If your a business - dont use Plusnet

Not only have they just refreshed their policy so you have a 12 month rolling contract (thats right no 30 days cacellation unlike other ISP's after the first year)

Now they have made sure that this policy is made clear, they have now started shaping (heavily = 300ms pings +) when you use vpn! I mean come on, how many business use vpn ?? yep now its all shaped!

Its not even a weird vpn, its standard PPTP vpn..


So, now PlusNet no longer want Business users due to the restrictions on VPN, you cannot leave either!

Tam,

Thanks for the heads up, but I'm not seeing pings like that.

I've just pinged 2 different PN connections from a Zen connection via VPN, and I'm seeing 50-70ms. Not blindingly fast, but usable.

Is this 12 month rolling contract retrospective? Have they changed the T&C's?

Yeah - shaping calmed down now, 5pm it was horried..!

Apparently it has always been 12month rolling, however staff didnt enforce it, however now it appears they are.

See this 3 page thread http://usergroup.plus.net/forum/index.php/topic,3293.0.html

Edited by deleted (Sun 08-Oct-06 22:40:51)

Where's RSharma when we need him!

IANAL .... but....

Is is not true that in English Law, the law of "Waiver" provides that if a contract or any part of a contract has not been enforced then the contract or part thereof is void and therefore not enforceable.

Since PlusNet admit that they have not enforced this ridiculous clause in the past, I don't believe that they can enforce it now.

This is a gem from Neil Armstrong:

"However it certainly is not clear enough on the website at present and we are going to rectify that straight away. The key thing is contract length has never previously been an issue - it's only an issue now because we have had too many network problems causing our customers pain and we then haven't managed our CSC well so that backlogs have appeared. That has then caused business customer dissatisfaction and the lack of clarity on contracts makes that dissatisfaction worse."

Are they admitting suddenly lots of business customers want to leave and that makes the issue of contract length very important for them?

http://usergroup.plus.net/forum/index.php/topic,3293.msg42411.html#msg42411

That thread is mind-boggling. How can PlusNet be so inept? rsharma will be along in a minute to tell us that they don't have a leg to stand on. Many business customers will have subscribed to PlusNet at a time when the rolling 12-month contract wasn't specified in the T&Cs. If the clause wasn't there then they can't be bound by it. What will count is the fact that many business accounts have been terminated at one month's notice.

A quick search reveals that the OFT has clearly stated (in relation to health clubs):

"A term in a fixed period contract which automatically commits the member to a
renewed fixed term unless early notice to cancel is given is likely to be considered
unfair by OFT."

It also says:

"a term that automatically extended the contract period and relied on the member

Business contracts need to be treated differently to consumer contracts (there AFAIK is some allowance for small businesses though) as businesses are deemed to be able to negotiate the terms of their contracts. This means many of the 'get-out' clauses like automatic rolling contracts may not be valid in this instance. Each business would need to seek legal advice from someone qualified to speak on business contract law and not consumer law.

Ok if thats true, thats one step too far. If its a new annual contract I expect some notification of that. I have now asked support what my cancelation fees will be, and if it turns out to be 1 years worth of money, I will be looking for an alternative home asap regardless. Anyone know who could do 8M/832 for my current price region?

AFAIK business accounts have allways been on 12 month rolling contracts, they just haven't enforced them until now. No I don't agree with what they are doing, but as they are business contracts it's going to be a lot harder for people to get out of them.

I have to say that I can't for the life of me understand why people are paying Plusnet the extra for a business account, they get virtualy no added benefit over a standard account. So why not get a standard account (from say Zen) then get reliable added services from an external source as required. Or get a business account from elsewhere with dedicated priority support.

I understand that at one time when the support was good in general it was probably good enough for business use but I still have to ask what was the extra money for.

Edited by adslp (Mon 09-Oct-06 08:55:58)

Just received a partial reply (seems a common occurence). Confirming it is 12 month annual! Not impressed. Waiting for a confirmation since my account was supposed to be a monthly contract.