NS Customer Service Staff so Presumptuous

What kind of mistake did they make on your invoice?

Hello Blue999, welcome at our community,

What a pity that you did experience this. I'm also curious what kind of mistake we made on your inovice. Can you please let us know?

I started weekendvrij subscription on March 2 and canceled it on April 2 at the same time- 8:02 in the morning. The question is the amount deducted in total is 39.76 euro, not 36.95 euro as written on the website? It’s 2.81 euro more. My first invoice was 29.03 euro from 2 March to 23 March, second 36.95 euro from 24 March to 23 April. After I canceled it on 2 April, I got the third invoice and it said an amount of 26.22 euro will be returned to me. If you do the math, you will find that one month subscription is not 36.95 euro, it cost me an extra 2.81 euro.

The first agent via “chat with NS” agreed that it’s a mistake indeed, but I guess she didn’t do anything about it because I did receive 26.22 euro back ( it should be 29.03 euro back). The second agent from Facebook denied and said there was no mistake. The third agent on the phone admitted the mistake and he said he could send me a coupon, and I said that I only wanted my money back. He did say he would transfer it to me on the same day, which he didn’t. The fourth agent on the phone was the one I mentioned above, who assumed there was no mistake on their invoice and replied “I returned the money because you asked so, and I don’t think there is a mistake, it will cost a lot if we need to investigate the problem”. He acted as if I called just to blackmail or what, while the truth is NS charged me more and it took me four times of commutation to really solve it. I need to wait for one or two weeks to see whether he really transferred the money to me. But it doesn’t matter so much anymore, all I know is that NS customer service is really good at “serving” people with sarcasm.

I started weekendvrij subscription on March 2 and canceled it on April 2 at the same time- 8:02 in the morning. The question is the amount deducted in total is 39.76 euro, not 36.95 euro as written on the website? It’s 2.81 euro more. My first invoice was 29.03 euro from 2 March to 23 March, second 36.95 euro from 24 March to 23 April. After I canceled it on 2 April, I got the third invoice and it said an amount of 26.22 euro will be returned to me. If you do the math, you will find that one month subscription is not 36.95 euro, it cost me an extra 2.81 euro.

The first agent via “chat with NS” agreed that it’s a mistake indeed, but I guess she didn’t do anything about it because I did receive 26.22 euro back ( it should be 29.03 euro back). The second agent from Facebook denied and said there was no mistake. The third agent on the phone admitted the mistake and he said he could send me a coupon, and I said that I only wanted my money back. He did say he would transfer it to me on the same day, which he didn’t. The fourth agent on the phone was the one I mentioned above, who assumed there was no mistake on their invoice and replied “I returned the money because you asked so, and I don’t think there is a mistake, it will cost a lot if we need to investigate the problem”. He acted as if I called just to blackmail or what, while the truth is NS charged me more and it took me four times of commutation to really solve it. I need to wait for one or two weeks to see whether he really transferred the money to me. But it doesn’t matter so much anymore, all I know is that NS customer service is really good at “serving” people with sarcasm.

The good thing is the fourth agent did transfer me the money. But his attitude is really 👎👎👎. Don’t know whether the same problem about the invoice will appear again if use the weekend free subscription in the future, and don’t know how many customers have been overcharged.

Welcome ​@Blue999 let me explain, 

When you started your subscsription on March 2 (with an intermediate invoice until March 23), and ended it on April 2… You should not be billed for April 2.

You took the subscription in a running month of February 24 - March 23, which is 22 days in a month that has only 28 days, so you paid 22/28 × 36,95 which is € 29,03 (For March 2 until March 23). Your monthly Flex billing/invoice date does not change, it will remain the 24th (invoice date the 25th).

For March 24 until April 1, you should be invoiced 9 days (€ 10,73) so € 26,22 back from the € 36,95 you paid up front until April 23). This is correct for a running month with 31 days.

It all adds up! 🤣 You paid more per day because February only has 28 days, and were not overcharged at all. The second agent you spoke to was right.

Thank you for your explanation. 
I don’t understand why the invoice date must start from 24th of each month. What’s the logic? And it’s not written on the weekend free subscription page. It’s more logic to create invoices based on the calendar month. I started the subscription in March, yet the daily cost is calculated as in February, that doesn’t make sense. If NS doesn’t want customers to take advantage (as there are 31 days in some months), at least they can count averagely 30 days for each month. I believe when customers see on the website the subscription fee is 36.95euro per month, most of people think of a calendar month. What matters most is the attitude of the customer service, if they can explain it clearly and patiently like you, I might accept it even it’s still not logical in my eyes. But the fourth agent just treated me with his mean manner. Based on the fact that two of them also agreed the amount was not correct, I’d say that NS should improve their system of invoice to make it better and more logical. 
Thank you for your answer and time! 

You started your subscription on the 24th of the month.

1 month from any date in February is 28 days.

.

It’s true that many people prefer the 1st of the month (or the 25th after they reiceive their salary) but NS adheres to the day on which your first Flex subscription started, and sends interim invoices when changing subscriptions.

A floating ‘30 day’ payment is inconvenient, as is a new (fixed) invoice date whenever you change your subscription. Direct debit may fail when someone has insufficient funds, at least now they know when they can expect their monthly NS invoices.

Anyway, if you have a 32 hour job that pays € 2000/month and get paid on the 25th, you will effectively make some more per working hour/day in February, or in a month that has 5 weekends (like March and August 2025). Some jobs pay per 4 weeks, which is more logical because you will make the same for every working day/hour.

If you want to switch your billing date from the 24th to the 1st, you need to cancel NS Flex altogether via https://www.ns.nl/abonnementen/online-opzeggen/tijdelijk-stopzetten (page is Dutch only), then remove it from your card and re-subscribe on the 1st, or earlier by choosing a starting date in the futute.

Your invoice date will then become the 2nd and the direct debit will take place a few days afterwards (for me that’s mostly the following Monday)

​@Blue999's Weekend Vrij subscription started March 2 (interim invoice for 22 days until March 23) and was ended April 2 (billed for 9 days March 24 - April 1, so reimbursement for 22 days until April 23).

But you’re right that if the very first NS Flex (Basis or other) subscription started on the 24th, the billing date will remain the 24th.