User Allowances

[#1]

Good Afternoon Forum Users and Plusnet Staff Members...
How you all doing today?
This is my first post as a forum user... unfortunatly it's a bit of a grumble, I mean, errrr, feedback
I am currently coming to the end of my billing month, next cycle starts on Friday. I have used 8GB of my 10GB allowance.  I have received the 'warning' email from Plusnet - great system PN, gold stars and good work for that, it is very helpful.
However, when it comes to adding more allowance, Plusnet gets a bit of a 'FAIL' from me.  Plusnet only allow me to top up in 5GB blocks.  When I only use 10GB for a whole month I am NOT going to use 5GB in just 3 days..
Correct me if I am wrong but did PN not used to sell their GB in singular units... this would be helpful for this situation.  
MY SUGGESTION: Can Plusnet bring in a rule that allows those customers in the last week of their billing to add allowance in singular GBs?  Can I also ask, why did PN  change the system to 5GB min?
Has anyone else had this problem, would it be helpful to anyone else. Esp in these times austere times we keep hearing of...
Any feedback/views gratefully received.
Thanks Angie
Ps. can you give the forums a spell checker, as my spelling is not at it's best.... x

[#2]

Welcome to the forum AngieLH. 
Being on the BBYW2 legacy product, I can top up in 1GB increments, but my daughter on Value is in the same boat as you, always approaching 10GB towards the end of the billing period, but damned if she's going to pay PN £5 for maybe 1 to 1½ GB.
It's been discussed to death here - http://community.plus.net/forum/index.php/topic,84166.0.html - but PN seem unwilling to budge. 

[#3]

I use Firefox browser with the UK English dictionary add on works fine

[#4]

Welcome to the forum's, Do not worry too much about you're spelling as mine is just as bad if not worse, And ignore any member who makes you aware of you're  spelling mistakes unless it's done in the best possible fashion, Some member's keep correcting my spelling, It is a good thing I suppose but some member's tell you In a rude and annoying manner

[#5]

Do what I do - I set the limit to zero so that if I go over 10GB in the last day I just get throttled but if I am going to go over it a week early (never happened yet) I could increase the limit
PS I use the Firefox spell checker and then the quick edit button to correct the ones I missed (usually lower case i)

[#6]

Hi AngieLH and welcome to the community forums,
This has been a hot-topic of conversation in the past but we like your suggestion, I will make sure your feedback reaches the right people here and we'll post back if we're able to act on it.
If you decide to go down the route of Oldjim's suggestion let us know if you need any assistance in doing this, there's plenty of customers and staff members alike on here that can give you some guidance.
Adam.

[#7]

Thanks guys for making me feel welcome.  Some good suggestions there. 
In reply to post from Adam, thanks. That would be most welcome.  Also, yeah, interested in what Oldjim (sorry if I've spelt that wrong, can't check back when composing a message) was saying. 
Please people, can we keep geek speak and acronyms to a minimum, it's a easy trap to falling into,  but even me, with my medium sized amount of knowledge may have some worry in understanding what you are all on about, just a little niggle. Lets make the forums an inclusive place for all Plusnetters and others.
Please, if you have anymore info/views on the matter of allowances then please keep em coming.  I'm sure people power has it's advantages , if Plusnet get enuff people telling them that something is a problem or that they could provide better service.  Thank goodness Plusnet seem to listen to their customer feedback unlike other ISP I could mention.
Cheers all Angie

[#8]

There are some things that the PN marketing people dont seem to take any notice of how many complaint or comments they get, and the mater of the move from 1 to 2 then 5G is one of them, but we can just keep badgering on

[#9]

Thanks all,
Your comments and suggestions are what helps keep us customer focussed so we'll always welcome this kind of feedback.
Being honest, it's not marketing's job to monitor for complaints and suggestions, that's what we do in support, however this does not mean that we cannot pass on any suggestions, ideas or feedback that they can act upon and make improvements for our customers. We can't unfortunately act on every single suggestion made but we do take as much as we are able to into consideration.

[#10]

Quote

Please people, can we keep geek speak and acronyms to a minimum, it's a easy trap to falling into,  but even me, with my medium sized amount of knowledge may have some worry in understanding what you are all on about, just a little niggle. Lets make the forums an inclusive place for all Plusnetters and others.

personally angie geek speak   is an attention grabber
much like when a guy goes into a bar and notices a dame flutter her  eyelashes at him
sometimes its used for a joke to break up a technical conversation other times it is used  just when talking about pc ware in some
form or another to explain it,
I personally get  so exasperated  about some of  the unexplained jargon in writers' submissions
in  any download/upload speed  or DSLAM article, that I simply avoid going there
but   its not an issue I learned loads about computers from 'the Dummies Book series'  simple explaining  books on everything
from digital camera's to mathematics , all though I get stuck reading that book
I don't give in to the temptation of trying to impress  readers with  knowledge.  I   hope after reading the forum for a few months you too will avoid using tech-talk
And Instead, convey what you chose to write about simply and clearly, that will make a better impact.
when  we talk we should all let it be a journey that we  make together.
and not  a forum for technocrats  creating competition
Besides it normally leaves out the basics so technical writers should write for beginners too and write at a comfortable pace
There is general believe in the pc world to  cut out the small talk to find an inundation of technical words being used all around the forums
Then the techies,  start to talk with a real friendly voice,so friendly that at times I  forget just what it is the writer is trying to say about the software.
the pc or the internet , fine if I'm just a listener at the time
so for the (Ahhh, umm) people like me  who needs it explained in simple english
here are a few  rules
Snip off the extras
crisper writing
use illustrations
welcome angie

[#11]

Helo Ange..welcome..
I, like may others it seems feel the same about the GB issue..the only people that will benefit from it are plusnet...perhaps it was done because there was no profit in the old quid per gig system..they are a business after all..but I do think its unfair. That said, keep an eye on PN's plans and packages etc...they change them once in a while to suit the current market..
At the moment theres two options..10 or 60..with a massive void in between..which I think is very restrictive 10 is tiny...60 is massive!..plusnet, in all fairness are good at measring trends and needs and Id bet at some point they will introduce something that sits  somewhere in between. I will have the 60Gb option (soon! lol) and I must admit its a bit of a pig paying for something that im not going to use completely...20-30Gb would have been ample..but, the good thing is you can change packages etc anytime..up or down.
Keep an eye on your usage and plusnets deal...something will turn up I reckon.

[#12]

Quote from: AngieLH

Good Afternoon Forum Users and Plusnet Staff Members... How you all doing today? This is my first post as a forum user... unfortunatly it's a bit of a grumble, I mean, errrr, feedback I am currently coming to the end of my billing month, next cycle starts on Friday. I have used 8GB of my 10GB allowance.  I have received the 'warning' email from Plusnet - great system PN, gold stars and good work for that, it is very helpful. However, when it comes to adding more allowance, Plusnet gets a bit of a 'FAIL' from me.  Plusnet only allow me to top up in 5GB blocks.  When I only use 10GB for a whole month I am NOT going to use 5GB in just 3 days.. Correct me if I am wrong but did PN not used to sell their GB in singular units... this would be helpful for this situation.   MY SUGGESTION: Can Plusnet bring in a rule that allows those customers in the last week of their billing to add allowance in singular GBs?  Can I also ask, why did PN  change the system to 5GB min? Has anyone else had this problem, would it be helpful to anyone else. Esp in these times austere times we keep hearing of... Any feedback/views gratefully received. Thanks Angie Ps. can you give the forums a spell checker, as my spelling is not at it's best.... x

I am in full agreement with  Angie on this. I've just had the 'you are approaching...' email (thanks) for the second month running - I've got one week and 2Gb to go. Last month I swallowed it and did all sorts of stuff in an attempt to claw some more value from the extra money I had to spend - and I still didn't get to 15Gb.
I find it particularly galling since most of the year I'm well under my usage allowance.
I know us small fry are on a 'value' deal but, come on PN, it's not a very customer friendly approach and I urge you to bring back the 'old quid per gig system.'  Or perhaps there are loads of people getting stung like this and PN are making too much extra £££ of it.
I for one will resort to Oldjim's suggestion (and thank you for that...I'll pass it on to a couple of elderly disgruntled and inexpert users I know who are suffering the same).
But surely £1 is better than £0? How about it PN? Please.
Thanks.

[#13]

Just a thought, maybe we could have a system where if you didn't use all your allowance the previous month, a certain amount could be taken over into the following month? that way if you only occasionally  need an extra single GB or so, you (sometimes at least!) wouldn't have the expense of buying a whole 5GB block

[#14]

You don't have to buy any extra, if it's only a couple of days.
You just get an extra slow connection - not much faster than dial-up for the remainder of the billing period.

[#15]

Quote

Just a thought, maybe we could have a system where if you didn't use all your allowance the previous month, a certain amount could be taken over into the following month? that way if you only occasionally  need an extra single GB or so, you (sometimes at least!) wouldn't have the expense of buying a whole 5GB block

That idea has come up before, I'm pushing this as an idea internally as some  other ISPs do this already (which alone should be a serious reason for us to consider us doing this) also I'm sure this would do wonders for customer satisfaction even if we only allow bandwidth to be carried over for one month at a time.
Thanks for the good ideas everyone, keep them coming.
Adam.