Plusnet customers overcharged: have you missed out on a refund?

Hundreds of Plusnet customers have been left £400,000 out of pocket after the BT-owned firm continued billing them after leaving.

Telecoms firm Plusnet has been fined £880,000 by regulator Ofcom after it mistakenly billed customers for months after they left.

Once a customer cancels their home phone or broadband service, their ex-providers’ billing systems should recognise that the line is ‘ceased’.

But an error in Plusnet’s billing system meant that cancelled lines were still recognised as ‘live’.

As a result of the error, more than 1,000 former customers continued to be billed and were overcharged by more than £500,000.

“There can be no margin for error, and no excuses, when it comes to billing customers correctly,” says Lindsey Fussell, Ofcom’s consumer group director.

“This fine should serve as a reminder to telecoms companies that they must adhere to Ofcom’s billing rules at all times, or face the consequences.”

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Customers miss out on £400,000

To add insult to injury, it’s been revealed that Plusnet was unable to refund more than 600 customers.

The firm made repeated efforts to contact all the affected ex-customers, but only managed to refund 356 customers a total of £212,140 – an average £600 each, including 4% interest.

It failed to find the remaining 669, meaning they have missed out on a total of £400,000.

That money has now been donated to local charities.

What Plusnet said

“We are very sorry and would like to apologise to the customers affected,” said a Plusnet spokeswoman.

“We reported this ourselves to Ofcom, and have made every effort to contact these customers to arrange a full refund before the investigation started.

“We would also like to reassure all customers this was an isolated historic issue and we have implemented a number of new robust measures to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”

The £880,000 must be paid to HM Treasury within 20 working days.

It includes a 20% reduction to reflect Plusnet’s co-operation with the investigation and willingness to opt for a formal settlement, saving public money and resources.

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