Plus £1.50 charge to pay by credit card

[#1]

I just checked and didn't get an email either - however I already pay by DD anyway so in my case it really doesn't matter.
For me personally DD is the way I prefer to pay bills - it means I know when a payment is coming out and I know that if I forget that there is a bill that at least it will be paid on time!  I usually know roughly how much it will be so I find I can budget better for it. 

[#2]

I really can't see any objection to DD.  Maybe once people start getting charged £1.50 for using a debit card they will change their minds

[#3]

Well me and my referral pay by DD also, Have done from the start, I'm just letting Plusnet know that If they think they have E-Mailed everyone then they think wrong, Quite worrying considering Its quite a change In T&C.

[#4]

I think you'll find out they have emailed those customers who were not paying by DD as a courtesy to them to prevent them incurring the £1.50 charge.

[#5]

And they'd already emailed everybody at the beginning of December.

[#6]

All customers were e-mailed about the changes at the beginning of December 2010. I received that and the copy service notice on my account has a #100xxxxxx number.
I think artmo's interpretation of Adam's comments is correct - only those who don't pay by DD have been emailed today.

[#7]

@Adam_Walker_: please don't get smart. It's a charge that was 'hidden' when I signed up. Just like the two £25 charges. So I now face two charges of £25 that I wasn't expecting and an additional charge of £1.50 per month for paying by credit card, which was the payment method I signed up with in the first place.
Can plus.net just invent and add whatever charges it likes at any time and we have to pay £50/£25 if we want to leave because of those charges?
It's a pity that all we ever get from Plus.net staff are jokes or platitudes about how they hope we will grow to love the service, even though we have been tricked when we signed up. Please get the message: people don't grow to love companies that screw them over. I can tell you, Plus.net really picked on the wrong person this time.
Also let me explain why some people don't want to pay by direct debit because you don't seem to have any idea of the potential problems... Suppose someone is self-employed and on a low income. Or maybe unemployed. The money comes in and goes out each month. One month a big cheque is late and there is no money in the account to pay Plus.net. The bank charges how much: £25, £35 for an unpaid direct debit?
Or Plus.net makes a mistake (which you seem to have a habit of doing and indeed did to me this month) and takes an unexpected payment or too much. Again, bank charges and how much trouble to get those refunded, and all the while the amount of that charge is absent from the account causing a snowballing effect as there is no money to pay other things. Welcome to the real world for many people.
On the other hand when a credit card charge doesn't go through, there is no charge to the customer. And even if you get hit with a charge for that (I don't know) why not make it a £1.50pm charge from then on only for the person  whose card was declined, not all the people who always pay up. I pay all kinds of things by card including my web hosting and somehow they all manage without hitting me with a £1.50 charge. In fact I only know of one shop that charges extra for paying by card.
You aren't kidding anyone by pretending it costs Plus.net £1.50 to process a small credit card charge.  
I am already being screwed over by BT on my phone bill, which I always pay by bill payment from my bank account. The same as a direct debit, except I trigger the payment manually. BT can't get their claws into my account and charge too much and I am punished for that by being charged £4.50 on a quarterly bill of £45.

[#8]

Yes I got the E-Mail at the start of December as well as did my referral, Its just when I read Adams post today that I went to check and realised that we never got an E-Mail today, No biggie.

[#9]

@rgsuk
The charge was not hidden when you signed up - there was no charge at that time.
Plusnet gave a months notice in accordance with the terms and conditions you agreed to when you signed up.
There has to be a cut-off point for when new signups are notified of changes. If you signed up two weeks before it was announced and had been notified, then those that signed up a month before would complain. Where does that stop? Keep on like that I'd I'd have grounds for complaining as I wasn't notified of the increase (I joined in November 2001).
The only practicable way to do it is from the date the announcement is made.

[#10]

So if tomorrow they announce that my £12.99 broadband is going up to £100 pm from February I just have to accept that and stick with the contract or pay £50 to leave? Or at which point would the surprise extra charges be TOO much and nullify the contract?
The point is, the £50 of extra charges were not made clear when I signed up. I even had a friend look over the sign up form because it looked too good to be true (which it was) and I made screengrabs.
When I signed up I was led to believe there was 'no contract'. In fact there is a massive fine for leaving: equivalent to two months payments if I have stayed 12 months or equivalent to four months if I leave within a year. And now even more unexpected charges are being piled on every month and I have no choice but to cough up or buy myself out of the (no) contract by paying £50. What's the betting they would do it as 2x £25 and get two payment fees out of me too?

[#11]

I'd be willing to bet that the charges were in the small print somewhere.
When you signed up were you migrating?  Did you order the router?  If no to the former; then I suspect the one charge of £25 is the new BB setup fee that all ISPs incur.  Some charge for it up front; some don't charge and some only charge if you leave within a year.  Similarly with the router - some provide it FOC - some make you buy one and some provide one and if you remain with them for a year the charge is written off.
If I was migrating in now I wouldn't need the router or the new setup costs; so wouldn't incur those costs.

[#12]

No I wasn't migrating and didn't get a router. There are two £25 charges: one when you leave and another on top if you leave within 12 months. No amounts are specified in the terms and conditions it refers to some 'price guide' without giving any link to it.
The terms and conditions are 6,108 words long.
In my opinion most people seeing the option for 'no 12 month contract' large on the sign up form would not expect to pay £50 when they leave. That is very much like a penalty clause for ending a contract. It's deliberately misleading.
I am going to do something about it.

[#13]

Let us look at a few screen caps as below and also note that the £25 cancellation only applies if you don't migrate out using a MAC.
So I don't see you have a leg to stand on

[#14]

I think you'll find different people have been seeing different things depending on which link they followed to sign up. I didn't see any screen like that. When did you make these screen grabs? I signed up in September.
I should mention also that the 6,000+ words long terms and conditions were only visible via a narrow letterbox frame about 4cm tall- all a deliberate attempt to prevent people reading them. There was no link to them on a full page. I saved a text copy but many people wouldn't know how to do that.
The sign up screen stated: 'free broadband activation and 'no contract'.
However within days of it being activated a £25 'deferred set up' fee appeared on the account. Most people wouldn't expect a 'set up' fee if 'activation' was free? It is totally misleading and in my opinion unethical.

[#15]

Start here http://www.plus.net/
Then under Plusnet Value - click on find out more
and for the other one - from the same point click on No-contract option
See picture