Plusnet are rubbish - avoid!!!

I signed up for Plusnet just over a month ago and have had nothing but problems ever since. I've just about had enough.

Firstly, despite being quoted an expected speed of 6Mb, the maximum I've been able to get is 1.5Mb. I contacted Plusnet about this, and they told me that this was the best I'd be able to get with my line and that the speed on sign up was not guaranteed.

Now, in addition to being mis-sold a slow connection, I find that my connection speed has reduced even further! My broadband kept disconnecting a few nights ago (I suspect this was to do with a service outage publicized on Plusnet's website), and I reset my router a couple of times to see if that would fix the problem. Since then, I have not been able to get speeds of more that 0.5Mb. Again, I contacted Plusnet, but they told me that the reduction was due to me having an unstable connection, and that the problem would hopefully resolve itself within 72 hours.

Well, that's just not good enough. Why should I be stuck with a painfully slow and barely usable connection for three days?

To anyone considering going with Plusnet: THINK AGAIN. Save yourselves a lot of hassle and look elsewhere! Unless my line speed and the service from Plusnet improve dramatically, I'll be switching to Virgin Media at the end of the month.

What speeds did you get with your former ISP?

Can you post your line stats?

Plusnet is my first ISP at this location.

Line stats:

Uptime: 0 days, 0:26:55
DSL Type: G.992.3 annex A
Maximum Bandwidth (Up/Down) [kbps/kbps]: 792 / 1,680
Bandwidth (Up/Down) [kbps/kbps]: 444 / 576
Data Transferred (Sent/Received) [MB/MB]: 1.21 / 3.66
Output Power (Up/Down) [dBm]: 12.5 / 16.5
Line Attenuation (Up/Down) [dB]: 27.0 / 60.0
SN Margin (Up/Down) [dB]: 16.0 / 9.0
Vendor ID (Local/Remote): TMMB / IFTN
Loss of Framing (Local/Remote): 0 / 0
Loss of Signal (Local/Remote): 0 / 0
Loss of Power (Local/Remote): 0 / 0
Loss of Link (Remote): 0
Error Seconds (Local/Remote): 0 / 0
FEC Errors (Up/Down): 0 / 22
CRC Errors (Up/Down): 32 / 0
HEC Errors (Up/Down): 7 / 0

I can't understand why you would have been quoted an estimated speed of 6Mb with a downstream attenuation of 60dB, which would normally indicate you are a long way from the exchange. What does the BT wholesale checker say when you enter your telephone number? This should be the same as the estimated speed Plusnet uses.

https://www.btwholesale.com/includes/adsl/main.html

"Our test also indicates that your line currently supports an estimated ADSL2+ broadband line speed of 5.5Mbps"

So, as it stands, my broadband is ten times slower than it should be. Horrendous.

If you get it to work on your connection can you post the data you get from the BT Performance Tester.

In reply to a post by Apprentice:

If you get it to work on your connection can you post the data you get from the BT Performance Tester.

I've tried that multiple times, but keep getting errors. I'll keep trying though.

"Estimated" being the pertinent word.

Sometimes the checker underestimates the speed you can receive and other times it over estimates.

The only way you will ever find out what speed you will actually achieve is once the modem can negotiate with the DSLAM. In other words once you've chosen an ISP, paid your money and the connection has gone live.

It's for this very reason that xDSL is always sold as an "up to" product as there's no way of specifying a speed in advance.

Looking at your attenuation your sync is a little low and I'd expect it to be closer to 3 Mbps, maybe 3.5 Mbps but certainly no more than that.

As for you resetting your router "a couple of times" that will only make matters worse as the DLM will interpret this a line drops and you could find your IP Profile dropping lower.

Finally I see you're on ADSL2 (G.992.3) which given your high attenuation is pretty pointless. I'd ask to be switched to ADSL (G.992.1) instead.

Edited by deleted (Sun 23-Oct-11 20:39:28)

Those stats will never get 5.5 Meg. Some where between. 2 Meg to 2.5 Meg perhaps.

Which website suggested you could get 6 Meg?

In reply to a post by griff_90:

"Estimated" being the pertinent word.

Sometimes the checker underestimates the speed you can receive and other times it over estimates.

The only way you will ever find out what speed you will actually achieve is once the modem can negotiate with the DSLAM. In other words once you've chosen an ISP, paid your money and the connection has gone live.

It's for this very reason that xDSL is always sold as an "up to" product as there's no way of specifying a speed in advance.

Looking at your attenuation your sync is a little low and I'd expect it to be closer to 3 Mbps, maybe 3.5 Mbps but certainly no more than that.

As for you resetting your router "a couple of times" that will only make matters worse as the DLM will interpret this a line drops and you could find your IP Profile dropping lower.

Finally I see you're on ADSL2 (G.992.3) which given your high attenuation is pretty pointless. I'd ask to be switched to ADSL (G.992.1) instead.

Well none of that has anything to do with me. All I know is that I was sold a product which has not performed as advertised and has actually got worse since I signed up. If it really is as you say then the whole system should be made much more transparent. I'm surely not the only person who has been misled in this way.

I'm just glad I didn't sign up for a contract and can switch to another provider at will, which I absolutely intend to do.