Allow Customers to Set Extra Usage to Zero

[#1]

This has been discussed before at length and at the time I pointed out that 'Manage my usage' says Change your maximum extra monthly spend:     £ (enter multiples of £5.00), no mention of zero!
So the implication is that the minimum figure you can enter in the box is 5.
I can of course understand the commercial reasons for this

[#2]

I think we'd get a chunk of customers phoning up when their BB went slow because of hitting their limit who otherwise would have been ok with the extra £5er being added.  I'll get Dave to run some numbers to look at the impact.
If the change costs us a significant bunch of cash + caused extra calls, it's unlikely.  I'd rather sign post the tool better and tidy up the text (to Strats point)

[#3]

What about changing it to £1 per 1 gig, id not mind paying a £1 for use 400mb but being charged £5 for it, well ... thats not good.
But really its down to customers to pick the correct package that gives them the data they need. I went for plusnet extra, and i make use of the free unlimited download times, which does not affect my 60gig limit.
I always pick something with alittle more than i would use, then i use this as a safety net.

[#4]

Surprise surprise, Plusnet is erring on the side of cash, rather than listening to what their customers actually ask for.
All we want is for our settings to remain the same when we change/upgrade our product. We don't want to have to re-enter our setting to avoid extra charges.
You will lose more cash if you drive customers away with sneaky cash-grabs like this. My 12 month contract (sorry, equiptment paying period) is up next month, so you're going to lose my (and I'm guesssing quite a few other people's) annual £360 fee for the sake of the odd fiver. Not to mention getting constant complaints and bad press saying the same thing over and over again, and upsetting your remaining customers. Oh well, I guess it makes sense to you.

[#5]

The point here is that where a user has set a zero spend limit on Value for example then move to Extra the limit is removed.
Surely that cannot be correct as, assuming they hit the 80% rule on Extra and get the email, they they would ignore the warning assuming that the previous zero spend restriction was still in force not having had any warning that the limit had been removed.
Of course the same argument applies where a customer has moved from Extra to Value to save £5 per month because their usage was typically just under 10GB and they were happy to be slowed down for a day or so.
Suddenly they get hit with a £5 charge which they weren't expecting

[#6]

That is my gripe too, a product change should not reset a previous limit set by the customer, there is absolutely no excuse for this.

[#7]

I agree that it would make sense to keep the limit when it was being restricted to no additional usage.    I'm not sure how simple that is to do. (But I can ask)

[#8]

Thanks a million Kelly. Generally speaking I think Plusnet provides a great service.  
If you could, as you said "keep the limit when it was being restricted to no additional usage" I think that would tick the box perfectly.

[#9]

I've just been told that Plusnet are going to refund my £5 data charge, so if any other people find themselves in this situation, it seems they will refund you.
As to a policy change regarding your settings (when your zero extra usage limit gets silently wiped-out when you change your package) there's obviously been no response yet.
Best Outcome: Plusnet keeps your zero extra usage setting in place when you change your package.
Mediocre Outcome: Plusnet informs customers they need to reset their extra usage settings when they change their package.
Worst Outcome: Plusnet ignores this problem, fails to respond, then acts surprised when someone flags the problem up again in a few weeks/months time.
I'm skeptical of corporations, but I'll obviously withhold judgement until we hear which outcome Plusnet are going to go with. Fingers crossed they see the light (i.e. that keeping customers happy generates repeat custom and good feedback, so makes better financial sense than little cash grabs).

[#10]

I concur with what others have said - and what I've said in the past - the initial default should be no extra charge - it should be an opt-in measure and wouldn't cost Plusnet anything if you set your system to automatically notify people if they came close or up to their limit.

[#11]

With the new, higher allowance, products the extra bandwidth is looking rather poor value.
Ironically it's Plusnet's excellent recent new products that make it look worst (Market 3 proces quoted):
(ADSL) Value Broadband @ £6.49 per month - 10GB allowance, additional useage £5.00 per 5GB = 50% extra for £5.00 (+77% cost)
(ADSL) Extra Broadband @ £11.49 per month -  60GB allowance, additional useage £5.00 per 5GB = 8.3% extra for £5.00 (+43% cost)
Plusnet Premium 120GB @ £15.99 per month - 120GB allowance, additional useage £5.00 per 5GB = 4.2% extra for £5.00 (+31% cost)
New Extra Fibre @ £19.99 per month - 250GB allowance, additional useage £5.00 per 5GB = 2% extra for £5.00 (+ 25% cost)
I'm not complaining at all about the new products (far from it) but additional useage is now (proportionally at least) prohibitively expensive though, to be fair, that really undelines the exceptional value for money of the products themselves but who is really going to want to opt for 2% extra useage for 25% more money (or a whole 8% for double the spend) 
It now makes even more sense to default to zero extra but inform customers that they can pay more if they need more. 

[#12]

As you say, it has been discussed many times before and I've seen far too many moans & complaints on this board about it. I don't regard it as "commercial reasons", I regard it as a rip-off as it doesn't feature as headline information when you look at package information before sign-up nor does the ability to "restrict" extra usage appear - not even in the Read all FAQ's  "FAQs - All you need to know about our packages".  (Similarly the Cessation Fee).
The default should be NO extra usage - speed restricted when you hit the limit.

[#13]

Quote from: Kelly

I think we'd get a chunk of customers phoning up when their BB went slow because of hitting their limit who otherwise would have been ok with the extra £5er being added.

1) They get an email which should prevent a lot of the calls.
2) If you can intercept browsing because a bill hasn't been paid, why can't you intercept browsing to inform the user why it's going slow and give them the choice to pay £5 or continue with the slow speed?

[#14]

In both cases they'll still call.  😕

[#15]

When we used to do this (BBYW) we had a fair volume of faults raised on slow speeds.