The TPU UK Clubhouse

[AusWolf]

Funny how it's always those that can afford it are the ones that try not to pay it.

It's also strange that billionaires and mega-corporations get fined amounts that they can easily pay from their back pockets for their shady actions, while some regular law-abiding people struggle to even pay their bills.

This is almost funny - if it wasn't for the fact Bernie can easily afford to pay back taxes of over half-a-billion pounds.

Bernie Ecclestone pleads guilty to fraud

The ex-F1 boss is given a suspended sentence and will pay back £653m to HMRC over a tax case.

www.bbc.co.uk

Is that a ray of light at the end of the HS2 tunnel?

 

[Space Lynx]

new King Charles UK coins incoming, I like the theme of animals and plants, very lovely. not a fan of royalty in general, but I am glad King Charles cares about the environment and is also showing it on the coins to boot.

I am thinking of getting a few of these and getting some very fine point paintbrushes and bring them to life a bit. Then hand out to friends.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

How to keep a customer happy:

1. Downgrade them to an inferior package when they only asked for a better deal for a customer of 5 years wanting to renew the contract and not being upfront about the downgrade.
2. Dont respond to customer queries regarding the questionable changes to the package when found out.
3. Waste about 90mins of customers time on the phone passing them around from person to person and multiple departments all of them telling a different story to each other - Nobody knows whats going on.
4. spend another 15mins trying to justify what happened and "You-wont-even-notice-the-difference™"
5. Pass customer over to the 'customer retentions' department as a last ditch attempt to smooth things over, but that person doesnt know what they are doing either....

Thanks plusnet. Its been great.

 

[FoulOnWhite]

How to keep a customer happy:

1. Downgrade them to an inferior package when they only asked for a better deal for a customer of 5 years wanting to renew the contract and not being upfront about the downgrade.
2. Dont respond to customer queries regarding the questionable changes to the package when found out.
3. Waste about 90mins of customers time on the phone passing them around from person to person and multiple departments all of them telling a different story to each other - Nobody knows whats going on.
4. spend another 15mins trying to justify what happened and "You-wont-even-notice-the-difference™"
5. Pass customer over to the 'customer retentions' department as a last ditch attempt to smooth things over, but that person doesnt know what they are doing either....

Thanks plusnet. Its been great.

Great customer service there /s

I don't need to guess you switched

I am starting volunteering at a barnados charity shop tomorrow. Just need something to get me out of the house, as i am my partners full time carer. So some saturdays selling stuff should be interesting.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

I don't need to guess you switched

Yeah. Back to using sky. Same speeds but a bit cheaper so it kind of worked out in the end anyway.

Went with sky because the change over is pretty seamless. Just plug in the new router on activation day and off we go

Could have gone with virgin but their service requires and engineer to come out and lay some new cables and that costs extra so we dont bother with them.

 

[68Olds]

How to keep a customer happy:

1. Downgrade them to an inferior package when they only asked for a better deal for a customer of 5 years wanting to renew the contract and not being upfront about the downgrade.
2. Dont respond to customer queries regarding the questionable changes to the package when found out.
3. Waste about 90mins of customers time on the phone passing them around from person to person and multiple departments all of them telling a different story to each other - Nobody knows whats going on.
4. spend another 15mins trying to justify what happened and "You-wont-even-notice-the-difference™"
5. Pass customer over to the 'customer retentions' department as a last ditch attempt to smooth things over, but that person doesnt know what they are doing either....

Thanks plusnet. Its been great.

That sounds like a blend of ATT and Xfinity's customer service here in the US.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

That sounds like a blend of ATT and Xfinity's customer service here in the US.

Its funny because whever we've called them up in the past to renew the contract. They've always been really good.

The first guy that I got through to was really really nice from a call center somewhere up north rather than somewhere in east or south asia. And he was a super friendly guy to chat to. Thought he was going to sort everything out for us but ended up passing me over to someone else who told me something completely different, who then passed me off to a different person in a different department who had no idea why I was passed to them and told me something completely different than the previous person. Obviously you can see there's a bit of a trend here.

So my dad who was sitting in on the call just made the cut throat sign to me and we got passed over to face our last boss. SInce they were all over the place when dealing with me, dad doesnt have much faith that they'll cancel the service for sure even though they said they would and went through all the cancellation procedures.

Dad will go to their head office with a machete if they bill us again after the final bill. He was that annoyed about the whole experience.

 

[Deleted member 234997]

Been a Sky user for over ten years.
Just ask them to lower prices to competitive levels and they will, they like loyal customers.

 

[AusWolf]

How to keep a customer happy:

1. Downgrade them to an inferior package when they only asked for a better deal for a customer of 5 years wanting to renew the contract and not being upfront about the downgrade.
2. Dont respond to customer queries regarding the questionable changes to the package when found out.
3. Waste about 90mins of customers time on the phone passing them around from person to person and multiple departments all of them telling a different story to each other - Nobody knows whats going on.
4. spend another 15mins trying to justify what happened and "You-wont-even-notice-the-difference™"
5. Pass customer over to the 'customer retentions' department as a last ditch attempt to smooth things over, but that person doesnt know what they are doing either....

Thanks plusnet. Its been great.

That's too much hassle. There's a simpler way:

1. Charge more for "reasons" (market economics, blah-blah bullshit).
2. Offer a package that's slightly cheaper than renewal, but still way more expensive than the old one.

That's basically every single car insurance company and mobile network operator. Bastards.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

That's too much hassle. There's a simpler way:

1. Charge more for "reasons" (market economics, blah-blah bullshit).
2. Offer a package that's slightly cheaper than renewal, but still way more expensive than the old one.

That's basically every single car insurance company and mobile network operator. Bastards.

Some providers do include a 5 or 10% price hike every year under the excuse of 'muh inflation' plusnet did this.

I asked to keep the same package - they downgraded us to a different package without making it clear that its what they were doing. I thought we were saving money or getting a discount for being a long time customer and we didnt figure out what had happened until we received the confirmation email with all the information and details about the new contract, what we were paying for (the package) and of course the price and when the new contract began. We had already agreed to renew and all the administrative work on both sides was done.

Of course we had the 14 day grace period to fall back on but our new contract was due to start on the 2nd of November and after how we were dealt with there was no way we were going to carry on with the service so we cancelled the service and renewal.

 

[AusWolf]

Some providers do include a 5 or 10% price hike every year under the excuse of 'muh inflation' plusnet did this.

I asked to keep the same package - they downgraded us to a different package without making it clear that its what they were doing. I thought we were saving money or getting a discount for being a long time customer and we didnt figure out what had happened until we received the confirmation email with all the information and details about the new contract, what we were paying for (the package) and of course the price and when the new contract began. We had already agreed to renew and all the administrative work on both sides was done.

Of course we had the 14 day grace period to fall back on but our new contract was due to start on the 2nd of November and after how we were dealt with there was no way we were going to carry on with the service so we cancelled the service and renewal.

The last time I renewed with TalkTalk in February for £28 a month, then they started charging £32 from March because of "inflation". Unfortunately, a yearly adjustment due to market reasons is part of their contract, so there was nothing I could do about it. I was outside the grace period, too. Also, TalkTalk is the only provider that offers usable speeds in my area, so...

Edit: typo

 

[lexluthermiester]

How to keep a customer happy:

1. Downgrade them to an inferior package when they only asked for a better deal for a customer of 5 years wanting to renew the contract and not being upfront about the downgrade.
2. Dont respond to customer queries regarding the questionable changes to the package when found out.
3. Waste about 90mins of customers time on the phone passing them around from person to person and multiple departments all of them telling a different story to each other - Nobody knows whats going on.
4. spend another 15mins trying to justify what happened and "You-wont-even-notice-the-difference™"
5. Pass customer over to the 'customer retentions' department as a last ditch attempt to smooth things over, but that person doesnt know what they are doing either....

Thanks plusnet. Its been great.

That's when you ask for the person in charge and get stern. They screwed you over, let them know that you are willing to return the favor unless they set things right, following through with same if they do not.

That sounds like a blend of ATT and Xfinity's customer service here in the US.

Yeah, that sounds about right. Turd business entities the both of them.

 

[Count von Schwalbe]

We just switch every couple of years - after the "new customer" tag expires and all internet speed grinds to a halt.

None of the providers in the area will maintain the same speed for over 3 years. Hopefully it improves when the local utility starts competing.

 

[AusWolf]

In my area, Virgin is the only company that offers speeds worthy of this century. They wired up half the town ready for their optical network. I live just a street down from the point where they stopped.

So my only option is TalkTalk with 40 Mbits/s. Providers don't even offer such slow connections in many western countries, but that's what I get here in the middle of the UK in a fairly average-sized town. Ridiculous.

 

[lexluthermiester]

So my only option is TalkTalk with 40 Mbits/s. Providers don't even offer such slow connections in many western countries

Most rural areas in the states can get that with DSL.

 

[AusWolf]

Most rural areas in the states can get that with DSL.

Yep, it's DSL here, too. There's no optical network on this side of town, yet... maybe by 2050. Maybe.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Yep, it's DSL here, too. There's no optical network on this side of town, yet... maybe by 2050. Maybe.

You are likely going to get fibre in the next few years, but it'll likely be 250-500Mbps.

 

[AusWolf]

You are likely going to get fibre in the next few years, but it'll likely be 250-500Mbps.

Even that would be a miracle over here.

 

[Tatty_Two]

Virgin in my area do a 1130Mbps package and I am already wired for it as I was with them up until 3 years ago, might go back to them when my current Sky contract runs out next summer as the best I can get thru Sky (BT) is 145Mbps but realistically that pans out on average at around 120 consistently.

 

[AusWolf]

Virgin in my area do a 1130Mbps package and I am already wired for it as I was with them up until 3 years ago, might go back to them when my current Sky contract runs out next summer as the best I can get thru Sky (BT) is 145Mbps but realistically that pans out on average at around 120 consistently.

Speaking of packages reminds me that my two options are a 40 Mbps package for £30 a month, or a 60 Mbps one for £32, but both of them run at 40 Mbps because that's the maximum the line is capable of. I pay for the 60 Mbps one in hope that maybe, just maybe there's gonna be a line upgrade in my area at some point in the future (which looks highly unlikely).

 

[Tatty_Two]

I also meant to mention, across the board prices went up in April by 14%, take a look at (for example) the BT advertisements for Broadband, the print at the bottom of the screen "annually in March prices will increase by CPI + 3.9%", well CPI is calculated on 30th September annually and last years was 10.2% (I know that because my Army pension got the increase in April ), neither Sky Broadband or Virgin media do TV adverts generally between November and February because they would also have to tell the world how much they are about to rip them off

 

[kurosagi01]

BT and sky offer the fastest in my area.
I have decided to switch my mobile contract to a sim only and they offered £5 off their cheapest unlimited data sim only package after speaking to them and telling them i've been a loyal customers for donkeys.

 

[FoulOnWhite]

I'm with KC/Kcom at 100Mb/sec for £40. They have a special offer atm though, i think 500 for the same price, so might have to speak to them about going on the same offer or i will leave.

Tbh though, i'm not one of these that need a millionMb/s and have been fine with the 100, but 500 for the same price, i may as well switch if i can.

 

[AusWolf]

Let's not even talk about prices going up. I'm currently looking for car insurance because my current one is due for renewal for 30% more. Unlike in previous years, I can't even find anything cheaper.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

That's when you ask for the person in charge and get stern. They screwed you over, let them know that you are willing to return the favor unless they set things right, following through with same if they do not.

I would have but sky was offering a much better offer/deal. £60 voucher and the same speeds at a lower price. We also get a fancy new router as well. We were still running the old plusnet 'hub 1'. My Aunt who is also on plusnet got sent a free router upgrade (hub 2) out of the blue. She didnt need it so I ended up with it. I'll probably set it up to use as an access point as its faster and more uptodate then my current Netgear R7000 (AC1900)