Switching to Plusnet - Very Dissapointed

Have been with a number of ISPs over the years including Demon, Nildram, Plusnet, UKFSN, Zen, Andrews & Arnold and Sky and never had any problems switching between them.

Chose to move from Sky LLU to Plusnet Fibre when the cabinet I am connected to was upgraded recently as it was a better deal than Sky were offering (for 80/20) and I had been with Plusnet before with no problems.

Well not this time. Everything seemed to be going smoothly on the transfer, despite not receiving many updates on the progress of my order. Although I assumed that was because things were going fine. Took half a day off work waiting in for the openreach engineer to show up, getting more anxious as it got closer to 6pm (I was assigned a 1-6pm slot). I called up 5:30pm and was reassured that there was still time for them to get there. No mention of any problems with my order.

Contacted them numerous times since each time getting told that I would have a new slot within 24-48 hours, there was some bs about a routing issue, but they did not go into any detail about it and was eventually told it had been resolved, but would now have to wait an additional 4 days for a new appointment.

Very disappointed with the transfer, would have been less annoyed if they had informed me of the 'Routing' issue before and I had not lost half a days earnings for nothing. Has blown any saving I made moving to plusnet.

I always go for 8am to 1pm slot. I will never pick and choose 1pm to 6pm (they always not turn up)

I would have, but it was a Monday morning and that's the busiest time of the week for me at work, so really needed to be there.

I've dealt with other ISPs at work, IDnet most recently and when there has been a problem out of their control they have always been quick to get an explanation from openreach and get it fixed. Got a two word explanation from plusnet and when told that the issue had been fixed, that I'd have to wait an additional 4 days before I get a new install date.

The transfer to Plusnet is where many problems occur. Nothing has simproved since they connected me to another persons line four years ago, then lost broadband altogether when sorting it. Openreach said it was a PN order cockup. I realise openreach make the connections, but it always seems to be pLusnet where switching goes wrong, despite a tenth the customers of some ISPs.

In reply to a post by professor973:

The transfer to Plusnet is where many problems occur. Nothing has simproved since they connected me to another persons line four years ago, then lost broadband altogether when sorting it. Openreach said it was a PN order cockup. I realise openreach make the connections, but it always seems to be pLusnet where switching goes wrong, despite a tenth the customers of some ISPs.

Are Openreach going to admit to a cock up given that end users don't get to talk to Openreach? An Openreach contractor connected my phone to an internal extension instead of the outside line!

Have you been with Plusnet for the last four years, or are you judging them based on what looks like an Openreach issue that happened four years ago?

In reply to a post by beardedwonder:

In reply to a post by professor973:

The transfer to Plusnet is where many problems occur. Nothing has simproved since they connected me to another persons line four years ago, then lost broadband altogether when sorting it. Openreach said it was a PN order cockup. I realise openreach make the connections, but it always seems to be pLusnet where switching goes wrong, despite a tenth the customers of some ISPs.

Are Openreach going to admit to a cock up given that end users don't get to talk to Openreach? An Openreach contractor connected my phone to an internal extension instead of the outside line!

Have you been with Plusnet for the last four years, or are you judging them based on what looks like an Openreach issue that happened four years ago?

I am judging them on reports of continual poor service reports here. If it was not for the few PN reps that actually know what they are doing that pop in here, they would have turned turtle long ago. It must be embarrassing for them to continually admit the shortcomings of many PN staff and well borked system. Even the much publiscised new call centre seems the usual joke service. Of course, I may be unfairly comparing them to my two quality suppliers. You get used to a knowledgeable response to a ticket in five to ten minutes, along with quality overall service and lower prices.

In reply to a post by professor973:

I am judging them on reports of continual poor service reports here. If it was not for the few PN reps that actually know what they are doing that pop in here, they would have turned turtle long ago. It must be embarrassing for them to continually admit the shortcomings of many PN staff and well borked system. Even the much publiscised new call centre seems the usual joke service. Of course, I may be unfairly comparing them to my two quality suppliers. You get used to a knowledgeable response to a ticket in five to ten minutes, along with quality overall service and lower prices.

It's a bad idea to judge a company based on complaints on a forum as this is not representative of the actual userbase. People that have problems are much more likely to register and post on forums.

I have recently had Virgin Media cable; terrible overseas call centres, frequent disconnects and congestion issues.

Orange/EE; terrible overseas call centres with ignorant call handlers trying to fob you off. Took the best part of 3 months to get them to admit there was a problem with my line and that Openreach should be called out.

Maybe you should enjoy your great customer service at your current provider and stop harping on about a four year old issue that was probably an Openreach installation issue.

I don't just judge Plusnet by the complaints posted in the media. I judge ALL suppliers, which seems fair to me. You don't need to enlighten me of the finer points of other ISPs, I have suffered most. Indeed, I will be suffering the ineptitude of Orange/EE again next week when we are back at our north of the border property. maybe, you should learn to read a post properly, you will then see I am judging Plusnet by their shortcomings today, which show nothing has improved since I was with them. I did not leave four years ago, that was when I suffered joining.

Edited by professor973 (Mon 28-Jul-14 13:57:54)

In reply to a post by professor973:

I don't just judge Plusnet by the complaints posted in the media. I judge ALL suppliers, which seems fair to me. You don't need to enlighten me of the finer points of other ISPs, I have suffered most. Indeed, I will be suffering the ineptitude of Orange/EE again next week when we are back at our north of the border property. maybe, you should learn to read a post properly, you will then see I am judging Plusnet by their shortcomings today, which show nothing has improved since I was with them. I did not leave four years ago, that was when I suffered joining.

Seems quite rich that someone not currently on Plusnet is judging them. You obviously have a chip on your shoulder for whatever reason. Plusnet is at the very least one of the better home (mass market) broadband providers out there.

Of course, I may be unfairly comparing them to my two quality suppliers. You get used to a knowledgeable response to a ticket in five to ten minutes, along with quality overall service and lower prices.

Can you name these quality suppliers, please? I can see several that almost certainly give better service than PlusNet, particularly PlusNet in its current (transient) state; but they all seem to have considerably higher prices.

I'm interested in PlusNet (and others) at the moment as I'm considering a move from BT.

It seems a rather sad way for professor973 to spend their time.

I mostly blame BT openreach as it was a problem with an install and would have probably happened whichever ISP I moved to. I had my doubts the move would go smoothly as I was going from ADSL2+ LLU with Sky to Fibre connection.

Although it turns out there was a note on my order apparently, stating 'There is a delay with the narrowband order and to review on the 17th (install was due on 21st July) - Does this require an e-chat or an outbound to SMC: FTTC. I do have a slight problem with Plusnet as regards that, as it looks like they did not query it. I guess that is a case of you get what you pay for as I'm sure some of the other more quality providers may have spotted that and questioned openreach about it.

The whole process with openreach seems ridiculous, they had a possible fault on the line, did not cancel or delay the install date (unless they were waiting for a response back from plusnet?), then took days fixing it (after a prompt from plusnet) and rather than providing a new date once the problem was fixed (was fixed on Thurs 24th) get told that on Tuesday 29th will provide me with a new date and then plusnet will have to request that to be expedited.

I would have thought it would be fairly reasonable that once an install is missed to get the problem fixed and a new date provided within a week, but at this rate it looks like it'll be two or longer. With openreach having a monopoly on the installs I wonder how much pressure ISPs can put on them to sort problems out in a decent amount of time.

In reply to a post by beardedwonder:

In reply to a post by professor973:

I don't just judge Plusnet by the complaints posted in the media. I judge ALL suppliers, which seems fair to me. You don't need to enlighten me of the finer points of other ISPs, I have suffered most. Indeed, I will be suffering the ineptitude of Orange/EE again next week when we are back at our north of the border property. maybe, you should learn to read a post properly, you will then see I am judging Plusnet by their shortcomings today, which show nothing has improved since I was with them. I did not leave four years ago, that was when I suffered joining.

Seems quite rich that someone not currently on Plusnet is judging them. You obviously have a chip on your shoulder for whatever reason. Plusnet is at the very least one of the better home (mass market) broadband providers out there.

No 'richer' than you judging my suppliers without joining them. I have NO chip on my shoulder. I just find the continual 'Awards' to Plusnet and the fanatical following they have here, when weighed against all the poor service reports on the web a joke. I an not alone. Must be the pyramid selling!
http://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews92709.html#Reviews
https://www.trustpilot.co.uk/review/www.plus.net
http://www.broadband.co.uk/broadband/providers/plusn...

Edited by professor973 (Mon 28-Jul-14 19:26:36)

From the Openreach price list, unless Plusnet can put pressure on them over what has happened, they will have to pay £196 for an expedited FTTC installation. That's the standard charge if an "Expedited" order is placed at the start.

So whether they have to pay it or not, they are doing all they can for you at this stage. They won't be passing any such charge on to you.

In reply to a post by professor973:

No 'richer' than you judging my suppliers without joining them. I have NO chip on my shoulder. I just find the continual 'Awards' to Plusnet and the fanatical following they have here, when weighed against all the poor service reports on the web a joke. I an not alone. Must be the pyramid selling!
http://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews92709.html#Reviews
https://www.trustpilot.co.uk/review/www.plus.net
http://www.broadband.co.uk/broadband/providers/plusn...

Don't really know at which point I judged your suppliers, you seem to be the one doing that. Although since EE was my last supplier up until a couple of months ago, not four years ago, I think I do have some up to date insight into that particular ISP.

Just tried four BB providers on review centre and all score around 2 stars. The only thing that shows is that people who have problems want to get it off their chest and complain online.

If you have a look at the first page of complaints, the people that give the lowest ratings have mostly only written one review. This means that they've gone online just to make that one complaint. Whereas the people who make more reviews, tend to rate the service better. I'd say it's better to judge the product by the people who don't have an axe to grind. I also wouldn't be surprised if a fair amount of complaints about ISPs actually relate to Openreach issues as everyday customers probably don't know the difference.

If there was a way of removing the one review users from the results you may end up with a more accurate representation of customer satisfaction.

Anyway, I'll leave you to it.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

From the Openreach price list, unless Plusnet can put pressure on them over what has happened, they will have to pay £196 for an expedited FTTC installation. That's the standard charge if an "Expedited" order is placed at the start.

So whether they have to pay it or not, they are doing all they can for you at this stage. They won't be passing any such charge on to you.

Openreach messed up, I don't see why any expedite fee should be involved, what I am starting to get annoyed with is being given a date when they'll have a new install appointment and getting told when I call that they still don't have it, someone will get back to me time and time again.

I am tempted to take my business elsewhere but know I would be in a similar situation (although other companies I have used in the past seem to have got more information out of openreach and problems resolved quicker - IDnet for one).

At last finally getting somewhere (on my second call today), phoned up and spoke to customer service and insisted that they get hold of openreach for my new install date, told them keep getting told 24-48 hours each time etc etc. Get put on hold for a while (about three songs worth) and get told someone from their supplier team will get back to me by 8pm. I don't hold much hope, but they prove me wrong and ring me back within an hour or so.

Turns out the problem was that it was a simultaneous order (phone plus fibre) and that the line hadn't been recorded as being successfully migrated. She was told 48 hours for a new date which she declined (as this happened last time) cancelled the old order and put a new one in which will be expedited and should have that new appointment some time tomorrow morning. Which I'm hoping is before the weekend.

Has restored my faith in their customer service / support team, but took a bit of work getting it out of them. Needed to keep the pressure on with calls and persevere until I got hold of someone that knows what they're doing and can work round openreaches inefficiency.

In reply to a post by mandevil:

Has restored my faith in their customer service / support team, but took a bit of work getting it out of them. Needed to keep the pressure on with calls and persevere until I got hold of someone that knows what they're doing and can work round openreaches inefficiency.

I have found exactly the same with some companies, keep on ringing until you speak to someone who knows what they're doing!

Now hopefully you'll get the real Openreach and not a contractor!