In reply to a post by 961a:

Is it possible to get a refund on annual line rent when moving away because of these price rises?

Officially no, although I believe it has happened in exceptional circumstances. Given that your line rental won't actually increase for the duration of the annual payment you are on pretty shaky ground and the broadband prices aren't increasing anyway, apart from the termination charge, unless I've missed something.

Edited by kasg (Fri 03-Jul-15 10:42:16)

In reply to a post by kasg:

In reply to a post by 961a:

Is it possible to get a refund on annual line rent when moving away because of these price rises?

Officially no, although I believe it has happened in exceptional circumstances. Given that your line rental won't actually increase for the duration of the annual payment you are on pretty shaky ground and the broadband prices aren't increasing anyway, apart from the termination charge, unless I've missed something.

I suppose it also depends on wether it will still have a detrimental affect during the contract... so if the LRS ends after 12 months on an 18 month contract then I would see it that the contract isn't as promised, so PLusnet could allow the customer to leave penalty free at the end of the contract or now and refund the equivelents costs for the remainder of LRS..

Precisely. Those on LRS aren't affected by the rise until the end of their term, and can go anyway then.

Not only that, but if an LRS line is moved elsewhere, say after 8 months, what refund would the customer expect even if they could have one? The answer would have to be the LRS amount paid minus the sum of the cost of 8 months on full rate and 4 months of early termination fees.

LRS by definition being a discount for taking and paying for 12 full months.

The problems here are very poor broadband speeds and the increased costs of voice calls.

The fact that the annual line rent saver has only recently been renewed is the pain

What I will venture is that the discount on LRS is now so small that in future it should not be taken to avoid the tie in it creates

Well if you are affected now then I would fight for the equivalent LRS refunded...

Bringing speed issues into will just delay things as they will want to investigate or just keep you hanging even.

If the calls cost changes will affect you then approach it from that angle and say you want a refund for the remaining months left.

its controversial in my view, LRS is a strange one.

LRS customers still have the price rises of calls and extras to deal with. Plusnet will say its non refundable, ofcom will try to stay out of it like wimps, but my personal view is if you pay for any extras which are still paid monthly and especially if you use the line for outgoing chargeable calls then its a detrimental change and the non refunding of LRS counts as a penalty.

This sadly may need a court to decide unless plusnet pay people off silently when threatened.

I dont know if I would have bothered to challenge plusnet or not if sky didnt give me £60 credit.

Edited by Chrysalis (Fri 03-Jul-15 17:42:23)

In reply to a post by mlmclaren:

The issue is that yes Landline Phone's are barely used anymore... with more and more people opting to plug them out as paying for calls package when one's mobile contract now has Unlimited Minutes and on most networks the sound quality is so much more superior to a house phone.

The other issue with landlines is that as there primary use now is DSL and if theres issues with the cables to and from the exchange or cabinets then it costs to repair or replace those cables.

So no landlines are not being used any less...

I think we are all being conned to be honest, the telecom companies come out with all this extra they offering and they know full well that most people will not use it.
i remember when BT first gave us free calls and it made big headlines, yet the line rental went up to pay of it and still going up year by year,

I wish now I stayed with the provider I was with a put up with the problems for a few more months. at least there was no line rental to keep putting up.

Line rental is a con and Ofcom does nothing about it, but then, that is normal for Ofcom.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Precisely. Those on LRS aren't affected by the rise until the end of their term, and can go anyway then.

Not only that, but if an LRS line is moved elsewhere, say after 8 months, what refund would the customer expect even if they could have one? The answer would have to be the LRS amount paid minus the sum of the cost of 8 months on full rate and 4 months of early termination fees.

LRS by definition being a discount for taking and paying for 12 full months.

That's not the case for everyone.

I'm on a 24-month contract, so only half of that is covered by my existing LRS.

Not quite sure what someone in my situation is expected to do re "if you do decide to leave because of these changes, we won't apply any early termination charges."

I guess I could either -
A) Ask them if I can renew LRS for the remaining twelve months now, at current prices
or
B) Tell them I'm giving them notice that I wish to leave without penalty when my current LRS runs out in December

Is the 24 months from when you joined round about the beginning of 2014? When did you take out the LRS?

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Is the 24 months from when you joined round about the beginning of 2014? When did you take out the LRS?

Renewed my existing Plusnet broadband contract in December 2014, taking a 24-month option.

At the same time took LRS for 12 months at £155.88

So I have about 6 months left on the LRS but 18 months left on the broadband contract...