Yet another disgruntled customer.

[#1]

Well I thought things were going too smoothly. I've, this evening, had to waste more than an hour of my life on the phone talking to customer services and customer options. Most of the time was spent waiting to speak to a human being, totally unacceptable time on hold.
I'm told everything will be sorted but in the interim I have to pay my inflated 1st Oct. bill and possibly the 1st to 31st October bill will be an overcharge too?
1. I renewed and paid my 12 months LRS on the 11th July. Guess what? My bill includes £13.99 line rental. The CS agent hadn't a clue why this has happened. He's promised a refund will be issued AFTER the DD has been taken. I have also noticed that another £13.99 for line rental has already been added to next months bill.
2. I agreed a new contract on 5th July for unlimited broadband. A monthly discount was to be applied. The discount has been subtracted from the £16.99 for two months. Guess what? No discount on this bill. COT agent advised this would be sorted, the discount applied for future months and refunded for this month AFTER the DD had been taken.
So my bill is more than double what it should be. Is this "honest broadband"? I dread to think what sort of shambles next months bill is going to be. No doubt another hour or more of my life wasted on the 'phone to sort it out.
Plusnet reps - please no "we're really sorry" it won't wash, just an explanation as to why and how this has happened will suffice.
Not a happy bunny at all. Roll on PN's next inevitable price hikes, I'll be gone.  

[#2]

Hi,
I've looked through your account to see why you've been charged the line rental and the discount that wasn't applied.
The discount is missing as my colleague that you added this for you had added the incorrect amount of discounts, I've now rectified this.
Your line rental saver had been deactivated, had a look into this and can't actually see why yet, it does appear that it was just your account that has been affected. I've now rectified this.
As soon as the direct debit has cleared we'll refund you the difference.
I've also set myself a reminder to check your account next month to make sure this has all gone through correct, if for any reason it hasn't then I'll get this sorted be in-touch.

[#3]

"The discount is missing as my colleague that you added this for you had added the incorrect amount of discounts, I've now rectified this."
No doubt this is linked to the ridiculous additions to ticket 71623983 on which I have also asked for an explanation. I found it very strange that the discounts couldn't be just added for the length of time agreed instead of passing obscure messages from one to another. The system is surely over complicated. Also a CS agent was unable to address the discount problem, that had to be rectified by a CO agent.
To receive an unexpected bill makes it difficult when one is on a limited income and budgeting for the expected bill. I was only able to pay the LRS renewal upfront because there was 6 months remaining on a 0% purchase credit card making it easier to spread the £125.88 over that six months.
After thinking about this I consider PN to be in breach of the agreement made on the 5th July last, similarly if I had suddenly decided I'm not going to pay what I do. There would be howls of breach of contract from PN, yes? It works both ways. I'm sure that I would be well within my rights to give notice to cancel because of the breach by PN and leave without penalty including a refund of unused LRS because it's not been activated yet. PN have changed the terms agreed to my detriment because I've had a price increase forced upon me, yes?
During my seven years with Madasafish I never encountered one problem with regards to billing, or anything for that matter. Any discounts were applied properly and timely without a hitch.
Oh, and finally, PN really do need to take on more telephone staff, the waiting on the 'phone is totally unacceptable.

[#4]

As a mentioned it was an agent error regarding your discount and a system issue which led to your LRS saver not being applied this month.
Unfortunately I can't change the fact that this has happened, but have rectified this so it doesn't happen again and I've set myself a reminder to check on this to make sure you're not inconvenienced again.
I really apologise for any stress this has caused you, none of which has been intentional and sorry to make you feel that way.

[#5]

No comment re the breach of contract/agreement commenced on 5th July? No comment re the prolonged wait on the 'phone that many customers have complained/commented about after experiencing it themselves? Then the "we're really sorry about that" (but will do nothing to rectify it) is the only response.
When PN increase their prices, and customers complain about it, the PN reps jump over themselves to refer to the ts and cs that a customer has agreed to which permits that increase. Please point me to where, in the ts and cs, there is an explanation as to the procedure to follow when PN have themselves breached an agreement. Whether that is as a result of agent error and/or system error. Do I 'phone CO to cancel without loss of anything financially?
My next month's 'phone bill is still showing line rental!? Will this be charged when it's generated?
"Billing period: 01/10/2013 to 31/10/2013 Product: Talk Evenings & Weekends
Calls: £0.00
Call Features: £0.99
Line Rental: £13.99
TOTAL: £14.98"

[#6]

Your next months line rental will <b>not</b> be charged to your account, as I said I will keep a reminder to check on this and make sure it doesn't happen.
We've overcharged you and will have rectified this at the earliest opportunity and we are continually working at reducing call times and have recently done a very heavy recruitment drive.
I appreciate your frustration as you were charged wrong and it was not your fault, as I said we're rectifying this as soon as we possibly can. We can't really have an excuse for it but maybe I'm asking for a bit of leeway, like we give 14 days from your billing date to pay your bill while letting the services continue, not that this has happened to you.
If you've encountered any bank charges or costs due to our error then I'm happy to refund these.

[#7]

I have noticed a £7 credit on my account. Would I be correct that this is not refunded to my bank account? Why not, you said I would be refunded, that's not as I understand, a credit is not a refund.
Also, where is the £13.99 line rental overpayment? Why has that not been credited/refunded?
Getting really annoyed now with this total incompetence and virtual theft!
The last bill is only showing as part paid, no it's not, it's fully paid. You've taken the whole amount from my account.
This is an absolute mess. Is it done to cause as much confusion as possible?
I would like it sorting now, please or further effective action will be considered.
I really couldn't care less about the irrelevant 14 days leeway, why was that thrown in?

[#8]

No comment then?
Other than instigating the £13.99 credit obviously AFTER I highlighted It's ommission.

[#9]

I have now requested a release from the "agreement" which Plusnet breached. I also expect a refund of the LRS which was not implemented, less possibly a months LR. I will take this as far as necessary even for a relatively small sum, it's the principal mainly. Have PN not heard of Faster Payments? Why 10 days for a refund to a bank account?
I don't expect a response from the PN forum reps as they don't seem to be bothered commenting on my previous two posts.

[#10]

@newagetraveller
I'm really sorry for the late reply from us, it doesn't mean we're not bothered, I understand how it may give that impression though.
I'd like to speak to you directly regarding this, is there a good time for me to call before 5pm today please?
Adam

[#11]

I'm not sure what use a 'phone call will be. I would just prefer to move elsewhere without any further financial juggling or personal financial loss. It has reached the point where, when receiving the monthly Direct Debit notification e-mail, I'll be anticipating a billing error, probably in PN's favour, then having to go through the whole process of trying to get back my overpayment (still not in my bank account). I now don't trust the billing system. It comes across as being overcomplicated and wide open to errors as I've recently discovered.
I have read the ticket reply but it is really quite confusing. It does seem very strange that there is a now convenient problem with regards LRS. I also don't fully understand the 10 x £14.99 discount becoming 8 x and being a gesture of goodwill - on my part or PN's part? " but need you to be aware that we'd remove some the £14.99 discounts put in place to counteract the monthly line rental payments. 10 of these currently remain in place but I'm happy to remove 8 of them to allow for a gesture of good will with the remaining two."
There's no answer to my question as to why the last invoice is only "Part-Paid". It's fully paid, the total amount was taken from my bank account on the 7th October. Bank statement copy and paste "07 Oct 13 PLUSNET PLC PLUS1995400-2 DD 33.51"

[#12]

Hi there,
It seems Adam has the majority of your issues in hand but I'd like to explain about the invoice - it shows as part paid because a refund has been issued against it, that's all. It's standard on our system, but in no way means that your account is not in balance or that we'll be chasing for any payment at all.
Hope that reassures you and that the rest of the issues you mention are resolved to your satisfaction soon.

[#13]

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I'm not sure what use a 'phone call will be.

.
Don't worry there's no hidden agenda, as there's several aspects to this issue it would be much easier to have a quick chat with you. I thought it might save sometime two-ing and fro-ing between us over the forum or on ticket responses, but no worries at all if you'd rather not do that.

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I have read the ticket reply but it is really quite confusing. It does seem very strange that there is a now convenient problem with regards LRS

Trust me, it's far from convenient I'm just sorry this hasn't been covered so far as it should have been.

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. I also don't fully understand the 10 x £14.99 discount becoming 8 x and being a gesture of goodwill - on my part or PN's part? " but need you to be aware that we'd remove some the £14.99 discounts put in place to counteract the monthly line rental payments. 10 of these currently remain in place but I'm happy to remove 8 of them to allow for a gesture of good will with the remaining two."

Those discounts are in place to counteract the line rental payments that shouldn't have been taken as you've paid for LRS, if we refund LRS then line rental payments would be due hence we'd cancel those discounts. The good will gesture aspect of this relates to us removing 8 of these remaining discounts rather than removing all 10 hence that's £29.98 in your favour.
Just let me know if there's any other aspects of this you're unsure about, otherwise I'll get the refund done and remove the discounts as previously explained.
If you are however firm in your decision that you want to leave you'd need to speak to our customer options team instead: http://www.plus.net/support/service/policies/cancellation.shtml
Adam

[#14]

Understood!
If the LRS is refunded and the discounts removed will evenings and weekends calls still be included? 

[#15]

Hi there,
Evenings and weekends will continue to be included as long as you stay on your current account type, regardless of the LRS/Discounts on the account