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More Plusnet contract woes

I signed up to a 12 month contract in August 2005, although it didn't start till October due to problems migrating from another ISP.

A couple of days ago I gave notice that I wish to terminate my contract. This meant the notice period would run out exactly 12 months after my service started. I thought I was doing this right and honouring my part of the contract by staying for a year and giving them 30 days notice that I want to get out.

Then they demand £72 as a cancellation penalty and defeered activation fee etc.

WTF. I point out that my contract will end on the day my notice expires. They basically say so what, you have cancelled in under 5 years.

Now they are saying...

Unfortunatly, the contract will remain in place until such a time that all parties agree for it to be desolved. In order for us to agree to this, these payment must be settled as defined under the contract.

Can they do that, surely if the annual contract has come to the end of a year and any one party has stated they do not wish to renew then they cannot refuse to cancel it can they? These are also not the terms I agreed to back in August 2005.

I have now suggested that as a means of resolving the dispute they cancel my account in accordance with the notice period and invoice any charges they think are applicable. Then we can discuss the matter and if necessary allow the courts to decide on the legality of the charges. They have refused!

Any suggestions??? Other than driving upto their offices and demanding an explanation?

Whether any of the problems on this forum are in the Plusnet terms or conditions is irrelevant I think. Its an appaulling way to treat customers and you would think a company in their position would be doing everything possible to keep customers happy.

If it wasn't for this hassle I may have gone back to Plusnet at a later date when they have resolved their service problems but now I will never look at them again and actively campaign to stop others from using the company.
 
I left PlusNet (less than five years) and also paid a deferred activation fee, TBH this was all pretty clear when I signed up ...
 
I left PlusNet (less than five years) and also paid a deferred activation fee, TBH this was all pretty clear when I signed up ...

Yes but I didn't need activation, I migrated to them and the terms and even so the conditions clearly state deferred fees are payable if you cancel within a year. They are also trying to charge a cancellation fee.

Section 19 of the terms and conditions applicable when I signed up reads

19 Ending this Contract

19.1 This Contract can be ended by:
(a) us giving one month's notice to you; or
(b) you giving one months notice to us.
(c) you giving us immediate notice within the 14 day notice period if, under paragraph 20, we inform you that we are increasing our charges or changing the conditions of this Contract to your detriment.

19.2 If we give you notice, you must pay the charges applicable up to the end of that notice. If you give us notice, you must pay us the charges that would have been due within the notice period.

19.3 If you give us notice that ends, or we end this contract under paragraph 15, during the period of the Contract, you must pay us the relevant cancellation charges set out in the price list located here.

19.4 If you give us notice that falls before the end of your current Contract period because we have increased our charges or materially changed the Conditions of this Contract to your detriment, you may cancel in the period of time between the notice of the changes and the time the changes take place.

19.5 If you have paid any charges for a period after the end of the Contract we will either repay it or put it towards any money you owe us.

and the cancellation charges referred to in 19.3 state....

2. Residential customers enter into a 1 month contract unless you:

* i) specifically choose to sign up to an annual contract account, or
* ii) specifically choose to sign up to a 'No Install Fee', 'Deferred Hardware' or 'No Activation Fee' ADSL account options (see below), or
* iii) choose to signup to a BT-install ADSL product

- in which cases your Minimum Contract Period is 12 months.

At the end of your contract period, if you do not tell us that you wish to cancel we will automatically renew your contract. Your cancellation request must be given 30 days prior to your contract end date.

ADSL 'No Install Fee', 'Deferred Hardware' or 'No Activation Fee' options and the Cancellation Penalty

What must I pay if I leave within the first 12-months?
Should you decide to leave the service prior to fulfilling an initial 12-month term a cancellation charge would be levied. This is referred to in Section 19 of the Terms and Conditions as the Cancellation Penalty.

Should you leave the service within the first 12-months of your subscription this Cancellation Penalty would be calculated from the following values:

* Activation Fee. This is the full cost of the BT line activation fee that was in effect at time of subscribing to the service.
* Outstanding Fees. These being the cost of supplied Hardware if outstanding.
* Outstanding Period. The amount of whole months remaining to fulfil a 12-month initial term.
* Administrative Charge. An administrative fee, this being the sum of £11.75 inc VAT.

For customers with 'No Activation Fee' products, the Cancellation Penalty will be calculated as follows:
Activation Fee plus Outstanding Fees plus ten percent of the same, divided by twelve and multiplied by the Outstanding Period, plus the Administrative Charge.

For all other customers the Cancellation Penalty will be solely the Administrative Charge.


My point is I have given notice 30 day before the end of my contract, under these terms there is nothing about charges if you leave after 12 months.

You can view these terms here

http://www.plus.net/info2/legal/tandcarchive/280405-240805/index.html
and here
http://www.plus.net/info2/legal/tandcarchive/280405-240805/contract_periods.html
 
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You haven't supplied quite enough information. If you signed up to the first version of the agreement and plusnet accepted you in August 2005 even if you didn't get the service immediately you might argue that you have done well over 12 months.

The current T & Cs are slightly differently worded. Are you sure you are not subject to them?

In the end if they won't let you go without payment your only remedy is to pay under protest and then make a small claim in the County Court to recover your wrongful payment. If the County Court where you issue proceedings is nice and far away from Plusnet HQ they are unlikely to want to spend shedloads of money turning up to argue the toss and may just cough up to get rid of you.
 
Either way, being kept with an ISP for 5 years is bad. I have been telling everyone to keep clear of plusnet, due to degrading customer service and simply silly contracts.
 
In the end if they won't let you go without payment your only remedy is to pay under protest and then make a small claim in the County Court to recover your wrongful payment. If the County Court where you issue proceedings is nice and far away from Plusnet HQ they are unlikely to want to spend shedloads of money turning up to argue the toss and may just cough up to get rid of you.

Assuming you live far away from PlusNet (I believe they are based in Sheffield) then you are OK in this respect. Whicher court the claim is initially issued it, it is usually transferred to the claimants local court before proceeding begin (assuming the claimant is an individual).

Actually, I don't think distance from the court with make much difference, but I do think they might decide that paying their legal team to defend a £70 claim would be a false economy. Jast make sure you give them the chance to pay it back before you start the claim, and make it clear you will go to court if you don't.

I am doing this for a completely different reason - nothing to do with an ISP.
 
Assuming you live far away from PlusNet (I believe they are based in Sheffield)

I am about 30 miles from them so not really and option.

Actually, I don't think distance from the court with make much difference, but I do think they might decide that paying their legal team to defend a £70 claim would be a false economy.

I don't think they would consider legal costs, they would hope to win and recover them from any claimant.

Even if I was subject to the current T&C's and not the previous ones, the cancellation penalty would not be the £72 that they are claiming. It would be £57.80 as the new T&C's state the cancellation penalty are reduced by 20% for every year you stay with them.
 
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I don't think they would consider legal costs, they would hope to win and recover them from any claimant.
You would only have to pay their costs if the judge decided you were acting irresponsibly by bringing the case - basically, even if you knew PlusNet had done nothing wrong.

If you use the small claims court it would cost you £30 to make the claim, which you would claim back from PlusNet if you won.
 
.....and now the connection is unusable.

Thanks I may give it a try if they decide to make me pay these costs.

At present I have sent a letter by recorded delivery stating that I give notice that I wish to terminate my account and requesting they provide a MAC key and, should they feel that any charges are due then they should send an invoice for my consideration.

Now I may be being a little paranoid but since my last message to plusnet support staff two days ago, I have had no response and my connection has become almost unusable. I'm lucky if it stays connected for more than three or four minutes. Are any other plusnet cutomers experiencing connection issues?
 
Hi,

The information regarding 'you stay, we stay' is fairly well documented during the sign-up journey. As to whether you think it's the same as signing up to a 5 year contract, my understanding of a contract is that you are liable for subscription fee for the during of aforementioned contract. Should you wish to leave the contract prior to it's period completing, the contract would need to be bought out.

The cancellation fees in my mind are completely different. I'm not going to get involved in a discussion about the terms and conditions as firstly, I'm not a lawyer and secondly, I probably wouldn't make a massive amount of sense and my argument would probably have several flaws. The cancellation fees reflect charges that we incur when taking you on as a customer. You are perfectly welcome to pay these charges up front, or take them on as deferred charges which decrease over time.

I really don't think you can possibly have a case for not agreeing these on account of your not having read the terms properly. From memory, 'you stay, we pay' was implemented in May 2005.
 
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