How's service these days?

Just popping by, wondering whether anyone can comment on whether PlusNET have resolved their woeful service performance from earlier in the year?

Nope!

Been ok here for a couple of months or so.

Don't seem like it.. I still see complaints and still get messages from people updating me on their cases fro early release or advice on how and what to do.

Have you actually had any issues requiring support in the last couple of months?

I nearly asked that earlier, but then realised the OP doesn't specify CS. It could be about the gateway and slowdown problems we were having.

Both really! I left a few months ago due to various issues with speed and CS.

Just felt it was a shame, and hoped PlusNET would rekindle it's reputation at some point.

In reply to a post by mabibby:

Both really! I left a few months ago due to various issues with speed and CS.

Just felt it was a shame, and hoped PlusNET would rekindle it's reputation at some point.

Support from what limited number of customers are reporting on their community forum , still have woefully long "on hold" call times , and there is still a big problem it seems with training of those who man their call centres,( could also be pay related) So no changes for the better in that department ,

As for their "networking"issues Still ongoing for some,( the number of customers complaining has dropped off, but that is most likely due to them migrating to other ISP's, not due to them actually fixing anything) and their web site is less informative than it it used to be in regards to usage graphs, and the current line speed link although still active it has been removed from the customer portal,

Also to add they still charge incoming migrations the £50 connection fee if bb only

And also want a 18mth min term on FTTC when if you have already had such active FTTC service for the previous 12mths BT openreach don't hold the ISP to anything more than 1 month , they also are peddling a 40/2 (2mbps) upstream product in place of the more useful 40/10

Then there's their woeful move to wires only installs for FTTC , the woeful bit is that they supply a re branded BTHH5 version A , that isnt fully compatible with G.inp and reboots it's self every 14 days,lol so no change with their supplied cheap and nasty hardware either, maybe best avoided for the foreseeable don't waste you money, if you want a decent FTTC service then you may have to pay more than plusnets prices

Edited by tommy45 (Thu 19-Nov-15 21:03:33)

Colleague at work was supposed to migrate from TT to PN FTTC 80/20 on Monday.

BTO didn't bother to turn up to do the stuff at cab and in house, guys at exchange did the stuff removing his existing ADSL etc.

Sum total is he is without BB until at least Nov 30th.

Hes had a very bad experience of calling PN CS (over 60 minutes waits, and then they say they know nothing).

Touch wood mine has been stable 76/18 for 2 years now and we use over 300Gb monthly with no issues at all.

Edited by Philce (Thu 19-Nov-15 21:35:48)

In reply to a post by Philce:

Colleague at work was supposed to migrate from TT to PN FTTC 80/20 on Monday.

BTO didn't bother to turn up to do the stuff at cab and in house, guys at exchange did the stuff removing his existing ADSL etc.

Sum total is he is without BB until at least Nov 30th.

Hes had a very bad experience of calling PN CS (over 60 minutes waits, and then they say they know nothing).

Touch wood mine has been stable 76/18 for 2 years now and we use over 300Gb monthly with no issues at all.

That's another thing the sheer amount of botched /failed orders, Plusnet seems to lead the way with these cases, Some have waited weeks to get an engineer to install their ordered service, there is definitely something amiss with the way plusnet do their provisioning , whilst i accept that BT openreach aren't innocent in this either , but plusnet seem to have more failures than all isp's

In reply to a post by tommy45:

Support from what limited number of customers are reporting on their community forum , still have woefully long "on hold" call times , and there is still a big problem it seems with training of those who man their call centres,( could also be pay related) So no changes for the better in that department ,

As for their "networking"issues Still ongoing for some,( the number of customers complaining has dropped off, but that is most likely due to them migrating to other ISP's, not due to them actually fixing anything) and their web site is less informative than it it used to be in regards to usage graphs, and the current line speed link although still active it has been removed from the customer portal,

Also to add they still charge incoming migrations the £50 connection fee if bb only

And also want a 18mth min term on FTTC when if you have already had such active FTTC service for the previous 12mths BT openreach don't hold the ISP to anything more than 1 month , they also are peddling a 40/2 (2mbps) upstream product in place of the more useful 40/10

Then there's their woeful move to wires only installs for FTTC , the woeful bit is that they supply a re branded BTHH5 version A , that isnt fully compatible with G.inp and reboots it's self every 14 days,lol so no change with their supplied cheap and nasty hardware either, maybe best avoided for the foreseeable don't waste you money, if you want a decent FTTC service then you may have to pay more than plusnets prices

Very good summing-up from Tommy. If there were one word to describe plusnet, what would it be Tommy?! Bearing in mind this is a family-friendly forum! Would it be [censored]? Or maybe [censored]? Or perhaps [censored]?!

Plusnet never had a sustainable business model. The overheads were too great. It was probably run subtly at a loss; allowing BT to steal market share and screw the competitors; while recouping all those losses through bumper profits raked-in at Openreach.

Very polite call centre staff, but what good is that when the underlying service is so poor? From day one Plusnet never exuded any confidence. Some of us were dogged with mysterious authentication problems that developed suddenly, and caused long outages. Plusnet were hopeless at resolving it. I did wonder if their radius database was corrupted or even hacked.

Kept giving them the benefit of the doubt; more time to iron out all these problems. In hindsight we should have bitten the bullet much earlier.

No matter now, for it became the cue to migrate elsewhere. Ironically for all their loss-leaders, we paid quite a heavy price to exit them. Looking back, it was good riddance.


---

Edited by deleted (Thu 19-Nov-15 23:25:56)

My girlfriend decided to go with PlusNet FTTC back in June this year when BTOR finally upgraded her local cabinet. She has been tied into an 18 month contract and she has had nothing but problems ever since.

Most weeks she has regular loss of broadband service, thankfully her home phone does keep working. There hasn't been one month, hand on heart, where she hasn't had to call the PlusNet customer services. The last time was as recent as 7th November, when her internet was yet again down, much to the annoyance of her children.

During the October half term holidays, with her kids at home, the internet service went down and was out from the Monday morning right through till the Thursday afternoon. PlusNet tried to blame her computers/phones/tablets and even mirrors in the house (yes honestly they asked if she had mirrors in the house as they can cause interference). In the end they did finally admit there was a fault on the line and cleared it on the Thursday afternoon.

Every time she has called the Customer services, there has always been a minimum wait of 25 minutes (usually much longer), on the last occasion which I mentioned above was on the 7th, it was over an hour to get through and just over another hour to actually get the problem sorted and her internet back on.

Overall, from my girlfriends experience, it would appear that things haven't improved.

Maybe they are running the company down in order for a takeover!!!!!!

In reply to a post by mabibby:

Just popping by, wondering whether anyone can comment on whether PlusNET have resolved their woeful service performance from earlier in the year?

Customer service is still apparently dire (judging from the forums - I've not had to use it myself). Lots of failed installations which is alarming. The network however seems to be running a lot better. Far fewer complaints to the forum thread and I (and a couple of others I know) are 'overdue' for a bad session.

So if you're an existing customer with a reliable line it's great. New customers and those with dodgy lines - stay the hell away

Edited by Andrue (Fri 20-Nov-15 10:58:19)

In reply to a post by tommy45:

As for their "networking"issues Still ongoing for some,( the number of customers complaining has dropped off, but that is most likely due to them migrating to other ISP's, not due to them actually fixing anything)

That may be a factor but I know three or four people who were suffering it sporadically and all have told me recently that they've been incident free for far longer than before. I'm also a month 'overdue' for my occasional bad session. I think it would be safe to say PN have done something to their network that has improved things.

I've had more problems with "accounts and billing" in the last couple of months than in the previous two years ...........

I suppose it could be worse

"I think it would be safe to say PN have done something to their network that has improved things. "

If they have done something it would be good PR if one of the reps said so.

They did - but nothing since
http://community.plus.net/forum/index.php/topic,1408...

Plusnet never had a sustainable business model. The overheads were too great. It was probably run subtly at a loss; allowing BT to steal market share and screw the competitors; while recouping all those losses through bumper profits raked-in at Openreach

That's a very definitive statement. Can you provide evidence?

What I'll say is that Plusnet has been profitable every year since 2007. Last year, EBIT @ £44.2m, previous year, £32.6m and here's last years numbers if it helps.

http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/business/business-new...

Not once since the BT acquisition in 2007 has it operated anywhere near a loss, subtle or otherwise. It is neither unsustainable nor loss making.

M

I'd agree with both posts from Andrue. My Plusnet ADSL2+ has disconnected twice this year but restored after half an hour. I'm satisfied with it and consider our BB/calls package good value for money.

The Plusnet forum is full of moans by its very nature. One can't help noticing that many if not most complaints are related to Openreach no-shows, I wonder if other ISPs have as many problems with OR?

To sum up: PN is fine when it works, but trouble if you want a connection. I would go to FTTC simply because it's there, but not with PN. If it's not broke don't fix it ...

They should have linked to that on this forum then!

In reply to a post by Andrue:

In reply to a post by tommy45:

As for their "networking"issues Still ongoing for some,( the number of customers complaining has dropped off, but that is most likely due to them migrating to other ISP's, not due to them actually fixing anything)

That may be a factor but I know three or four people who were suffering it sporadically and all have told me recently that they've been incident free for far longer than before. I'm also a month 'overdue' for my occasional bad session. I think it would be safe to say PN have done something to their network that has improved things.

Would it? Seeing as they rely totally on BTW, it may be that some SVLAN's got re balanced or capacity added to them resulting from EU's from other ISP's complaining, So nothing to do with plusnet at all,
My issues where due to both the Plusnet's networking/shaping/capacity,& shadow IP profile, and BTW backhaul capacity issues because there was 2 entities it was impossible to know who was responsible ,
Plusnret IMO used this to their advantage, and never properly raised this with BTW
Something In was paying them for, that is how they failed me and probably lots of others, everything at plusnet seems to run at a snails pace if at all,

In reply to a post by mkelly:

Plusnet never had a sustainable business model. The overheads were too great. It was probably run subtly at a loss; allowing BT to steal market share and screw the competitors; while recouping all those losses through bumper profits raked-in at Openreach

That's a very definitive statement. Can you provide evidence?

What I'll say is that Plusnet has been profitable every year since 2007. Last year, EBIT @ £44.2m, previous year, £32.6m and here's last years numbers if it helps.

http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/business/business-new...

Not once since the BT acquisition in 2007 has it operated anywhere near a loss, subtle or otherwise. It is neither unsustainable nor loss making.

M

They sell their broadband for FREE and at unsustainable monthly subs prices, hence the long and unfair min term contracts, and their un competitive line rental prices, which are subsidising their freebee's, and without a doubt their CS has been run into the ground because of this

In reply to a post by Malwaremike:

I'd agree with both posts from Andrue. My Plusnet ADSL2+ has disconnected twice this year but restored after half an hour. I'm satisfied with it and consider our BB/calls package good value for money.

The Plusnet forum is full of moans by its very nature. One can't help noticing that many if not most complaints are related to Openreach no-shows, I wonder if other ISPs have as many problems with OR?

To sum up: PN is fine when it works, but trouble if you want a connection. I would go to FTTC simply because it's there, but not with PN. If it's not broke don't fix it ...

I don't doubt that other CP's get OR no shows too, but the question is is how many of plusnet's are due to their provisioning systems and staff negligence?

Although they managed to process my FTTC only order without issues, installed and working on the initial date given

Edited by tommy45 (Sun 22-Nov-15 19:23:09)

In reply to a post by tommy45:

They sell their broadband for FREE and at unsustainable monthly subs prices, hence the long and unfair min term contracts, and their un competitive line rental prices, which are subsidising their freebee's, and without a doubt their CS has been run into the ground because of this

It's not loss making though is it? They're just competitive against TT and Sky in the budget BB market. 25% gross profit sounds pretty good going for such low margins, when they're purchasing BTW/BTO services at the same regulatory cost levels as it's competitors.

BT's plans were obviously to use PN to keep the market share in the budget mass market without affecting the more "premium" BT Broadband offering. Seem's like the old PlusNET we used to know is never to be seen again.

In reply to a post by mabibby:

In reply to a post by tommy45:

They sell their broadband for FREE and at unsustainable monthly subs prices, hence the long and unfair min term contracts, and their un competitive line rental prices, which are subsidising their freebee's, and without a doubt their CS has been run into the ground because of this

It's not loss making though is it? They're just competitive against TT and Sky in the budget BB market. 25% gross profit sounds pretty good going for such low margins, when they're purchasing BTW/BTO services at the same regulatory cost levels as it's competitors.

BT's plans were obviously to use PN to keep the market share in the budget mass market without affecting the more "premium" BT Broadband offering. Seem's like the old PlusNET we used to know is never to be seen again.

Yea , they make a loss on their bb products, but they subsidise this with the high un competitive line rental and call prices,and things like the call set up fee (RIP OFF !!!) that both they and their brethren charge their customers
If your giving cash-backs and free or half price offers then the profits aren't coming from those sales But they do get profits from calls and line rental, without which they would have become another statistic like 02/be,

Edited by tommy45 (Mon 23-Nov-15 16:09:43)

Plusnet line rental is £16.99pm. Sky Broadband requires £17.40pm line rental. TalkTalk Broadband requires £17.70pm line rental. IIRC O2/Be line rental wasn't hugely different from BT Retail, especially when you considered the overall cost of the phone service.

Your zeal in slagging off particular ISPs isn't always matched by your grasp of reality Tommy.

It is also possible to save a lot of money on Plusnet by taking one of the cheaper line rental companies like I do, and accepting the £2.50 extra cost on the broadband.

Is Plusnet sustainable? Does it stand on its own two feet? With a credible and independent business model of its own? Or is BT Group artificially subsidizing it? Perhaps through preferential terms arranged with Group suppliers like BT Wholesale? Or through subsidized intra-group loans issued by parent BT, maybe?

Questions that should be answered by a forensic accountant, of which I ain't.

Though it would be surprising if the Yorkshire Post, in its fawning business update on Plusnet, offered us any clues. Yorkshire is home turf for Plusnet; a major employer in both Leeds and Sheffield, and a regular advertiser in the local press; with favourable copy all bought and paid for.

Let's do a bit of research of our own though:

Plusnet is a wholly-owned subsidiary of BT Group; with turnover last year of £226.8m. Yet Plusnet appears only fleetingly in the BT Group 2015 Annual Report. Almost as if it doesn't exist. In the voluminous 237 page Report for 2015, just three references to Plusnet (see p.26, p.64, p.199).

The following few words being almost the sum-total that BT Group discloses about its £226m Plusnet operation (see p.64):

In reference to www.btplc.com/Sharesandperformance/Annualreportandreview/:

We also sell services through our Plusnet brand. This helps us grow our market share across the UK by addressing more price-conscious fixed-voice and broadband consumers.

Possible to say any less about a quarter billion pound enterprise?!

----

Let's get the Plusnet PLC Annual Reports from Companies House. The 2015 Report is here; with figures for 2014 here.

The first thing we note is that BT is using a (legal) fig-leaf to conceal important information about Plusnet:

The parent undertaking of the largest group of companies into which the results of the Company are consolidated is BT Group plc...
As a qualifying subsidiary, the company [Plusnet] will adopt a 'Reduced Disclosure Framework'."

Plusnet is operating in a "Reduced Disclosure Framework" for its financial reporting. Convenient..

The Report goes on..

Consequently, the Company is exempt under the terms of FRS 8 "Related Party Disclosures" from disclosing details of transactions and balances with BT Group plc, fellow group subsidiaries and associated undertakings, and those deemed under control during the year ended 31 March 2015.

"[Plusnet]... is exempt from disclosing details of transactions..with BT Group plc..and other subsidiaries"... Convenient, again..

What this means, in particular, is that it disguises any subsidies BT Group may be making to keep Plusnet artificially buoyant. That Reduced Disclosure Framework could be used to conceal intra-group loans issued to Plusnet. Loans allowing Plusnet to continue trading when it may otherwise not be solvent.

Indeed we can see from Plusnet's Balance Sheet that it took on another £36m of borrowing; an increase of 62% on the previous year. Those new creditors not identified, but Plusnet has this to say about intra-group loans:

Amounts owed by group undertakings are unsecured, have no fixed date of repayment and are repayable on demand. Interest is charged at agreed group rates.

In other words, that intra-group lending is on highly preferential terms. Loans made at undisclosed but doubtlessly favourable rates (interest free?) and with "no fixed date of repayment". That is not financing on genuine commercial terms.

Is BT Group subsidizing Plusnet in that way? Is that how its "price-conscious" budget subsidiary can offer loss-leaders like free broadband? Guaranteeing that it can undercut BT competitors? Securing ever greater market share for the Group? Its customer-base up 17% on 2014; and up a further 16% on 2013?

Damned if I know. Perhaps if Plusnet was open in its financial reporting we wouldn't be wondering...

Of course cross-subsidizing loss-making operations within a trading group is nothing unusual. The dirty digger, Rupert Murdoch and his financiers at News International, ran The Times newspaper at a loss for many years.

Selling The Thunderer for just 10p a copy on weekdays. A cover price well below cost. A ruse securing it much greater market-share. Hoping eventually to drive rival broadsheets out of business altogether. Only when the MMC/CMA/OFT finally stepped-in, ordering those cross-subsidies to cease, did the newspaper market return to normal.

---

As an aside, we learn that BT Group has recent form of its own here; engaging in other efforts at "inappropriate" accounting. In the case documented here and here it was hoping to artificially shift costs of acquiring mobile operator EE onto its Openreach subsidiary. "Inappropriate" accounting that would ultimately increase the cost of network access for all its rivals.

In reference to www.ft.com/cms/s/0/c37a1608-8d11-11e5-94a4-639039952d45.html:

The telecoms regulator has labelled �inappropriate� a move by BT to bill part of the cost related to its £12.5bn acquisition of EE to its Openreach division, which controls the national broadband network.
..
BT�s rivals Sky, TalkTalk and Vodafone are concerned that the telecoms group can move unnecessary costs to Openreach � even if this is a consequence of complex accounts � which it could then attempt to recoup by charging them more to use the telecoms network.

These companies have called for Openreach to be formally separated from BT to provide greater transparency � a proposal that BT has strongly rejected.

The amount of EE acquisition costs charged to Openreach is only £1.7m, according to a consultation by Ofcom into the cost of so-called �leased lines� for business connectivity. A wider £27m cost relating to the EE takeover will be considered in later consultations.

But rivals said that the principle of accounting attribution was the same regardless of the amount. The fact that the charge was from costs relating to the takeover of a rival group that strengthens BT has added to their concern.

�This is just another demonstration of the conflict of interest that BT�s ownership of Openreach creates,� said one telecoms executive. �Regardless of the amount, money from Openreach shouldn�t be diverted to pay for the other activities of BT Group, when it should be reinvested in improving the network. It underlines why we need an independent Openreach.�

Ofcom said: �We consider that BT�s EE acquisition costs are incurred as a result of the activities associated with the acquisition of EE. However, BT attributes these costs across all UK lines of business, including, for example, Openreach and BT Wholesale to which we do not consider these costs relate.�

The regulator said that this was not �consistent with the regulatory accounting principle of causality and therefore we consider this attribution inappropriate�.
..
BT is required by Ofcom to separate costs related to regulated services such as Openreach from other divisions. Openreach is run as a functionally separate part of BT, which allows the company to provide access to its network and services to rivals on the same terms as BT�s retail arm.
..
Another telecoms executive added: �This provides further evidence that Openreach needs to be structurally separated from BT, or at the very least, provide greater financial transparency.�

Indeed.

---

Edited by deleted (Mon 23-Nov-15 23:24:39)

In reply to a post by edwincluck:

What this means, in particular, is that it disguises any subsidies BT Group may be making to keep Plusnet artificially buoyant. That Reduced Disclosure Framework could be used to conceal intra-group loans issued to Plusnet. Loans allowing Plusnet to continue trading when it may otherwise not be solvent.

I'm not an accountant either, but I do know that any loans/capital injection deemed as such would not affect the P&L. Turnover/Profit is exclusive to a company's capital. (An intra-group loans would not be classed as an income).

Unless they are creating fictitious sales out of the PlusNET company, and potentially offsetting the taxable profit by creating management/administrative costs intra-group then, but that would cost time/effort and carries unnecessary risk?

I just find out which ISP Bob is with and stay miles away from them.

Bob = me?

If so, would you care to explain? My ISP is stated in my sig.

Your current BQM looks a mess!

Ummm, maybe.

Those regular spikes are something you often see with particular kit. Particularly at the user end some Billion routers. I've had them before both on Plusnet and here, with different routers, but they usually go away. I think it will be to do with something in the ISPs' kit in my case.

Quite what was going on yesterday I shall try to think back to, but that is indeed strange. I've a vague memory of something but it doesn't come immediately to mind.

This?

In reply to a post by Philce:

Colleague at work was supposed to migrate from TT to PN FTTC 80/20 on Monday.

BTO didn't bother to turn up to do the stuff at cab and in house, guys at exchange did the stuff removing his existing ADSL etc.

Sum total is he is without BB until at least Nov 30th.

Hes had a very bad experience of calling PN CS (over 60 minutes waits, and then they say they know nothing).

Touch wood mine has been stable 76/18 for 2 years now and we use over 300Gb monthly with no issues at all.

I have knowledge that PN haven't been booking the engineers for installations/migrations and leaving it until the customer complains and then following up. They are currently chasing some BT funding, which is tied to sign up numbers. So when they get the funding, the installations will happen.

After 4+ years with PlusNet and a pretty solid connection with them, my line decided to reduce in speed from 30/5.5 to 18/1 on Tuesday last week (PlusNet diags noted below show an outage on my line from 03:00 to 04:00 on the 17th, suspect some work at the exchange that night?).

I raised a ticket with them last Friday at 09:30. The ticket then got stuck for a while until I DM'd PlusNet Help on Twitter today (DM sent at 10:05, got response at 15:05). Got update on ticket at 15:09, tests run show "Low" Upstream and Downstream rate assessment. Got SMS from them at 15:15 advising engineer visit required, replied back with 3 suitable times and now have a visit booked for tomorrow between 1pm and 6pm.

So, long story short, I actually think the service received here is pretty good, with the exception of the ticket sitting there for a couple of days. But PN do seem to respond when you approach them via other means like Twitter and forums like this and their own one.

In reply to a post by Bryer:

I have knowledge from Mystic Meg that PN haven't been booking the engineers for installations/migrations and leaving it until the customer complains and then following up. They are currently chasing some BT funding, which is tied to sign up numbers. So when they get the funding, the installations will happen.

Fixed that for you.

Some ridiculous things get posted on broadband forums, but that is a really good example.

I have it on good authority that many of the people who are waiting for fibre will actually get it delivered on the evening of 24th December and that instead of using Kellys it will be delivered by Father Xmas!

Everything is fine with Plusnet. No issues so far! Very happy overall.

The billing issues are now hopefully sorted for the remainder of my contract and the credit refund is on it's way to my account, I highlighted the problem on the Community forum which was picked up and acted upon quickly by PN staff.

In reply to a post by adslmax:

Everything is fine with Plusnet. No issues so far! Very happy overall.

Aren't you lucky this time around, wasn't so long ago that you were wanting to leave and where having problems ,

Ridiculas? Some people must have the patience of saints,I think most would of been contemplating cancelling their orders or would of cancelled their orders after the second failure

Edited by tommy45 (Wed 25-Nov-15 10:59:00)

My FTTC was fine in the last 3 months now

http://speedof.me/show.php?img=151125110958-8515.png

Edited by adslmax (Wed 25-Nov-15 11:10:14)

In reply to a post by jelv:

Have you actually had any issues requiring support in the last couple of months?

Nope,

But my mate have a couple of days back, the person he was talking to on the phone was pretty good, rang my mate back o as well and stayed on the phone for over a hour trying to sort things out.

Still did not get it sorted and my mate was told he would get another call, but that did not happen, he was also told he could get a new router, but was put through to someone else who told the the computer said no, well sort of. He said that he could not have a new router, My mate was not looking for a new one hub, he would be happy with a Sagem, but even that was not allowed.

Anyway, I went down to my mates yesterday and stuck my TP link on and the got connected more or less right away, so proved it is the router and after threatening Plusnet with Watchdog and social media, they got back in touch and said they are going to send him a new One hub router.

At least he can still get online due to my router, good job I have a spare.

Spoke too soon yesterday. No sign of engineer today, perhaps a bit naive to think that an engineer would be booked and confirmed at that short notice.

From experience in my rural location if Openreach are busy/short handed then things change.

Doesn't look very good.

"Current average response time:17 hours 18 minutes 34 seconds"

yeah.

I expect plusnet has been running at a loss between when BT took over plusnet (adding capacity etc.) up until the last 12-18 months when plusnet has clearly been under pressure to cut its own costs and increase revenue per customer. As if someone has asked BT to prove plusnet can stand on its own 2 feet.

In reply to a post by hk11:

"Current average response time:17 hours 18 minutes 34 seconds"

It has been much higher than that over the past couple of years, that's relatively good.

In reply to a post by kasg:

In reply to a post by hk11:

"Current average response time:17 hours 18 minutes 34 seconds"

It has been much higher than that over the past couple of years, that's relatively good.

There's plenty of names i have for it and good certainly wouldn't be one of them, but if there's some who are happy with times like this, maybe plusnet have adopted the attitude why change things

In reply to a post by tommy45:

There's plenty of names i have for it and good certainly wouldn't be one of them

Hence the use of the word "relatively", i.e. relative to Plusnet's past performance.

Unbelievable!

It's getting worse!

In reference to community.plus.net/forum/index.php/topic,145596.msg1290930.html#msg...:

I've just waited 89 minutes for my call to be answered.

The only thing anyone can do is relate their own experience. Mine is that I have phoned CS twice in the last 3 days on unrelated issues. The first time I was told I might have to wait up to 45 minutes and then got put straight through the call lasting less than 2 minutes and ending satisfactorily (confirming engineer appt for next day for my daughter which has since gone as planned). The second time I was warned that waiting time was up to 45 minutes again so I switched the speaker on and waited. 40 minutes later I got through. After a conversation I agreed a course of action and rang off satisfied. As agreed I powered everything down, waited and powered up again and all back to normal.

I'm satisfied. I'm getting a good connection at a good price. That's my experience at the moment - tomorrow might be different.

In reply to a post by longedge:

switched the speaker on and waited.

That's the secret: use a speakerphone and treat it like a radio for an hour!

Edited by hk11 (Wed 09-Dec-15 23:50:28)

In reply to a post by hk11:

In reply to a post by longedge:

switched the speaker on and waited.

That's the secret: use a speakerphone and treat it like a radio for an hour!

The secret is to use WeQ4U on your smartphone and keep the phone handy, no need to listen to the Plusnet music especially 'Simply Irresistible' which cuts out part way through leading into Embrace if I remember correctly.

I stand corrected.

The other secret is to use WeQ4U on your Landline if you have inclusive minutes, as well as over whatever network you may have inclusive minutes, or if not whatever gives you the cheapest connection (including indirect access) but make sure your CLI is forwarded.

Yesterday I used the online chat. Opened the link at 17.34 and finally got answered at 19.26. There were 22 people in front of me. I had one question regarding an engineers visit which took 11 mins to resolve.....

I've seen this post today from a member of Plusnet staff:

I'll leave it to the Faults Team as they're in a better position to stay on top of things assuming the fault needs escalating to BT Wholesale.

Looking at the ticket pool in question, the oldest tickets are from the 8th, so you shouldn't be waiting too much longer.

Apologies for the delay, looks like the faults department is pretty busy ATM.

So it's taking up to a week for faults tickets to be even looked at!

Today's news: Plusnet now get a higher level of complaints to PFCOM than TalkTalk!

http://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2015/12/ofcom-n...

Plusnet really dropped the ball. And Sky don't get the credit for broadband & fixed line customer service that they deserve.

They've got EE firmly in their sights! Go Plusnet!

Shouldn't be a problem. Plusnet got momentum on their side!

http://consumers.ofcom.org.uk/news/telecoms-and-pay-... (direct link)

I never bother to ring anymore as I've read the negative comments on here about people waiting over an hour on occasions. I ALWAYS use the online chat now. Never had to wait more than 10 mins and find that the people on there seem to be more knowledgeable than those on the phone - even if they are probably part of the same team!

If only... Nearly two hours to answer me on chat .... 😵

In reply to a post by ploddo:

If only... Nearly two hours to answer me on chat .... 😵

It does you good to laugh

Never had many issues with Plusnet performance although customer service is a bit woeful with long waiting times.

Tracing route to google.co.uk [212.56.71.104]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms dsldevice.lan [192.168.1.254]
2 7 ms 7 ms 7 ms lo0.10.central10.pcl-bng02.plus.net [195.166.130.151]
3 7 ms 7 ms 8 ms irb.10.PCL-CR01.plus.net [84.93.249.81]
4 9 ms 9 ms 7 ms ae2.pcl-cr02.plus.net [195.166.129.7]
5 7 ms 8 ms 7 ms plusnet-lcy4.plus.net [212.56.71.104]

Trace complete.

[IMG]http://www.speedtest.net/result/4954069461.png[/IMG]

In reply to a post by Chrysalis:

I expect plusnet has been running at a loss between when BT took over plusnet (adding capacity etc.) up until the last 12-18 months

...As if someone has asked BT to prove plusnet can stand on its own 2 feet

Take a look at their accounts on Companies House.

EBITDA £m
11/12 12.7
12/13 32.6
13/14 30.7
14/15 43.1

The latter 19% of turnover. Don't think they need any else's feet to stand on

Edited by Adagio (Fri 01-Jan-16 11:56:46)

I think one contract mobile in the house offers 2000 minutes a month, and another, unlimited, so I'd just call their 03xxx number.

Have heard of WeQ4U but never used it, and currently don't feel the need.

In reply to a post by jelv:

Today's news: Plusnet now get a higher level of complaints to PFCOM than TalkTalk!

http://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2015/12/ofcom-n...

Hardly suprising really when you read threads like this one on their forum, I have had no phone or internet for over 6 weeks.No phone or internet for 6weeks Reading it ,i cannot understand why that new customer has waited so long, they must have the patience of a saint, as there ain't no way on this planet that i and i suspect many of us would be fobbed off for so long, most would of gotten a full refund and chosen a different provider ,this customer must be desperate to be a plusnet customer maybe? springs to mind,

There's no question that Plusnet service has gone downhill over the past couple of years, with the once superb service team being dispersed or leaving, but looking at the forums I wonder how many of these complaints are related to Openreach and its service or lack of it? Is PN anxious not to annoy its owner BT, which also owns OR whatever they say about OR 'independence'?

That said, PN cut us off when we joined them simply because the salesdroid had got his dates wrong. Like millions of others I'm happy with our present ADSL2/phone package which I consider good value. I would change to fibre but no way would I trust today's PN to change anything. (If it's not broke don't fix it).

In reply to a post by Malwaremike:

I wonder how many of these complaints are related to Openreach and its service or lack of it?

Without broadband for a week when Plusnet took over my line. They said it was down to a problem found by their supplier, but can't/won't expand on that.

Like you, I am reasonably happy with the current value for money service, although I am not sure if their "it takes 10 days for connection to settle down after installing" holds water.

Looking shaky again for me. Worse than last time in terms of frequency. My experience also seems to confirm that it's not directly related to the gateway. I've been on the same gateway and the same PPP session since I last bounced my connection yet tonight it's gone squirly again.

http://community.plus.net/forum/index.php/topic,1477...

I've had problems with the junction box outside the house (according to the BT engineer, it was letting in water), and had no problems with PlusNet support. Whilst it did take a couple of days to get the engineer out, when he did come very promptly, and was quite willing to climb telegraph poles, change junction box covers and visit the local auxiliary box to get the problem sorted - all in heavy wind and rain...

And when the profile speed was stuck, PlusNet support sorted that out, so that full speed was re-enabled.

So, overall, I've had no problems and a great service.

All of which is Openreach service rather than Plusnet, other than requesting the work.

Indeed - but I still had no problems with PlusNet. Was all organised efficiently (had a telephone call about organising a visit), and the reset was done when I contacted them today.