How do you elevate a complaint at Plusnet?

I've just had an American/Canadian support operator refuse to elevate my complaint because he "isn't losing his job for me."

That's the second support operator to tell me that in the last 8 weeks. This one insisted I go through the process with him, and wouldn't listen to me pointing out that the router is at my parents house 20 miles away, Then he hung up on me bcause I insisted I would not go through first line support for the 10th time and instructed him to get somebody to call me back tomorrow.

What on earth has happened at Plusnet? They never used to be this bad.

They want me to go back into the queue after 8 weeks, 5 engineers and a worse problem than when this all started.

The last engineer but one assured my elderly parents that the problem was outside of the property, and wrote it down for them to give to me; a HR fault (underlined for emphasis) between the pole and the master in his opinion, and most likely due to water ingress.

He told us the drop wire would need replacing, but he wasn't equipped to climb the pole. Engineers returned a couple of days later with a bucket lift, tested the line, said it was fine, rang me and said "we can't fix what ain't broke mate."

The noise is so bad on the line you can barely hear the caller on the other end. The guy that just hung up on me, says the router is showing that all it needs is rebooting. I would tell my mum, but I can't hear her for all the noise on the line.....

What on earth does it take to get through to somebody that is prepared to listen?

Have you tried the Community Forums? That's where the good reps are. Occasionally one of them pops in here as well but who knows when?

Have you tried their community? https://community.plus.net/

There are a few ways on here:
https://www.plus.net/help/legal/complaints-code-of-p...

I agree that the forum has the best support staff, and the best route to getting a problem solved.

When I had to raise a complaint, I pointed out how hard it was to keep explaining a complicated issue to different support staff, and demanded support from one member of staff to keep track of progress.

As it happened, one of the forum staff had taken the issue on while the complaint worked its way through the system. Things still took a long time to sort out, but I lost the aggro of re-explaining things time and again.

As it happened, one of the forum staff had taken the issue on while the complaint worked its way through the system. Things still took a long time to sort out, but I lost the aggro of re-explaining things time and again.

This is exactly what is so infuriating.

It's not Plusnet's fault, as OR simply aren't doing their job, but I'm fed of being the go between. It's a paid service and they need to take ownership of the problem, but some of the support guys' idea of customer service is flabbergasting.

Listen first, talk second - training concluded.

It is Plusnet's fault that you have to explain the problem repeatedly. What you have reported and what has been done and failed should be on the customer file.

British Gas engineers can tell me several year's history of my heating installation in great detail. Openreach on the other hand don't seem to give their engineer's any history at all. Plusnet should be like BG, not OR.

Thank you for the link. I've posted there now.

Forget the internet aspects of the problem. You have a statutory right to a clear voice line. So raise the issue with the company you are getting the landline from. Get the voice problem solved and then most likely the broadband problem will be solved.

Both Plusnet. Still no closer.

Jokers.

So after being persuaded to let them send another engineer out instead of raising an official complaint, we have now (yesterday) had another engineer's visit. He has advised quite clearly that "BT" need to be forced to sort the issue, as he believes it is definitely the line and is not broadband related. This seems to align with what you have advised.

So before I had a chance to call plusnet today, as I pay them the line rental, I received a text message.

Plusnet: I firstly apologise for the issues with your service. As no fault could be found on the engineer visit, please try an alternative router and monitor the connection again or call us on 0800 432 0200 to discuss getting a router from ourselves.

So I called them.

After five engineers visits (two with a truck ready to renew the drop wire) and two who were prepared to write down what type of fault they had found on the line, the intermittency has again lead to it being signed off as "no fault found"

After confirming that they cannot help with third party routers, I was advised that I would have to buy one from them as it was out of warranty. I refused and said I would simply raise a formal complaint instead. He was quite keen that I didn't do that and told me he would ring back after he had spoken to a manager, and hopefully get the router replace FOC, bearing in mind the fault has been going on since mid April.

The manager did in fact very kindly offer to replace the router FOC......if we were prepared to sign up for another 18 months.

You couldn't make this stuff up, and I certainly won't be put off any longer from making a formal complaint.