Briefly, they signed people up for a service called PlusNet 24/7,
giving all appearances that this meant what it said. In fact, I even
emailed them about what they meant, and was told that provided I didn't
host streaming video I could do what I liked.
All was fine for a while, and then - pretty much out of the blue, in
early 2001 - an email arrived (quoted at the end of this post to aid
readability), which told us that "24/7" actually meant 2 hours (sic) a
day, and that 3h 40m was "taking the Michael". We were also told that
"Customers who exceed these guides will receive warning and/or be
subject to punitive action".
This was bad enough, but an even more ridiculous part of the email told
customers on the "Biz" account (intended for... er... businesses) that
7 hours in the daytime and 1h 50m off peak were "taking the Michael"
too. So staying online from 9am to 5pm was out, and so was doing 2h of
online work in the evening.
It didn't end there. As you can imagine, the relevant NGs (eg
alt.internet.providers.uk) were inundated with complaints, and so were
PlusNet's own discussion forums. Things got really surreal when someone
was threatened with legal action for posting PlusNet's contact address
and reception phone number (as opposed to the official - always engaged
- support number), despite the fact that these details were on
PlusNet's own homepage!
If you want to see for yourself just how silly things got, go to Google
groups and do a search for "Plusnet taking the Michael" (without the
quotes). You'll soon realise why vast numbers of their subscribers (me
included) left asap, never to return. By comparison, BT's reduction
from 16/24 to 12/24 is nothing!
That email in full:
---STARTS---
BE WARNED
Fair and reasonable usage guide for Surftime accounts
Following on from the events of the last week or so and feedback we
have received from our customers we have produced a guide to what we
consider to be fair and reasonable use of our Surftime account types.
The guidance is separated by account type and is intended to give an
indication and does not set precise parameters.
In all instances we quote a maximum average, by this we mean the
maximum amount of time in a day a customer has been logged onto the
Surftime dial service, this average is measured across a week. Please
note this does not mean the maximum amount of time logged on in any
given single day as we appreciate that people's usage profile varies.
Biz+ accounts, this is split into two categories
Mon-Fri
08:00 - 18:00hrs
Design - 3 hours 40 minutes
Fair - 4 hours 20 minutes
Pushing it - 5 hours
Unfair - 5 hours 40 minute
......................................................... *
Out of order - 6 hours 20 minutes
Taking the Michael - 7 hours and above
* Customers who exceed these guides will receive warning and/or be
subject
to punitive action
All other times
Design - 1 hour
Fair - 1 hour 10 minutes
Pushing it - 1 hour 20 minutes
Unfair - 1 hour 30 minutes
......................................................... *
Out of order - 1 hour 40 minutes
Taking the Michael - 1 hour 50 minutes and above
* Customers who exceed these guides will receive warning and/or be
subject
to punitive action
24/7 accounts
Design - 1 hours 35 minutes
Fair - 2 hours
Pushing it - 2 hours 25 minutes
Unfair - 2 hours 50 minutes
......................................................... *
Out of order - 3 hours 15 minutes
Taking the Michael - 3 hours 40 minutes and above
* Customers who exceed these guides will receive warning and/or be
subject
to punitive action
OffPeak accounts (Unmetered element only)
Design - 45 minutes
Fair - 1 hour 20 minutes
Pushing it - 1 hour 40 minutes
Unfair - 2 hours
......................................................... *
Out of order - 2 hours 20 minutes
Taking the Michael - 2 hours 40 minutes and above
* Customers who exceed these guides will receive warning and/or be
subject
to punitive action
*** PlusNet reserve the right to review and update this guide in the
future
***
Best Wishes,
Customer Support
---ENDS---
--
"After all, a mere thousand yards... such a harmless little knoll,
really" - Raymond Mays on Shelsley Walsh.
The GPL Scrapyard: Back again! http://www.btinternet.com/~gplscrapyard