Plan help required please

Hi

I've been on plusnet for years (at least 5). I'm currently on Premier Option 1 paying about 22 quid before referrals. I've recently started bumping up against the usage limits so had a look on the website and as expected its all changed.

Have been initiated into the world of market 1 2 and 3 and I'm in a market 3 area. I THINK this means I should switch to unlimited, get a free wireless router and reduce my bills to 16 quid a month (before referrals).

I'd love a plusnet rep to respond and tell me that nothing else will change (I have a static subnet that I want to keep the same, wondering about any additional shaping etc that might come in). Any other issues I should be aware of before I hit the button?

Cheers

John

(incidently I wonder why they have the phone number on the upgrade page saying call if you want help - every sentance ended with the suggestion I go look at the website. This is INCREDIBLY irritating! My current package isn't even on the site so how can I compare? I would suggest changing the script to at least listen to a customers query before asking them to go away. I guess long gone are the days where Ian Wild would call himself to let me know my connection would drop briefly while he changed my IP then rang me back to tell me it was done! anyways, sorry, rant over).

Shaping will change. Check out the differences at http://www.kitz.co.uk/isp/plusnet_shapin...

If you are on BBYW Option 1 you also have the choice of moving to Option 2 or Option 3 or BBYW Pro without having the 18 month Minimum Term contract imposed on you. If you are paying £22 per month, it seems that you should have done this some time ago.

If you move to PlusNet Unlimited, you will have to accept an 18 month Minimum Term Contract. .... but watch this space ..... there is a mass rebellion taking place on the PlusNet Community Forum and you should wait for the dust to settle on that.

I'm probably being stupid but I can't find the details for those other options and "BBYW Pro" and couldn't see the option to upgrade to those on the site.

Just looking at the kitz shaping comparison tables and its pretty confusing but its confirming that what the CS rep told me is bull£$it

Search for BBYW on the PlusNet portal. The first result is the Product Guide which gives you the Features comparison table.

For details of the Throttling, go to Kitz' excellent site/

He cannot change to any BBYW option because he's on Premier - re-read his original post!

Hmmmmm .... Wht on earth is Premier Option 1???

Sorry, I didn't notice he Permier ...... I must work harder!

Premier Option 1

Your only option is to change to one of the new products with an 18 month contract, and check out the shaping comparsion link in the second post.

If my connection was in a market 3 exchange, I'd be looking at on of the LLU providers, O2 or BE probably, although your ref to a static subnet may be an issue for you.

(Im still on 2meg too!)

Yeah I have AOL, O2/Be, C&W / Bulldog, Orange, Pipex, Sky / Easynet, Talk Talk and Tiscali.
All recommendations gratefully recieved, as you can tell I've been out of the market for a while as I was a satisfied customer until I found out they're ripping me off!

My IP is an issue but to be honest, from what you guys have said it seems I'm paying above the odds, have been for some time and have missed the boat in getting onto a competitive product without taking out a 12 or 18 month contract. Its as if Plusnet WANT me to go - I see why so much fuss at the moment. As has been mentioned, forgoing the router would mean theres no costs theyre recouping - its just anti competitive.

I think I'll try some of the LLU lot and see who will give me a static IP.

No comment from any of the PN staff - so I'll edit the topic slightly and I'll ask again - why are you trying to lose a long term customer?

O2/Be seem to be flavour of the month, some are happy with Sky if they already have a tv subscription, Bulldog I haven't heard much of lately. AOL, Orange, Pipex, Talk Talk, and Tiscali would not be on the recommended list at all. Check out the forums.

Various cashbacks available via Quidco, TopCashBack etc, but before using, read their faqs first to make sure the transaction is properly tracked.

O2 apparently has £50 cashback for the next week, I think Be cashback is at £45, etc.

As per dieselglider's latest post, you should seriously consider O2 or Be.

Go to the O2 web site and put in your phone number and see what speed it forecasts for you. If it only offers you the O2 Access package then at the moment you don't want to know.

If it offers you O2 Standard, Premium or Pro then on the last two of those you can have a static IP. See this table.

I suggest that O2 is probably more your type of ISP than Be, though have a look there as well.

An important thing to do in either the O2 or Be forum on this site is to look for a recent post by MKD, then follow the tinyurl link in his sig to his excellent comparison of the two, and a guide to all the offers around at the moment.

For example, my connection speed since 1 Feb is 7568kbps. Below are my recent speed tests, and since 1 Feb I have only had 3 below 6155kbps. You can see two of them, the other was 6124.

20/02/09 17:19 6159.98 Kbps 969.41 Kbps O2 Standard
18/02/09 11:41 6166.48 Kbps 969.08 Kbps O2 Standard
16/02/09 23:37 6132.70 Kbps 968.73 Kbps O2 Standard
16/02/09 14:23 6166.41 Kbps 969.37 Kbps O2 Standard
15/02/09 20:23 6135.57 Kbps 958.43 Kbps O2 Standard
15/02/09 17:09 6159.74 Kbps 969.53 Kbps O2 Standard
11/02/09 22:06 6160.58 Kbps 969.50 Kbps O2 Standard
11/02/09 00:07 6166.23 Kbps 969.44 Kbps O2 Standard

I pay £7.34 a month and £10 once every 3 months on my O2 PAYG mobile, with 500 free minutes to any network from my house in the mobile topup month.

Edited by RobertoS (Sat 21-Feb-09 08:52:40)

Hi,

If you'd like to PM me a username and a suitable number to call you on on Monday I'll happily give you a call and discuss the options.

I am in a similar position to the OP.

I am on 'Premier Option One ADSL Max' and have been a Plusnet customer for almost five years. I would be interested in moving to unlimited but I am not prepared to sign the eighteen month agreement.

I do not require the wireless router etc. just a change of product.
Unfortunately I foolishly took advantage of the so called loyalty offer last November and reduced my fee�s by around £3.00 a month by signing up for another twelve months. If I had not done this I would have made an even bigger saving by signing up to the unlimited package now on offer, if only I had been prepared to agree to the eighteen month contract, which after five years I am not.

I think that when my present lock-in sentence is completed I will evade the smoke & mirrors of Plusnet altogether and move ISP, it is no longer the Plusnet I joined all those years ago and now I have retired if I can save a few pounds and get a similar service I will.

Again, if you want to give me a username and a number to call you on via PM I'll happily look at your account and see what I can do.

This looks like serious back-tracking and realisation of a major boo-boo!

I hope these posters get what they want, but what about all the other customers on Premier Option 1 who are in the same boat and don't frequent forums. I think Plusnet have been here before.

In reply to a post by wingco1:

I hope these posters get what they want, but what about all the other customers on Premier Option 1 who are in the same boat and don't frequent forums. I think Plusnet have been here before.

Yes, I didn't comment on the first one.

Now it starts to look like Retention Deals that are grossly unfair to people who don't know about them so just leave, and to the vast majority left behind who subsidise them. (Applying to many ISPs and mobile phone companies).

If something can be done for people who object to the rules, then the rules need changing.