Plusnet offer - inflationary increases now as standard in contract?

Scam · 22 Feb 2021 at 19:23

I've had Plusnet's standard 36Mbps Fibre for £22.99/month since last August. Seems to do us fine, although I've since started gaming again, and finding downloading said games a bit of a drag. Out of the blue I got an offer from them to upgrade to Fibre Extra (76Mbps) for £24.99/month.

I was about to jump on it, wowever there is the small print that says;

The price for broadband, line rental, call plans and call charges will be increased on or after 1st June 2021 and then on or after 1st March every year from March 2022. On or after 1st June 2021, prices will increase by the Consumer Price Index rate of inflation published in April of that year plus 3.9%. On or after 1st March every year from March 2022, prices will increase by the Consumer Price Index rate of inflation published in January of that year plus 3.9%. Other prices, content and terms may also change during your contract. See CPI Plus 3.9% Guide for details.

I called them to see whether or not that applies to (a) my current contract and (b) would apply to the new contract. The lady said it applies to all new contracts; that they are no longer offering fixed-priced contracts anymore :confused:

Seemed to suggest this will be the same across the board for all ISPs although I didn't push her on that.

Can anyone shed any light on this? Going up to £26/month if you take into account the 3.9% increase is still not terrible, but there are possibly other options out there. We are very happy with Plusnet though, I'd be inclined to pay a little more to stick with them.

Does anyone know anything about broadband contracts doing this across the board now and being subject to inflationary changes? Had a quick look at BT and they seem to suggest the same, couldn't tell on Vodafone's site after a quick look :confused:

Armageus · 22 Feb 2021 at 19:30

It's a BT policy, and as Plusnet (and EE) are owned by BT they are now applying it across all their brands

https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.p...-ee-confirm-4-5-price-hike-rate-for-2021.html

Hotwired · 22 Feb 2021 at 19:32

They had a look at VM exploiting customers with automatic price hikes and decided they want some of that.

tom_e · 22 Feb 2021 at 20:12

Seems to have appeared in the small print for a lot of mobile operators TV adverts recently as well.

Scam · 22 Feb 2021 at 22:46

Armageus said:
It's a BT policy, and as Plusnet (and EE) are owned by BT they are now applying it across all their brands

https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.p...-ee-confirm-4-5-price-hike-rate-for-2021.html

Thanks for the info.

Hotwired said:
They had a look at VM exploiting customers with automatic price hikes and decided they want some of that.

So there's not many options out there to avoid these mid-contract rises? I told the woman at Plusnet this is why I ditched my mobile contract years ago and opted for PAYG from Giff Gaff... I don't expect to sign a contract for 18 months only for them to be able to raise the price whenever they feel like it!

Silicon Si · 22 Feb 2021 at 23:25

Scam said:
Thanks for the info.

So there's not many options out there to avoid these mid-contract rises? I told the woman at Plusnet this is why I ditched my mobile contract years ago and opted for PAYG from Giff Gaff... I don't expect to sign a contract for 18 months only for them to be able to raise the price whenever they feel like it!

ZEN

bremen1874 · 23 Feb 2021 at 00:55

Silicon Si said:
ZEN

Pay more for the entire contract period than any possible mid-contract price hike is ever going to cost you?

Hotwired · 23 Feb 2021 at 01:08

You could get on board the VM rollercoaster and disconnect every 12/18 months when contract runs out which tends to reset the price escalator as they try to get you back in.

Scam · 23 Feb 2021 at 09:41

How is Sky these days? I always thought they were trash but I've been eligible for a staff deal for a year or so now. When I first looked Plusnet still beat their staff deal though, but I hear they've changed the offer now to improve it...

tom_e · 23 Feb 2021 at 11:34

Scam said:
How is Sky these days? I always thought they were trash but I've been eligible for a staff deal for a year or so now. When I first looked Plusnet still beat their staff deal though, but I hear they've changed the offer now to improve it...

We had Sky up until July last year and it was pretty common for it to have widespread i.e multiple areas of the town downtime for an evening every few weeks. Switched to TalkTalk and no issues since.

Scam · 23 Feb 2021 at 18:38

tom_e said:
We had Sky up until July last year and it was pretty common for it to have widespread i.e multiple areas of the town downtime for an evening every few weeks. Switched to TalkTalk and no issues since.

I always thought TT was bottom of the pile! I guess it all depends on where you are, with ISPs?

How's the Sky Q router? Our PN one has had well-documented 5GHz issues which they don't seem to want to resolve, and the signal is pretty weak here in my spare-room/office. And we're only in a flat!

b0rn2sk8 · 23 Feb 2021 at 21:11

Nothing wrong with talk talk, another subscriber here. It’s got a reputation for having poor support but the chances are you’ll never need it and its really not any worse than anyone one else. Offshore call centre being a put off for some. They also had that data breach that cause a lot of repetitional damage. I’ve always managed to negotiate a better price than is on offer elsewhere come renewal time (U.K. call centre for that!). It’s the same BT openreach product they resell at the end of the day and their core network is decent so price is all that really matters.

Vodafone is bottom of the pile from the main providers, their core network is poor.

Sky can be tricky if you want to use your own equipment.

Everyone else is ‘fine’.

Zen and A&A supposedly have the best support but you really do pay for it and the chances are you’ll never need it. Their product isn’t really any different and it’s way more expensive.

GinG · 24 Feb 2021 at 15:03

Another thumbs up for Talktalk. Must have been with them for around 5 years and not had one disconnect in that time.

Currently paying £19.95 for 36mb

thewanted · 24 Feb 2021 at 15:26

tom_e said:
We had Sky up until July last year and it was pretty common for it to have widespread i.e multiple areas of the town downtime for an evening every few weeks. Switched to TalkTalk and no issues since.

I see complaints in our local neighbourhood Facebook groups of Sky outages pretty much every week so I wouldn't go anywhere near them.

Scam · 24 Feb 2021 at 15:41

thewanted said:
I see complaints in our local neighbourhood Facebook groups of Sky outages pretty much every week so I wouldn't go anywhere near them.

Whereabouts is that?

leoncuprar · 24 Feb 2021 at 21:40

b0rn2sk8 said:
Vodafone is bottom of the pile from the main providers, their core network is poor.

I am looking to change broadband provider because BT renewals don't seem competitive. I was thinking of Vodaphone as my next provider but is their network unreliable from what you said b0rn2sk8 ?

TangoEchoAlpha · 17 Jun 2021 at 16:23

Been hit with the CPI price rise on our PlusNet FTTC service, so today started the process of moving to Zen.

With PlusNet, we had the Unlimited Fibre Extra (£21.30 p/m) and landline (£20.29 p/m), so were giving PlusNet nearly £42 a month for the service. The equivalent with Zen (Unlimited Fibre 2, with phone line) is £34.99 p/m with no price increases.

Also thinking about the future, part of the town I live in does have FTTP, but where we are doesn't at the moment. When it becomes available, Zen will offer it whereas at the moment, Plus Net don't seem to be interested in FTTP at all?

Jokester · 17 Jun 2021 at 16:29

I hate this with a passion as it’s totally tail wagging the dog.

If they still weren’t the cheapest here I would be ditching Plusnet and going elsewhere.

Screenbeat · 17 Jun 2021 at 16:31

leoncuprar said:
I am looking to change broadband provider because BT renewals don't seem competitive. I was thinking of Vodaphone as my next provider but is their network unreliable from what you said b0rn2sk8 ?

I have been with Vodafone for the last 3 month and has bee fine so far.

b0rn2sk8 · 17 Jun 2021 at 16:43

You were paying £40+ a month for Plusnet? :eek:

Yikes, no wonder you want to leave….

New customers would get that service for close to or even less than £20 a month after cash back (depending on the offer at the time).