Just left Plusnet after many years

I joined Plusnet before they were bought by BT. This was in the days when 512 kbps was the MOST you could get and only if the signal loss to the exchange was less than -60 dBM - we were on -58dBm. It would work well unless there was a thunderstorm in the neighbourhood!. I stuck with Plusnet through 2 house moves. I also had my telephone services from them and later my mobile phone.On my most recent house move I switched to FTTC as the estimated copper service was less than 3 Mbps. I was getting 34 Mbps on FTTC which was adequate.

Recent changes however started to concern me. Plusnet appear to be shedding services to other BT companies. The first step was wanting me to switch by mobile to EE at the "preferential discounted rate" of about £8 per month, slightly more than I was paying. Using a comparison site I found Lebara could provide me with what I need, and no contract, for under £4 per month.

For broadband I have my own domain for email and website - email was mapped to to Plusnet email addresses and the same domain mapping for my website. This worked well but I then heard that Plusnet were intending to drop web hosting and later email. I switched both my domain email and website to another host before this happened just in case. That is when I discovered it was no longer possible to raise a support ticket other than through Twitter. I did manage to get my email and website removed from Plusnet but only by going through their member's support forum where a friendly Plusnet Admin assisted me!

Over the years I had recommended many people to Plusnet and was benefitting from a very large discount as a consequence;

We were then in the situation where my 2 year contract was due to end and I got the distinct impression that impression that Plusnet were offloading all of their Internet services to EE. With the impending ceasing of copper connections to the premises (I was already on FTTC for broadband) I looked into what alternatives were available for both voice and data. I narrowed this down to two alternatives (Swish FTTP and Vodafone FTTC). BOTH were slightly cheaper than my discounted rate from Plusnet.

I eventually went to a full FTTP from Swish (who had some technical problems installing it but that is another story) and it works well so far. The final step - telephone number porting was completed today. The monthly costs are actually slightly cheaper than the heavily discounted rate from Plusnet.

My contract with Plusnet ran until 9 February so the timing was well planned

The biggest surprise however was a demand fo £4.15 for early termination of the contract. I received this at the same time as the number porting request was received by Plusnet! Up until that point I did not inform Plusnet about the change - this was not yet necessary as my contract had over two weeks left before it needed to be renewed or cancelled. My voice port completed today.

I contacted Plusnet for an explanation for this £4.15 and am still waiting! I did cancel my Direct Debit and they seem to have taken this as confirmation that I am leaving. £4.15 is not a large amount, and will not be paid, but it was annoying and perhaps an indication that Plusnet are no longer the company they once were!

I am now getting 160 Mbps for internet and telephone and my monthly cost is LOWER than Plusnet even after applying their referral discount of about £10 per month. I have changed my phone tariff basis to pay per call from a fixed price as this lowers the cost. Allowing for tis I am paying abot £5 per month LESS than I was paying to Plusnet.

I think you will find that porting your phone number triggers a cease on the line, both phone and broadband. As that was done before the end of the contract they are charging you the early termination fee. I suspect it all fits with the Ts&Cs that you signed up for. Personally I would have left the DD and paid the early termination. If you don't pay that charge then you could ultimately end up with bailiffs at the door and a charge far greater than it currently is.

It will be somewhat more difficult now to pay it than it would have been with the DD. Cancelling the DD is not what triggered the cease, moving the phone number will have done that.

Edited by ian72 (Tue 04-Feb-25 09:05:40)

I have already paid the full amount due until the end of my contract. If I had left organising a switch until after my contract ended I would have been paying a MUCH higher charge for another month, How is one supposed to leave one provider and join another without a break in the service? Porting a number I was told can take 4 weeks. The number port was only two weeks before the end of my contract which I had no intention of renewing.

Furthermore I had an email stating that due to their error I had not been informed about cancellation fees and any cancellation fees would be waived because of that.

I have a "live" ticket open on this subject stating that they would review it and contact me on Monday this week. They have not yet bothered to do so..

Do you really want your credit rating to be impacted with a non payment default which will last for 6 years for the princely sum of £4.15?

We can argue about whether this should have happened, but to write up a lengthy post, open tickets with Plusnet, deal with Direct Debits etc for less than £5 strikes me as a very poor use of time.

In reply to a post by Nervous:

Do you really want your credit rating to be impacted with a non payment default which will last for 6 years for the princely sum of £4.15?

The guy says he has paid to the end of his contract. I don't think anyone here should be doing Credit Rating bullying on behalf of Plusnet.

My understanding is that early termination charges should not exceed the price of seeing the contract out until the end. Sounds like PN refunded the remaining days on migration day and then billed the ETC, but without seeing the final bill I can't say for sure.

This has now been settled. I had to phone them again and I have now received a confirmation email! that no cancellation charges are due!.

Plusnet have confirmed that no cancellation change was due as I was fully paid up until the end of my contract and in any case they had already waived the right to charge termination charges due to an earlier error on their part on the terms of the contract I had with them.

I know £4.15 is a small sum but is a cumulative growing annoyance with PlusNet that made me dig my heels in! I knew that I did not legally owe them any money.

I now have my existing phone number ported with my new supplier and much faster broadband with FTTP for a slightly lower monthly cost than my Plusnet "heavily discounted rate"- discount due to a large number of historic referrals amounting to about £10 per month.

In reply to a post by steelej02:

The biggest surprise however was a demand fo £4.15 for early termination of the contract.

I got a small charge like that when I left Plusnet by porting my number away too, even though I was out of contract.

The reason was there's a notice period for terminations - I think 14 days. The notice was considered as served when they got the notification that the number port had been ordered, and this completed a few days later, so I ended up paying for the remaining period of the 14 day notice period which ran into the next month that I hadn't already paid for.

I suspect these incidents originate from PN's crazy accounts system. I have just renewed for two years without problems, this is the first time in many years I have renewed without having to ring to have discounts etc renewed as part of the renewal deal agreed by phone. The staff are great, the system isn't!

I did shop around for a basic BB package but PN's price was £1 less than my original rate and on a par with other budget providers. Besides, did I really want to move to TalkTalk? All will go up next month courtesy Ofcom of course.