You may have seen serveral threads (sorry for another) on this and probably other forums concerning Plusnets weasly approach to "making the broadband experience better" by introducing caps and throttling things like peer to peer. If like me you thought you were getting an uncapped, and again like me a premium contention service when you joined only to recently find out that no, if Plusnet want to change their T&C's its fine. Also if you want to leave the aforementioned uncapped (now capped) premium contention (throttled) service you have to pay them for the pleasure What I want people to do is to open a customer service issue ticket thing with them and at every opportunity complain about the service they offer and the changing of the T&C's. In fact can someone come up with a stonking standard response that we can all use? Also to never close this ticket but leave it opened so that they have all these unsatisfied customer queries clogging their service that go on and on...... by adding to it everyday (a sphinctersayswhat) We might just get them to either lets us go or maybe force some sort of change?]] Edit: Okay what I'm going to send them....daily: 25/01/2006 Dear Plusnet On the 21st of June 2005, I agreed to an uncapped premium contention broadband service for £21.99 per month for which I now have several complaints: The complaints are: 1. This service is now capped 2. The service is now prioritized therefore in my view as the consumer is no longer the premium service I agreed to. 3. The change to you Terms and Conditions by way of email on 29/08/05 was misleading under the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations were the email does not mention in the summary of changes my service will now be capped and regulated. As a consumer, I am protected against unfair standard terms in contracts by the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations (UTCCRs). The UTCCRs protect me from terms that reduce my statutory or common law rights, and from terms that seek to impose unfair burdens on me over and above the ordinary rules of law. An unfair term in a contract covered by the UTCCRs is not binding on me. A term is unfair if, contrary to the requirement of good faith, it causes a significant imbalance in the parties' rights and obligations under the contract, to the detriment me the consumer. 'Good faith' means that Plusnet must deal fairly and openly with me. Although standard terms may be drafted to protect commercial needs, they must also take account of my interests and rights by going no further than is necessary to protect those legitimate commercial interests. According to the UTCCRs, a standard term must be expressed in plain and intelligible language. A term is open to challenge if it has put me at a disadvantage because I am not clear about its meaning - even if its meaning could be worked out by a lawyer. If there is doubt as to what a term means, the meaning most favourable to the consumer will apply. I now therefore wish to reject the service you supply and be issued with my MAC key at no extra cost or be subject to cancellation or deferment fees. Yours faithfully, John Barber
Hehe... I signed up with Plus.net last year (mid August), and all was going great until 1st Jan 2006 when they changed all their T&C's. I'm already at level 3 for P2P use (reached it last week - but I suppose that's what happens when you're constantly downloading Lost/Scrubs/Invasion/American Dad/Family Guy episodes!). I'll be switching over to Zen next month (£10 more expensive, but it's unlimited bandwidth, comes with 8 static IP's, and has no kind of throttling). Damn you Plus.net!
I don't think they can actually legally charge you for leaving the service if you are not satisfied with a change in their terms and conditions. I think the law says that a change in terms means any customer can leave of their own free will. I'll see if I can find out more about that for those who are curious. Sam
Oooh, interesting. The cancellation/migration fee doesn't bother me too much, but it'd be nice not having to pay it!
Glad i read this, as i was considering migrating to plusnet, hadn't looked into it too much but they looked good value. Currently with Nildram and whilst the service from them has been nothing short of excellent at around £28 a month for 2mbit (uncapped) it doesn't seem to offer very good value for money, especially with it not being used that heavily during term time. who would you recommend?
My BB+ service was throttle to 20k (I kid you not) which timed out regularly. I opened a ticket and they had tests run on the line, it took nearly a week for them to work out why my net was slow. I complained and had the net returned to normal. I got an e-mail the other day saying they've applied Level 1 restrictions for the rest of this month, I've only downloaded ~7GB since 01 January which is next to nowt. I'll be interested to see what SJH comes up with as I'm wanting out and the cancellation is £80 odd until April when it reduces by £20 or so. Oddly enough, I got the newsletter the other day saying that BB+ and Premier users are getting free upgrades to 8MB in April. Surely they'll slacken the limits off if they're offering up to 24MB lines and their minimum speed service is 8MB
Yer right. I dont believe that most people only use that little on what was advertised as an uncapped service. Considering this is the third forum Ive now seen with a 'plusnet suck' style thread.
well I have been with them for years. not exactly sure how many but I would say coming up for 4-5 years. they have always been a helpfull and freindly ISP for me yes recently they have changed there TOC but look at how many others have shifted over to capped services as well. there are very few places left now that still allow uncapped BB services without charging you alot more then £21 a month for a 8meg service (depending on weather you have been upgraded yet or not). With the increasing speeds of BB and the FREE upgrages they were giving us the service was open for abuse. there for something like this was bound to happend to plusnet sooner or later.
I can totally see what you're saying. I originally chose Plus.net based on the comments and feedback I'd read about a year ago. But when I signed up they offered 200Gb/month to do what you like with (no harsh traffic shaping, or any of this off/peak nonsense). I guess I've just been quite unlucky with my timing! I mean, if they'd have held off, and changed the T&C's this time next year it wouldn't be so bad - I'd have got over a year out of them. But seeing as they've changed the T&C's now, just 4½ months after I got connected, I'm a bit peeved. Maybe my anger is increased because of all the hassle I had getting set up. I actually signed up 5½ months ago, but both Plus.net and BT screwed me around so much, it took a month to get online. And even then, BT fobbed me off with the old "your line can only do 1Mb" excuse (and Plus.net were no help in trying to get this sorted). I ended up phoning BT with the hope of speaking to someone with an IQ greater than 50 (pigs might fly), and then spent the next 15 minutes convincing them that my line could do 2Mb, "I'm right, you're wrong" (I can still quote my attenuation/noise figures off the top of my head!) Anywho, too much babbling...will be hopping over to Zen next month.
They are faultless customer service wise etc etc etc which is why I actually reccommended them to others, however I did not move the goalposts to suit my game they did. If they want to be weasley and hide behind the masquerade of "a better broadband experience" when infact they are to miserly to pay up for more content at the expense of restricting so called "premium" accounts then fine, but they shoul not hold me to ransom when I want to leave. They are a small rainfall of illigitemate persons - roughly translates to a shower of b@5t@rd5
Nildram 2Mb is capped, though generously (IMO) and only in peak period ("A Fair Usage Quota ensures that everyone gets a fair share of available bandwidth. We have set this at 50GB during peak times (8am - 12pm) for Surf500 and Broadband 2 customers.") Unrestricted the rest of the time. Plusnet is 30Gb in a shorter peak period (4pm-12pm), but 100Gb total for the £22 Premier. Nildram is good value if you want a very good 'free' newsgroup service (Giganews), Pipex are charging £34/m for essentially the same or maybe worse package. Not to me, I'm coming to Nildram.
I've been with BT for years, they tried to implement a cap, but in the end gave up.. so still uncapped here As for other ISPs I'd say Zen or Eclipse are pretty good. Things are changing though with the local loop being opened and ADSL2!
Okay what I'm going to send them....daily: 25/01/2006 Dear Plusnet On the 21st of June 2005, I agreed to an uncapped premium contention broadband service for £21.99 per month for which I now have several complaints: The complaints are: 1. This service is now capped 2. The service is now prioritized therefore in my view as the consumer is no longer the premium service I agreed to. 3. The change to you Terms and Conditions by way of email on 29/08/05 was misleading under the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations were the email does not mention in the summary of changes my service will now be capped and regulated. As a consumer, I am protected against unfair standard terms in contracts by the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations (UTCCRs). The UTCCRs protect me from terms that reduce my statutory or common law rights, and from terms that seek to impose unfair burdens on me over and above the ordinary rules of law. An unfair term in a contract covered by the UTCCRs is not binding on me. A term is unfair if, contrary to the requirement of good faith, it causes a significant imbalance in the parties' rights and obligations under the contract, to the detriment me the consumer. 'Good faith' means that Plusnet must deal fairly and openly with me. Although standard terms may be drafted to protect commercial needs, they must also take account of my interests and rights by going no further than is necessary to protect those legitimate commercial interests. According to the UTCCRs, a standard term must be expressed in plain and intelligible language. A term is open to challenge if it has put me at a disadvantage because I am not clear about its meaning - even if its meaning could be worked out by a lawyer. If there is doubt as to what a term means, the meaning most favourable to the consumer will apply. I now therefore wish to reject the service you supply and be issued with my MAC key at no extra cost or be subject to cancellation or deferment fees. Yours faithfully, John Barber
Don't know too much about UK law, but in the states (hey, I worked for ATT and cingular, so I had to know this stuff) if a company changes their T&C, then the customer has something between 15-30 days (I'm not 100% sure on the figure anymore, it's been almost a year since I've had to deal with this kind of thing) to tell the company about it, at which point the contract is considered null and void immediately, and all service is stopped. There is a nearly identical law in canada, so I shouldn’t at all be surprised if there was one elsewhere. So if there is one, there is an EXTREMELY limited time-frame for you to do anything about it. Act now
