BT to PlusNet switchover

Looking at the pie chart of "How long were you without broadband in-between switching providers?" would put me in the 10% category as it took 3 weeks to transfer from BT to Plusnet, which I think is frankly unacceptable to be without a broadband service in this day & age, when its sold as a virtually seamless changeover.

Whilst it was put down to error(s) by BT Wholesale / Openreach / whoever, it was only ultimately resolved by following the suggestion of BT's Mumbai office "Try re-fitting the BT router" ... which worked for 24hrs, then swopping back to PlusNet's router, did I finally, miraculously become 'activated' (The transfer of my telephone service went without a hitch on the date as promised.)

This saga of poor communication / incompetence continues as I have now been informed by Plusnet there is now a "cease" that has been requested on my line, instigated by their supplier.... BT, who simply tell me to take it up with my provider..... Plusnet. I'm now told Its been passed to the "second line support team" Halleluiah!! Whoever they are! Technically the service is fine, as was BT, 12-16Mb, 16ms ping & no outages that I know of.

Just not sure I'd recommend anyone to change ISP's simply to save a few quid.

I had exactly the same nightmare when switching from BT to Plusnet. People always accuse me of slagging Plusnet off, but follow this thread through from here http://forums.thinkbroadband.com/plusnet/t/4037204-r... to see my introduction to Plusnet. It has been pretty much downhill from then on.

Are you still with Plusnet??

In reply to a post by tazdev666:

This saga of poor communication / incompetence continues as I have now been informed by Plusnet there is now a "cease" that has been requested on my line, instigated by their supplier.... BT, who simply tell me to take it up with my provider..... Plusnet. I'm now told Its been passed to the "second line support team" Halleluiah!! Whoever they are! Technically the service is fine, as was BT, 12-16Mb, 16ms ping & no outages that I know of.

Second line with which?

What "BT" are saying is correct in a way, and wrong in a way, because you are talking to your old ISP, BT Retail.

They have probably ordered the cease, but they are not Plusnet's supplier. Messy to follow, I know, but Plusnet's suppliers are BT Wholesale and BT Openreach, who are also BT Retail's suppliers. I don't think Wholesale or Openreach can order a cease, though Openreach do process migrations as a cease and provide I think.

The people you are talking to are confused. So am I, and probably you.

Whether BT Retail need to cancel the cease, (which they should not have been able to place), or whether it is Plusnet who have to cancel it, I'm not sure.

When is it due to happen? Is it a line cease or a broadband cease?

Edited by RobertoS (Fri 20-Apr-12 21:26:43)

I am currently in the process of moving from sky llu to plusnet, i have been given a 2 week activation date, hopefully this will go all smooth. Did you not like BT then, i have just been looking at the packages but not sure what the service is like or the technical support?.

Yes I am still with Plusnet, though if I could have actually got through to their customer services during the service outage this week I would have my MAC by now. As a 18/365 carer for my wife, limited funds and long tie-in elsewhere drove me from BT to PN via the Post Office. But you get what you pay for. Despite the BT knockers and their offshore customer services, it was the most reliable service I have had from many ISPs, with the HomeHub certainly more compatible with our Wi-Fi devices than any other router.

Edited by deleted (Sat 21-Apr-12 07:01:11)

You can use a BT HomeHub with PlusNet - I've been using a Hub 3 for almost a year now, and a Hub 2 before that.

I changed from BT mainly on cost grounds, but also was always on my 10Gb limit towards the end of every month (I know they have other packages, but thought I'd save some money at the same time), so now on PlusNet Extra which gives me 60Gb + unmetered after midnight.

Performance wise, BT's service was faultless for over 3 years, but I have the benefit of being less than 1km from the exchange, so the performance of PlusNet, now finally working, is what i consider to be good too.

The technical support & on line services from PlusNet seem far better than BT ..... BUT like Sky & many others, ultimately rely on divisions of BT to enable / fix / test stuff! My problems stem from trying to rectify human errors!!

I checked with PlusNet, its a BB cease. Its due date was 15th March, so I am still concerned it will be actioned without warning at some point in the near future. PN have been chasing BT (don't know what division) regarding this for 14days now, but seem to just play email tennis.

I have now also just discovered (in my old unused BT inbox) a BT phone line notice to stop service dated 24/02/2012 & a BT Broadband Activation notice for the same day! Maybe this is the cause? Perhaps BT's overseas office have mistaken my irate phone calls to them asking for some money back ..... as a new order ?!

I can't believe that almost 3 months after changing my phone & BB supplier this is still going on, still, at least everything is working, errr.... at the moment.

Mmm, ya beat me there. Maybe I've got more to come!
As far as I can tell, my lack of BB service between changeover & problem with a BB cease now on my line, both stemmed from BT or one of its divisions - as I am not actually one of its direct customers anymore, I had / have to go via PN to resolve it. Not easy, but I suspect the same would be true of Sky or Talktalk or whoever. I think the system of 'unbundling' BT lines & services is the real cause & don't know what the solution is.