Phone changes and Billing Rules

[#1]

I have had a question in with Help and Support (Question #62855406). I was misinformed by a member of the pus net team when I phoned up about 5 weeks ago. I made an enquiry about switching to anytime to my call plan and how long it would take effect. I was told that As long las I phoned before the end of the next calendar month it would take effect the next month. So stupidly I rang up on 30th Nov wanting to switch to anytime so that I could have the anytime starting 1st Dec only to find that because I didn't phone up before my billing period 30th Nov it won't take effect until 30th Dec. Thing is I wanted to be able to make calls over the Christmas period so I didn't proceed. Strange way to treat Plus Net customers by not willing to compromise given that it is added sales so I decided not to proceed. I tried and tried in the support question to get it escalated to a team lead and kept getting the same scripted reply. The feedback is that this inflexibility in your systems makes for a very inferior service and I cannot believe particularly when Plus Net are at fault that they refuse to either make amends or to escalate support questions when they are asked to. There is very little point in having the support questions if support analysts who simply copy and paste scripted replies rather than deal with the customers query and there is no escalation route. To add insult to injury the last support analyst pointed to a complaints link which asked me to send a letter - who writes letters nowadays and by time it is received and perhaps acted upon the month would be over. It really feels that customer service doesn't exist, very disappointing. Anyone out there have similar experiences?

[#2]

Hi jtb,
I'm sorry you feel that way but I don't see how you were misinformed - you were advised to call up before the end of the month and you called up at the end of the month, which is your billing date. Unfortunately all account and phone type changes need to be done on the night before your billing date which is why you were advised as you were.

[#3]

Matt,
That's a bit picky with words "before the end of the month" against "at the end of the month".  Any time before 23:59:59 on 30th Nov is "before the end of the month".
May be what the CS agent should have said was "call us before for your next billing date" which in this case means prior to 30th Nov, which is the end of the calendar month.  If there is also a need to allow PN time to process the request, then also state a latest time to make the request, e.g. "16:00 on the last working day prior to your billing date".
Communication which is clear avoids disappointments and failure to meet customer expectations.
Cheers,
Kevin

[#4]

I agree with you Kevin, that was a misleading statement for the CSC agent to make. It should have been clearly stated that it should be "before the next billing date". I mean, based on the information you were given you could have gone on to pass the same misleading information to other forum members.
I think Plusnet should take another look at this and see what they can do to work around the problem.
@jtb
The link you should have been given should be https://www.plus.net/support/service/policies/complaints_code_of_practice.shtml which gives an Online method of complaining as well as letter.