Fibre Extra for a Fiver...

Don't get me wrong, love the idea of offers for getting customers, but wonder whether someone in marketing considers how it looks from viewpoint of long-standing customers.

Saw elsewhere that PN is offering a nice money saver for new customers, and seeing the PN page, it looks like it is only open to new customers, not existing customers upgrading from slower speed... (which got me a touch annoyed)

Of course, I can understand some marketing logic, but for those whose exchanges were due to be FTTC enabled at the end of September, and whose dates have moved back to end of December, it's also a bit of kick in the teeth - they may want to take up this deal but I don't think any order would be accepted.

Personally, it looks like my best option would be to close my existing account (and get a new ADSL service with someone else) and downgrade to PAYG with PN (so I continue to get referral credit) and then open a fresh FTTC account (though I'd lose the fixed IP I've had for around 2.5 years, which would be a pain, and I'd have an added fee to get another fixed IP).

Why would I be interested in getting this at a fiver? Well, for a start I'd be taking a new phone line so it would offset most of the install cost, but wouldn't anyone be dumb to ignore a saving of 45 quid. It's better than the cashback that one can get with Quidco, even.

Of course, unless it's a typo (probably!) someone at PN ought to change the ending date from November 2013 to November 2012 - unless it really is 2013 [which would be nice for me and many others wanting to upgrade].

On a secondary note, there are some errors on the page. The footnote with a single asterisk explains the cost of broadband in Market 1/2/3 areas, while the upper part of the page appears to have been written with other footnotes in mind. Specifically, * and ** are concerning the Talk E+w/e or Talk Anytime products, and the pricing at the very top shows ** (which doesn't appear, but would already be explaining Talk Anytime terms). On looking again, the Phone section does have * and ** but maybe the heading 'Phone' should have them both alongside it rather than only showing the info when section expanded.

I'd really like the offer extended, of course, perhaps to all those on Merseyside (as I was planning to do some local promotion!) but getting the end date corrected is probably all I can hope for. (If 2013 is correct, best let other sites know, of course.)

Try ringing cancellations/retentions and see what they might offer.

In reply to a post by ultra:

Why would I be interested in getting this at a fiver? Well, for a start I'd be taking a new phone line so it would offset most of the install cost, but wouldn't anyone be dumb to ignore a saving of 45 quid. It's better than the cashback that one can get with Quidco, even.

In fairness if you order online you get both the cash back and the offer lol so really its a saving of almost 85 quid this is what im doing when i place order end of this week.

In reply to a post by Oliver341:

Try ringing cancellations/retentions and see what they might offer.

In fairness to PN all consumer services give better offers to new customers. TBH I too find it irritating that one is constantly cancelling and switching to keep prices to a reasonable level for a pensioner.

Meldrew

I'd be taking a new phone line so it would offset most of the install cost

?

Why, and what's the installation cost of that?

Or are you moving house as well?

ANd your sig has been puzzling me for a while. 2012, 10Mbps?

Edited by RobertoS (Tue 06-Nov-12 15:21:11)

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

I'd be taking a new phone line so it would offset most of the install cost

?

Why, and what's the installation cost of that?

Or are you moving house as well?

ANd your sig has been puzzling me for a while. 2012, 10Mbps?

if you take line rental the knock £50 off the install (basically the fibre install charge)

ash

Edited by acpsd775 (Tue 06-Nov-12 16:01:30)

In reply to a post by acpsd775:

if you take line rental the knock £50 off the install (basically the fibre install charge)

Errrr, yes. What's that got to do with my question to the OP?

Why, and what's the installation cost of that?

I need an extra phone line. PN charges about 50 quid (for the phone line, with FTTC install costs being absorbed), Primus about 60 (plus PN install cost for getting FTTC BB on new line).

Caller Display costs about the same, line rental about the same (Primus has no calls included on the account I have at present, so a bit cheaper), but my wish is for new line + number and much higher speed to be in an upstairs room, whereas current fittings mean the existing phone line comes in at one place (where it would be messy to take upstairs) and is extended to another place (skirting board level under the TV in the lounge) and I want to reduce clutter and computer gear downstairs.

My plan had been to upgrade from approx 10 Mbps PN connection on downstairs line to a faster connection upstairs, keeping my account name (and with it, the fixed IP, though must admit to not having checked if that would be easy/possible).

Then, to have a dynamic IP (and no traffic limits outside 'true' office hours), to use Claranet SOHO on the downstairs line, using a timer to disconnect the 'off peak' router HomePlug from being used by anything in the house during the time when Clara only allows 5 GB/month of data.

I've had two lines at home before, and even two lines and Home Highway. I recently cancelled the Three data only account as I was quickly using the 15 GB allowance via the wireless router sharing access to it (and didn't want another 2 years lock in... served me well for 4 years, and reminds me time to change my sig)


However, if I did 'upgrade' I would get no cashback and (even if this current offer went into 2013) as I would not be a 'new customer' then I'd be ineligible for the 45 pounds in savings. I suppose that even downgrading to PAYG with current account and creating a brand new username, PN might argue me not being a new customer (despite this being a new phone line and me paying them nothing each month on the downgraded-to-PAYG account, indeed, the reverse being the case because of referrals) and thus exclude the 3 months offer. So that's the story.

... your sig has been puzzling me for a while. 2012, 10Mbps?

That's the current approximate speed for my connection, not a product as such, just reflecting the situation nowadays, just as the speeds I had in 2010/2011 were from 0 to 160 kbps to around 3 Mbps (when Openreach replaced a dropwire because insulation had perished) and then down to under 2 Mbps when ADSL 2+ came along, because I was several km from the nearest exchange.

Of course in the earlier years those speeds were 500 kbps, 1 Mbps and then 2 Mbps and when I lived somewhere else altogether (and where I had been using HH plus ISDN card in one PC and an ISDN router).

Edited by deleted (Tue 06-Nov-12 21:05:14)

Hmmmm .

I've had two lines at home before, and even two lines and Home Highway.

You mean you had the two lines because of Home Highway? (As I did on my office ISDN2 setup). So it all came in on the one dropwire. Am I right in thinking you do not have a second dropwire?

A second line will normally be supplied using another pair in the dropwire. So your entry point to the building will be the same unless you get the second one wired from there (externally?) to a more desirable point of entry.

That will introduce a nasty extra lump of phone wire. The Home Wiring Solution with exterior grade cable sounds like what you need, with hopefully the phone wired through it as well.

Edited by RobertoS (Tue 06-Nov-12 21:14:45)

No, two lines and Home Highway. At that house, the wiring came up into the porch area, no overhead cables on the estate, and then into the [integral] garage. Two phone sockets were side by side in one room, HH was on wall in another room altogether.

I am fairly sure the HH was from a separate cable but it is years ago and I hardly remember all the stuff in the garage / workshop (I don't drive, so it was an additional room, albeit unheated, and with little natural light most of the time.