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Goodbye PlusNet

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Oh well,

It looks like I will be leaving PlusNet soon.

I am moving house in a couple of weeks, and PlusNet charge £65 to transfer the connection to another house.

I can't afford to pay it, so I guess I will be moving to Pipex, who only charge the activation fee if you leave in the 1st 12 months.

I have no problems with the standard of connection or service provided by PlusNet - I just can't afford the financial hit - unless +N start offering the same deal in the next 2 weeks :hrmph:

Andy
 
Well....maybe.... ;)

Actually, no, not really - but if they did decide to offer it I wouldn't be moving.
 
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Hi there,

Unfortunately BT charge us for moving the ADSL which we have to reflect to our customers. The initial activation fee can be incorporated by some ISPs but the monthly subscription is higher (as we do with our Easystart Accounts). This cost (for moving your ADSL) is charged by all ISPs. WE happily accept it is a large sum of money, but until BT reduce it we will have to carry on charging it. It is a shame, because we will lose customers until they do reduce it.

At least you enjoyed our services. :D

Kind regards

Luke
 
"At least you enjoyed our services."??

Yes, and now you have to find someone to replace him.

With costs to obtain new business far exceeding the costs of retaining business, I think it makes poor business sense.
 
Following on from this:

I would be interested if you could contact Pipex and ask them specifically what charges they apply when moving your ADSL.

And secondly, you could always "move" onto one of our accounts that has the activation fee included in the monthly subs, so you would not have to pay the initial cease and reprovide fee out.

regards

Luke
 
Yes IMHO very shortsighted as the guy would probably have stayed with you for a very long time paying subs month after month...

As a lurker to this board as a very sweeping statement PlusNet seem to get overall a pretty favourable feed back compared to other Broadband providers (just look at Tiscali..thank god for the Internet as I was seriously thinking of signing up with them on the back of their 15.99 offer splashed all over the newspapers..but not a million years after reading their feedback!)

Sorry back to Plusnet...Well when you bring your prices down some more (and you should be able to as I understand due to BT dropping Wholesale costs shortly)....I would like to sign up for your services but as a consumer quite simply am NOT prepared to pay these one of costs for activation or in the event of any transfers...If you get me the likelyhood is I will stay with you many many years..

When looking at ISP advertisement as soon as I see the words "Activation Fee" "12 month contract" I look elsewhere

...Just a little market research input for you :)
 
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95% of plusnet is a very good service, but they always shoot themselves in the foot when it comes to customer finance. Instead of absorbing if not all then some of the cost for upgrades/moves they will squeeze the punter untill they leave with a bad taste in their mouth.

They remind me of the old tale of the monkey and the bicuit tin that's nailed to the floor, having got his hand round the bicuit he can't get it out of the tin unless he drops the biscuit, but greed just won't make him let go and escape, ergo one less monkey to steal the biscuits. :D
 
Interesting point rasied here.

Adsl is different to dial up in the way its not limited (ok, I know about all the limitations coming out and discussion it causes, but lets ignore that for now), in that its not as bad as dial up.

First off, its not as easy to change supplier, as you will face downtime and also possibly changes like static IP.

Second, you get loads less problems with ADSL than dial up.

Put it all together and your far more likely to have a good service with adsl than dial up, the result being you are likely to stay with your provider for a long time (I plan to stay with mine for as long as I live!!).

With people staying longer, maybe some ISP's should look to see if its worth swallowing some of the startup costs, and gaining it back in the long run, not just the year that they all currently do.
 
You are right of course. But unfortunately we have the modern 'disease' to deal with.
They, and I am not singling out Plusnet, do not intend to be here for the rest of YOUR life!! What they all want is, 'Get in quick, make a quick kill, and get out!!'
And they can do it too! What other business do you know where customers fall over each other to give them money??

To get back to the guy who started this thread, don't be a fool m8, there ARE others providing as good/better service without the initial costs. Keep your money and change. As for good support ....... who needs it when you are with a good provider?

"What price loyalty". :rolleyes:
 
Well, I dont really beleive that theory. Many ISPs have been around for years, like the one I am with.

It takes a lot of work to setup an ISP (a decent one), and suddenly packing up and running wouldnt get you much profit.

Many ISPs are now looking to retain customers, especially with adsl where people are likely to stay on for years.

You need good support in an ISP, no matter how good the service. What if you need to cancel the line, or your moving house etc? If its bad support you will spend ages on the phone trying to sort it out.
 
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Well hasn't this thread moved on since my last viewing!!!

Pimpernel said:
To get back to the guy who started this thread, don't be a fool m8, there ARE others providing as good/better service without the initial costs.

I know - the chances are I will be going to Pipex because they are the best value for money for me.

Pimpernel said:
As for good support ....... who needs it when you are with a good provider?

I never mentioned support as an issue, although I agree with you - and I would class PlusNet as good in this respect - at least on the one occasion I had to call them they were excellent.

I don't believe PlusNet are trying to rip me off (reset - I'm not leaving with a bad taste in my mouth) by charging for reconnection in my new house as I know that BT will ultimately get the majority of the money.

Unfortunately, the bottom line is that they aren't the best value for money for someone in my situation either - due to the purchase of various furniture etc and impending fatherhood, I need to find the best value option in terms of both activation and monthly charge (from an ISP with a good reputation) - the options are:

Plus: £70 activation fee (monthly contract) +£22/month
Plus: £25/month - annual contract on Easy start package

NDO: £25/month monthly contract (activ paid only if cancelled in 1st year)
Pipex: £23.44 monthly contract.(activ paid only if cancelled in 1st year)

AFAIK, all the other reputable ISP's charge the full activation fee at the start, which simply isn't an option for me this time.

I guess I could always go back to dial-up. Or maybe not :laugh:
 
We completely agree that the activation fee (moving fee) is too high. We recently announced a press release suggesting BT are charging too much for activation which you can view here.

You will find that all ISPs charge this in some way or another, either an initial one off fee or incorporated in the monthly subscription which is invariably higher.

kind regards

Luke
 
lhorwath said:
You will find that all ISPs charge this in some way or another, either an initial one off fee or incorporated in the monthly subscription which is invariably higher.

Well that's sort of true...ish

Comparing like for like (the assumption being that the customer is satisfied for the entire year, no modem required, whether free or not, uncapped 512 connection - in other words, using my situation):

PlusNet = £70.50 activation, £21.99/month = £334.38 (1 month contract)
or
PlusNet = £58.75 activation, £21.99/month = £322.63 (12 month contract)

Pipex = £23.44/month = £281.28

So assuming that I am happy with Pipex and decide not to leave them in the first 12 months (thus incurring the activation fee), they are either £53.10 cheaper or £41.35 cheaper over 12 months - including activation fees as applicable.

With Pipex charging £1.45 per month more in monthly fees, it would take PlusNet at least 28 additional months (or well over 3 years in total) to overtake Pipex in terms of total costs - and Pipex includes a free modem etc.
 
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Granted Pipex's Solo 500 account is cheaper, but it has limited mailboxes, less webspace, NO cgi or MySQL, NO Anti-Virus or Anti-SPAM software. So if you don't need/want those additional features fair enough. A lot of our customers do use these additional services and our support reputation is also a bonus.

TBH the beauty at the moment with all the different account types is that you can find the right account at the right price for you.

But until BT are prepared to reduce the activation fee, this is still going to be a deterant for a lot of people.

regards

Luke
 
Following on again:

I am genuinely interested in Pipex's (and other ISPs) standing on moving ADSL (which is what this thread was originally about) as the last I heard, Pipex make you pay up the rest of your contract and close your account, then you have to sign up for a new one. I'm pretty certain no ISPs will absorb the cost of the move of ADSL (once in a contract) as the £58.75 is more than the profit most ISPs make on an account in a year.

regards

Luke
 
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lhorwath said:
Granted Pipex's Solo 500 account is cheaper, but it has limited mailboxes, less webspace, NO cgi or MySQL, NO Anti-Virus or Anti-SPAM software. So if you don't need/want those additional features fair enough.

None of those of of any particular interest to me - as long as I can browse, email (with unlimited aliases) and sometimes download, I am happy - I have AV and Firewalls on my PC, and don't get any spam anyway (I use the aliases to avoid it). Reliability is important to me as well.

I take your point though - it's just that those things don't make much difference to me.

I agree about BT's charges as well - until BB (and I mean real bb, not 150kbps) comes down to a price that is comparable to unmetered dial-up it is not going to becomethe de facto standard connection.
 
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lhorwath said:
....Pipex make you pay up the rest of your contract and close your account, then you have to sign up for a new one.

It's a monthly account, so no need to pay for months not used in the first year. The activation fee is payable if leaving/moving only if done in first 12 months.

When you sign up for a new one, simply choose the deferred activation fee again. In other words - if I had been with Pipex rather than +N, I would have to pay £60-ish fee because it is less than a year since set up. If I had been with Pipex for over a year, I wouldn't have to pay it.

If I was to stay with +N, I would effectively have paid 2 activation charges within a year, because it is 10 months since I joined them (paying £70 for a monthly contract) and I would now have to pay about £65 for connection in the new address. This wouldn't change even if it was more than 12 months since I first signed up.

In the same situation with Pipex, moving within 12 months of opening the original account would cost me one £60 charge when I moved, but if it was over 12 months after set up it would cost me no activation fees to move.
 
Akbray, most ISPs (if not all on BT in any case) charge the fee for moving house - it isnt an issue about the actual activation fee you paid (I would presume) when initially signed up for PlusNet.

If you move house, regardless how long you have had the contract, most providers will charge you for that.
 
Hi There

It is not that we are charging an extra activation fee it is just that there is a charge levied by BT when the line is moved, in effect they are activating a new line as your old line has to be ceased and then ADSL activated on the new line. This is a charge that most ISP's would charge to you as BT charge them, as you state even Pipex ask you to sign up for a new account with activation offset in the fee so in effect you are paying it there as well.
 
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