In reply to a post by ultra:

I don't even remember how some user came to be aware of the change, and it be confirmed here on TBB,.....

It’s interesting to discover that it was, in fact, you who raised one thread entitled “Plusnet pricing…”, where the whole matter of Plusnet’s reluctance to advise its customers of the Market 2 price change was discussed.

I’m not afraid to admit that I use the TBB forums to learn new things about broadband and related issues, and I assumed that other members of TBB do the same.

As a Plusnet customer, I take a special interest in TBB’s Plusnet forum, and I took it for granted that others do the same. I was therefore surprised to discover that the OP, a Plusnet customer and classified by TBB as “experienced”, had not picked up the information contained in your thread.

Maybe I'm being a bit unfair to the OP in making these assumptions. If so, I apologise, but it does show the importance of keeping up with threads on these forums.

Which brings us back to how many of the 600,000+ PN customers ever go near a forum like this?

Like many other companies, it is simply a case of Plusnet raking in what they can get away with. For Plusnet to say they have no idea of exchange market status of all their customers so could do nothing about it, simply does not hold water. They could simply send a standard email to all customers advising them to check their exchange status, unless of course they have no idea of who all their customers are, which would not surprise me considering the state of their information pages.

I would take this a stage further.

If you sign up via Plusnet's website it is capable of working out your exchange status to tell you which of the prices you will be charged.

So, they could take the phone numbers from their database of all customers currently on the higher pricing, run them automatically through the same lookup engine and automatically inform or regrade all those that are now market 2 or market 3.

I am not necessarily saying that Plusnet should do that but Plusnet definitely could do that.

EDIT: Other things that Plusnet would say stops this are:
* that the email addresses for customers tend to be those that come with the account and many of their customers will never check them.
* that customers who have specifically opted out of marketing should be excluded from any emails, even where those emails are directly about their existing account and to their benefit

Edited by ian72 (Wed 22-Aug-12 12:55:08)

In reply to a post by ian72:

So, they could take the phone numbers from their database of all customers currently on the higher pricing, run them automatically through the same lookup engine and automatically inform or regrade all those that are now market 2 or market 3.

They already do something similar I believe with fibre. I know people on Plusnet ADSL2+ who have been contacted when fibre becomes available on their line. And this is probably even done on a cabinet basis, rather than exchange.

Of course Plusnet are going to be more willing to do this as it makes them more money, not less.

There must be a way for PN to suggest to it's customers to check here: http://www.plus.net/support/broadband/products/low_c... Perhaps when a user logs into their PN account then there should be a banner notification of the change to the "low cost area" classification. If it is found that a user's exchange is market 2 (something which they not have been aware of) then they could contact PN and claim the price reduction.

However the price change for Market 2 exchanges should be done automatically, instead those honest folks at PN are bowling deceptive googlies rather than bowling blatant no balls and the umpire seems to be happy with that...

Wow. If only plusnet could automate that same lookup for all the phone numbers in it's database and compare the market against the package they are paying for. That could solve all their technical issues around this problem.

All Plusnet need to do is agree it is not a technical issue but a business issue that is driving the decision. We may disagree with the business decision but it is a valid decision for them to make - if a customer signs up as particular price then that is what they have agreed (and remember the price of the package has not changed, just the designation of who can get the lower tier).

Good customer service would mean reducing the price automatically. Good business sense/profit margin may be to not do it automatically (although even then if users find out they are more likely to leave if they weren't informed and therefore that lowers profit margins).

I don't think we've said it was a technical issue stopping us doing this? It was indeed a business decision to keep the price at the level agreed during signup and only change this upon contact with us or an account change.

I've considered a return to PN for 21CN WBC adsl2+ but the absence of direct notification regarding a change to "low cost areas" for existing users on market 2 exchanges has left a bad taste.

This is perhaps a symptom of poor customer service, together with their occasionally chaotic ticketing system, that tends make folks reluctant to return or even remain customers...

In reply to a post by chrisparr:

I don't think we've said it was a technical issue stopping us doing this? It was indeed a business decision to keep the price at the level agreed during signup and only change this upon contact with us or an account change.

That's a valid business decision but what about those customers no longer in an annual contract and now on a 28 day minimum term who keep the same broadband package and haven’t had any reason to contact you - doesn't that count as an account change?