Still can't set up payments after 2 years

[#1]

Help!

For the last two years, I've been unable to update my debit-card payments to Plusnet, with the system stuck in a "you can only update your payment details once every 48 hours" message.

Consequently, each month, I get a text informing me that my bill is overdue - and for added laughs, the first thing this leads to is loss of access to the Plusnet website (why, Plusnet, why?). Each month, I've gritted my teeth, phoned in and made the payment over the phone, and then got on with the rest of my life. However, now I notice that Plusnet are saying that paying bills over the phone will no longer be possible.

I've raised tickets in the past, but these have been closed afaict without the issue being resolved. Spoke to support (again) today, who told me nothing useful, except to imply that the engineers were dealing with other outstanding calls of greater duration (you have a queue of issues over 2 years old? Wow!).

How do I get this idiotic situation resolved?

BTW apologies - new forum ID, since I couldn't log in under my old one, even with a password reset.

[#2]

Thanks for your post @TMelly,

We're sorry to hear of the length of time this issue is taking to resolve.

On checking the account, I believe that our Customer Service Teams have erroneously grouped your account with issues related to the new billing engine. As your issues started a year before the new billing engine was introduced, this can't be the case.

Due to this, I've raised the issue with our Infrastructure Operations Team for further investigation. It can sometimes take up to 5 working days for me to receive a response but I will update you directly as soon as I do.

Please let me know if you need any further assistance in the meantime.

[#3]

Well, this is still unresolved. I think I could cope with that, but Plusnet seem determined to make the issue as frustrating as possible:

• I get no warning
• I simultaneously receive a text ("you haven't paid your bill"), and am blocked from sending email or accessing the PlusNet website
• I have to wait 15 mins to get through to someone
• It took over an hour after the payment was made for full service to be restored

Now, let's consider the particularly egregious points:

1. Please explain why you cut off access to your website (where you might, you know, be able to pay the bill)?
2. "We are experiencing a particularly high volume of calls..." I haven't rung support without having to listen to this nonsense for a long time. The message implies that there's some kind of unusual volume of calls going on, but the reality is you don't have enough staff to answer calls in a timely manner
3. Are Plusnet really incapable of flagging an account as "don't mess this customer around - it's our screwup"?

Any chance anyone from Plusnet could address the last three points in a good and honest manner?

[#4]

Thanks for getting back to us @TMelly 

I do apologise for the time it is taking to fix the issue you're having with automatically paying by card every month and that you don't receive an email notification of your bill before it fails, I suspect they're related to the same issue.

We don't disable your account straight away when a payment fails. On days 1, 5 & 10 of our failed billing process, your browsing should be interrupted by a splash screen, which is a reminder that payment is due, but should be able to be bypassed by selecting the option to acknowledge it and continue browsing.

We're however aware of a small number of customers that aren't seeing this splash screen when the interruptions are applied, which means that this can't be bypassed on your side unfortunately. We are able to manually bypass this on our side if you contact us though and assuming you need more time to pay your bill.

When you pay a bill it can generally take around an hour to go through the billing system and clear which will then automatically lift any restrictions and/or interruptions we've applied. Apologies for the inconvenience this causes.

With regards to any long wait times you've had to get through to us, we're that our call queues can be fairly high upon occasion and we're continually taking steps to bring and keep the wait times down to a consistently acceptable level.

Looking at our call queues as I type this, currently for customer service, tech support, faults and provisioning, they're fluctuating between 4 minutes and 10 minutes which isn't terrible but that's not to say it can't be improved.

Finally, to resolve this moving forward I'd recommend setting up a direct debit instruction which is an alternative method of paying us and it'll mean you don't need to manually pay your bill every month.

I hope this helps.

[#5]

I have never seen this splash screen, irrespective of which device or browser I'm using. Can you clarify what might prevent this showing up? Is it an issue at your end or mine?

[#6]

Thanks for getting back to us @TMelly It's an issue our side that we're taking steps to fix.

Unfortunately the work to resolve this will mean that it's not going to be a quick fix.

[#7]

So, you have several issues that you know are affecting the ability of your customers to pay their bills, and yet you maintain all the punitive responses in spite of that? Could you not at least ensure that the SMS message is sent before you cripple the account, rather than at exactly the same time? (afaict)

I have to be honest - I'd be hard-pressed to devise a more cack-handed response than Plusnet's current approach to these problems. Are you really at the mercy of your systems to this extent?

[#8]

Thanks for getting back to us @TMelly 

Sorry if the texts you’re receiving are taken the wrong way, that’s absolutely not our intent.

It’s the act of going into failed payment which triggers the text being sent as well as applying a ‘failed payment service offer’ that should in theory show you a splash screen with an option for you to acknowledge the notice and continue browsing. 

As far as I’m aware the splash screen is only not working for a small number of people and that’s not to say it’s acceptable at all. We are actively taking steps to resolve this problem for all.

In the meantime, I’m afraid there’s no workaround apart from messaging or calling us when the browsing interruption applies for us to manually remove the ‘failed payment service offer’

Again setting up a direct debit should avoid the above issues and when we’ve got the issue affecting you to automatically pay via card every month sorted, you can revert back. 

From reading your prior posts, I understand you’re reluctant to set up a direct debit. Do you mind me asking what concerns you have regarding this? Feel free to PM me if you prefer. 

[#9]

"not working for a small number of people".

Has that response been copied from Apple? That's their spin when they know full well that the problem is widespread. They are slightly different in saying "a small percentage".

[#10]

Hi @TMelly  I am happy to confirm that the problem has now been resolved. Our billing engineers have pushed through the request to update your payment method through the system and your next payment should be taken automatically because your payment details are now showing correctly on your account. Let us know how it goes.