Plusnet Confused

I'm currently on Plusnet 1Mb Premier that has cost me £29.99 per month for
the last year.
I see the new 2Mb service now costs "From £21.99" but has no note of any
download limit.
I would imagine because the cost is advertised as "From" then Plusnet must
be charging after a certain amount of data has been used. Even although I
received an email last week saying they were abolishing their fair usage
policy!!

Confused? You bet I am.

The most I have used in any month has been 30Gb or thereabouts. On average
it is about 4Gb so the fair usage policy doesn't really affect me but I'd
like to know as I'm about to hook up my kids with their own net
connection!!!

Does anyone know if Plusnet will reduce my current fee £29.99 automatically
to £21.99 if both accounts are identical.

Steven.

On the Thu, 28 Apr 2005 15:34:50 +0100, Steven Campbell uttered forth
the following...
> I'm currently on Plusnet 1Mb Premier that has cost me £29.99 per month for
> the last year.
> I see the new 2Mb service now costs "From £21.99" but has no note of any
> download limit.

It's unlimited again so I believe but P2P s/w etc is being throttled to
allow faster browsing etc.

>
> Does anyone know if Plusnet will reduce my current fee £29.99 automatically
> to £21.99 if both accounts are identical.
>


Yes but you need to contact them to do it. Use Contact Us & fill a
ticket it. They will be updating the site to allow you to do it yourself
so I believe.

To avoid the £14.99 you need to request staying on 1Mb until BT to do
the free MaxDSL updgrades on your exchange.

Steven Campbell wrote:
> I'm currently on Plusnet 1Mb Premier that has cost me £29.99 per
> month for the last year.
> I see the new 2Mb service now costs "From £21.99" but has no note of
> any download limit.
> I would imagine because the cost is advertised as "From" then Plusnet
> must be charging after a certain amount of data has been used. Even
> although I received an email last week saying they were abolishing
> their fair usage policy!!
>
> Confused? You bet I am.
>
> The most I have used in any month has been 30Gb or thereabouts. On
> average it is about 4Gb so the fair usage policy doesn't really
> affect me but I'd like to know as I'm about to hook up my kids with
> their own net connection!!!

It is unlimited, for as long as you don't use too much (too much is not
defined, other than as equivalent to contention between 1:1 and 5:1).

> Does anyone know if Plusnet will reduce my current fee £29.99
> automatically to £21.99 if both accounts are identical.

Only if you ask them to. The £29.99 will get you free upgrade to 4 Mbps
when available, provided your line will support it. If you downgrade to
£21.99 it will cost you to get 4 Mbps and the subs will increase back to
£29.99.

--
Regards,

Brian

What matters in politics is not what happens, but what you can make people
believe has happened. [Janet Daley 27/8/2003]

"Steven Campbell" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:4270f4a3$0$561$(E-Mail Removed)...
> I'm currently on Plusnet 1Mb Premier that has cost me £29.99 per month for
> the last year.
> I see the new 2Mb service now costs "From £21.99" but has no note of any
> download limit.
> I would imagine because the cost is advertised as "From" then Plusnet must
> be charging after a certain amount of data has been used. Even although I
> received an email last week saying they were abolishing their fair usage
> policy!!
>
> Confused? You bet I am.
>
> The most I have used in any month has been 30Gb or thereabouts. On average
> it is about 4Gb so the fair usage policy doesn't really affect me but I'd
> like to know as I'm about to hook up my kids with their own net
> connection!!!
>
> Does anyone know if Plusnet will reduce my current fee £29.99
> automatically
> to £21.99 if both accounts are identical.
>
> Steven.


No you will have to raise a "Contact Us" ticket and ask to be placed onto a
'premier up to 2mb account" costing 21.99 a month. If you do not ask, then
you will remain at 29,99 and be placed onto the 'premier up to 4mb account'
when 4mb is available at your exchange.

The "From" is due to the costings being as follows:

Premier... up to 2mb £21.99
Premier.. up to 4mb £29.99
Premier.. up to 8mb £39.99

However as 4 and 8 mb are only on a few test exchanges at present, it's
doubtful you would want to choose the other 2 yet, although that is up to
you!

Any NEW accounts opened will be opened at the price and speed you request
when opening the account.

PlusNet SEEM to be flexible on the whole speed thing. as long as you dont
use it as a 5:1 account and download 24/7 they dont seem to mind. (As long
as you dont go mad downloading 200Gb a month after month after month that
is).

"James Mourby" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:4271257f$0$83089$(E-Mail Removed)...
>
>
> PlusNet SEEM to be flexible on the whole speed thing. as long as you dont
> use it as a 5:1 account and download 24/7 they dont seem to mind. (As
> long as you dont go mad downloading 200Gb a month after month after month
> that is).
>

According to one of the directors at Plusnet your 200Gb is way below what
you are allowed.
The following is taken from his communications with ADSLGuide.

"The main change is that the Premier range is now going to have one price
point (at least until new products are launched), which is £21.99 for a
2Mbps connection or whatever your line will support up to that speed. There
is no specific usage allowance, but rather a vague policy that users who
exceed a reasonable usage level in a persistent manner may trigger PlusNet
into action. PlusNet's Marketing Director told us this could be up to 400GB
per month on a 2Mbps line if used mainly off peak (which makes use of
existing capacity and not increasing PlusNet's operational costs) but this
was not made clear on the PlusNet FAQ"

It seems that what Plusnet support have been telling everyone about usage is
way below the figures the management at Plusnet will accept.
Meaning that their stupid 5:1 ratio is pointless and adds nothing but
confusion to an already major marketing disaster.
It also seems to say that the "night time free for all" is still in
existence, also contrary to what Support have been saying.

On Thu, 28 Apr 2005 15:34:50 +0100, "Steven Campbell"
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>I see the new 2Mb service now costs "From £21.99" but has no note of any
>download limit.

Your past usage would fit in well. Only someone downloading a lot of the
time (averaging full speed for about 5 hours or more per day) would be one
they would want rid of, though doing that one month out of the blue would
be within their accepted use, from posts by Plus.Net staff in p.s.c-f

>I would imagine because the cost is advertised as "From" then Plusnet must
>be charging after a certain amount of data has been used. Even although I
>received an email last week saying they were abolishing their fair usage
>policy!!

>Confused? You bet I am.

They had been planning the charge to reflect a download quota, but as of
today the Premier accounts will have different charges for higher speeds.
You need to use "Contact Us" to request a change to the 21.99 per month
pricing, because they have yet to update the portal system to allow a
'downgrade' to the Premier package you want, without charging you 14.99.

>The most I have used in any month has been 30Gb or thereabouts. On average
>it is about 4Gb so the fair usage policy doesn't really affect me but I'd
>like to know as I'm about to hook up my kids with their own net connection!!!

Unless you regularly go a few times over the 30 GB you will have few probs...
They will be happy to allow users unlimited downloading, but the heaviest
users had better use off-peak hours from 0000-0900 or thereabouts because
anyone downloading heavily for hours every day during the peak hours will
not be popular under their new guidelines (based on the posts by staff that
have been made in plusnet.service.customer-feedback)

>Does anyone know if Plusnet will reduce my current fee £29.99 automatically
>to £21.99 if both accounts are identical.

No, it is not automatic, unfortunately. Bet the staff dealing with requests
are not too thrilled either, about it needing to be done manually... Peter

--
Try a commercial news service - from 50 MB/day (once-only fee of < $5 )
up to 1500 MB/day for 6 months $99.95, 600 GB over 6 months $149.75
with many options in between... <http://tinyurl.com/3rjw4>

"Pete M Williams" <postmaster@localhost> wrote in message
news:42714ce2$0$559$(E-Mail Removed)...
>
> "James Mourby" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in
> message news:4271257f$0$83089$(E-Mail Removed)...
>>
>>
>> PlusNet SEEM to be flexible on the whole speed thing. as long as you
>> dont use it as a 5:1 account and download 24/7 they dont seem to mind.
>> (As long as you dont go mad downloading 200Gb a month after month after
>> month that is).
>>
>
> According to one of the directors at Plusnet your 200Gb is way below what
> you are allowed.
> The following is taken from his communications with ADSLGuide.
>
> "The main change is that the Premier range is now going to have one price
> point (at least until new products are launched), which is £21.99 for a
> 2Mbps connection or whatever your line will support up to that speed.
> There is no specific usage allowance, but rather a vague policy that users
> who exceed a reasonable usage level in a persistent manner may trigger
> PlusNet into action. PlusNet's Marketing Director told us this could be up
> to 400GB per month on a 2Mbps line if used mainly off peak (which makes
> use of existing capacity and not increasing PlusNet's operational costs)
> but this was not made clear on the PlusNet FAQ"

I know that there has been a comment about 400Gb using off-peak ruling, but
until someone says "X amount" it's always going to be speculative.
The 200Gb i was mentioning was purely a figure that i plucked out of the air
as a "whoa! thats a lot" figure.

"Peter M" <us-(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed) s.net...
> On Thu, 28 Apr 2005 15:34:50 +0100, "Steven Campbell"
> <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
> >I see the new 2Mb service now costs "From £21.99" but has no note of any
> >download limit.
>
> Your past usage would fit in well. Only someone downloading a lot of the
> time (averaging full speed for about 5 hours or more per day) would be one
> they would want rid of, though doing that one month out of the blue would
> be within their accepted use, from posts by Plus.Net staff in p.s.c-f
>
> >I would imagine because the cost is advertised as "From" then Plusnet
must
> >be charging after a certain amount of data has been used. Even although
I
> >received an email last week saying they were abolishing their fair usage
> >policy!!
>
> >Confused? You bet I am.
>
> They had been planning the charge to reflect a download quota, but as of
> today the Premier accounts will have different charges for higher speeds.
> You need to use "Contact Us" to request a change to the 21.99 per month
> pricing, because they have yet to update the portal system to allow a
> 'downgrade' to the Premier package you want, without charging you 14.99.

Thanks everyone for the advice.
However I find it alarming that I won't be downgraded automatically or
indeed never received an email outlining my choices.
My exchange is quite rural so the chance of it making 4Mb or 8Mb are pretty
slim.
I had unsubscribed from this Newsgroup a while ago and only came back on
because a colleague was wanting some advice re broadband and I noticed a
couple of Plusnet posts about free speed increases.
I never visit the Plusnet home site and have never had an email from them
explaining the cost was being reduced.
So theoretically I could quite easily have been paying £29.99 not knowing
that others were legitimately getting the same service for £21.99. I wonder
how many other folk out there don't know the cost has reduced?

I remember something similar happening when they launched their premier
service. I was paying £31.99 a month for a bog standard service and only
stumbled across a post in this newsgroup talking about the benefits of their
Premier service. Turns out that I could move to the Premier service at a
reduced monthly cost and also have spam filtering for free (you had to pay
back then).

Once again Plusnet never informed me of any of this happening!!

Thanks again

Steven,

On 28 Apr 2005 22:39, "Steven Campbell" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>I never visit the Plusnet home site and have never had an email from them
>explaining the cost was being reduced.

Some people disliked their sending any e-mails at all, so they had to go to
an "opt in" scheme. The fact there's been a complete about-turn over the
FUP is perhaps one reason there has been less output from anyone at PN.

>So theoretically I could quite easily have been paying £29.99 not knowing
>that others were legitimately getting the same service for £21.99.

I suspect you'd find out much more if you were reading plusnet.service.
customer-feedback and the other plusnet.service.* newsgroups rather than
catching the odd post in this group. Seems to get an excess of PN comment
(and sometimes gets up the noses of people not using Plus.Net too :-)

>> Does anyone know if Plusnet will reduce my current fee £29.99
>> automatically to £21.99 if both accounts are identical.

Old Codger <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> Only if you ask them to. The £29.99 will get you free upgrade to 4 Mbps
> when available, provided your line will support it. If you downgrade to
> £21.99 it will cost you to get 4 Mbps and the subs will increase back to
> £29.99.

On the basis that 4MB is more than two months away (I haven't even got
my 2MB upgrade yet, sigh) you'll be able to recoup the GBP 14.99 regrade
fee anyway.

Chris