Moving House Rant

Afternoon,

Just thought I would vent a little after having tried to arrange for my broadband account to be moved to a new house. This kind of fits neatly in with the existing versus new customer post, as it shows just how badly treated we are for being existing customers. Anyway.....

After waiting 10 minutes for someone in customer services to pick up the phone - and a shocking line to India it was as well (but that's another matter). I asked about moving my account to a new line.

No problem - that'll be £60 please.

Hang on according to the website the fee is waived if you are in a contract (or so I thought from reading it). But that's for new contracts only, if you're on an existing contract then you'll just have to pay. Damn!

But wait! If you have an old contract, and you promise to stay for 18 months the fee will be waived. Or so the website says. But unfortunately this doesn't seem to have reached the ears of Customer Services, as they are adamant that it's either pay the £60 or you can always cancel, and go with someone else.

I know that there is a £20 to cancel your account, but at the moment that seems like it would be money well spent.

Rant over, thank you for listening.
Dave

Hi Dave,

I'd be grateful if you could PM me your account username so I could have a quick look.

Ultimately - It costs us £60 to move your broadband from one property to another, which we would either request payment for upfront, or alternatively, you to commit to a further 12/18 months, otherwise we'd have no way of covering those costs.

Hi James,

I appreciate that there is a cost incurred by you to move an account, but why waive it for new customers? That just makes me think that ultimately all products will have a life of less than 12 months so that you can introduce new ones and get any customers who haven't moved over (and tied themselves in to a new contract period) to pay extra if they decide to do something wacky like move house.

I've no problem with taking a new 12 month contract under the circumstances, but either way it will cost me in the end.

Cheers,
Dave

PS. I've sent you a PM.

Hi Dave,

It's not just new customers though. They do get the one free house move on the new products, but we have also done similar for existing customers in the past - they got to defer their activation costs and also the cost of a house move, which recently has increased with the introduction of the cessation charge

I know that you have to recoup the charges that BT pass through, but after having to deal with BT today already. This was just the tipping point really.

This time tomorrow I'll be quite happy to pay the £60 - but thought I would rant for the moment.

So what happened to the one free house move offer? I doubt it's something that many people would use, or has that changed to the new 12/18 month contract tie in?

I've replied to your PM.

Part of the product design on the new product was to give introductory pricing, hardware and a house move on an 18 month contract.

We ffered that in a similar fashion on our legacy products - you were able to defer the house move charges, which I've explained in my PM to you.

Not all ISPs charge for ceases or new connections. If you were a Zen customer, they'd move you once every 12 months for free (one example).

even if your not under contract... would they charge you if you left shortly after a house move. Their pricing structure is a little higher as well.

we will also waiver the £40 (ex. VAT) activation fee normally required to set up new broadband accounts.

It appears it's free and not just deferred.


"would they charge you if you left shortly after a house move."

The minimum service period of one month will apply to ADSL Move orders, as with standard new broadband orders

It appears not.

http://www.zen.co.uk/Broadband/zenbroadband/zenadsl-...

even if your not under contract... would they charge you if you left shortly after a house move. Their pricing structure is a little higher as well.

The minimum contract is 30 days, move or no move.

The pricing structure is higher, but the service is better as well.

£17.61 per month for 5gb. If in a Market 3 exchange thats almost 3 times more charged by Zen for half the allowance that Plusnet is offering. I know they are good but for basic home broadband that's a hell of a difference.

we will also waiver the £40 (ex. VAT) activation fee

Even with the VAT at 17.5% = £47

http://www.zen.co.uk/Broadband/zenbroadband/zenadsl-...

Whereas

Moving broadband to a new property costs £60

http://www.plus.net/support/customer_service/house_m...

If you go by 2006 Wholesale costs, sure.

That page is about 3 years out of date.

It's £40 inc. VAT @ 17.5%.

Which page is out of date , Zens or PN's?

Zens.

Yes, but it's not like for like. I can do what the hell I want, at the speed my line can handle with Zen. With Plus, well, you can't, because it's shaped.

Plus there's that £60 house move charge, that'll buy me 3 and a half months free Zen use...

I'm not sure what you're defending, I was just letting the OP know there are other options that don't necessarily involve Plus.

So how do you get to £60 then since VAT is 15%..

I believe the cessation charge is about £21.

It went up again recently.

not defending anything... you get what you pay for

http://forums.thinkbroadband.com/zen/t/3668549-re-ho...

It appears Zen are still charging £40+VAT.

£34.86+VAT since 1/5/07.

http://www.btwholesale.com/pages/downloads/service_a...

I'm not sure of the point you're trying to make James. PN charge £60. Zen charge £40+VAT which is around £47, and is NOT charged on a first move. You suggested the Zen price was out of date. Zen say it isn't

Edited by wingco1 (Fri 17-Jul-09 14:32:04)

The charge applied for home/office moves (where applicable) is in date because this is the amount we charge.

If we were actually charging more or less than the amount on our website, thenthe £40 figure would be out of date.

The consideration of the costs we absorb etc doesn't really need to come into it.

No - I was clarifying the Wholesale costs of an activation, which address the earlier query of why we charged the amount that we do.

So you are happy Zen are charging £40+VAT, and Plusnet are charging £60 which was my original point? How each ISP arrives at their particular figure doesn't concern me. Plusnet are charging way more than Zen whilst both having exactly the same charge levied by BTW.

The difference appears to be that Zen require you to stay for a further month, whereas PN require a 12 month tie in.

Edited by wingco1 (Fri 17-Jul-09 15:31:42)

I think Plusnet's argument is that they charge you for ACTIVATION of the NEW Line (e.g. the new home) and Cease of the OLD Line (old house)

The WHOLESALE costs are:

£24.61 inc VAT For the CEASE
£40.08 inc VAT for the ACTIVATION

So Plus charge £60 (I assume INC VAT), but it costs them £64.69.

The choice seems to be to pass on the costs incurred when a customer leaves (as Plusnet do), or make all your users subsidise the cost of people leaving through the subscriptions collected from those left behind. Not sure all the existing users would be happy to know they were subsidising the leaving costs of those who jump ship.

I suppose the argument Zen would offer is that it is better not to upset people leaving in case the grass isn't greener; but if you are going to charge £40, would charging the full cost of £60 make that much difference.

Thanks for that clarification.