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Goodbye PlusNet

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Stewart Norriss

May I ask what costs you would incur if you set up a new adsl account for akbray in his new house - Versus - the costs you would incur if you waivered the moving fee?

Perhaps you could also compare the cost of losing a customer such as akbray with the costs incurred with advertising and trying to replace his business.

TBH, a PM to akbray from one of the PlusNet reps in here, followed by an agreement not to charge, would have been good business. It seems like customer service and customer retention are not important.

I also calculate wavering the fee for members would lead to increased business as business due to referrals would increase.

I sometimes wonder how this country managed to produce so many millionaires when so many companies are so short sighted.
 
RRU that would be impossible with BT charging for this service. If plusnet did it for one customer they would have to do it for all that moved, this would cause a knock on affect in the monthly charges would increase to cover the losses the companny might have with customers moving.

No matter which one they will still charge to move house I hve already recomended some not to get ADSL until they have moved.
 
Hi there,

The nature of the ADSL market at the moment is that margins on accounts are very slim. We would love to offer customers the ability to move between accounts but it does not make sense for us. I will explain ...

Take, for example, our £21.99 pm account. The base cost of this account for us off BT is £14.75, add onto this around £3 for bandwidth and then all the support and other overheads - plus we have to make some profit. It comes out at about £20.70 for the account without profit. This means that to pay off a £64 fee would take over 4 years. If the customer moves again in that time they would have to stay a customer for life. The likelyhood is that prices will alter in 4 years and make the sums even slimmer as well.

If we offered this to everyone who moved then you can see what would happen. :(
 
So you make £1.29 per account?

1 x = £1.29
10 x = £12.90
100 x = £129
1000 x = £1,290
10000 x = £12,900

So with staff costs, hardware, hosting costs, and all the other bits n bobs, how viable is it to stay in business?
 
norfett said:
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.

Or alternatively, cancel the account and start a new one - free if you've been with them over a year. The point is that if I stayed with +N I would have paid £135-ish in initial activation & moving charges, but by moving it will be only be the initial £70.

Had I been with Pipex from the start (and for 12 months), the total of activation fees and moving fees would be £0.
 
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If you chose to go for our equivelent account however, the easystart account, then you would have paid no initial activation fee and be able to move after the first 12 months and pay no activation fee again - but then £24.99 a month after that (although you would get another modem). The downside - you are tied into another 12 month contract.

As far as staying in business with such low margins - it is the siruation that all broadband providers are in. The competition in the market is pretty fierce and all the major players have been cutting it as close as they can to get the customer numbers. Some will make a loss and then get the money back in other ways (AOL, Wanadoo etc.) and others will make the products as cheap as possible (us, pipex etc.). This is just the way that things have panned out so absorbing loss for the 'medium sized' companies is always a risk.

This is only going to get more pronounced with the changes to the pricing structure at BT, which start next month.
 
Josh Berry said:
If you chose to go for our equivelent account however, the easystart account, then you would have paid no initial activation fee and be able to move after the first 12 months and pay no activation fee again - but then £24.99 a month after that (although you would get another modem). The downside - you are tied into another 12 month contract.

1) I have an aversion to long-term contracts after getting frustrated with Freeserve during their initial period - the short term contract was one thing that attracted me to +N

2) Easystart is more expensive than Pipex.
 
Hi There

Can you send me a PM with your username with us so I can look into your options as at the moment it is hard to advise you fully without at least knowing the account type you are on and it's status.

The move charge is something that we cannot absorb for reasons that have already been outlined but that does not mean it is your only option with regards to a connection with us.
 
I just sent the PM - sorry for the delay but I was away for the bank holiday weekend.
 
Oh...s0d it..

I just checked and Pipex don't have unlimited email addresses (which is effectively my main anti-spam method).

On balance, I'd rather have the 12-month contract than restricted emails, so:

If I decide to transfer onto EasyStart (or whatever it's called), can I take my existing username etc? And skip the free modem, since I have 2 already.

Also, at the end of the 12 months, can I transfer onto the £22 monthly contract.


Edit
---
Also - why no mention of EasyStart on the +N website? I can't find any reference to it, and it used to be pretty prominent.

Andy
 
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Hi there,

We have very recently changed our reidential pricing structure with the change to capacity based charging. Full details of the accounts can be found here:

http://www.plus.net/info2/residential/res_broadband.html

If you are looking for an account without any download restrictions then you want the broadband home premier account at £21.99 a month (with free maigration if you select an annual contract, £14.99 for a monthly contract).

http://www.plus.net/products/hardware.html?speed=500&halfprices=-1

Note that you won't be charged the activation fee stated in the signup process when choosing your account - migrations are billed manually.

[edit: Also, at the end of the 12 months, can I transfer onto the £22 monthly contract.]

After the first 12 months on the new products you would automatically move onto a one month rolling contract.
 
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Josh Berry said:
Hi there,

We have very recently changed our reidential pricing structure with the change to capacity based charging. Full details of the accounts can be found here:

http://www.plus.net/info2/residential/res_broadband.html

I take it that means EasyStart is no longer available?

Josh Berry said:
If you are looking for an account without any download restrictions then you want the broadband home premier account at £21.99 a month (with free maigration if you select an annual contract, £14.99 for a monthly contract).

I'm already on that - the problem is that I've moved and I can't afford to pay the activation fee right now.

Josh Berry said:
Note that you won't be charged the activation fee stated in the signup process when choosing your account - migrations are billed manually.

Yes I will - it's not a migration since I was already on PlusNet - I have moved house, not ISP, so this is effectively a new installation (unless +N have reduced the fee for moving house, which I doubt since most of that fee goes to BT).

I just checked out the +N website, and from what I can tell I either pay £60-ish (£70 for monthly contract) plus £22/month, or £27.49/month flat - which is very expensive IMO - only 50p cheaper than WanaFreeze or whatever they're called. EasyStart used to be £25/month, which I would have agreed to, but not £27.50 - that isn't even competitive. Pipex it is then!
 
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Hi again,

Sorry, I thought you were migrating for some reason :hrmph:

Anyway, if you want to avoid the reactivation fee then you would have to move onto the spread activation cost account for the next year - which is £5 a month extra (or £26.99 a month if you are on the premier account), the Easystart is no longer avaiable. That price would still drop after the first 12 months.
 
I just signed up with NDO rather than Pipex, as they provide individual email domains.

Thanks for all of your help

Andy
 
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Abkray,

have you left +N?

I thought you were almost an evangelist for them.
Ah well, customer choice. I assume you didn`t leave because of financial reasons, e.g. they kept taking money without authorisation.
Of course not, just a phase of this companies development.

Fully explained and retracted somewhere, anyone got the link?

r2
 
so plusnet are charging £65 activation fee !! SHOCKING !!
 
retired_again said:
Abkray,

have you left +N?

I thought you were almost an evangelist for them.
Ah well, customer choice. I assume you didn`t leave because of financial reasons, e.g. they kept taking money without authorisation.
Of course not, just a phase of this companies development.

Fully explained and retracted somewhere, anyone got the link?

r2

I left because I moved house and couldn't afford the activation fee, so I went to another ISP with a slightly higher monthly fee, but no activation fee. If you had bothered to read all of this thread you would have known that.

Had I not moved house (or had a bit more money) I would still be using PlusNet.

I had no problems with any part of the service I recieved or or with erroneous debits etc. They stopped taking money from my account at the right time and with no problems. I stand by all of my previous positive comments about them.

A link acknowledging their past problems was posted on at least one of the many threads in which you demonstrated your loathing of +Net - you can look for it, because I can't be bothered - plus they were acknowledged by the +Net reps on this forum.

At least they held their hands up and were honest - whereas you blatantly tried to mislead other members of ISPr regarding PlusNet.
 
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retired_again said:
Abkray,

have you left +N?

I thought you were almost an evangelist for them.
Ah well, customer choice. I assume you didn`t leave because of financial reasons, e.g. they kept taking money without authorisation.
Of course not, just a phase of this companies development.

Fully explained and retracted somewhere, anyone got the link?

r2

Retired, you have surely crossed the line between measured debate and forum stalking, and I say that as a member who has seen your previous posting history. Your posts simply can't be taken seriously by anyone who has come across you before. If you check the ADSLguide forums you will see that Plusnet are held in high regard for their cost effective packages (some of the most attractive in the industry) and excellent customer service - and I say that as someone who is migrating from Zen who are no slouches in that area. I hope you manage to move on with your life and stop embarrassing yourself in public. :shrug:
 
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