Plusnet fined for billing ex-customers

[#1]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/03/22/plusnet_slapped_with_880k_fine_for_billing_ex_customers

[#2]

OOOOOOps    do you think they may Hasten to update their billing system now ?

[#3]

This will not hit the headlines given the £20 million+ fine given to Thames Water today.

[#4]

Maybe not headlines but it is being reported, here is the BBC version

[#5]

@Mustrum - looks like the BBC & The Register employ the same journalists, if you look at the link provided by @BrightonRock

[#6]

Probably all based on a press release from Ofcom -  the FT one is also not much different

[#7]

There go the discounts!

[#8]

I will post what I posted in my thread, as this thread already exists.

See, you cant even trust Plusnet not to charge you, for services that you are not using. Now expect your broadband prices to rise very soon.

That dedicated network costs a lot to run BTW, so plusnet customers really will pay for it, after being fined.

PN really will do us proud.

[#9]

Oh, such a fuss over that fine it is! Discounts will be no more; prices rise, and so on and so on. That's how media ( incl here) see it. Now consider that the fine represents but about 2% of the 2015-16 net profit. Profits fluctuate, so I suggest that the penalty has less significance than normal fluctuations. Also if the hit is absorbed over a period, we will hardly notice that in all the other changes.

[#10]

All that I can say is that plusnet walked into that with their eyes wide open.

Plusnet should consider themselves lucky that the fine isn't directly related to earnings like the proposed speeding fines may be.

[#11]

Judging by the posts on this forum I don't think PN will be done for speeding any time soon!

[#12]

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@billnotben wrote:

All that I can say is that plusnet walked into that with their eyes wide open.

Plusnet should consider themselves lucky that the fine isn't directly related to earnings like the proposed speeding fines may be.

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If I recall correctly, PlusNET discovered this issue and reported themselves to Ofcom.

If my memory is correct, then there's a fair argument that (as ever) Ofcom has once again shown how useless they are ... They do nothing about sorting out the very visible bad practices of BTOR, yet when an organisation fesses up to having made a mistake (and rectifies it) they get clobbered with fines, it is not as though Ofcom did any great detective work here.

I fear this is nothing more than the totally useless Ofom huffing and puffing in a vain attempt to appear to be doing something useful.

[#13]

Nothing apart from threatening to split-off Openreach until they agreed to that legal separation deal.

I think the complexity and scale of the problems are somewhat different, sorting out Openreach vs. stopping taking money from customers after they've left.

Also, Plusnet couldn't really rectify it, considering that they only managed to refund 356 out of the 1,025 affected customers.

[#14]

@ejs,

I completely agree that the scope of rectification was limited ... I guess though that was based on still being able to contact the customers in question and they respond to communications hampered by possible banking restrictions on being able to apply refunds on bank / card accounts for which there is no residual commercial relationship.

[#15]

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@Townman wrote:

If I recall correctly, PlusNET discovered this issue and reported themselves to Ofcom.

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Yes but I don't think they had much choice in that.

There seemed to be more and more angry posts on that subject and plusnet looked totally unable to fix the problem.