"poster" <us-mail@rocketmail.com> wrote in message
news:r2qb71lklqn43dk8h5hqbrt5l5bl46ru46@usenet.plu s.net...
> On 29 Apr 2005 07:44, "chillypenguin" <no@spam.com> wrote:
>
>>Other users have pointed out to Plus.Net that there is no BT cost
>>involved,
>>and had the £15 administration charge discounted.
>>I know one cast where it was done FOC
>
> Yes, past posts have always pointed out that it needed to be requested,
> but
> as 'chillypenguin' states, so long as there's no BT cost (no speed
> change),
> it was a simple transfer from the EasyStart to whatever comparable
> product,
> from Plus.Net and no fee should apply. But be sure it's monthly
> contract!!

Well I asked for a refund of my £14.99 charge, citing the remarks by Ian
Wild in a newsgroup post referenced recently and here is their reply.....

"Dear Mr Dodd, Ian Wild is no longer part of the company and hasn't been for
a while. It could be the fact that policies have since changed. As it stands
a downgrade is charged at £14.99"

I fail to see the relevance of Ian having left the company - he represented
them when he made that remark. What is with this lame "it could be that
policies have since been changed."? Any ideas what my best course of action
is to recover my costs, especially as PlusNet are just playing thick at the
moment? I could simply leave but unfortunately they do offer rather good
value for money overall so it would be cutting off my nose to spite my face,
and there really is not much point in putting in a lot of effort or expense
over £14.99. But they should not be allowed to shaft customers like this
just by "changing policy" mid contract.

On 2 May 2005 12:32, "Tiny Tim" <_tim_dodd@hotmail.com> wrote:

>Any ideas what my best course of action is to recover my costs, especially
>as PlusNet are just playing thick at the moment? I could simply leave but
>unfortunately they do offer rather good value for money overall so it would
>be cutting off my nose to spite my face, and there really is not much point
>in putting in a lot of effort or expense over £14.99. But they should not be
>allowed to shaft customers like this just by "changing policy" mid contract.

Does seem odd, considering they always previously said that at the end of the
minimum 12 months on EasyStart you could switch to another account. Seems to
be their policy "DOWNGRADES: If you change to a product with a lower monthly
subscription, this is classed as a downgrade. Residential downgrades incur a
one off fee of £14.99."

However I don't think it reasonable to consider a switch from EasyStart to
Premier (a change which previously was free) as a 'downgrade' and cannot
see any way for Plus.Net staff to justify this policy when someone was
locked to their higher monthly fee while on EasyStart.

It would be good to see someone (Bob, Dave, Ben, for example) accept that
there is no difference between EasyStart and a Premier account. Hang on!
In <http://www.plus.net/support/adsl/residential_upgrades.shtml> it says

What if the broadband product I want to move to has the same monthly
subscription as my current product?

If this is true, the following criteria will determine if the change is
classed as an upgrade or downgrade.

You are upgrading if the monthly subscriptions of the two products are the
same and you are moving from:

* A Broadband Home Lite or Broadband Pay As You Go product to a Broadband
Plus or Broadband Premier product.
>>> * A Broadband EasyStart, ADSL Home or ADSL Home Surf product (products no
longer sold) to any current product, e.g. Broadband Plus.
* A Broadband Plus product to a Broadband Pay As You Go product.

You are downgrading if the monthly subscriptions of the two products are the
same and you are moving from:

* A Broadband Premier product to a Broadband Pay As You Go or Broadband
Plus product.

There you have it. Smack them with their own document where it states the
change is an UPGRADE from EasyStart to any current product. (Seems as though
someone had sense when they wrote those terms, and it must have been customer
service staff mistake to have considered it a downgrade - maybe on monthly
fee grounds - who then felt confident in that response). Good luck! Peter.


--
runbox.com - 1000 MB of mail storage and 100 MB for files...
30 day free trial... <http://web.vfm-deals.com/runbox/>

"poster" <us-mail@rocketmail.com> wrote in message
news:mm5c71hrae0jfmhem4qbj5cjdufm4573h7@usenet.plu s.net...
> On 2 May 2005 12:32, "Tiny Tim" <_tim_dodd@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>>Any ideas what my best course of action is to recover my costs, especially
>>as PlusNet are just playing thick at the moment? I could simply leave but
>>unfortunately they do offer rather good value for money overall so it
>>would
>>be cutting off my nose to spite my face, and there really is not much
>>point
>>in putting in a lot of effort or expense over £14.99. But they should not
>>be
>>allowed to shaft customers like this just by "changing policy" mid
>>contract.
>
> Does seem odd, considering they always previously said that at the end of
> the
> minimum 12 months on EasyStart you could switch to another account. Seems
> to
> be their policy "DOWNGRADES: If you change to a product with a lower
> monthly
> subscription, this is classed as a downgrade. Residential downgrades incur
> a
> one off fee of £14.99."
>
> However I don't think it reasonable to consider a switch from EasyStart to
> Premier (a change which previously was free) as a 'downgrade' and cannot
> see any way for Plus.Net staff to justify this policy when someone was
> locked to their higher monthly fee while on EasyStart.
>
> It would be good to see someone (Bob, Dave, Ben, for example) accept that
> there is no difference between EasyStart and a Premier account. Hang on!
> In <http://www.plus.net/support/adsl/residential_upgrades.shtml> it says
>
> What if the broadband product I want to move to has the same monthly
> subscription as my current product?
>
> If this is true, the following criteria will determine if the change is
> classed as an upgrade or downgrade.
>
> You are upgrading if the *monthly subscriptions of the two products are
> the
> same* and you are moving from:
>
> * A Broadband Home Lite or Broadband Pay As You Go product to a
> Broadband
> Plus or Broadband Premier product.
>>>> * A Broadband EasyStart, ADSL Home or ADSL Home Surf product (products
>>>> no
> longer sold) to any current product, e.g. Broadband Plus.
> * A Broadband Plus product to a Broadband Pay As You Go product.
>
> You are downgrading if the monthly subscriptions of the two products are
> the
> same and you are moving from:
>
> * A Broadband Premier product to a Broadband Pay As You Go or Broadband
> Plus product.
>
> There you have it. Smack them with their own document where it states the
> change is an UPGRADE from EasyStart to any current product. (Seems as
> though
> someone had sense when they wrote those terms, and it must have been
> customer
> service staff mistake to have considered it a downgrade - maybe on monthly
> fee grounds - who then felt confident in that response). Good luck!
> Peter.

Thanks for trying. Unfortunately the get-out here is that the monthly fees
are not the same. EasyStart was £24.99 per month whereas my Premier
subscription is only £21.99. Hence in the current definition I did
downgrade. In any event, what applies today may not be the same as what
applied last October, when I effected the change, nor the previous October
when I started the contract and when, to my mind, the charges at that time
should have applied. i.e. nil.

In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
poster <us-mail@rocketmail.com> wrote:

>
> There you have it. Smack them with their own document where it
> states the change is an UPGRADE from EasyStart to any current
> product.

Surely, this only applies if the monthly subscription is the same or higher.
If it's *lower* - which it normally will be when going from Easy Start to
Premier at the same speed - it's classed as a *downgrade* - hence the fee.
--
Cheers,
Tim
______
Please reply to newsgroup. Reply address is invalid.

On 2 May 2005 15:41, "Tiscali Tim" <tele@privacy.net> wrote:

>Surely, this only applies if the monthly subscription is the same or higher.
>If it's *lower* - which it normally will be when going from Easy Start to
>Premier at the same speed - it's classed as a *downgrade* - hence the fee.

Yes, well spotted both of you... It is still of 'unfair' when there was no
penalty for such a change after the first year in days past. This is one
of those ultimate 'moving the goal posts' situations, given the fact it's
a year from starting with an account to being allowed to change to another
and then being hit in the balls when you do try to change. Shame that even
a switch to Broadband Plus at 24.99 is still called a 'downgrade'. Peter M.