.

I was prepared to assume that Plusnet meant to say the 'line rental cost' rather than just 'the line' but experience has taught me that making any assumptiions about anything where a commercial enterprise is concerned is inadvisable.

re your own query about  the current costs we're incurring as Plusnet customers, please see screenshots (hopefully attached) of Plusnet billing info as shown in our online account. As will be seen, we don't make any phone calls, have no calling plans, and are charged just two sums: a monthly bill for broadband and a monthly bill for line rental, totalling £41-75p with 3 months contract stiill left to run.

t would seem the best thing for me to do is telephone Plusnet in hope of getting a dependable unambiguous response from a Plusnet employee. As things stand, Plusnet looks to me increasingly like an unfunny joke: when I made the opening post on this thread, my Plusnet online account featured a Plusnet invitation to "upgrade to faster fibre" from only £24.99 a month. When I clicked on that upgrade invite, the figure had changed to £26-50p a month. Today, Plusnet's 'upgrade' invitation on the home page of my account says "upgrade to faster fibre from only £26.99p a month".

Seems Plusnet varies its priuces day by day according to the weather. Impressive, not.

[#4]

@Zebra7 

Your best bet is to ring the Customer Options Team on 0800 013 2632 and ask for the lowest offer that you have received. It might no longer be available but you can haggle the best available price for your needs. To be honest it’s not worth paying for fibre extra on your line.

This phone number is normally answered quite quickly.

[#5 · Accepted solution]

just caught up with this helpful post from Baldrick -- for which, many thanks! After I posted here earlier today I actually rang one of the Plusnet Support numbers to talk about the £26.99p all-inclusive broadband and line rental offer, and a superb customer service rep (in Sheffield, i think, I'm not sure) confirmed that yes, I could switch right now from the £41-75p monthly tariff to the higher speed £26-99p tariff.

I explained I wasn't necessarily looking for a higher speed, because I'm more than happy the fibre connection I have: no drop-outs, no slowing downs etc. Works great for my wife and I for desktop computing, iPad emailing and streaming BBC I Player programmes. She said she could arrange the 'renewal' of customer contract but under the revised terms with the broadband monthly charge substantially reduced and the BT line rental included, and no calling features or calling add-ons required, totalling £26-99p. She explained that my existing 5-year-old Plusnet router would continue to work quite well at the new higher speed but that if I would like 'Hub 2' (or whatever it's called) she'd arrange for it to be sent to me free of charge, and at no cost for packing and posting.

Finally. . . there'd be no question of an exit penalty: the new contract would run for 12 months (suits me, I don't like being tied to contracts longer than that) and would begin as soon  as the change to the higher speed broadband was completed.

Thus.. . clarity at last! Thanks to both  Dr W and baldrick for taking the time and trouble to read my posts and respond so supportively. Baldrick is entirely correct: I don't actually need the higher speed, but as of earlier today, the prospect of no longer having to pay £41-75p a month for 'standard' fibre broadband and line rental was tempting enough for me to go for it there and then. Over a 12 month period, that's a saving of £177-12!