Plusnet pricing

I'm a little confused by the pricing on the Plusnet website. It states
that you can get the service, with a free modem and one year contract
with free setup. But later on it states that if you cancel after a
year, you'll owe them the cost of the modem plus 58.75 less 11.75 for
every year that you stay with them. Hence it looks to me like a lot
more than just 1 year contract if you have to pay to migrate.

Likewise there are dropdown boxes for options to pay 11.75 or 58.75 on
startup and these seem to give no benefit at all.

If someone from plusnet is here, perhaps they could comment.

Geoff

Geoff wrote:
> I'm a little confused by the pricing on the Plusnet website. It states
> that you can get the service, with a free modem and one year contract
> with free setup. But later on it states that if you cancel after a
> year, you'll owe them the cost of the modem plus 58.75 less 11.75 for
> every year that you stay with them. Hence it looks to me like a lot
> more than just 1 year contract if you have to pay to migrate.
>
> Likewise there are dropdown boxes for options to pay 11.75 or 58.75 on
> startup and these seem to give no benefit at all.
>
> If someone from plusnet is here, perhaps they could comment.
>
> Geoff

Hi there,

Lets firstly assume you choose the 'Free Activation and Modem' Offer.

You have the choice of signing up to an annual or monthly contract. The
monthlyl contract incurs an additional £11.75 surcharge.

If you choose an annual contract and decide to leave within the first 12
months, then you are contracted to pay the remainder of your 12 months
subscription costs.

If you choose a monthly contract and leave within the first 12 months
then we just require 30 days notice.

In addition to the above, and assuming you opted for the activation and
modem offer, you would be asked to pay back a proportion of the setup
fees should you leave within the first 5 years service.

These fees are detailed here:-

http://www.plus.net/residential/broa...reesetup.shtml

Despite the above, you are still only bound to your contract for a month
or a year dependent on what you opt for.

--
|Bob Pullen Broadband Solutions for
|Support Home & Business @
|PlusNet plc. www.plus.net
+------ PlusNet - The smarter way to Internet! -----

On 24 May 2005 13:05, Geoff <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>It states that you can get the service, with a free modem and one year
>contract with free setup. But later on it states that if you cancel
>after a year, you'll owe them the cost of the modem plus 58.75 less
>11.75 for every year that you stay with them. Hence it looks to me
>like a lot more than just 1 year contract if you have to pay to migrate.

I'd suggest it as a 'deferred payment' which reduces over time...

I've complained in the plusnet.service.customer-feedback group that when
putting a graphic or description of 'Free' the implication is something
other than what is explained in the smaller print on a different page,
that their offer is "You Stay, We Pay". Personally I think it is quite
misleading, but some comments from some other customers seem to think
that it is acceptable:

"a fairly standard type of offer in UK retail - similar in a way to
loyalty type cards in supermarkets - and boils down to 'Stick with us
and you save money'. Nothing world shattering, and the use of the
word 'free' in such circumstances is acceptable."

"To me that is genuinely free. There are plenty of worse "free" offers
around. Buy this, get that free, spend £100, get £2 worth of goods
free... None of these are free, but perfectly legals to advertise as
being free. Plusnets offer IS free, you just have to abide by the
terms, which are given up front..."

On the other hand, a few agreed this was not acceptable.

"Free over 5 years" would be more honest and upfront.

"it says there's "no catch". Yes there is a catch, the catch is that
you have to stay for 5 years. And I have to agree that 5 years is
rather excessive, most ISP's will give you free activation if you
stay for 12 months, and let's face it, how many people are going to
stay in the same house on the same broadband package for 5 years ?"

"I have to say this has taken me by surprise - I migrated to PlusNet
with a £14.99 charged waived if I stay a year. That's fine, prefectly
normal and acceptable, but FIVE YEARS for setup charges to go away?"

Someone else posted:

"More to the point, if they just said "free" in their adverts without
mentioning the conditions (and indeed quite a few of the pages on the
PN website do this), the ASA would have something to say about it.
Perhaps this is one of the reasons why PN doesn't advertise? I'm also
pretty certain the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts regulations
takes a dim view of "free" offers where the conditions are unclear
or not made obvious.

A 5 year lock in period is ridiculous anyway. 5 years ago FRIACO and
ADSL were both very new and experimental. Redhotant, Liberty Surf and
Breathe were some of the bigger players and they promptly went bust. ...
Who can say what the broadband market will be like in 5 years time?
With things like ADSL2+ and 21CN it is likely to be very different."

That last one did cause a response from Plus.Net, as it went on to
mention ADSL2...

"The five years isn't a "lock-in" you can leave at any time. We are just
giving another option to customers who move house. We know that the cost
of moving house is a barrier and we've come up with something to try and
help."


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On Tue, 24 May 2005 14:38:51 +0100, Peter M <us-(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>On 24 May 2005 13:05, Geoff <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>>It states that you can get the service, with a free modem and one year
>>contract with free setup. But later on it states that if you cancel
>>after a year, you'll owe them the cost of the modem plus 58.75 less
>>11.75 for every year that you stay with them. Hence it looks to me
>>like a lot more than just 1 year contract if you have to pay to migrate.
>
>I'd suggest it as a 'deferred payment' which reduces over time...
>
>I've complained in the plusnet.service.customer-feedback group that when
>putting a graphic or description of 'Free' the implication is something
>other than what is explained in the smaller print on a different page,
>that their offer is "You Stay, We Pay". Personally I think it is quite
>misleading, but some comments from some other customers seem to think
>that it is acceptable:
>
>"a fairly standard type of offer in UK retail - similar in a way to
> loyalty type cards in supermarkets - and boils down to 'Stick with us
> and you save money'. Nothing world shattering, and the use of the
> word 'free' in such circumstances is acceptable."
>
>"To me that is genuinely free. There are plenty of worse "free" offers
> around. Buy this, get that free, spend £100, get £2 worth of goods
> free... None of these are free, but perfectly legals to advertise as
> being free. Plusnets offer IS free, you just have to abide by the
> terms, which are given up front..."
>
>On the other hand, a few agreed this was not acceptable.
>
> "Free over 5 years" would be more honest and upfront.
>
>"it says there's "no catch". Yes there is a catch, the catch is that
> you have to stay for 5 years. And I have to agree that 5 years is
> rather excessive, most ISP's will give you free activation if you
> stay for 12 months, and let's face it, how many people are going to
> stay in the same house on the same broadband package for 5 years ?"
>

Just to be absolutely clear on this matter, if you have a Broadband service
from PlusNet, decide to agree to stay within them for a year, thus paying £50
+ VAT connection fee, but not taking their modem "offer", I assume you may
migrate to another ISP after one year without paying any "leaving" fees. Is
this true or false?

David Bradley
>"I have to say this has taken me by surprise - I migrated to PlusNet
> with a £14.99 charged waived if I stay a year. That's fine, prefectly
> normal and acceptable, but FIVE YEARS for setup charges to go away?"
>
>Someone else posted:
>
>"More to the point, if they just said "free" in their adverts without
> mentioning the conditions (and indeed quite a few of the pages on the
> PN website do this), the ASA would have something to say about it.
> Perhaps this is one of the reasons why PN doesn't advertise? I'm also
> pretty certain the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts regulations
> takes a dim view of "free" offers where the conditions are unclear
> or not made obvious.
>
> A 5 year lock in period is ridiculous anyway. 5 years ago FRIACO and
> ADSL were both very new and experimental. Redhotant, Liberty Surf and
> Breathe were some of the bigger players and they promptly went bust. ...
> Who can say what the broadband market will be like in 5 years time?
> With things like ADSL2+ and 21CN it is likely to be very different."
>
>That last one did cause a response from Plus.Net, as it went on to
>mention ADSL2...
>
> "The five years isn't a "lock-in" you can leave at any time. We are just
> giving another option to customers who move house. We know that the cost
> of moving house is a barrier and we've come up with something to try and
> help."

Thank you to the PlusNet support team for their quick response.

It is a refreshing honesty to see that they detail what the costs are,
rather than saying 'free' without qualifying it. However, a number of
other ISPs do seem to offer 12 month contracts and free modem setup
without the requirement to pay back anything if they cancel after 12
months. For example, Demon, Virgin.net, Eclipse etc..

Geoff

On Tue, 24 May 2005 13:53:26 +0100, someone purporting to be PlusNet
Support Team <(E-Mail Removed)_> wrote:

> In addition to the above, and assuming you opted for the [free] activation
> and modem offer, you would be asked to pay back a proportion of the setup
> fees should you leave within the first 5 years service.

If you cancel within the first year, PlusNet will demand £58.75 for the
activation. For every year you stay they will reduce that by £11.75.

If you also choose to take a modem as part of the offer there will be an
additional cancellation fee of £25 in the first year and this will reduce
by £5 for each year that you stay.

I believe this will leave a very nasty taste in the mouths of some PlusNet
customers and make it less likely they will ever return.

john

"JohnT" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news(E-Mail Removed)...
> On Tue, 24 May 2005 13:53:26 +0100, someone purporting to be
PlusNet
> Support Team <(E-Mail Removed)_> wrote:
>
> > In addition to the above, and assuming you opted for the [free]
activation
> > and modem offer, you would be asked to pay back a proportion of
the setup
> > fees should you leave within the first 5 years service.
>
> If you cancel within the first year, PlusNet will demand £58.75
for the
> activation. For every year you stay they will reduce that by
£11.75.
>
> If you also choose to take a modem as part of the offer there will
be an
> additional cancellation fee of £25 in the first year and this will
reduce
> by £5 for each year that you stay.
>
> I believe this will leave a very nasty taste in the mouths of some
PlusNet
> customers and make it less likely they will ever return.

I'd say it'll put a lot of 'potential' customers off too.
It's put me off em altogether.

On 24 May 2005 13:53, PlusNet Support Team <(E-Mail Removed)_> wrote:

>Despite the above, you are still only bound to your contract for a month
>or a year dependent on what you opt for.

It's the 'Free' word which causes this to be another black mark against
Plus.Net. I saw mention of the new low prices and suggested there be a
news item on one of the websites, but it resulted in a comment from the
person I contacted that because of the 'hidden' nature of the deferred
charges, they would not include an item (I think it was something to
do with waiving charges for someone keeping their account but moving
home... another ISP offers to pay the activation fee, and I saw that
Plus.Net had [perhaps the same day as I saw the other news item] plans
to offer customers the same type of incentive to stay, but of course in
the case of someone moving, they may choose to switch to another ISP who
offers free activation and has no further fees after the first 12 months!

I did try to locate the response from the news editor, but cannot find it
as I probably just deleted it as a 'lost cause'. Seems like Plus.Net is
falling into a public relations black hole with what could at best be a
series of 'poor communications'... I won't write what the worst could
be as a way of describing things... Peter Morgan.


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On 24 May 2005 15:18, David Bradley <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>Just to be absolutely clear on this matter, if you have a Broadband service
>from PlusNet, decide to agree to stay within them for a year, thus paying £50
>+ VAT connection fee, but not taking their modem "offer", I assume you may
>migrate to another ISP after one year without paying any "leaving" fees.
>Is this true or false?

True. If you pay the other 11.75 you could leave after a month's notice, as
they also have an option for monthly contract (70.50 instead of 58.75).


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Point your MX record to mx.runbox.com and use POP/IMAP...

On the Tue, 24 May 2005 15:50:01 +0100, =?iso-8859-1?B?R/jxevhs4w==?= <T
o p @ S e c r e t . c o m> uttered forth the following...
>
> I'd say it'll put a lot of 'potential' customers off too.
> It's put me off em altogether.
>
>
Why because you expect things for free?