My experience of migrating to PlusNet

As a former longstanding BE customer who decided to migrate my connection (and that of my sister's - I look after all things computer related at her house) to PlusNet I thought viewers might be interested in my experience (so far) of the process.

I arranged for my line to be migrated first (I have a secondary WAN by way of backup just in case!) and everything went well. The BE line disappeared circa 16:00 the day before my go live with PlusNet and I received an email at 06:30 the following morning to advise that my line was now line with PlusNet.

One star to PlusNet.

When arranging my sister's migration I made a (schoolboy) error with her account details which meant that her DDR details were rejected. I did not choose to provide debit card details so that was a delay of circa 5 days (my fault).

Following notification from PlusNet of the error we paid the initial payment by debit card and setup a corrected DDR. Updated PlusNet ticket to reflect the same which was acknowledged.

BE advised that no MAC was available as there was currently no marker on the line.

A week went by and no update so raised a ticket to query state of play of migration - would appear that we have fallen between the cracks and nothing had happened.

Apologies tendered and now advised that order has been submitted. Later advised that date of activation will be circa 10 days ahead (Wed 27 March).

On the March 20 sister advises me her internet is down and investigations show that WAN side is indeed down.

I chase BE support who advise that there is a PlusNet marker on the line hence nothing they can do.

I chase PlusNet who advise this is indeed the case and the reason the BE connection no longer works is that with Plusnet's marker on the line it will expect to see some form of authentication appertaining to PlusNet.

Result - no internet for 7 days (rather inconvenient to say the least for poor sister)

Learning points

(1) Have USB dongle to hand prior to attempting to migrate service
(2) BE there are very naughty (but soon to be consumed by SKY) to have not put marker on online.
(3) PlusNet should not assume that all lines without a marker are fresh provisions - presumably if they can change marker over the day before a takeover there is nothing to stop the same with a non-marked account.

I have to accept it is just one of those things and at least I had the benefit of a UK based technical support (although in fairness to BE their Eastern Europe based one was good). Shudder to think how long it would have taken me to identify what was going on with a offshore based team.

Just my (more accurately my sister's experience)

Regards

Alan

Surely that means the migration has completed and she should be able to log into Plusnet, if they activate the account at their end?

Or is it simply that you gave notice to Be and they have ceased the broadband?
_{Edit - typo.}

Edited by RobertoS (Fri 22-Mar-13 16:58:04)

Unfortunately not. The line is yet to be provisioned to Plusnet by a third party supplier who I take to be BT or of that ilk.

It was explained to me that the BE functionality is still there, but as there is a Plusnet marker on the line (forgive me but I don't have knowledge of the finer technicalities) that BT's equipment expects to see some form of authentication comprising a Plusnet derived user name and when it does not kills the line.

This would accord with my experience where I briefly see a successful connection before the line drops.

Very frustrating and expensive for my sister - have you seen the price of pay as you go Dongles!.

Edited by deleted (Fri 22-Mar-13 18:08:52)

Yuk .

I've posted in the Community forum a link to this thread, in case one of the "Digital Care Team" can help. But I think they are officially Mon-Fri people.

Hi farrina,

Sorry to hear that you've been without a connection for 7 or more days, could you PM me the username and I'll take a look into that and see if anything can be done.

Regards,

In reply to a post by farrina:

Unfortunately not. The line is yet to be provisioned to Plusnet by a third party supplier who I take to be BT or of that ilk.

It was explained to me that the BE functionality is still there, but as there is a Plusnet marker on the line (forgive me but I don't have knowledge of the finer technicalities) that BT's equipment expects to see some form of authentication comprising a Plusnet derived user name and when it does not kills the line.

This would accord with my experience where I briefly see a successful connection before the line drops.

Very frustrating and expensive for my sister - have you seen the price of pay as you go Dongles!.

I seem to be in a similar position with PlusNet , although I still have access to the net, its unusable after 5pm when I want to use it and not at work! I signed up on 6th March and was told the order was only placed yesterday.....I wish you well and hopefully its sorted soon....looks like my wont be!

Hi farrina,
I've replied to your PM.

@vf12vf
I'm chasing your order up and I'll get your ticket updated as soon as I can.

Just to update on the involvement of Chris in this:

As I suggested in my orginal posting this was an unfortunate error of circumstances, which both BE and Plusnet might have handled better.

Chris has taken my observations away as a learning point to feed back into the process and generously provided me with some financial compensation to reflect the cost of having to finance a 3G dongle for the missing week.

UK based support comes up trumps again and thanks to RobertOs for pushing the right buttons on my behalf.

Regards

Alan

I hope it all goes well from now on in .