OT Plusnet Mobile Rant

[newshound]

Very happy with my Plusnet Broadband, they have a deal on mobile that would double the data and be slightly cheaper than GiffGaff. Sounds a no brainer.

Except that it turns out they do *not* support replying to short SMS messages. The argument is that this can help protect you from scams (even though one nice thing about Plusnet mobile is that you can set a cap on charges).

So when Barclaycard sends a "suspicious activity" SMS, you cannot reply to confirm or deny. Followed by best part of an hour to Barclaycard customer services in deepest asia (with a very thick accent, quite difficult to follow).

And the correct charges (PCN's run up by son when borrowing the van, but that's another story) still take more than a day to move from pending to paid.

LOADS of complaints going back four years on their community forum, apparently a lot of doctors' surgeries are using short SMS for covid related stuff.

So be warned!

\rant

[Spike]

Someone else on here mentioned PN mobile recently, I did warn then of this issue.

[Brian Gaff (Sofa]

So which carrier are plusnet using? I doubt its their actual problem as there are very few real carriers left, they all tend to piggy back from one of the main ones. Brian

[Mark Carver]

They use EE. Remember, EE and Plusnet are both BT subsidiary companies

[PeterC]

I've looked around O2'site and can't find anything on short SMS - any one know? I'm intending to go to O2 as the signal is good here and Three' prices went from 3-2-1 to 10-10-5!

[David Wade]

Well for a light user the O2 rates looks worse than 3 at 55p a minute. Even GiggGaff their funny service is 10-10-25...

Dave

[David Wade]

Peter,

I think it works, but I don't use them often. There are a number of service restrictions you can enable and disable so as many are a premium service they may be affected by this.

Dave

[newshound]

The problem is not the network, all the networks will support all the usual services. The issue is the SIM contract, that may restrict them.

That said, Vodafone and GiffGaff don't have any such restrictions (and I have never heard before of anyone else having this problem).

The Plusnet initial response was that they do this because there is a risk of getting scammed by responding to short SMS. When multiple customers pointed out that they themselves set a default maximum price cap of £10 which you can adjust either way, they shifted their excuse to "We provide a stripped down basic service". No sign that they are going to change, so leave them alone!

The restriction means you can't even send "STOP" to SMS spammers.

[Mark Carver]

Spammers aren't going honour a STOP command anyway !

For legitimate SMS services, presumably the short code maps to a real '+44 7xxx xxx' number anyway, although impossible to find out what number that is.

As with most of these things, you get the service you pay for. Plusnet Mobile is bargain basement cheap.

[newshound]

Yes, but not so much cheaper than the competition, and only really if you already have plusnet broadband. I was a bit pissed off to find it did not hang on the back of the plusnet account, I had to enter all the personal details, bank details, etc. as well as creating username and password again.

I can't help thinking short SMS is just a switch somewhere in the software, rather than a true "cost-saving" decision.

[Dave Plowman (News]

I've been looking to change from PAYG to a low cost monthly simm only deal, as I doubt I'll use much data. And Plusnet seemed to have the best deal - and my ISP is BT. Should I be put off by this problem?

[Andy Burns]

Do you get texts from you bank/paypal/ebay asking you to prove it is

*you* making a transaction? I think the amazon ones don't count as they direct you to a web page to confirm.

[newshound]

Oops I think I must have hit reply instead of followup, so try again.

All the two factor authentication and other similar stuff I have seen are OK, I think they are web site based.

It's the Barclays and Barclaycard short SMS saying "We have detected suspicious transactions, was it you? Reply Y or N" that have screwed me up. I have had I suppose half a dozen in the past year. And they have trapped some spoofed transactions. The latest, on PlusNet, was actually genuine, but as I could not confirm that they ended up blocked initially and it was a PITA to clear them via customer services.

But read Plusnet "community" forums/fora, loads of people have complained that (for example) their local health authority uses short SMS for covid and appointment stuff, and you need to be able to reply to them.

So I will not be touching Plusnet Mobile again even if they introduce it. At least one of the other budget SIM providers (Smarty) does the same, but GiffGaff is fine, and not much more expensive. Although Plusnet gives double the data, I only used to use a fraction of the allowance. Anyway, new GiffGaff sim due tomorrow, wasting a fiver or so on unused Plusnet allowance.

Don't know if any other banks use the Barclays system, but in general they all seem to be using more fraud checking by one method or another.

[Mark]

I have O2 on a phone and replying to short SMS messages work ok But O2 payg is now more expensive then 3 unless you can get an old Classic sim

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[tim...]

IME (once in 5 years) if you don't reply to the text (in my case, thinking it was someone trying to scam me), they call you to follow up.

I'm wondering what it is that you do, that causes you to get several of these "fraud detection" texts per month

[Andy Burns]

I only got one, I can't remember what the purchase was, but obviously the bank's system thought it was unusual, but not being able to reply, once was enough, it could be something important next time and I got a PAC to move back to Tesco the same day.

Can't understand Plusnet's attitude, the "story" that it's to save you from expensive SMS charges is such bullshit.

[Roger]

I just reduced an elderly friends telephony costs by switching her to ASDA, cost 4-4-4. I don't know whether short codes work or not.

[PeterC]

There's The Classic SIM, 20p from Ebay, has to be activated by mid-December. I guess that the seller must get a payment from O2 as 20p is less than the postage. Pretty well all PAYG and monthly schemes are far more than I need and the monthly ones are legalised theft - pay for something, don't use it all, money taken anyway. Even the cheapest ones would increase my 'real' call rate by several times.

[PeterC]

I can't find an actual table of charges on O2's site; some others provide a breakdown of costs in some detail - but I've never looked for short SMS as I didn't even know about it, only that with one provider I couldn't reply to texts from the hospital.

[PeterC]

Follow-up above - SIM is 20p on Ebay. When I'v used up Three's balance I'll change over.

Now up to 99p. Was 20p.