Poor quality PlusNet router replaced with BILLION

I have been with PlusNet for many years, with a short interruption when BE offered ADSL2+ in Central London and PlusNet did not. Most of the time I have been happy with the level of service and cost, until this year.

For the past 3 years I have been living in Buckinghamshire in a rural village. The speed I was getting of about 7.5 - 8.5 was unspectacular, but faster than anyone else in the village. The Thompson router was stable, and I was generally satisfied.

In early summer, fibre arrived. I was one of the first to sign up, and the process with PlusNet went smoothly. I can sync at full speed, but pay for the capped speed and got 37.5 most of the time. Uploads were around 19. So far so good. The dropouts started, The PlusNet router froze occasionally for no reason, and required a reboot. Worse, several times a week the wifi would cease working at all. Everything looked fine, but none of my devices would successfully obtain or retain contact, and the router had to be rebooted frequently.

There was no excuse. I am in a rural setting. The phone line is good. The modem is plugged into the master socket. Most devices run through the AC house wiring. Everything worked flawlessly for 3 years with the twisted pair. Lastly, I canb only see one other wireless from my location, which is my neighbour.

I contacted PLusNet several times, and tried to explain the logic that the new router or the Openreach modem must be the cause. Nothing else had changed, and in fact the BT modem has not been touched since the engineer installed it.

PlusNet would not accept their router was at fault. Eventually in order to keep me quiet they replaced the router with another one. There was absolutely no difference. In fact, if anything, the situation worsened.

Eventually, in despair, I went and bought a new router. After much care (I am an ex radio ham and brought up on networking protocols) I chose a Billion 7800. That was on 26 September.

Since then, all has been stable. The router is a UK model, and the instructions were quite explicit. I was up and running in a matter of minutes, and just had to replace the PlusNet router with the Billion. After a month of use, the router is absolutely stable, I have 2.4g and 5.0g, wifi is perfect (speed same as wired) no reboots of any kind. I also have more diagnostics.

Personally, I would have been quite happy if PLusNet had provided me a basic router that actually worked! Or that they admitted their mistake in supplying a piece of equipment that is so palpably awful.

It's a pity I had to spend money unnecessarily in this way, but at least I am content now. Customer service? Good honest Yorkshire quality? Reliable responsive people? I don't think so.

Robert

The moral of the story then is that the free router turned out to be worth all that you paid for it

..oh and that PN support is pretty useless these days.

I dunno. Their CS is a bit naff these days but since you don't have to use the router if you don't want to (and can choose not to even have it delivered) it's hard for me to get worked up over the possibility of it being [censored]. I never expect much of any free gift that I'm offered.

Look at the positives. You could have been with TalkTalk.

Don't tempt fate.

That's one way of looking at the situation, but not mine.

What is free? Free is when a company gives things away, like drinks at a railway station for promotional purposes, or 'free samples' of something to try. The PlusNet router is not 'free' because if I ask for one without a contract or consideration, they will not give me one.

Most people expect the router will be a basic, no frills device, which will work satisfactorily and be adequate for 80% of the customer base. As you say, there is always the chance the other more 'discerning' 20% will want to pay for something with more features, but PlusNet do not offer an upgrade at extra cost, as they might and should if they are keen on customer service.

The point is, not that the router is or is not free, but that it is of such poor quality that even the 80% will have trouble with it. This is a cynical form of marketing, where the 'free' product is in fact a bad product, free or not.

I know, I am on the lookout now, as Plusnet is seen as a TalkTalk rival and a budget ISP too.

Hoping every ISP is feverishly beefing up their security right now!

In reply to a post by alext05:

Look at the positives. You could have been with TalkTalk.

There but for the grace of God, go I

....... springs to mind.

Well I have had several routers from Plusnet over the years - not because they were faulty, but because they were replaced as I went on various trials - and I have had had no trouble with any of them, including the current TG582N.

It may be your current TG582n, which I too found adequate if not brilliant, but that isn't what they have been supplying for many months now .

That's true, I had forgotten that.