Referrals gone after my PN account was closed

First the background; I sold my house and moved out on 1/7/11, I tried to retain my PN land line phone number to automatically forward calls to my mobile phone, but was advised that it would not be possible. Discussed it all with PN and suspended my account until the end (ish) December 2011, in the hope that I would swiftly find another home and simply restart my PN account at my new address

Subsequently I spoke to someone from PN in December who explained that due to OFCOM rules that PN would have to close my account at a pre-agreed cost of £25.00 to cover the suspension. Consequently it seems that I have "lost" the value of my referrals worth roughly £8.00 a month.

Seems to be a little daft to me, as PN have effectively saved themselves the cost of my referrals whilst retaining the customers, so far; there again maybe PN are shrewd folk. What incentive is there for me to refer PN again, now that my account is closed?

Although the account - the suspended bit - is closed it will have (should have) been downgraded to PAYG and you will continue to receive the referrals.

Attempted to login using my account name and password but get this response.....

Invalid username or password. Please try again.

Looks like its a closed account and I specifically pointed out, to the PN rep that I had referrals.

Flagged up

Thanks for your help

Hi xon,

Any chance you could PM me a ticket ID or your username please? I'd be happy to take a look and see what I can do.

When downgraded to the PAYG Account, this would have been a "free" account which does not get referal allowances!

In reply to a post by Oldjim:

Although the account - the suspended bit - is closed it will have (should have) been downgraded to PAYG and you will continue to receive the referrals.

It doesn't generate them but can receive them
http://community.plus.net/forum/index.php/topic,9357...

Edited by deleted (Tue 31-Jan-12 13:35:33)

Thank you all for your helpful ideas and input. Matthew has a PM.

Thanks for that - I've reactivated the incorrectly destroyed account and changed it to a PAYG dial account for you, and confirmed that all the referrals are still active.

I believe this will get paid into the bank account details we have already (your DD is still active); I'd recommend keeping that up as we've nothing to charge you for any more and it does make the referral payments easier.

Hope that helps, and sorry the account was destroyed in the first place.

In reply to a post by Oldjim:

It doesn't generate them but can receive them
http://community.plus.net/forum/index.php/topic,9357...

Well I certainly didn't get mine!!!

Well I suggest you contact them and find out why

In reply to a post by Oldjim:

Well I suggest you contact them and find out why

In principle, I like your suggestion!

However, I think I've had my share of PN this week!

I've just been trying to transfer back in & it has been a disaster! When I check the Tickets, there has been over 40 tickets raised concerning this transfer! Even now, although I've eventually got connection, I'm only operating with ADSL-Max, rather than the ordered ADSL2 - I've got to wait another 2 weeks for ADSL2!

In reply to a post by johnjburness:

I've just been trying to transfer back in & it has been a disaster! When I check the Tickets, there has been over 40 tickets raised concerning this transfer! Even now, although I've eventually got connection, I'm only operating with ADSL-Max, rather than the ordered ADSL2 - I've got to wait another 2 weeks for ADSL2!

If you are asking for ADSL2 in your tickets you will probably be causing mayhem. Do you really mean it?

The normal migration would be to ADSL2+. I doubt if they have an option in the ordering system for ADSL2 so could be getting in a tangle trying to organise it for you.

Not sure why you'd think that? The order to upgrade the line to ADSL2 has already been placed, and was done so by our support staff off the back of a ticket rather than with intervention from any of us who post on here, though I admit I did head to the account with the intention of placing an order.

I'll check with the agent who placed the migration order as to why it was done onto 20CN.

Regarding the ADSL2+/ADSL2 thing, it's true that we don't have an option to specify the protocol on ordering but that's usually governed by the router anyway - I believe that's set when the router syncs with the exchange.

Thanks Matthew I have logged in and updated the details as you suggested

I have one related question, which is, if I refer someone else now that I am on a PAYG account will it still attract more referral fee(s)?

Thanks again

Not sure why you'd think that?

Coffee time again Matthew?

Note that I am not criticising Plusnet. Exactly the opposite.

I am pointing out to the poster that there is no ADSL2 product as such available from BT Wholesale and if Plusnet staff are trying to satisfy such a request they may justifiably flounder.

ADSL2 can indeed be forced on a WBC/WBMC connection. From the ISP side that is done by changing the BRAS Profile, (not to be confused with IP Profile which is one parameter within the BRAS profile), on a live ADSL2+ setup. In exactly the same way as you can set the line to G.DMT, which is what it seems to be at on at initial switch to WBC/WBMC from an ADSL-only DSLAM.

The end user can also, as you say, force an ADSL2 profile if the BRAS setting is ADSL2+, by altering his modem setting. What he cannot do is obtain an ADSL2+ connection in the converse setup. Neither end can obtain a connection on a higher protocol than the other end is set to.

The order to upgrade the line to ADSL2 has already been placed

I believe you mean ADSL2+ . Am I wrong and that there is a procedure and product for ADSL2?

I left PN about 5-6 years ago and my referrals still hit as a DD coming in once every couple of months!

In reply to a post by xon:

First the background; I sold my house and moved out on 1/7/11, I tried to retain my PN land line phone number to automatically forward calls to my mobile phone, but was advised that it would not be possible. Discussed it all with PN and suspended my account until the end (ish) December 2011, in the hope that I would swiftly find another home and simply restart my PN account at my new address

Subsequently I spoke to someone from PN in December who explained that due to OFCOM rules that PN would have to close my account at a pre-agreed cost of £25.00 to cover the suspension. Consequently it seems that I have "lost" the value of my referrals worth roughly £8.00 a month.

Seems to be a little daft to me, as PN have effectively saved themselves the cost of my referrals whilst retaining the customers, so far; there again maybe PN are shrewd folk. What incentive is there for me to refer PN again, now that my account is closed?

Ahhh... interesting. In all honesty my confusion came about because I couldn't imagine thinking of ADSL2 and ADSL2+ as separate products... so I didn't I'm sure the same goes for other staff here (though I realise now I've said that, something is going to come along and make me eat those words... ah well).

The way we see it, there's two networks - 20CN and 21CN. You can order both ADSL1 (up to 8Mb) and ADSL2 (up to 20Mb - yes I know technically this should be ADSL2+ but, well, read on) on the 21CN, beyond that we don't draw much of a distinction as there's been no real need so far. There aren't any separate ordering or faults processes that distinguish between ADSL2 and ADSL2+, after all.

Ooh just before I post I should state we've had questions asking about the differences between the router connecting on ADSL2 and ADSL2+ and realise either can be better depending on line conditions, but this doesn't come into play when ordering or diagnosing faults as per above.

Best to standardise on calling it ADSL2+. For starters, ADSL2 is only up to 12Mbps. In my opinion it isn't a good idea either for ISP staff to use incorrect terminology .

What is more important is that it is also usually more stable than ADSL2+, particularly when the attenuation is around 50dB and above, where as you will know the sync will be around 6Mbps or lower. So no harm done by setting it down to G.992.3 at the exchange end.

As there are not fully-explained changes in attenuation associated as well with the three protocols, on such a length or longer line the best option can be G.992.3, (ADSL2), then G.992.1 or G.DMT, (ADSL), and worst of all G.992.5, (ADSL2+). Many people on O2/Be buy replacement routers partly for the capability to alter it down from ADSL2+, as the O2 and Be boxes cannot be tweaked in this respect.

The attenuation change seems to be present with many but not all combinations of DSLAM/MSAN line card and customer modem/router. It often rises by 3dB when going to ADSL2+, but stays at the same lower figure on the other two. When it rises by 3dB the sync speed of course falls a bit from what was expected.

Edit - the first G.992.3 was typoed as G.993.2, which of course is VDSL2 and incorrect here. Thanks Bald_Eagle for the heads-up.

Edited by RobertoS (Wed 01-Feb-12 19:09:01)