I'm almost certainly moving to "Extra" from "Unlimited" to avoid the £5 increase, assuming I get good answers from my ticket. But my loyalty to Plusnet has been eroded further by these changes.
I understand that Plusnet needs to change its prices due to the VAT increase, and other shifts in costs and customer behaviour. But the particular balance of these changes, and the way they've been handled, seems unclear (the changes in home phone call & connection pricing), unfair to some (the charge for paying by card, even for those who make their payment each time), and hard to justify (the size of the increase in price to Unlimited).
My loyalty to Plusnet had been gradually eroded over some time. Most recently:
- Online ticket responses show a failure to read my question properly.
- A friend of mine had a long-running broadband speed problem caused by a change he did not instigate to 21CN, and while I realise the engineers etc concerned were BT bods, Plusnet did not keep my friend informed properly with what was going on and why it was taking nearly 3 months to resolve.
- The TV advert - I'd much prefer Plusnet to continue to invest and grow slowly, through referrals as it always has done. Appealing on low-cost, in the way they have done (with lots of exceptions), seems less than honest, and goes against the ethos I thought Plusnet had - of better-than-the-industry customer service, and being open about why they can't chase the lowest common denominator.
So, when my deferred house move payment is removed in February 2011, I'm seriously considering moving to Virgin Media. (I only get 3200kbps at the moment, so hopefully cable will improve this.)
I therefore voted "Undecided".
