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Complaining about PlusNet and recommendations on a new ISP.

I know there's another thread on this, but I didn't feel comfortable bumping a thread nearly a month old. ^^;

So recently, our service with PlusNet has gone downhill. We were attracted by a great looking deal - £14.99, 2meg unlimited broadband. Much better than what we had on Wanadoo (we were still on the old 512k speed - they wanted to charge us to upgrade, whereas new customers got it fast straight away..) and the no limits was very appealing, particularly to myself since I download a lot via P2P, IRC, and browse the web a lot as well.

We signed up, and within a week we were connected. Everything was great - fast speeds, and I was loving the lack of bandwidth restrictions.

But then it all started to go wrong - the Internet would time out every 20 minutes or so, and would take 5 minutes to get back on track again. Speeds had slowed down to more than *half* what we were paying for, and P2P speeds had gone from 170k/s + (with good seeds) down to 15k/s, even with many seeds.

At the start of this month, the last straw came when playing games online - the connection would be interrupted due to a timeout, which was very frustrating.

So I went onto the PlusNet website to see if it due to some maintainance or something, and nothing. Just out of interest, I checked out the specifications of our package (the Plus package) and lo-and-behold the source of the problem.

PlusNet had introducted a 3gb/month Peak usage limit (peak being 4pm - midnight, though elsewhere it's quoated as 8am - midnight which is very confusing) without telling any of there existing customers. We certainly weren't aware of it, and neither were several friends, all of whom were experiencing similar problems with their PlusNet connections.

We were VERY annoyed indeed. We can understand them introducing limits to cut down strains on servers but for God's sake at least tell your existing customers! That way, we can move if necessary!

This was the first we'd heard of it, and checking out the reviews on the ISP Review site, many other people have similar complaints as well.]

This is very poor customer support.

As a result, we're migrating from PlusNet as soon as we possibly can (which is in another 5 months).

So I'll make this thread have two purposes:

  1. To complain about PlusNet
  2. To ask for a recommendations on a new ISP

I've heard good things about Euro1Net, and the paying for your contract up front doesn't bother us too much.

At the end of the day, we're after unlimited broadband, on at least 1 meg. At a good price, too.

Any other suggestions (or opinions on Euro1Net) welcome. ^_^
 
In theory, if they made a major change to what you signed up for and havent told you, then you are able to get out the contract with paying the remainder.

Did you get an email telling you about this change in policy?

Beware of any ISP saying 'unlimited' as they often have a fair use policy, which essentially means its capped but they wont tell you how much.

Im annoyed at eclipse now doing the same on some of their higher packages, but would still recommend them for reliability. Been with them for 2 or more years now, and they are highly recommended by others as well.

Edit: Just found the limits for the higher eclipse packages. Very annoyed its hidden in the FUP, but at least they are actually giving a limit.

http://www.eclipse.net.uk/index.cfm?id=fixedfup_res

Thats not bad, much better than plusnet.
 
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Old dude said:
In theory, if they made a major change to what you signed up for and havent told you, then you are able to get out the contract with paying the remainder.

Did you get an email telling you about this change in policy?

Not at all. Like I said, the first I heard of it was when I logged onto the PlusNet site to see they'd imposed limits.

I just checked the email address we got with them (and never use - and we told them about our main, gmail address which they haven't taken on board) and there are 2 emails - 27th and 28th March respectively - telling us we're using more than our limit allows. A limit which we never knew existed!

We use on average 10-15gb per month, which accounts for three users (two of which are heavy users). 3gb simply isn't enough - if we'd have been informed of this we would've either moved or cut down.

Old dude said:
Beware of any ISP saying 'unlimited' as they often have a fair use policy, which essentially means its capped but they wont tell you how much.

Yeah. The thing that's annoying is that there wasn't even a mention of a 'fair use' policy when we signed up. It just said it was unlimited, but that you may get some slowdown during peak times because we're sharing the connection with more people as we're not on their 'premium package' (which still has the same problem, according to some reviews).
 
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Im by no means a legal expert, so take advice from CAB or some such. I do think you have a good chance at getting out of the contract early.

Perhaps one of the plusnet reps could comment?
 
@Old dude - looks like the FUP only applies to sertain packages with Eclipse. This is from the link you gave :-
The fair usage policy currently relates to the Evolution Broadband service only.

The Home Broadband product is charged according to the number of gigabytes that you transfer every month and consequently a fair usage policy does not apply.

I presume by home broadband they mean Flex Home 500/1000/2000 etc package.
 
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With Eclipse, there is a difference between the Home and Flex packages.

I got the Flex 500 as it did NOT have a FUP, the alternative was the Home package that did have a FUP but it was a cheaper price
 
Old dude said:
Citizens Advice Bureau

Thanks.

Only difficulty is proving that those were the terms when we signed up.

I'm almost certain we have them printed out somewhere.

Or won't this be an issue? Judging by the sheer number of complaints about this...
 
Plusnet moving the goal posts

Hi,
If the service you signed up for under contract has now changed, then the contract was broken. So you would be no longer commited.You should have recieved notic of the changes.

I dont know the terms and Conditions you signed agreed to, however if they have been changed you are required to recieve 30 days written notice.
If you do not respond within those 30 days it is an acceptance of the terms and you are commited to that contract.
So if you have an email advising of any changes and you are still within 30 days since reciept of the notice, you have the right to cancel with no charge.

I know this stuff from my experience working with trading standards and returns depts of 2 UK organisations.


I hope that helps.
The only thing is ISP`s in the UK seem to be getting away with murder.
A tightening up and some sort of organisation specialising, and with legal clout is well overdue.
But thats just my humble opinion.;)
Good Luck.
Mark.
 
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Northernbloke said:
@Old dude - looks like the FUP only applies to sertain packages with Eclipse. This is from the link you gave :-




I presume by home broadband they mean Flex Home 500/1000/2000 etc package.

Yes, but considering the home broadband pay as you go ones are very restrictive (2gb cap for the first) I assumed that was a no-go.

As for the plusnet issue, Id contact them about it. And I imagine another person has them somewhere that they might be able to get you.

You can also request them from plusnet, the ones you signed up to. They should have them. And if they send you the wrong ones (i.e. doctored saying that they were always like that) then they will get in huge trouble.

Be interesting for a plusnet rep to comment on this. Theres som about the forum, tho they may not be watching. PM them, and see what happens.
 
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Mike and Old dude:

Thanks for the helpful advice and information. I have taken it all on board, and will do something in the coming days.

Will wait until after the bank holiday, though - just to avoid delays, and waiting of any kind.
 
Legal stuff

With respect to Marcaudio, I don't think he has the legal stuff quite correct.

You sign up on the basis of the terms and conditions in operation at the time. ISPs usually have a proviso in the T & Cs allowing them to change them on 14/21/28 whatever days' notice and prescribe a method for making those changes known to you - email/post on website or whatever. They also usually have a proviso that if you don't like the changes you can opt out of your contract by giving notice in the prescribed form and another proviso that says if you pay another instalment or fail to serve the opt-out notice within the prescribed period you are deemed to have accepted the revised provisions.

So you have to start by reading the small print - good advice might be to download and save the T &Cs in operation when you signed up and before they are lost to posterity.

Nasty T & Cs can be ruled offside under the Unfair Contract Terms Act but frankly taking an ISP to the County Court or Trading Standards over £50 or whatever is not worth the angst.

Rule 1 is read the small print - ALL of it - before you commit.
 
ISP not to use!!

Don't go anywhere near Virgin. They are a waste of space particularly if you use p2p or bittorrents. I am pretty certain the are throttling downloads although they wont admit it.
 
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