Why don't firms read what is sent to them?

Had a loss of ADSL after three days with Plusnet and initial dealings were very good. Should have known it wouldn't last. Got an email directing me to a ticket which I didn't understand. Typed a reply. No real answer to questions raised but was directed to a URL which said "Unfortunately, this feature is not available with your current account. To raise any queries and to upgrade your account, please use the Contact Us tool here at the Portal".

Another day and no Internet again. Router shows connected but apparently it's not talking to Plusnet. Perhaps it's the other way round or Plusnet are giving it the same treatment they are giving me?

Maybe moving from cable wasn't such a good idea?

Unfortunately, this feature is not available with your current account

Maybe you need a deposit account. (Think of other words for "deposit").

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Maybe you need a deposit account.

LOL!

It's a pity because things started out soo well.

Exactly what I get with PN, every so often all throughput stops despite the Billion 7800n & Routerstats stating a 15mb connection, with a router restart the only cure.

Have you found Plusnet's community forum? The team on there will usually be able to help you over problems like that. They do come over here too, but (obviously) spend more time answering queries on the local forum.

If you are wanting to take a hand in sorting out your own problem, then posting a description and some router statistics (onto here, or over there) will usually get helpful suggestions from other members of the community.

If you want a more hands-off approach, and want to avoid the technology, then posting over in the PN forum can act as a way to help highlight the problem you have with the tickets.

Whatever you do, don't assume you can't get any help!

In reply to a post by m0aur:

Exactly what I get with PN,

Frustrating, isn't it?

In reply to a post by WWWombat:

Whatever you do, don't assume you can't get any help!

Thanks for that.

It's not so much a case of not being able to get help. More an example of the right person to help really.

I understand ADSL can be a bit flaky compared with cable, but when I got the first three days without problems, I thought I'd got lucky. If the connection had dropped after a few hours then I could understand it might be something like electrical interference. I don't think I had too much problem when I was with Pipex but that was at a much lower speed. "M I think. So I thought I'd suggest Plusnet turned my 6M down a bit. Apparently it is all done automatically, so didn't really get very far.

Cable modem had a display of SNR etc. but I don't think my Netgear DM602 has this, but seem to recall details can be got from a website or similar?

Open to suggestions as I really need an "on all the time" service not an old dial-up one!

I even raised a PN ticket over this recent problem, but it seemed beyond them. Beyond confirming my disconnections which seemed to follow a pattern (see image) their take was that it was not their fault and must be mine, the only suggestion was to raise a fault, which i considered a waste of time. It is strange though, that since complaining I have had far less dropped connections, with none for the last 48 hours which is a record for the last month.
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/21/disconnectio...

In reply to a post by hk11:

It's not so much a case of not being able to get help. More an example of the right person to help really.

I agree - and continuity can help too. That's one way in which the guys on the forum can help, cos they can give a little continuity to issues.

They can be a little thinly spread sometimes, so still get you to complete a fault report on the website, and then possibly deal with it themselves, or hand it on to an agent. While some people complain about doing this step - and some complain about doing it multiple times, this is the downside of the way BT goes about it's wholesale operations: BTW requires ISPs to jump through these hoops before they will do anything.

While some things look daft, and annoying, sometimes it is best to just get them done and out of the way.

I understand ADSL can be a bit flaky compared with cable, but when I got the first three days without problems, I thought I'd got lucky. If the connection had dropped after a few hours then I could understand it might be something like electrical interference.

The problem with disconnections like this is that it can be very hard to fathom out the cause - particularly when intermittent. Your issue might be related to the weather - perhaps temperature based, caused by frost or ice, water-based such as rain or fog. It could be a physical thing caused by movement in the wind, or movement caused by drying clay soil. It could be electrical, and dependent on a neighbour's heating system (we've seen problem with a reptile heating element before now). It could be interference from other broadband users, who only turn their system on twice a week.

Of course that makes it hard to identify when you are suffering, and even harder, after making a change, to decide whether you have fixed anything or made it worse.

Patience is needed.

I don't think I had too much problem when I was with Pipex but that was at a much lower speed. "M I think.

The speed plays a big part. I also understand that ADSL2+ has more problems, because they forgot to extend the FEC (error-correction) process so it would work equally well at the new higher speeds.

So I thought I'd suggest Plusnet turned my 6M down a bit. Apparently it is all done automatically, so didn't really get very far.

Yes. The exchange has a DLM process that monitors the errors & disconnections on your line. If it thinks you are unstable, it alters your "profile", which may turn on (or turn up) interleaving and FEC, or it might increase the SNRM (which should turn down the speed).

If it hasn't done that yet, it doesn't think you are unstable yet.

M0aur, in the next post, shows a graph of the PPPoA disconnection that Plusnet can see on his account - and if you post over there, this is probably the first thing that the DCT (digital care team) will look at on your account, and may well show it on the thread if you ask.

Cable modem had a display of SNR etc. but I don't think my Netgear DM602 has this, but seem to recall details can be got from a website or similar?

Most ethernet-based modem/routers have a web-page that makes these details accessible to you, and it is certainly useful information to have if things are going wrong.

I'm afraid I don't know this particular modem, but I guess you need to browse to one of these addresses: http://192.168.0.1/ http://192.168.0.254/ http://192.168.1.1/ http://192.168.1254/ then login with a username od "admin" and a password of "password" (both without the quotes).

Typo.

The last IP address should end 1.254

passwords can also be admin or blank

Edited by RobertoS (Sat 11-Feb-12 22:39:33)

In reply to a post by WWWombat:

if you post over there,

Cheers; I'll try that.

In reply to a post by m0aur:

seemed to follow a pattern

I like patterns. Makes it easier to trace a fault.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

The last IP address should end 1.254

Thanks. I've set mine to a certain range to suit my PC.

In reply to a post by hk11:

In reply to a post by m0aur:

seemed to follow a pattern

I like patterns. Makes it easier to trace a fault.

It does not make it any easier to cure. This is the PN pattern I usually get!
http://img707.imageshack.us/img707/83/79728301.jpg

Sorry to hear about the problems you've had. We're happy to help with this. Could you send me a DM with your username and I'll get on the case.

EDIT: sorry, this was meant for the OP, I'm not very used to using threaded view!, reposting this to the OP now.

Kind regards,
Adam

Edited by deleted (Mon 13-Feb-12 17:21:06)

In reply to a post by thatadamwalker:

Could you send me a DM with your username and I'll get on the case.

"Dear Mother"?

Sorry to hear about the problems you've had. We're happy to help with this. Could you send me a DM with your username and I'll get on the case.

Regards,
Adam

In reply to a post by thatadamwalker:

Could you send me a DM with your username and I'll get on the case.

Done.

Thanks.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

"Dear Mother"?

Plusnet are doing a SD (special deal) on these ATM.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

In reply to a post by thatadamwalker:

Could you send me a DM with your username and I'll get on the case.

"Dear Mother"?

Dear God more like. Freeserve>BT>Toucansurf>BT>Post office>Plusnet and Customer Service a nightmare with every one. Usually when requesting a MAC or a change of service, because I had not experienced drops or total loss of service before falling over PN. I see on BT forums exactly the same problem so it seems we are all at the mercy of Openreach. Still stable for the last three days so nothing to chase at the moment.

In reply to a post by m0aur:

Why do you have to turn a joke into a stirring of the bees in your bonnet? It's getting very boring.

Post deleted by Sadoldman

Edited by deleted (Mon 13-Feb-12 18:50:51)

What a superbly logical and intelligent reponse.

Totally unacceptable using four letter swear words with little disguise.

A short break to reflect.

I repeat, SO DO YOU!!

NO!!!

(bringing things back on track)
Please let us know how things pan out

In reply to a post by blueacid:

Please let us know how things pan out

Sticking with the topic title; there have been efforts to answer some questions but this is often followed by poor system events, such as emailing customers for answers to closed tickets.

It's inevitable that problems with companies will occur. I judge a firm on how it goes about solving these problems. The jury is still out.

Hiya HK11,

I just wanted to say your not alone, I've just experienced the same as you with the plusnet support staff. Before this event, I was singing plusnet's praises and recommending them to everyone. Now I'm not so sure what to think of them.

Like you I had reported a fault, and the first person who investigated the fault got the diagnosis right the first time and wrote it in the ticket. He had checked my line logs and stats and could see the problem was either at the exchange or the plusnet network.

Unfortuneately I must of had 6-10 different people after that who didnt read the diagnosis at the beginning of the ticket, thus kept suggesting dumb things like lets send out a bt engineer to investigate your line, maybe you would be an ideal case for boost and spouted out adsl definitions out of a text book. None of them could be bothered to read the original diagnosis from the investigation.

I already sync with the exchange at the maximum speed, stable connection and get maxmum throughput when not affected by the fault. Why would i need a bt engineer to visit or boost when the fault was already identified at the beginning as being at the exchange or the plusnet network.

Well, after last Tuesday something seemed to of changed on the plusnet or bt exchange side, and the fault so far seems to of cleared with no direct help from plusnet support after nearly a month and half living with the fault.
The plusnet support are really irratating repeatedly suggesting fixes not related to the fault because they didnt bother reading the original diagnosis from there own investigation.

In reply to a post by wanapoo:

I just wanted to say your not alone,

Thanks.

I'm sure we aren't the only ones either.

To be fair there are staff that actually seem to care and thankfully one of them seems to have taken ownership of some of my problems and the service seems to have stabilized (touch wood).

Hi, "wanapoo" & "HK11"

Just wanted to share your agony!

I won't go into all of the details (it would take far too long!), but I'm a returning PN Customer that should have been provided with a ADSL2+ connection on 30th Jan - I'm still waiting.

Instead, as a stop-gap (a euphemism for "they-screwed-up"), they provided me with ADSL-Max on 31st Jan.

Initially they wouldn't accept that they had provided ADLS-Max! Then they stated that my Exchange didn't support ADSL2+ (after taking my Order on the basis of an anticipated speed of 17Meg), then they stated that my line wouldn't support ADSL2+ (again after they had checked & confirmed expected 17Meg, plus the fact that I had already been getting 18Meg from a previous ISP). Ad-infinitum!

After a great deal of hassle, they accepted that they needed to provide ADSL2+ & agreed a provision date of 16th Feb. Still didn't happen - nor could they be bothered to contact me as arranged!

Eventually they allegedly transferred myself over on the morning of 23rd, but wouldn't accept that it hadn't actually happened - they just kept repeating the same "Mantra" without listening, nor reviewing the facts.

Unfortunately, PN continually want to generate lots & lots of different Question/Tickets (60+, to date & still rising), but then do NOT read the responses!

Have just come off the phone to PN &, after a bit of a "discussion" (a euphemism for "heated-discussion"), the PN Rep did eventually concede that he hadn't read the other Tickets (although I had given him the relevant TKT Nos) & he did apologise!

Sorry, they may advertise that they are based in Yorkshire, but if they don't listen to the Customer (whether via phone or via Ticket), they might as well be based on the Moon!

In reply to a post by hk11:

It's inevitable that problems with companies will occur. I judge a firm on how it goes about solving these problems.

I fully agree with that!

Unfortunately if companies are only willing to employ "script-kiddies" (ones that don't listen but simply provide standard responses) then we will get the extremely poor/delayed service that we have both been experiencing!