The tbb one is restricted to ISPs with adequate numbers of raters. I think the OfCom one is by customer base isn't it?

I don't know Bob. I just think ratings just honestly don't reflect reality to a newcomer looking in. Nothing to do with bias on my part. PN are a middle of the road ISP, but just not top of the pile in my opinion. I realise nothing is perfect.

In reply to a post by BatBoy:

Plusnet make referrals payments.

Yes, I believe it is 25p per referral per month. Hardly going to make someone a fortune - I doubt if many people have much in the way of referrals at all.

From the evidence I have seen to date there are a some people that have performance issues. There were definitely problems with support for months when they were setting up their new call centre - haven't seen so many complaints about it just lately.

However, the number of people that have no particular issues (or none that they know of) and therefore score them 10/10 is likely to outweigh the number of people who have noticed issues.

I am with BT. If I rate them then I tend to rate them top as I haven't had any significant issues with the connection. Why would I rate them down if it is working fine for me? Same likely goes for PlusNet customers on here - I don't buy the conspiracy theory that it is bias or referrals - it is just the plain fact that most people have no issue and therefore no reason to score them down.

So if 90% of the customer base are happy with PlusNet does that mean a newcomer is going to have problems like the 10% that might or does it mean they are actually more likely not to have any problems. My uncle has been with PlusNet for years now and has never had any issues with the connection - it does what he wants and the few times he has contacted support it has been fine. If he was rating them on here I dare say he would rate them as 10/10.

We know there are clearly problems with PlusNet but the vast majority of their customer base have no idea they are happening and indeed probably aren't adversely affected by them - so I believe the ratings reflect that.

Most new customers would find PlusNet just as good as the alternatives and cheaper than many. Of the mainstream ISPs they are pretty good. People won't go with ISPs like Pulse8 for the most part because they have never heard of them.

In reply to a post by ian72:

In reply to a post by BatBoy:

Plusnet make referrals payments.

Yes, I believe it is 25p per referral per month.

So there is no incentive to say that Plus net are a rubbish ISP - quite the opposite in fact. They are essentially paying for positive reviews.

I still don't buy it. It would be interesting to know how many people actually get referral fees (I'm sure PlusNet wouldn't tell us).

Also, giving a positive score on a website makes no difference to the amount of referrals you get as you won't get new referrals out of it. Scoring them 10/10 doesn't mean you will get additional referrals and therefore doesn't have a financial incentive.

In reply to a post by ian72:

I still don't buy it.

I bet you're "not affected by advertising" either.

Hmm, I would obviously say "not to any extent". If I see something in an advert then it may allow me to consider it but I would add it in to a number of other factors and look at other alternatives before buying. I am well aware of the PlusNet adverts on TV but strangely enough I am not with PlusNet, partly because when I looked at changing ISPs it was late last year when all the support problems were happening.

That doesn't mean that I don't know people who are happy with PlusNet's service and other people that aren't.

I can tell you my uncle doesn't get referrals but would rate PlusNet highly for the service he receives. He has no reason not to.

Broadband 75ppm, phone 50ppm. Publicly available referrals information.

Edited by RobertoS (Wed 13-May-15 11:04:21)

Sorry, my mistake. I was sure I had seen it had gone down to 25p at some point. Might be my failing memory. £9 a year would definitely make me convince all my friends to go with an ISP - even if I thought the ISP was rubbish as £9 is much more important than friends and family