In February 2014 I contacted PLUSNET to install a phone line & supply a modem & broadband at the new house I was moving to.

I paid them £72.98, I received confirmation of my order (a contract ?)in the post the following day &

2 appointments were booked for a month later for the work to be done.

I moved to my new house & waited, I took 11 hours off work unpaid to be at home for the BT Openreach engineers, but no one turned up,

I tried to contact PLUSNET on my mobile several times only to be told I was in a queue & had to wait over 40 minutes, I also tried to contact them by using the local call box - again I was in a queue & would have to wait over 50 minutes.

I wrote to PLUSNET to complain & demanded my £72.98 back plus my lost salary circa £400

including compensation for breach of contract & explicitly gave them 14 days to comply

or I would take them to the small claims court,

their response was to offer me a miserly £25 for my inconvenience & my money back if I formally asked for it, "HOW OUTRAGOUS!"

So of course I made a claim through MYCOL the online small claims service,

I offered mediation & waited for their response, NOTHING for approximately 12 months !

so a hearing date was set & surprise surprise I start to get phone calls & an offer in writing of £150 to settle this time from BT LEGAL.

I now know that PLUSNET in their incompetence failed to book the 2 appointments with their parent company BT OPENREACH thus wasting my time & causing my financial loss.

The case was heard on 03/07/2015, PLUSNET/BT didn't even bother to attend simply sending a letter,

I had a very thorough, & severe but legally professional examination of my claim & my evidence by the justice I'm not going to mention his name)

my award was just shy of £300 & they have until the 25th of July to pay.

I shall keep you informed.

I would urge anyone who has issues with utility companies be it water/gas/electricityor telecoms to do as I did & use the small claims court – that is what it is there for !

At the time of writing this BT have 5 CCJ’s against them dating back to 2011 (& now 6 with mine)

this company & its subsidiaries simply don’t care if they break civil law – it’s time we ALL complain & use the courts to get justice.

Eriko.

Well done

Hi and welcome to CAG.

Congratulations on your win.

Would it be possible for you to lay out the process you took before instigating court action as this will help others to follow in your steps (if needed)

How much communication you had? What responses? What was the court case reference? (you can inform the site team if you wish to keep it secret)

Do you know if there will be a transcript of the case?

Well done. A shame that they have been given so long to pay.

I suggest that if they don't pay then put the bailiffs in the day after the deadline - without any warning to them

getting to court was the delay, which they rely upon hoping you will give up in the process, they have until the 25th of this month to pay which is only correct, I will keep the site informed of progress (if any)

the process I took before going to court was to write to them quite specifically setting out my complaint & my demands & giving them 14 days to respond, pay up or be taken to the SCC , their miserly offer of £25 in response was totally unacceptable so I proceeded to sue them using the online SCC process, the lengthy delay was caused by the legal system, them failing to mediate, & them failing to file their response on time - which was noted by the justice & contributed to his decision in my favour.

Congratulations!

A bit on the legalities, you can file & pay for your claim online, cheaper than doing through your local Court, I needed to have all my paperwork ready & correct for the hearing which is not scary at all, its not in a court its held in a small office where you sit opposite the Judge, in my case I needed to prove that I had written to PLUSNET to complain (copy of letter & proof of postage) proof that 2 appointments were booked (copies of the 2 emails) proof of the original payment (copy of bank statement) so that the Judge could work out the interest owing (a whopping £4) unfortunately the Judge would not entertain any claim for what was obviously a breach of contract perhaps someone here can advise me on this area please. I am trying to get this matter as public as I can, by putting the details here & on Money supermarket, I have written emails to 3 Sheffield newspapers, the Guardian/Independent & Observer & will contact the Mail on Sunday today, personally I think they will pay up but if they don't I know what to do.

Eriko.

If they don't pay up (although I feel they will) you could send in the bailiffs. Now that would be fun and worth getting it filmed.

As for the breach, others will know better than I but my opinion is to not bother unless you have deep pockets

You say they have been given until the 28th, but have they? Or have they been given until the 28th to appeal. The order should be to pay the claimant forthwith, and therefore, enforcement could start immediately. Courts rarely give 28 days to make payment, its just to appeal.

You say they have been given until the 28th, but have they? Or have they been given until the 28th to appeal. The order should be to pay the claimant forthwith, and therefore, enforcement could start immediately. Courts rarely give 28 days to make payment, its just to appeal.

I agree that payment should be made straight away. The 28 day limit is for the CCJ to be registered. If they fail to pay before the deadline, they're stuck with a CCJ on their credit file

You still get up to month to pay even on a forthwith judgment.

Andy

No Andy, you get a month to settle the judgement so that you can have it removed from your file.

Enforcement can take place within minutes if the judgement.

I do not believe a court can make any award for breach of contract. Your claim was loss sustained for breach of contractual terms of service. The court can only put you back into the same position as before the loss occurred.

I believe that to be the case unless i am barking up the wrong tree

No Andy, you get a month to settle the judgement so that you can have it removed from your file.

Enforcement can take place within minutes if the judgement.

The period for payment is set by the Judgment creditor on requesting Judgment (Default Judgment or admission) A defended claim judgment period to pay is set by the District Judge.

It would take longer than 28 days to action and process enforcement...even on a Forthwith.

No Andy, if you are in a combined court you can get it transferred to high court straight away. A notice can then be sent giving 7 days on that very day. Just over a week later I can be on the doorstep. Regardless of whether its defended or not, forthwith means straight away. The two parties can agree a suitable date to make payment by and that effectively stays the case, but most judgments require payment immediately.

The judgment debtor is allowed the time stated within the judgment to make payment by...any action to execute further without allowing the reasonable time set by the court would be considered vexatious and unreasonable by any court.

Only forthwith judgments require payment immediately (and only within the time specified in the judgment...if specified) most judgments have a payment plan as agreed by the court/claimant.

Please lets not derail this thread.

Regards

Andy

No Andy, if you are in a combined court you can get it transferred to high court straight away. A notice can then be sent giving 7 days on that very day. Just over a week later I can be on the doorstep. Regardless of whether its defended or not, forthwith means straight away. The two parties can agree a suitable date to make payment by and that effectively stays the case, but most judgments require payment immediately.

That made me smile touting for business GTSTL?

An update on this PLUSNET saga, the court document gave them 21 days to pay, on or before the 25th of July, yesterday I received a cheque from them " RESULT " except for the fact that the name on the cheque isn't correct, & the amount in figures is different from the amount in letters, so my bank wouldn't accept it. So is this sheer ineptitude & incompetence on their part - or a cynical & deliberate ploy to avoid paying ?

I would say the latter

Strange, how my thread on the PLUSNET community web site forums setting out all of these details has mysteriously vanished !

Strange, how my thread on the PLUSNET community web site forums setting out all of these details has mysteriously vanished !

I wonder why they would do that? Censorship should only be reserved for posts with defamatory/libellous claims or bad language. having not seen the thread on the PlusNet site, I can't comment but if it is the same as you have here, they are out of order.