My Phone call with Ian Wild

As part of Plusnetters and to gain some more information, i responded to a pm from Ian WIld re a post i made some time ago about my views and that Plusnet were going to change the way the forums worked. I made a claim that Plusnet would drop their support forums and maybe use PUG's instead.

I have slightly amended the information i wrote for Plusnetters, but feel it is only fair, as i have been fairly vocal re Plusnet to post it on here as well.

I realise this may spark a war, however, i feel that it is beneficial for people to get an insight into my conversation

ok.... here goes

Well Ian Wild rang me on Thursday night, very late, as he was still at work; I agreed he could ring me after 10pm.

I didn

Edited by soundsystem (Wed 09-Aug-06 21:28:18)

Hi

One thought, why do we as customers have to try and run the company? It's just an ISP that is failing and falling apart, big deal.

The vast majority of customer's will not visit here, will not have any intention of engaging with discussions to improve the company as that's why companies employ and pay staff and managers. Customer's will experience the bad customer service for themselves and just leave and join a new ISP and think nothing more of it.

Lifes to short for a save "PlusNet" compaign, it's there own doing, customers have been complaining about falling standards (and complaining is feedback they have ignored) for a year or more, if they hadn't listened then they aren't going to listen now and maybe the nice chat routine is just more spin and PR? Too little too late, and the majority of people aren't going suffer another 18 months of appalling customer service just because Ian's a nice guy on the phone.

The company has massive problems and it's evident in all the little mistakes, for example, "You have exceeded your allowance. Your usage has been extended by 2GB - charged at

Edited by deleted (Wed 09-Aug-06 22:23:06)

"and maybe the nice chat routine is just more spin you have fallen for?"

its not spin at all, the conversation was genuine, and a lot of information given. The actual post i posted i sent to IW to see if anything wanted removing, in case it was sensitive etc. Nothing was removed!

IW told me to post it as it was, he has not got anything to hide. In fact he poited out the fact i hadnt reported on the 2.7

Edited by soundsystem (Wed 09-Aug-06 22:25:13)

It's a plc - just like (albeit rather smaller) Tesco - not a charity.

Why do customers feel the need to help them out?

We pay them - they provide a service - there's no relationship beyond that.

Would you indulge your electricity or gas supplier with long touchy feely telephone chats after 10pm and then tell the (ADSL Guuide) world about how misunderstood the supplier is ?

Michael

Interesting post. I too was due to get a call from Ian Wild some weeks ago but it never materialised. When I followed it up I was fed (IMO) excuses as to why the call didn't take place.
He still wanted to hear my views so I put them in an email, he said that everyone from Lee downwards would probably agree with my suggestions.

I put my suggestions in an email to him just over 2 weeks ago and that was the last I heard from him - guess he didn't like my suggestions !!

If only they'd listened to what I had to say when I was a customer instead of the spin and lies.

Hi Michael

fair point, however to me its probably a principle thing, i can see where they went wrong, i aint in it to help Plusnet out directly, more the customers (although i appreciate your point of view)

tbh they do deserve what they get, but at the end of the day the staff or the customers dont deserved to be walked over!

your right we pay them for a service, a service which if we are all honest does not get 100% delivered. It would appear if you have no problems on their network you are lucky. If you do have a problem you are stuffed. That aint right at all.

I would hazard a guess and blame a lot of their problems on being too competitive to survive, and also have been badly let down on the support from a third party supplier / suppliers. ie BT and Tiscali - however from what i can see BT are normally very good on faults etc.

"He still wanted to hear my views so I put them in an email, he said that everyone from Lee downwards would probably agree with my suggestions. "

i too sent him an email the night i wrote that post which was friday last week, however he never recieved it :-( Speaking to him tonite i then reforwarded it and he read it there and then.

The point of my conversation was to bury the hatchet with Plusnet on Plusnetters.co.uk as it would appear we upset them, when we were gonna do a name and shame exercise on those classic replies you get from support.

The conversation went a lot better than i could ever have imagined and i hope that Plusnet will now

1) Frequent Plusnetters

2) Frequent ADSLG

3) See the light and start looking after their customers.

Why not email him again and see what happens or if you want to forward it to me and i will post it over there!

He got my email, he acknowledged it and said he would reply, but never did - just like he never called me when he said he would.

I'd already left PN by then, if they'd listened earlier and acted earlier I would have stayed - I'd been with them for 9 years and recommended many people - they're now all asking me to recommend another ISP, something I won't do anymore.

Good luck with your mission, PN leaving AG was in my view the worst thing they could have done at the time - they should have put more effort (with backing from the top down) into getting things sorted, how many other ISP's have the balls to go into a public forum to field their customers problems ?

One thing they must concentrate on is fixing the products/support/processes they have rather than introducing more products.

One of the most irritating aspects I feel about Plusnet, which contributed to me migrating my broadband line away from them a week or so back, is their constant talking-up of themselves- all the more irritating of late, when the customer experience often didn't fit comfortably with the words.

I think that they should avoid talking of visions for the future, for the time being, and concentrate right now on putting the service right.

When making choices, I think consumers inevitably rely on feedback from other service users, and perceptions about a provider.

My perception of Plusnet was that they had major issues going forward, because aside from other customers' opinions, the responses/reactions of some of their staff, not least on ADSL Guide, suggested to me that there was a loss of calm within the business.

I'd also add, that trying to silence internet critics, by complaining to site owners, "trading blows" with consumers etc. is doomed to fail, in my opinion, but when/if customers regularly report the sort of positive experiences that persuaded me to join Plusnet in the first instance, then I daresay that the majority of people are clever enough to put any critical comments in to perspective for themselves.

Edited by cos1 (Wed 09-Aug-06 23:37:57)

Soundsystem wrote:
I realise this may spark a war, however, i feel that it is beneficial for people to get an insight into my conversation.
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Sorry but it's not a war more like a battle of common sense, ethics and open and honest dialogue between customers, ex-customers and never to be a customer after seeing the Plusnet true colours.

So a call from low level manager Ian Wild takes place , nothing in the transcript of that call other than I kind of agree with your sentiments but little has changed.

The way I see it is, they nailed their colours to the mast, they are sailing a rudderless ship captained by pugwash (or is that hogwash) and they have created a bit of a PR nightmare for themselves with their antics over the past few months.

The bully boy tactics didint work and people stood up to them.

Good on them and yourself for trying to ease the tension, clear the path but from my own perspective I'm really past caring.

If they really wanted to put things right they'd have asked a director to call you with answers.

Ian is nothing more than cannon fodder now hence the reason they throw him towards the lions den. If it's off his own back then again well done Ian for trying but please, change the record.

When they apologise to PR100 for threatening him with legal action, address the issues raised legitimately for the benefit of a large number of users who werent in the know then I may say yes Plusnet well done.

But that is not going to happen is it. Same waffle, same PR posturing.

Don't waste your time Soundsystem your worth more than that.

Powerdroid.