In short yes, but we'll be staggering this as it requires manual effort.

Any chance of a refund for those that pay more for longer because they don't read forums?

In reply to a post by bpullen:

The revised pricing is only applicable at the moment to new signups and those changing account type. From June though, we'll be applying the cheaper pricing to all existing customers' accounts too (where they're on a market-led product).

If you can't wait until June then have a read of the FAQ here that tells you how you can jump the queue.

Hi.

Also quoting from the link:

Why aren�t the prices for existing customers changing immediately?

There are various reasons for this, mostly surrounding the complexity of our billing systems and the fact that our development schedule is filled many months in advance.

In addition, many of our special offers over the last 12 months have been budgeted against receiving subscription fees in Market 1/2. We did consider changing prices for existing customers at the end of the initial 12 months, but this was too complicated to implement and communicate effectively. Therefore we made the decision to make a cut-off point and apply the pricing to all affected customers from that point.

If you�re an existing customer you can change product now and get the new prices. If you�re a Value customer whose exchange has changed from Market 2 to 3 you can upgrade to Extra, save £1.50 on your monthly bill and get 6 times the usage allowance!

I accept that billing systems can be complex, and development schedules etc...will I get my discounts back-dated in June, given that:

a) Your complex billing system and development schedules are not my problem
b) A patient customer who is willing to wait five months for £25 is better than no customer at all to the tune of Broadband and phone contracts of more than £30 per month (and other Plusnet customers in my locale).

Either BT are pulling the strings on this one, and Plusnet are not talking, or Plusnet are making not only the profit (which they, as every company is entitled to), but are pocketing the difference in a five-six month period. So which is it? Are Plusnet being forced to keep the Market prices up by BT's wholesale activities on these exchanges, or can they move all the users on all the exchanges at once?

With regards to the "complex billing system", perhaps if I counter with:

"Due to the complex banking system, your payment will not arrive until next month. This would have been sooner, but I have development plans of my own." - and how long would you as a company tolerate any customer with such a message? You would not. Blaming your business model/practices for keeping customers' costs higher than they should be is unacceptable.

Equally, giving people the option to upgrade to 'jump the queue' is telling me two things:

1) You really think people are that thick?

2) Your pricing model can not / will not cope with the downgrading of prices for the affected customers, and Plusnet are being forced to encourage people onto other packages to ensure the expected/budgeted revenues are realised. If this is the case, have you considered the potential problem which lies ahead for all those people upgrading to bigger packages? Less capacity.

The fact remains that Plusnet (BT?) have been keeping market 2 or 3 customers on markets 1 or 2. In short, the competition now exists, and unless Plusnet are willing to recognise this, they may very well find it out the hard way.

In reply to a post by wingco1:

Any chance of a refund for those that pay more for longer because they don't read forums?

We're planning emails to affected customers. All customers are aware that all communication from us will be by email so there should be no-one who doesn't read them.

In reply to a post by camieabz:

I accept that billing systems can be complex, and development schedules etc...will I get my discounts back-dated in June

We won't be backdating payments as part of the process, though you can raise a ticket rather than waiting 'til June.

In reply to a post by camieabz:

Are Plusnet being forced to keep the Market prices up by BT's wholesale activities on these exchanges, or can they move all the users on all the exchanges at once?

We're not being forced to do anything. The reasons for the delay have been explained.

In reply to a post by camieabz:

Blaming your business model/practices for keeping customers' costs higher than they should be is unacceptable.

We're not blaming anything. The situation is as it is. Changing a customers market area is not a simple task as lots of other processes and account functions are related to this area. Whilst I appreciate that's not any customers fault, by the same token I'm not going to advocate a process that could cause billing problems for customers. We will do this, when we've had chance to build and test a robust process. In the meantime there's a workaround for customers who want to change now.

In reply to a post by camieabz:

Equally, giving people the option to upgrade to 'jump the queue' is telling me two things:

1) You really think people are that thick?

2) Your pricing model can not / will not cope with the downgrading of prices for the affected customers, and Plusnet are being forced to encourage people onto other packages to ensure the expected/budgeted revenues are realised. If this is the case, have you considered the potential problem which lies ahead for all those people upgrading to bigger packages? Less capacity.

The fact remains that Plusnet (BT?) have been keeping market 2 or 3 customers on markets 1 or 2. In short, the competition now exists, and unless Plusnet are willing to recognise this, they may very well find it out the hard way.

1) No. We will be emailing these customers to explain the situation. The automated process will be built, and we'll change people as and when otherwise (I'm sure you'd agree changing all these prices manually is not a good allocation of resource rather than fixing customer issues?

2) If we couldn't cope with the change we wouldn't be doing it at all. No other BT Wholesale ISP passes cost savings on in this way. I don't see anyone slating their business model even though *all* their market 3 customers are paying more?

Why shouldn't we, as a business, offer customers a better product for less than their current one though? Whilst still giving them chance to take the lower price without changing of course.

As an aside, we're well ahead of capacity planning at the moment.

In reply to a post by mand_beckett:

Why shouldn't we, as a business, offer customers a better product for less than their current one though? Whilst still giving them chance to take the lower price without changing of course.

I was going to check the pricing structures for Pro/Extra/Value at the various markets, but the website is down.

Hmmm.

Suffice it to say, there was no such offer prior to this situation. I'm not a having a pick at you personally (or Bob). The bearer of news gets the response. I don't see it as a discount in five months. I see it as money I and others never should have paid. I've been paying £20+ for 6 Meg, only for others to be on faster connections, for less outlay.That's the bottom line. There's no ADSL2+ or fibre on my horizon, and yet I'm paying as much, if not more for a slower service. I don't object to having to have a slower service if physics says it has to be, but there's no reason for it to be more expensive.

It beggars belief that a company specialising in data communications has a system which is not fit for purpose. Did the designer assume that everyone would be market 1, 2, 3 forever? Was there never the consideration that there might be a market 4? You never know!

I do appreciate that the package add-ons system might be complicated, but not the billing system. There should always be the option to make emergency changes (VAT increases perhaps?). You should at least be able to make changes on a global, per-exchange, per-market, per-package and per-customer basis. I'm thinking..."Why hasn't this stuff been thought of?".

Exchange    - Code - Market - Price

Smithsville - smit -   1    - £10.00
Jonesville  - jone -   2    - £ 5.00
Happyland   - Happ -   3    - £ 0.00

Very, very easy...or do BT handle that stuff?

£30. Hardly a fortune, but it's my hardly a fortune! (and I've been paying it for a while now)

We do offer upsells from time to time, but obviously before the markets were rearranged you couldn't get the next product up for less than your current one.

Bear in mind that the wholesale prices are only just changing, so it's not like we've been aware of this for all that long.

I understand there's a feeling of unfairness around market areas generally (why should x get a better price than y for the same service?) but the price we offer is a representation of our costs. We're the only provider that offers market pricing on a BTw product so I guess we invite that questioning.

Yes we knew that there was a possibility for market areas to change, but this is the first time it's happened, and when we first launched these products it was easier, but modifications to our systems since has made this more difficult. We are planning to make it easier to change for the future when we make the changes. I'd rathr we wait and do it right than cause billing problems for the affected customers, and the associated problems that would cause.

As I've said, you can raise a ticket and get the cheaper price point now if you're in an affected area.

In reply to a post by mand_beckett:

As I've said, you can raise a ticket and get the cheaper price point now if you're in an affected area.

Will PN be making that clear to the customers who don't read this BB or just hoping that no-one notices and therefore snaffle 5 months of extra subs?

That particular question was avoided

How is 'we will be emailing affected customers' avoidance of the question?

To make it even clearer:

Yes, we will be making customers aware of the changes, and how to get the cheaper price (via account change or ticket). We will do this via email over the coming weeks.