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 .

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

I hope it all goes well from now on in .

Unfortunately not as the connection is not exactly proving robust (currently have ticket logged with Plusnet and Openview have been engaged)

Think Broadband monitor

Good job my sister trusts me when I say its not my fault ....

Regards

Alan (who is waiting for router to explode next)

Edited by deleted (Tue 02-Apr-13 11:49:34)

The saga continues ....

Engineer attended house and has fitted a BT NTE5 master socket. There is nothing plugged into the the front but he has made two hardwired connections - one to a telephone fitted with a filter and the other which goes to the Plusnet Technicolour modem/router. This work was undertaken between 12:15 and 13:15 today (3rd April) which will show extended internet downtime.

He did attend the exchange and advised that no fault was located (not clear whether a lift and shift was undertaken).

Looking at Link Information before and after his visit the only difference I can see (apart from a further reduction in speed - no doubt caused by the multiple dropped connections) is the SNR Margin has increased from 9,3 to 15,1

Since his visit and reconnection the line has dropped at least twice as can be seen on the thinkbroadband site here

Link Information taken at 18:38 3/4/2013

Uptime: 0 days, 0:33:13
DSL Type: ITU-T G.992.5
Bandwidth (Up/Down) [kbps/kbps]: 1.208 / 11.811
Data Transferred (Sent/Received) [MB/GB]: 597,61 / 1,29
Output Power (Up/Down) [dBm]: 12,6 / 0,0
Line Attenuation (Up/Down) [dB]: 9,5 / 16,5
SN Margin (Up/Down) [dB]: 5,7 / 15,0
System Vendor ID (Local/Remote): TMMB / ----
Chipset Vendor ID (Local/Remote): BDCM / IFTN
Loss of Framing (Local/Remote): 523 / 0
Loss of Signal (Local/Remote): 59 / 0
Loss of Power (Local/Remote): 0 / 0
Loss of Link (Remote): -
Error Seconds (Local/Remote): 2.175 / 331
FEC Errors (Up/Down): 0 / 153
CRC Errors (Up/Down): 0 / 0
HEC Errors (Up/Down): 0 / 0

The problem remains and I do not consider that the visit has achieved anything beyond tidying up the wiring within the house.

Back to BT Openreach me thinks ......

Edited by deleted (Thu 04-Apr-13 08:59:56)

Update - problem ongoing

The 2nd BT Openworld Engineer attended Saturday morning and spend a long time at the exchange.

Connection has worsened markedly with continuing multiple disconnects resulting in corresponding fall in performance as shown below (captured 9.00am 8/4/2013)

Was initially running at circa 17 meg and would expect a connection of circa 16meg which is what was achieved with previous provider.


DSL Connection

Link Information

Uptime: 0 days, 4:40:02
DSL Type: ITU-T G.992.5
Bandwidth (Up/Down) [kbps/kbps]: 1.200 / 3.069
Data Transferred (Sent/Received) [GB/GB]: 1,39 / 1,99
Output Power (Up/Down) [dBm]: 12,6 / 0,0
Line Attenuation (Up/Down) [dB]: 9,6 / 16,5
SN Margin (Up/Down) [dB]: 5,7 / 19,9
System Vendor ID (Local/Remote): TMMB / ----
Chipset Vendor ID (Local/Remote): BDCM / IFTN
Loss of Framing (Local/Remote): 1.316 / 0
Loss of Signal (Local/Remote): 149 / 0
Loss of Power (Local/Remote): 0 / 0
Loss of Link (Remote): -
Error Seconds (Local/Remote): 4.297 / 1.019
FEC Errors (Up/Down): 0 / 4.426
CRC Errors (Up/Down): 6.378 / 0
HEC Errors (Up/Down): 37.648 / 0

Think broadband ping monitor makes scary viewing ...

Monitor here

Lets hope that this is sorted by Wednesday which will be a fortnight since the connection was switched over from BE There.

Fingers crossed ....

As an aside Plusnet's account manager really needs to get his (or her!) teeth stuck into BT Openview who seem to do their own sweet thing in their own sweet time ,,,, one of the problems with a monopoly provider just like the old days of the GPO .....

Edited by deleted (Mon 08-Apr-13 09:14:15)

SN Margin (Up/Down) [dB]: 5,7 / 19,9

Try switching off of the router then wait 10 minutes before restarting. Take the stats immediately afterwards please .

Oh - it's Openreach, not Openview.

Edited by RobertoS (Mon 08-Apr-13 11:08:56)

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Oh - it's Openreach, not Openview.

We had Openworld in the last post as well

In reply to a post by kasg:

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Oh - it's Openreach, not Openview.

We had Openworld in the last post as well

My Broadband Ping

Yes I had my HP hat on there (HP Openview) ... perhaps we should just compromise and call them BT Openwretch.

I am remote from the site and cannot presently unplug the router - am hoping that Openwretch will arrange a lift and shift (which is what they should have done last week) as I am pretty sure the issue lies within the exchange.

Regards

Alan