Plusnet - 40 quid cancellation charge and an extra 25 quid cessation charge - eh?

Hello

I was aware of the cancellation charge that would be due when I cancelled my
contract (OK, it's not a 1 year contract from a lawyer's point of view, but
to all intents and purposes you have to pay 40 quid if you leave within 12
months - deferred connection fees etc. - so it is effectively a contract
cancellation charge and I was aware of this before signing up, during
signing up and afterwards when I was preparing to leave PN).

However, I have also been told I have to pay a £25 cessation fee. I wasn't
made aware of that when signing up, nor was I made aware of it when I raised
the issue of leavng PN and asking what it would cost me - so where does the
extra fee come from?

PN say this:

"Current cancelation fee: Deferred Setup £40.00" and "Cessation Charge
£25.00"

I would have thought that actually, a £25 CESSATION fee is more apt than a
£40 cancellation fee in this case. (My contract was one for £5.00 a month,
with the first 3 months free or deferred anyway, making the overal cost
something like £4 a mont on average obver a 12 month contract period).

Bearing in mind that I have just left Plusnet for a welcome return to Zen (I
didn't get very useful feedback from PN when I raised endless tickets and
asked them to get BT involved to find out whey my download rate was a tenth
of what it should be i.e. 250kbps for approx. 3 out of the 4 weeks I was
with PN), presenting me with a total of 65 quid charge for leaving them
seems a bit steep.

DDS

On Fri, 02 Apr 2010 16:36:39 +0100, Duncan Di Saudelli wrote:

> Hello
>
> I was aware of the cancellation charge that would be due when I
> cancelled my contract (OK, it's not a 1 year contract from a lawyer's
> point of view, but to all intents and purposes you have to pay 40 quid
> if you leave within 12 months - deferred connection fees etc. - so it is
> effectively a contract cancellation charge and I was aware of this
> before signing up, during signing up and afterwards when I was preparing
> to leave PN).
>
> However, I have also been told I have to pay a £25 cessation fee. I
> wasn't made aware of that when signing up, nor was I made aware of it
> when I raised the issue of leavng PN and asking what it would cost me -
> so where does the extra fee come from?
>
> PN say this:
>
> "Current cancelation fee: Deferred Setup £40.00" and "Cessation Charge
> £25.00"
>
> I would have thought that actually, a £25 CESSATION fee is more apt than
> a £40 cancellation fee in this case. (My contract was one for £5.00 a
> month, with the first 3 months free or deferred anyway, making the
> overal cost something like £4 a mont on average obver a 12 month
> contract period).
>
> Bearing in mind that I have just left Plusnet for a welcome return to
> Zen (I didn't get very useful feedback from PN when I raised endless
> tickets and asked them to get BT involved to find out whey my download
> rate was a tenth of what it should be i.e. 250kbps for approx. 3 out of
> the 4 weeks I was with PN), presenting me with a total of 65 quid charge
> for leaving them seems a bit steep.
>
> DDS
Remember this one thing. Broadband is just a (third party) service
provided on top of a BT line. So rather than play with Pissnet, go for
the phone line as your way out (assuming no stupid contract on it).

Have BT Cease and reprovide the phone line with a new number. Cite
'harrassment' as your reason. It's important that you don't just have a
free renumber, but a full 'cease' and 'reprovide'. They may spit about it
a little, but as the account holder you are quite entitled to do that.

This will render the broadband provider, pissnet, in limbo with you free
to get another provider on the new number. Be sure to cancel any direct
debit in favour of Plusnet and should you have given them card details at
any stage report that card 'lost'.

This is one of the reasons to keep your PSTN number with BT - rather than
going with your ISP or a third party for telephone service. You can pull
the plug on a bad broadband provider easily.

Be aware that ZEN have gone downhill. There billing team, technical
support and service reliability has gone to shit of late so check before
you leap.

>> I was aware of the cancellation charge that would be due when I cancelled
>> my
>> contract
>>
>> However, I have also been told I have to pay a £25 cessation fee.
>
> Have you cancelled all broadband on the phone line, or migrated to a
> different provider? I thought the extra fee was only passed on by the ISP
> in the former case ...

I've migrated - by moving my existing Zen account (originally at a different
address and phone number) from that address (and hence from that phone
number too) to this new address nd phone number, thus replacing Plusnet.

> Remember this one thing. Broadband is just a (third party) service
> provided on top of a BT line. So rather than play with Pissnet, go for
> the phone line as your way out (assuming no stupid contract on it).
>
> Have BT Cease and reprovide the phone line with a new number. Cite
> 'harrassment' as your reason. It's important that you don't just have a
> free renumber, but a full 'cease' and 'reprovide'. They may spit about it
> a little, but as the account holder you are quite entitled to do that.

An interesting approach and one I shall have to consider resorting to if
necessary.

> This will render the broadband provider, pissnet, in limbo with you free
> to get another provider on the new number. Be sure to cancel any direct
> debit in favour of Plusnet and should you have given them card details at
> any stage report that card 'lost'.

> This is one of the reasons to keep your PSTN number with BT - rather than
> going with your ISP or a third party for telephone service. You can pull
> the plug on a bad broadband provider easily.

Yes, I agree - I felt it would have been a bad idea to put all of my eggs
in one basket, no matter who is the service provider.

> Be aware that ZEN have gone downhill. There billing team, technical
> support and service reliability has gone to shit of late so check before
> you leap.

I've been happy with them for three years and continue to be - but I note
that when I phoned their CS yesterday it did take several minutes to be put
through, rather than a more-or-less instantaneous response. So yes, perhaps
there is a waning. Not as bad as PN though, for whom a 15-20 minute wait
was common before I had to bail out and try later.

>
> I've been happy with them for three years and continue to be - but I note
> that when I phoned their CS yesterday it did take several minutes to be
> put through, rather than a more-or-less instantaneous response. So yes,
> perhaps there is a waning. Not as bad as PN though, for whom a 15-20
> minute wait was common before I had to bail out and try later.

Their website http://phonestats.zensupport.co.uk/summary-TS.html does show
the phone queue length. So for a non-urgent call it is worth checking first
....

--
Graham J

On Fri, 02 Apr 2010 18:07:31 +0100, Duncan Di Saudelli wrote:

>>> I was aware of the cancellation charge that would be due when I
>>> cancelled my
>>> contract
>>>
>>> However, I have also been told I have to pay a £25 cessation fee.
>>
>> Have you cancelled all broadband on the phone line, or migrated to a
>> different provider? I thought the extra fee was only passed on by the
>> ISP in the former case ...
>
> I've migrated - by moving my existing Zen account (originally at a
> different address and phone number) from that address (and hence from
> that phone number too) to this new address nd phone number, thus
> replacing Plusnet.

Somewhere along the line there, BT have ceased broadband on a line. There
were two, now there are one.

So, this cessation fee is probably the one that BT introduced reasonably
recently as another way to gouge people.

I am no friend of Plusnet, and actively helped everyone I know to move
away from them. But it may not be a charge they are imposing themselves.


--
Use the BIG mirror service in the UK:
http://www.mirrorservice.org

> No doubt PN will comment in due course but my guess is that you chose to
> cancel rather than transfer to another ISP. AIUI BT levy a charge on the
> ISP if you don't use a MAC code to transfer.

Good point but no - in this instance I requested (and got issued quite
quickly actually) a MAC key. I've raised the matter with another ticket
reply to PN so we'll see what they say (or if they post an explanation
here).

> "Current cancelation fee: Deferred Setup £40.00" and "Cessation Charge
> £25.00"


Aha: from their help and support pages, PN say

"Cessation Charges don't apply when using a MAC Key to switch providers
(this is called a migration), as a broadband cease is not required".

http://www.plus.net/support/customer..._charges.shtml

They add that "When do Cessation Charges apply?

"They apply to any customer who has a broadband cease placed on their line.
Generally, the main reasons for broadband ceases are:
A broadband account is cancelled (without switching providers)
Switching providers without a MAC Key
The telephone line used to provide broadband is cut off"

So in my case, I did get a PN MAC key issued and it was then used by Zen, I
didn't cancel a broadband connection and the telephone line hasn't been cut
off.Sounds like a simple PN mistake.

On Fri, 02 Apr 2010 21:04:04 +0100, Jasper wrote:

> On Fri, 2 Apr 2010 16:23:26 +0000 (UTC), Vicktor Whieste
> <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
> <snip>
>
>
>>Have BT Cease and reprovide the phone line with a new number. Cite
>>'harrassment' as your reason. It's important that you don't just have a
>>free renumber, but a full 'cease' and 'reprovide'. They may spit about
>>it a little, but as the account holder you are quite entitled to do
>>that.
>>
>>
> But if you perform a full cease and reprovide then surely BT would
> charge the full cost of a new provision of a line i.e. £105 ? Maybe a
> free renumber would be cheaper
>
> jasper


Usually they don't as the line already exists :-)

On Fri, 02 Apr 2010 22:12:59 +0100, Martin Jay wrote:

> On Fri, 2 Apr 2010 16:23:26 +0000 (UTC), Vicktor Whieste
> <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>>Remember this one thing. Broadband is just a (third party) service
>>provided on top of a BT line. So rather than play with Pissnet, go for
>>the phone line as your way out (assuming no stupid contract on it).
>>
>>Have BT Cease and reprovide the phone line with a new number. Cite
>>'harrassment' as your reason. It's important that you don't just have a
>>free renumber, but a full 'cease' and 'reprovide'. They may spit about
>>it a little, but as the account holder you are quite entitled to do
>>that.
>
> It's been a while since I had a phone line installed, but won't BT
> impose a connection charge for doing this?

Not if it's a 'take over' and the line exists.