Migration has gone wrong

I've been with Plusnet for years, but have been becoming increasingly unimpressed.

I was tempted by Now TV's highly price-competitive offering. When a call to Plusnet didn't produce an offer that was equal or even close, without committing to a TWO YEAR lock-in (and three inflation-busting price rises during that time!) I decided the time for loyalty without reward had ended, and I was going to take my chances with NOW (which I gather is a re-badge of Sky).

I duly placed the order, which was accepted. Within the hour, I got two communications: One was a text message from NOW asking me to call them about the order, the other was an email from PN thanking me for changing my mind about leaving, and saying the cancellation of my phone service (no mention of the broadband) had been stopped!

I phoned NOW, fully expecting them to say PN blocked me from leaving, as that's what it looked like. But they reported they could not proceed with the migration, as Openreach had replied that there was no capacity.

I thought I was back to staying with PN, or looking around for a 2nd choice, as NOW admitted that no capacity with them didn't mean that nobody else would have any. But they also said that capacity was being updated all the time, so if I tried again in a couple of weeks, I might get lucky.

No urgency then - I could live with the status quo and try again in a couple of weeks.

That was until I got a 2nd email from PN just now, saying they're sorry to lose me, and that my broadband is set to cease on 30th June. This is after they've said the phone move has been stopped, and NOW have said they can't do the broadband. I'll obviously have to speak to them in the morning, but for the moment it looks as if there's a cease on the broadband, even though the new provider has admitted they can't do it, but the phone migration (which presumably was not the cause of the problem) has been halted.

I don't want one migrating without the other, so if NOW couldn't fulfil the whole order, ALL the changes should have been stopped.

Why has my phone cancellation been nipped in the bud, but broadband is scheduled to stop - with nowhere else to go to?

So the long and the short is I can't get fibre with anyone. Plusnet insisted the only way to revoke the cease that is now on the line was to take a new 18 month contract for ordinary ADSL, which is a lot cheaper than the out-of-contract price I was paying, but still dearer than the deal that was showing on my account only yesterday - which has been withdrawn (It was only about £18 I think).

I don't feel well-served by either NOW/Sky who caused the mix-up by accepting something they can't do, or by Plusnet.

I've ended up having to take an 18 month contract for my existing service of approximately 2Mb ADSL at £22.49 - which is only 50p less than they are charging new customers for 36Mb fibre. And locked into two inflation-busting price rises during that time as well (one next week and one in March).

I have the mandatory 14-day cooling-off period. Any suggestions for how I can get - if not fibre, something better than the present 2-3Mb ADSL, for a reasonable price?

I'm at the end of a very long line, so the broadband speed has never been a lot better. I don't think raising it as a fault will get me any closer to the 8M end of my "up to" 8M. I've ordered a new router, just in case.

Hmm, I don't believe PlusNet should have required a new minimum term in order to undo a migration. What happens if I happen to know someone's phone number of PlusNet and put in a bogus migration? Will the only way they can get back to PlusNet be to sign up to a new minimum term? Pretty sure that is not what Ofcom intended with the new processes.

Have you considered mobile broadband using a 4G/5G router? I know a few people here have gone that route (including pluralist).

I thought it was ethically dodgy too, but haven't checked the legal situation.

It's still cheaper than the out-of-contract price I was paying (which was itself a mick-take), but I don't believe I should have been blackmailed in the way that I was - that basically the cancellation stood unless I agreed to a new 18-month contract.

I'm still not impressed by either party. NOW contacted me again to ask why I'd decided not to proceed with the order! I told them it was not my decision, but I'd been informed by them they couldn't service it! So the right hand doesn't know what the left is doing there either. Surely there should have been a note on file explaining that they couldn't proceed? I thought he was going to override what his colleague had said, and claim they could do it, but it turned out he was only offering ADSL, which is what I already have.

I'd been correctly advised that I can't have fibre, and that seems to be true across all providers using Openreach, so it's obviously a problem with their absolute capacity, not allocation per ISP.

Most of the big providers still show fibre as nominally available to me, even after giving line and postcode details, but flag an unspecified "problem" if I try to proceed with the order. I suppose that beats NOW, who accepted the order, and instructed Plusnet to cancel, before checking they could actually do it.

I've logged a ticket with Openreach under the heading: "I can't get fibre but my neighbours can" asking for clarification on when, or indeed, if, they plan to add capacity.

If it's a project already in progress, the wait might not be too bad, but if they've reached the point that further upgrades are "uneconomic" for the foreseeable future, it's my understanding I'll have to look at mobile internet or Virgin fibre, which is independent of Openreach.

I really didn't expect this problem. I'm not in a little village in the back of beyond, but the suburbs of a city. I know capacity isn't infinite, wherever you are. Apparently Openreach update the latest status on Fridays, so it seems I will have to keep checking every Friday.

Some providers allow you to migrate to ADSL and then upgrade to FTTC when capacity becomes available. I suspect Now don't have the processes in place for that sort of added complexity.

It is bad that they contact asking why you cancelled when it was them that cancelled it.

And it is bad that PlusNet don't accept a change of mind - supposedly the 10 days is there to allow people to change their minds so forcing people onto a new minimum term whether they choose to cancel or it gets cancelled by the gaining ISP I would think is against the Ofcom policy but I haven't read it to check.

NOW would in fact have allowed me to migrate to an equivalent ADSL service, but as my main objective was to upgrade, rather than replicate the same very slow connection with a different provider, this would have served no purpose. He still tried to sell it to me anyway, but it didn't seem worth the faff, even if fractionally cheaper. Whether I stay with PN or move, I still want better speeds than the current 2Mbps.

It used to be fine for my modest bit of shopping, web browsing and emails, but like most people, my usage has evolved. I now have multiple devices and do a lot more streaming.