Plusnet contract breach

[no1mum]

I have been a broadband customer of Plusnet for 2 years. They take money from my account on a monthly basis and provide me with broadband. I live in a shred house - my flatmate deals with the phone bill & I deal with the broadband bill.

In March BT contacted Plusnet and told them to stop providing me with broadband due to an issue they were having with my flatmate & his BT bill.

On 25/03/08 Plusnet took the monthly payment from my account, and then on 27/03/08 they stopped my broadband service. When I aksed them to turn it back on they said BT had instructed them to terminate my account and cancel all serviced provided. They said if I wanted broadband I would have to reapply and pay a £40 connection charge.

Firstly there's a Data Protection Act issue here, as BT & Plusnet have been divulging my account details to each other without my permission - and I am not even a BT customer!

But secondly I want to know if Plusnet have breached the contract I have with them? They acted on a third parties say so and failed to provide me with the service for which they had been paid.

Does this mean they breached the contract? They are now demanding more monthly payments even though they will not reconnect the internet without a connection charge being paid.

I have cancelled the direct debit so they cannot take payment, but would like to know if I am still liable to make these payments or not? As far as I can see they terminated my account and so I am not liable to pay them.

PLEASE HELP!!!!

[IdaInFife]

I am not famillar with Plusnet but

Do you have to have a BT line to have Plusnet?

If so, Bt may have adv them that if the BT line is ceased then they cannot possiably provide your BB.

Regarding payments:

You said you have been with them 2 years, providing you have fullfilled any minimum term then you are only liable to pay until day of disconnection,


Idax.

[Mark_Blackpool]

You asked Plusnet to stop providing you with service. The key here is "stop" and not "suspend". Although I doubt that any ISPs would "suspend" a service though I stand to be corrected on that.

I am not sure why the last payment taken and the date of service termination were so close together. Do you have to give a month's notice?

Many broadband connections come with a minimum 12 month contract. However you say you have been with them for 2 years, so you would seem to have fulfilled this. Therefore there should be no billing after the service was stopped. Did you ever downgrade/upgrade your service thus beginning a new contract which they're trying to hold you to?

When the service was stopped, PlusNet would have instructed BT to remove the line card at the exchange which supplies your broadband. This is how BT would "find out" about it. Though I don't necessarily mean BT Retail - it's simply that someone at the exchange has to physically pull the card out.

As regards getting it going again - you want to start a new broadband service and many ISPs charge a connection fee, which you will have to pay again, because you're signing up for a new service. Someone at the exchange will have to put the line card back in and test the line.

Some ISPs waive the setup/connection charge if you stay for a year; some will waive it initially but charge it should you terminate within twelve months.

It sounds to me like a billing error: the service was stopped but the billing wasn't.

Edit: a quick letter to your Bank would be worthwhile confirming the cancellation of the direct debit. There is nothing to stop Plusnet simply setting up the direct debit mandate again with or without your say so and debiting your account. They should not do this, of course, but a letter to your Bank might mean that should they do this you can then hold the Bank liable for releasing funds against your extremely specific instruction.

[Chromatix]

No, no, no, no, Mark.

The OP did not instruct Plusnet to disconnect his service. BT did that off their own bat. They appear to have confused the OP and his delinquent flatmate, the latter of which has a BT account.

What I would like to know, however, is whether the broadband comes in on the same physical line as the voice service. This would explain why the broadband and the voice are seemingly linked.

However, it is very clear that Plusnet should not be continuing to charge you while not providing a service. I would say so in strong terms in a letter, and cancel the Direct Debit to be certain.

Oh, and take a clue-by-four to your flatmate.

[Mark_Blackpool]

Yes, the broadband is supplied down the same physical wire as the voice service. Typically it's split in the home between voice (landline phone) and broadband (modem) using a micro filter device.

I cannot see how BT can contact Plusnet to "tell them" to withdraw service (although BT can stop it working - that's slightly different). BT are not Plusnet's customer. Sorry, I mis-read the OP here. Perhaps also if the line is shut down then BT do notify the ISP who is providing service on that line, and that ISP then stop the service (no phone line = no broadband). But that's different to BT telling the ISP to stop service.

What they can do is to take the line card out so that the broadband stops working. Typically if voice services are suspended then the broadband keeps on working as the line card is still present but if the phone line is stopped altogether than the card also gets removed so the broadband stops working.

The effect to you is the same, the broadband will stop working and the modem will not "synchronise" with the exchange. There is a physical break between you and your ISP.

Even if BT pulled the line card out (thanks to delinquency or otherwise on the phone account) PlusNet might still regard the service as operational from a billing point of view because you, their customer, have not asked for a cancellation.

Have BT actually said they contacted PlusNet? If they told PlusNet the line was disconnected then BT have not supplied the ISP with any data about you, indeed they do not have any data about you, only that a broadband service (in someone's name, doesn't matter who) is or was being supplied down that line.

Was the line stopped altogether at some point? As the line might then have been reactivated, but perhaps BT want payment from the ISP to put the line card back in, in which case they want payment from you to do same. ISPs normally have a term in their Ts and Cs which says something along the lines of "You are responsible for maintaining a phone line to use our service with".

If this is the case, then although you're not in a position to be make sure the line is working (not your line account, not your bills) then as the ISP's customer you are still responsible for making sure that line is working and the consequences (reconnection) if that line were cut off.

[Psycho Bob :o)]

BT OWNs Plusnet.

BT bought Plusnet outright a while back, mostly because they wanted to gain the Plusnet sysops knowledge of the ellacoya managed traffic system/network, so that they ( BT ) could deploy it themselves, and in doing so, save themselves millions.

I'm purely speculating that as BT own Plusnet, perhaps the 'data sharing' came under the same company umbrella and was somehow exempt for normal 'sharing' violations? I don't know, it's just a guess.

see BT buy PLUSNET.

[legalpickle]

It's not a Data Protection breach if the line was cancelled. It's not clear from the OP's post, but if the line was cancelled, the broadband wouldn't work, so BT would tell the provider of that automatically.

It isn't a Data Protection breach if it's what I think it is. BT Wholesale would get told from BT Retail to cancel the phone line. BT Wholesale would then tell any other service provider of a service on that line that the line is being cancelled, automatically they would have to cancel all their services on that line.

They didn't breach anything. If the line was cancelled the broadband would be too.

Also they wouldn't divulge your details, only the telephone number and postcode, and possibly BT account number - though don't think they do that now.

If I'm misunderstanding something here then please make your post clearer.