Phone Cut Off - made £55 of calls.

[#1]

I have been a Plusnet customer for 5 years or more. I have never missed a payment.  All bills paid on time by direct debit.
Today I found my home phone routed to a call centre since I had made more than £55 pounds of calls in a month (gasp!). The very unhelpful call operator insisted I made a credit payment for calls  I might make until the end of the month. Furthermore the call my phone was routed to a premium rate number - I didn't even dial a premium rate number - is this even legal?
After many years of paying my bill in full and on time I really resent having it cut  off - for just using it. There has been no indication that my bill wouldn't have been paid in full. £55 is so  low - it is not as if they are protecting me from £8000 roaming charges. Or £100's in premium rate numbers.
I cannot use my phone now for 24 hours while it is being  reactivated - 24 hours of  which I have paid. My wife is going travelling tomorrow, she will take the family mobile. I have no way of contacting her  if there are problems with the children while she is gone (short of banging on the neighbour's door).
I wasn't aware of this credit limit on my phone (why is it there?). I've had a  phone  service for years and never heard  of such stupid restriction. The phone has  been cut off when I need  it the most.
THERE WAS NO WARNING!! What kind of outfit  cuts off a customer's hone phone with no warning whatsoever. I get regular emails about my  direct debits - so they certainly have the right email address. They  know my phone number - could have called me.
No warning
No service - despite paying for it.
Phone cut off.

Please tell me that this was  never your intention and that you've made a terrible mistake. If this is really your policy I can't see anyway keep my service. One long-standing paying customer gone.

[#2]

Quote

Today I found my home phone routed to a call centre since I had made more than £55 pounds of calls in a month (gasp!). The very unhelpful call operator insisted I made a credit payment for calls  I might make until the end of the month. Furthermore the call my phone was routed to a premium rate number - I didn't even dial a premium rate number - is this even legal?

We don't have any premium rate numbers so you shouldn't be charged at any premium cost. Calls to our support number are free for customers on our phone package.

Quote

After many years of paying my bill in full and on time I really resent having it cut  off - for just using it. There has been no indication that my bill wouldn't have been paid in full. £55 is so  low - it is not as if they are protecting me from £8000 roaming charges. Or £100's in premium rate numbers.

We can alter credit limits on a per user basis, we're never going to have it at a perfect allowance for everyone. Some people may like it lower, some higher.

Quote

I cannot use my phone now for 24 hours while it is being  reactivated - 24 hours of  which I have paid. My wife is going travelling tomorrow, she will take the family mobile. I have no way of contacting her  if there are problems with the children while she is gone (short of banging on the neighbour's door).

It may be back on sooner that that, these orders *can* take a working day but often we find they complete much earlier.

Quote

I wasn't aware of this credit limit on my phone (why is it there?). I've had a  phone  service for years and never heard  of such stupid restriction. The phone has  been cut off when I need  it the most.

It's there to protect customers from running up large phone bills and as a form of protection for us to ensure we don't have to chase large payments. You can see the information on it here: http://www.plus.net/support/phone/home_phone/billing.shtml#whatCredit

Quote

THERE WAS NO WARNING!! What kind of outfit  cuts off a customer's hone phone with no warning whatsoever. I get regular emails about my  direct debits - so they certainly have the right email address. They  know my phone number - could have called me.

We emailed you on Saturday advising you were within £10 of your credit limit, this went to your postmaster email address with us and the external address nominated on your account.
As I said, we're happy to look at credit limits and altering these if required for you? Let me know and I'll see what I can do.

[#3]

I asked the agent if the call was premium rate they told me that I was being billed for the call.
I most certainly did not receive an email. Even if I had, I don't consider a single email a sufficient notification for deactivating someone's home phone. I'd get more notice than this if I hadn't paid the bill.
If it was really about protecting me then you'd have been happy  to re-instate  the number on my say so. Instead you have insisted  that I pre-pay for calls. This is clearly about protecting you, not me. My phone bills are regularly around this level there is no reason to think that this month I should need protecting from my high phone usage. Perhaps you should consider flagging if the bill is significantly over its regular usage (which this clearly wasn't).
I am still in the same situation - no phone at a time when it could be critical. No warning of the cut-off. Very poor service indeed.

[#4]

Hang on - I see that you'll also charge me £5.76 for going over the limit. Is this also for my protection too? I strongly object to this charge, particularly since no emails were sent. I've checked and re-checked my mail box and spam filter - nothing. Though I receive other mails from Plus-net.
At what point were credit limits added to the phone service? They weren't part of the service when I first switched to  Plus Net. Perhaps you emailed me new terms and conditions?
At least a bank will send you a letter about a spurious and unjustified charge. 

[#5]

Quote from: Chris

Calls to our support number are free for customers on our phone package.

Great, he can make free calls to Plusnet using the phone that has been cut off. Anyone spot the problem here?

[#6]

Quote from: savvy

I most certainly did not receive an email. Even if I had, I don't consider a single email a sufficient notification for deactivating someone's home phone. I'd get more notice than this if I hadn't paid the bill.

Are you sure we've got the right email addressees on file for you? If you go here and filter by 'Questions in the last 28 days' then you should see a copy of the email as a service notice complete with the addresses we sent it to. How do you think we should notify customers about approaching their credit limit?

Quote

If it was really about protecting me then you'd have been happy  to re-instate  the number on my say so. Instead you have insisted  that I pre-pay for calls. This is clearly about protecting you, not me. My phone bills are regularly around this level there is no reason to think that this month I should need protecting from my high phone usage. Perhaps you should consider flagging if the bill is significantly over its regular usage (which this clearly wasn't).

We can reinstate the number by increasing your credit limit (which I believe we did before you made this forum post). It also looks like a top-up payment was taken which probably wasn't necessary given the circumstances (this will reduce the amount you'll pay on the next bill though). As I understand it the Route To Call Centre control (RTCC) has since been removed from your account and the cost for applying this waived?
We have *always* had credit limits on our Home Phone products. It's a fraud prevention measure and also provides a layer of protection for the consumer.

Quote from: jelv

Quote from: Chris Calls to our support number are free for customers on our phone package. Great, he can make free calls to Plusnet using the phone that has been cut off. Anyone spot the problem here?

Not sure what you're implying jelv. When the credit limit is exceeded a RTCC control is applied to the account. This automatically routes any attempt to make an outbound call to our support centre (at no charge to the customer).
@savvy, not sure why you were informed that the re-routed call was going to cost you, I'll follow that up with the person you spoke to so they don't make the same mistake again.