plusnet appalling

[#1]

after 3 yrs with plusnet, I am leaving. their customer service which was so good before is now appalling.when I signed up 3 yrs ago the account was in my gf,s  name.we split up and I contacted p/net and explained and payed thru my account but they still kept the account holder in her name... ,yesterday after 3 yrs when all dealings had been thru my email and me giving user name ect they said due to data protection I was not able to query being overcharged by 50% ,because the account was not in my name.they said I would av to cancel the account and open a new one in my name as a new account holder, and be without phone and internet for 2 weeks while it was processed. absolutely appalling.b4 they were so helpful now they are like inflexible robots, get out while u can

[#2]

Hi blackpooltoffee,
I'm sorry to hear that you're having problems getting access to your account. Due to Data Protection, we are only able to speak to either the Account Holder or an Authorised User. If you do have access to the account, please raise a ticket at http://contactus.plus.net and request that you are added as an Authorised User, we can then discuss the account with you.

[#3]

Chris,
This sounds rather like "red tape" and "jobs worth" mentality.  If the caller has the correct access credentials (can answer the password letters question) this should be enough.  Any Tom, Dick or Harry  can say they are "Fred" if for example they are calling on behalf of Fred to deal with a problem which Fred cannot deal with.  For example son phones on behalf of aged father.  I have done the same from time to time in respect of my referred accounts.
With respect, suggesting that the "secondary" contact raises a ticket to get himself authorised for the account makes a complete mockery of the whole process.  One might just as well (possibly more useful and appropriate) suggest he just goes and changes the account contact details in the user portal!  ...  Just thought I had better check that out - I've done just that in the past - but now I see one cannot, but there is a link there (conact support) to change conact name / address so why has this user even been given the responses he got from the support desk?  The portal suggests that the contact details can be changed as requested.
Cheers,
Kevin

[#4]

Kevin,
Unfortunately we have to abide by the Data Protection laws and if you are not the account holder or an Authorised User we will not be able to discuss the account. This only affects Residential accounts, not business. If you do have a business account and you wanted to call to discuss the residential accounts you may have referred, you need to make sure your name is on the account as an authorised user.
I appreciate how you feel about this, however, this is how we carry out our security checks and will continue to do so. We do not allow changes to account holder/address details via the portal purely because we would rather have customers contact us to change such important contact details. If the account holder wants to call in to add up to two people as an authorised user - that's not a problem, but alternatively you can just raise a Support Ticket.
This is a change that was made a few months back when we completed an audit of our Data Protection processes.