Quality of technical support

A cautionary tale about the current quality of Plusnet's technical support...

Plusnet's tech support has been absolutely atrocious in helping me get interleaving removed from my line. It's been 12 days since I asked for this to be actioned and having DONE ABSOLUTELY NOTHING for 5 days (despite me chasing them), I finally get told my request will be actioned "within 7 days".

Finally, this afternoon, after chasing them again via a support ticket and their own forums, someone from support tells me my ticket should never have been given a 7 day lead time and that interleaving should now be off (can't confirm until I get home).

Maybe the 7 day lead time was a mistake, but the 5 days of limbo was pathetic.

Fair enough one person making the mistake in handling my support ticket, but 3 different people handled the ticket over the last 12 days. What would have happened if I was not proactive, chasing them via the helpdesk and forum? Based on this I think my ticket would have fallen into a blackhole and been lost forever.

Edited by deleted (Tue 08-Feb-11 16:42:47)

I've a 7 day ticket on 15 days and counting.

In reply to a post by camieabz:

I've a 7 day ticket on 15 days and counting.

Half-way through the toes then. Or are you more pessimistic than that and using the fingers of one hand to count the fives of the other?

I'm counting down to my own pre-determined explosion mode. Bonus is, I get free calls to Plusnet nowadays, so I can keep one of their tech folk on the phone for the best part of an hour for free, or they can get on with fixing things.

I've a 7 day ticket on 15 days and counting.

I can't find an open ticket on your account? I replied to one last Friday for you.

Deak,

That doesn't sound good at all, can you let me know a ticket ID from your account and I'll go and find out what went wrong with the interleaving process (it should be a simple order to remove it the next working day IIRC)

Chris,

The ticket ID is 39366976.

In reply to a post by camieabz:

I'm counting down to my own pre-determined explosion mode. Bonus is, I get free calls to Plusnet nowadays, so I can keep one of their tech folk on the phone for the best part of an hour for free, or they can get on with fixing things.

And so you do. I am so glad me and Matt Taylor had that conversation whilst making coffee one day. Certainly got things moving there

In reply to a post by Deak:

A cautionary tale about the current quality of Plusnet's technical support...

I presume that the recent advertising campaign was successful - I doubt whether Plusnet would admit that it wasn't!!
In which case, it would be fair to assume that the support staff are now under extra pressure to deal with new customers.

Wagstaff

Yes it would be very fair.

There are 17 calls waiting right now (12:17am)

http://www.plus.net/supportpages.html?a=212&helphead...

And unless it's changed there will be a few people on. I sure hope they doubled it which was being talked when I left.

I saw it then other day at 80!


I've only ever seen that once on a night shift when 21CN collapsed nationally.

The guys deserve credit where it's due they do an amazing job .

In reply to a post by docki:

Yes it would be very fair.

There are 17 calls waiting right now (12:17am)

http://www.plus.net/supportpages.html?a=212&helphead...

And unless it's changed there will be a few people on. I sure hope they doubled it which was being talked when I left.

I saw it then other day at 80!


I've only ever seen that once on a night shift when 21CN collapsed nationally.

The guys deserve credit where it's due they do an amazing job .

Looks like it's broke

Last updated: February 8, 2011, 10:02 pm
Residential Call statistics (updated every 30 minutes)

It seems you did reply on the 4th (Friday). Apologies for that. I would have known, but did not receive a Plusnet e-mail on the ticket response.

Ta very much Chris!

Looks like the time to ring is between 2.30am & 6.30am

In reply to a post by Wagstaff:

I presume that the recent advertising campaign was successful - I doubt whether Plusnet would admit that it wasn't!!

Yes, it's been very successful.

In reply to a post by Wagstaff:

In which case, it would be fair to assume that the support staff are now under extra pressure to deal with new customers.

Perhaps, but we've a *lot* more support staff and recruitment is ongoing. I've seen a significant number of new recruits wandering the office already this week.

In reply to a post by DavidFinbarr:

In reply to a post by docki:

Yes it would be very fair.

There are 17 calls waiting right now (12:17am)

http://www.plus.net/supportpages.html?a=212&helphead...

And unless it's changed there will be a few people on. I sure hope they doubled it which was being talked when I left.

I saw it then other day at 80!


I've only ever seen that once on a night shift when 21CN collapsed nationally.

The guys deserve credit where it's due they do an amazing job .

Looks like it's broke

Last updated: February 8, 2011, 10:02 pm
Residential Call statistics (updated every 30 minutes)

Looks OK to me now so if it was broke I can only assume it's since been fixed!

In reply to a post by camieabz:

It seems you did reply on the 4th (Friday). Apologies for that. I would have known, but did not receive a Plusnet e-mail on the ticket response.

Hmmm, not the only one to have reported that recently.

In reply to a post by bpullen:

Perhaps, but we've a *lot* more support staff and recruitment is ongoing. I've seen a significant number of new recruits wandering the office already this week.

Thanks Bob. It is very heartening to hear that a successful Yorkshire company is providing new local employment opportunities in a time of austerity.

In reply to a post by docki:

The guys deserve credit where it's due they do an amazing job .

I have clearly illustrated the utter mess 3 different members of Plusnet staff made of my ticket and the unacceptable wait times I have experienced. If you have something to add and some evidence to support your claims, please chip in.

Stop trying to derrail/bury my thread with unsupported claims.

Edited by deleted (Wed 09-Feb-11 13:10:58)

In reply to a post by bpullen:

Perhaps, but we've a *lot* more support staff and recruitment is ongoing. I've seen a significant number of new recruits wandering the office already this week.

Reading between the lines, are you suggesting that perhaps the mistakes in handling my ticket were made because there are so many new staff on the helpdesk and they aren't yet competent?

@Deak, that could be a factor yes.

FWIW, @docki's claims are at least partially supported as they used to work here.

In reply to a post by bpullen:

FWIW, @docki's claims are at least partially supported as they used to work here.

Well that explains a lot about the why and the what of their posts.

Thanks for the ticket ID, I'll go through it this afternoon and speak directly to the anyone who made an error and their line manager.

Bob,

It would be nice if just one member of the support staff dealt with a ticket once it reached the appropriate level.. I've had several tickets successfully resolved during the past year or so but it seems that I never communicate, in writing or on the phone, with the same member of staff more than once.

It's like taking a car, with an engine problem, to a garage and speaking with different mechanics working on the car every time I check or am told about progress with the repair. Doesn't always inspire confidence in the efficiency of the work being carried out and could lead to mistakes when several people are involved rather than when one individual, with the necessary skill, sees the task through from start to finish.

Obviously it is not always possible for one individual alone to fully resolve a problem, for a variety of reasons, but whenever it is possible it would probably be more efficient and inspire greater customer confidence.

4M2.

I agree with what you're saying to a certain degree, however the ticketing system and the internal processes we have here are not best accustomed to this approach.

The development work, training and process changes that would need to be be put in place to achieve such a thing are significant too.

Not saying it's a bad idea, I just can't see it happening any time soon I'm afraid

In reply to a post by Deak:

In reply to a post by bpullen:

FWIW, @docki's claims are at least partially supported as they used to work here.

Well that explains a lot about the why and the what of their posts.

I didn't leave Plusnet through choice. I would have been happy there for the rest of my days. Being on both sides of the fence is the only realy way to understand a company properly.

I will never regret my time at Plusnet. I met many wonderful people and still keep in touch. It's more like a family than an employer. I used to work overtime on a voluntary basis because I believed in the company's direction and I still do.

I am sorry if you feel my posts are all " kissy kissy " towards Plusnet but based on the fact I have been a customer since 2003 and was an employee from 2007 to the near end of 2010 and continue to be as customer after then that's the way it is/they are.

Remember we are all humans. Humans make mistakes.

Edited by deleted (Wed 09-Feb-11 16:16:28)

In reply to a post by docki:

Remember we are all humans. Humans make mistakes.

FWIW the 'human' aspect of Plusnet has been better than most imo, but their systems and processes are such that they seem to lack future expansion or integration to newer systems or ideas. These things are never easy, and it is usually impossible to predict the future, but it's never a bad idea to try to simply what you do have, so as to make it easier to change or improve upon.

I wonder if they need an IT auditor?

In reply to a post by camieabz:

In reply to a post by docki:

Remember we are all humans. Humans make mistakes.

FWIW the 'human' aspect of Plusnet has been better than most imo, but their systems and processes are such that they seem to lack future expansion or integration to newer systems or ideas. These things are never easy, and it is usually impossible to predict the future, but it's never a bad idea to try to simply what you do have, so as to make it easier to change or improve upon.

I wonder if they need an IT auditor?

Plusnet have a team who look at things like this. They are a really bright bunch of chaps and lasses. Them with the Digital Care team is a brilliant combination.

Thanks for the reply Bob,

Please don't get me wrong, Plusnet's people in technical support and accounts/billing are always very pleasant, helpful and co-operative in their response to BB problems and account enquires. It's just that I feel a little more continuity in the form of individual support when trying to resolve a particular issue would make your service even better.

Just one other small thing though: I don't always get email notifications of support staff replies and sometimes have to log-in to my account to check if there are any replies or further comments on a open ticket.

4M2.

In reply to a post by 4M2:

Just one other small thing though: I don't always get email notifications of support staff replies and sometimes have to log-in to my account to check if there are any replies or further comments on a open ticket.

That's the third report of this I've seen so far today. At the time of writing though, my attempts to replicate the issue have been unsuccessful.

Well on the day of the question being raised (24th of Jan) I got a confirming e-mail:

Your username:

We have received your Question - Thank you!
If you need to talk to us about this Question, please use the reference number [ ######## ].

We will send you an email when our Support Team has responded to your question.

If you need to add more information or inquire further about your open Question, you can return to it by going to the Help Assistant.

Read or respond to your Question -
http://portal.plus.net/my.html?action=questions

IMPORTANT: Do not reply to this email, our Support Team can only deal with Questions through the Help Assistant


Regards,
Customer Support

--
http://portal.plus.net


PlusNet plc
Registered Office: Internet House, 2 Tenter Street, Sheffield, S1 4BY Registered in England no: 3279013 VAT registration number: 842254440

Since then, nothing.

56 calls,

and a 23 min wait!

Not looking good

http://www.plus.net/supportpages.html?a=212&helphead...

In reply to a post by CJT:

56 calls,

and a 23 min wait!

Not looking good

http://www.plus.net/supportpages.html?a=212&helphead...

Whilst I did my fair share of bitching about them I am not sure closing SA was a good move. I recall the BT guy who came in (who I won't name out of respect for him as he's a cracking guy) saying on his first day that he intended to but I really never thought they would.

Me and a few others were renounded for taking lots of calls. I used to take between 70-80 calls a day. Some higher. That was hard enough. I do feel sorry for my fellow colleagues in a way.

That busy night I formentioned happened when SA lost it's call system too. That was hard enough but to do that every night? Sheesh.

Edited by deleted (Wed 09-Feb-11 18:39:24)

Current calls waiting Longest call waiting now Average answer time today
32 1 hour, 1 minute and 52 seconds 4 minutes and 20 seconds

@ 22:20 Ouch!

Although to be fair the stats haven't updated for an hour and a half.The person calling on the business line is also going to be waiting a long time at this time of night

Last updated: February 9, 2011, 9:17 pm

Edited by deleted (Wed 09-Feb-11 22:46:07)