Free PlusNet

A couple of friends have recently told me about their experiences with PlusNet, they've both used the isp for quite a while, but decided to leave, one because he was moving house, one because he wanted a different supplier. After ringing up and getting their mac codes from PlusNet, they later recieved a phone call asking why they where leaving, and whether they would reconsider. One friend who was going to change supplier told them so, and they offered him a free month, which he took.... they paid the money into his account a few days later. My other friend obviously said no when asked if he wanted a free month, because he didn't see the point, then they offered him another and another, so 3 months free on offer, and a free router!!

Seems to me that anyone can ring up and say they want to leave, then get the 3 months cost paid into their account and then leave anyway, because they have the mac code already! Or even if you don't want to leave you can have 3 free months on PlusNet!! woo!!

Just spreading the good will ~x

My friend was told he could have a free month or MAC code but not both.
He took the MAC and says (unscientifically) that he's noticed web pages are more responsive now.

It's funny how ISP's (not only Plusnet) decline to give refunds or free months to customers who have suffered a loss of service. Yet are happy to do so to retain customers. Perhaps if the former was addressed, the latter would be unnecessary

In reply to:

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It's funny how ISP's (not only Plusnet) decline to give refunds or free months to customers who have suffered a loss of service.

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Although PN did give a month's refund to affected BB+ customers recently after the problems earlier in the year.

Amen, Brother. But PlusNet have never volunteered a refund to anyone AFAIK... and I guess that by doing things this way round they limit the damage, ie they don't have to give refunds to those who have suffered but stayed.

Perhaps the new Ofcom regs are starting to hurt the ISPs who had accumulated a large pool of unhappy but semi-captive customers.

Simon

Does the refund offer to BB+ customer not count? I suppose you can counter that by saying it wasn't "volunteered" but I would have to disagree, they could have done nothing and lived with it. They messed up and the month's refund was a volunteered to limit the damage.

or are you saying to your knowledge, even with that offer, that no one has ever got a refund from plusnet because they didn't post about it on here or do you have access to internal information from plusnet that has told you there have been no refunds...........

edit : a bit more added

Edited by paul2002 (Fri 04-May-07 07:37:31)

My view of the BB+ refunds is that they were penny-pinching, damage-limitation, token affairs which were intentionally difficult to get, poorly publicised and restricted to the few even though the entire BB+ platform was apparently malfunctioning at far below contracted levels of service.

However it was a qualified refund but it wasn't a voluntary PlusNet initiative. It came after much dissent in the forums, loud demands for compensation and, no doubt, the realisation by PN lawyers that they would have to pay out anyway if any customer demanded a refund through the courts.

PN's attitude to refunds was never better illustrated than by the blatant ripping-off of customers who subscribed early to the vaporware offer of the 4/8MB "queue-jump" products. Only PN know how many customers fell for this, paying a totally unnecessay monthly premium for up to a year and receiving absolutely nothing in return. Under pressure, they did agree to a refund but they then changed their mind before giving anyone their money back.

I think that their policy on refunds has been disgraceful. No doubt someone will tell me about worse examples in ISP-land but that would merely mean that they were tarred with the same brush.

Simon

Hi there,

We do operate a retentions scheme (as do many companies), and in some cases a free period of service may be offered. However this is not offered to everyone who calls us up asking for a MAC code.

We try to contact customers to find out the reason why they are leaving, and try to address that from there. The idea behind the free month offer is to either give us time to resolve the customers issue, or to prove that our services have improved without costing the customer money.

BTW I hope your friend enjoys his free month and decides to stay.

Hi,

The reason behind this is the fact that BT Wholesale do not offer us refunds for periods of downtime, broadband is not a guaranteed service and we still pay for the circuit throughout the fault process.

For most people the amount would be very small anyway, if you had no service for a week on a

I have to disagree, it was still voluntary on the part of Plusnet. Yes damage limitation and you may be right that it might have ended in the courts, but the offer wasn't forced as a result of a legal action either privately or from ofcom. They could have sat back and done nothing and lived with the damage, bad PR, loss of customers etc

We will just have to agree to disagree on this point. I suppose we are getting into semantics again.

There are better isp and worse ones............Plusnet aren't the best but I don't think they are at the bottom of the pile either.

In reply to:

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My view of the BB+ refunds is that they were penny-pinching, damage-limitation, token affairs which were intentionally difficult to get, poorly publicised and restricted to the few

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I have no idea how many BB+ refunds were given, how it was publicised etc I'm not a BB+ customer..... I know you say its your view but what is that based on..... your feel or responses from BB+ customers?