No adsl LInk

Hi all

i have had no adsl from last friday tried to ring just a waste off time. also filled in details on the fault loging system . not heared anything back since last saturday.. what is going on at PLUSNET ..., but did get email on week saying they are going to take my maney out off my account this week though so that system seems to be workin o.k


a mad plusnet Customer.......

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what is going on at PLUSNET

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I sympathise with you, for some reason Plusnet seem to be on a self destruct mission. They are certainly not the ISP I joined a couple of years ago.

Plusnet customers now seem to be an inconvenience if they require any kind of support, most requests seem to be ignored.

I am just waiting to see what the initial feedback from Sky is like.

mine has also been down since last friday (as has a couple of other people reading from posts on the PN portal)

I've reported the fault etc but the latest is just "we've reported this fault to our providers"

so, I just have to wait (

If you email your details and any ticket number I'll try passing it onto Plusnet for you

[email protected]

just been on phone again says 10min wait was on for 1 1/2 hours still cann,t speak to anyone. also i,ve notice that there phone system goes silent for 20-30 seconds as though a dead line is it me are have they done that on purpose so people put there phone down thing the lines gone dead? i wonder..

still not got throught to anyone was email by 2 people at plusnet asking me to contact them asp through updating ticket which was done also to ring them i have now spent over 14 hours trying to get through to someone at plus net i have had no adsl link for 10 days . i was asked to rebout my router on saturday which i have been doing all week. then told it as been escalted to Tiscali.. could someone at Plusnet please ring me which by the way was said on the way on the automated telephone number would ring be back still waiting 10days later to get some to ring me can some tell me what number i need to ring so i can speak to someone wthout waiting 4 hours.. on the telephone


A SICK TO DEATH PLUSNET USE.......

Hi! I have just managed to get on line...

You are thinking one week! I was without connection for ONE MONTH! and they still charged me. I have asked them to remove the charge... they would not hear... their service sucks at the moment. Definitely not the guys I have joined a year or so ago. Their support team is extremely incompetent. I do not want to waste the space on this forum, but will gladly publish my two open tickets with them.

I am seriously considering passing the case to my solisitor. My BT bill for using THIER 0845 number as a replacement to their service is over

Thanks Tam,

Is there anything I can do at this point?

Vlad

save

Hi i have had no service for 6 weeks and still there is no sign of when i am going to be online, no one seems to care and they continue to take their money for no service.

I contacted OFCOM who were interested but i have to wait until twelve weeks arrive before they will get more active, Plusnet say its due to my exchange at Crayford (01322) i think its more likely Tiscalli after my move (without notification)

PlusNet recently announced that they would give subscription refunds to people who suffer serious faults for more than 7 days after being migrated to LLU. So you should at least get your sub back. The catch is that they will only refund once the fault has been cured and it sounds as though yours has not yet been fixed. You would therefore have to continue paying your sub for however many months it takes to fix your service, whereafter - eventually - you will be refunded.

That seems unreasonable in extreme cases such as yours, especially as it ties you in to a malfunctioning service for an indefinite amount of time. Nor of course have PlusNet said that they will refund the cost of phone calls or other expenses incurred by customers desperate to get their service mended.

I would write one formal, final letter to the Customer Service director, itemising your out-of-pocket expenses (and enclosing the proof of a copy of your telephone bill) and also the subscriptions you have paid to date for a service which is unusable. Explain that you cannot remain on LLU while interminable troubleshooting goes on and that you insist upon an immediate move back to IPStream, along with compensation and refunds. Give them seven days to resolve the matter to your satisfaction or you will pay for a cease and reprovide elsewhere, claiming this and other costs in the Small Claims Court.

I can almost guarantee that this will work. If you have to do it the hard way, there are people here, including myself and possibly rsharma who will help you with your court case.

Simon

i thought i had problems , what galls me though no contact for 7 days.. also when contact tell the same thing over again . The best thing is my company is looking for buisness broadband for 200 users and they have ask me to give coments on plusnet.... i wonder what i'm going to say..

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The best thing is my company is looking for buisness broadband for 200 users and they have ask me to give coments on plusnet.... i wonder what i'm going to say..

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I would assume something similar to what i've told users that ask me all the time.

bargepole touch wounldn't

Say yes and use a referral link?

thats a piont they never told me about moving me......

You'd think plusnet as a company would actually do its utmost to gain new referals but for the past six months they're entire management of the company must do the complete opposite.

Even people who have had very little issues with plusnet are now saying they wouldn't recommend them because of whats gone on.

At one time i'd have thought plusnet would have gone out of its way for 200 new business accounts, but these days I get the impression they don't give a flying fig.

Still, customer services is brimming with staff this morning........ *joking!*

http://www.opentopia.com/showcam.php?camid=3599

Edited by buggerlugz (Tue 22-Aug-06 10:22:32)

Amazing that aint it. ..

Loosing customer due to lack of support, and all those machines sat around doing nothing, and yet PlusNet still wont put more "bums on seats".

I think its a case of "given up" and they're not investing a penny in staff, instead just waiting for a buy out.

There are lots of staff around on that PlusNet cam now anyway, i don't understand why you care?. Oh you don't you just like to stir and it seems your fellow Zen fanboy Tam has turned in to a stirrer and offers nothing of help the threads on this board either

Plusnet only has a few trivial issues anyway, a VERY few people not having a smooth transition to Tiscali LLU, and minor blips and farts like any other ISP suffers.
For what PlusNet charge it still amazes me how much they offer and show up more expensive ISP's *cough* Zen* for the rip off they are.

"Plusnet only has a few trivial issues anyway, a VERY few people not having a smooth transition to Tiscali LLU, and minor blips and farts like any other ISP suffers"

ROFLOL, ya couldn't pay someone to come out with a comedy statement of such Quality!

"There are lots of staff around on that PlusNet cam now anyway"

I guess ten people qualify for "lots" then in your book. When you've got ten pound coins in your pocket I bet you go around saying you've got "lots" of money too, eh?

Edited by buggerlugz (Tue 22-Aug-06 13:02:10)

You can relax now its nearly full.

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VERY few people not having a smooth transition to Tiscali LLU

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So no reason for PlusNet to suspend moving people to Tiscali then?

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Plusnet only has a few trivial issues anyway

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The problem is there are so many of them at any one time.

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show up more expensive ISP's *cough* Zen* for the rip off they are.

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I have been with Zen and though more expensive you *do* get customer *support*. When I migrated away from them I got my MAC there and then over the 'phone, most ISPs (Plusnet included) make you wait.

It seems to me that Plusnet is currently positioned in a market area that it cannot compete in. They seem to be fixed on the idea that 'We are X months/years/whatever in front of the competition' and it is pushing them to make their products overly complicated.

The traffic shaping is a good example, based on protocol and time of day, plus you are shaped more as you approach the limit. (I could understand *after* the limit was reached but not this). I do not want to have to think about what time it is or what protocol i'm using, like most people I want to browse or download when it suits me, not when my ISP decides I can.

I do hope that they can find their way back to being what they were, we do not need to lose too many ISPs as it is then less choice for us all.

Well you mention the traffic shaping and not mention the reason it had to be brought in in the first place Horseman!.

PlusNet had no choice because of the increase in people abusing their internet connections downloading huge amounts of data through the use of P2P, torrents, and usenet, the majority of which is illegal copys of movies and music.
It's the broadband users that used and still use these protocols in an illegal manner which have destroyed affordable, unlimited, and unshaped broadband in this country and i hope they're proud!.

PlusNet still allow you to download what you like but also stop you being selfish and throttle p2p and things at busy times, and remember that in the off-peak period their is very little shaping if any, i was downloading a linux distro torrent around 12am at over 6000kbps and the off-peak has much, much higher usage allowance than peak-time which the PN haters ignore.

I use around 50GB a month of which around 40GB is download only, so i'd end up paying Zen

50GB a month? You don't think that is high for an average user? You must be costing PN a huge amount of money with that sort of usage. I download a total of about 5GB/month if I am really extreme in a month. I wonder how many Linux distros you download a month......

Perhaps you could answer this instead. You think PN had to introduce traffic shaping because of heavy users but you forget that it was PN that encouraged people to sign up to them for heavy usage. Yet they then moved into the direction of cheap and cheerful to attract many more users but over the last 18 months how much increased bandwidth did PN buy for twice the number of users? I can tell you - none. How about the number of support staff for the increase in customers? They wouldn't have problems now if they had enough quality people or spent money getting the numbers right.

PN did introduce traffic shaping without telling anyone and then denied they had. *BTW, the off-peak might very well suit you but it might not others so no point in arguing what you can download then. The problem with their traffic shaping is that they tell you that your peak usage is 20GB but in fact at 13GB they start shaping and reducing speeds too. Therefore you have a clean allowance of 13GB not 20GB and even the 13GB is subject to traffic prioritisation. That is great for those who don't care but I was one of the people who preferred to use my allowances as I saw fit rather than be dictated to by my ISP on what I could use it on. 13GB of traffic is 13GB of traffic irrespective of which protocol I choose to use.

I for one am really happy that you have a flawless connection, are happy with PN and think it is value for money. That is all that should matter, however you want to make out that there are no problems at PN when the opposite is true. There are serious problems with PN and even the most loyal customers are either migrating away or getting extremely frustrated. That is not a good thing and I do hope PN can turn around their problems of the last 10 months but they have to act and now.

Edited by rsharma (Tue 22-Aug-06 17:19:33)

Haha. The irony that AceOfSpades whines about 'abusive' users yet costs plusnet ~ 50 *

"Plusnet only has a few trivial issues anyway"

Their major competitors have turned the market upside down, the business looks like growth is about to come to an end, the stock price is awful and the customers are revolting! Only four trivial issues...

TT

"PlusNet had no choice because of the increase in people abusing their internet connections"

PlusNet had no choice because they priced their connections too low. Despite having a platform that could differentiate between subscribers and offer differing levels of service, their two most popular accounts are surprisingly similar. The cheapest is an all you can eat account with a dynamic IP and massive p2p traffic shaping. Premier is an all you can eat account with a static IP and heavy p2p traffic shaping. There should have been much more differentiation and perhaps the bolting on of services, like CGI, etc.

"downloading huge amounts of data through the use of P2P, torrents, and usenet"

Broadband *is* for downloading huge amounts of data. Next generation products using virtually the same technology will be using IP for downloading films and catching up with their favourite TV programs. Whose fault is it that the incumbent telco won't provide them cheap bandwidth? They could have started building out their own LLU network eons ago.

TT

Nah i'm not costing PN money, my usage is sustainable especially because i do my big downloads off-peak. If everyone downloaded their entitled usage limit each month then maybe you'd have a point.
Take Entanet for example they have an up to 8Mb

Right, but soon they'll be maxed out on offpeak too. You are costing PN money, simple as that, unless your on LLU.

That is what you might think and I don't know the truth but what I do know is that you accuse others of abusing the PN networks for being heavy downloaders but I could say the same about you. Couldn't I? What would you term as abusing the network? Would 100GB, 150GB or 300GB be enough to be labelled abusive. The fact is that you might want to blame others for the problem, I'm sure there were some extremely heavy ones around, but they did buy an unlimited package and PN encouraged it so it is unfair to say that is the cause. The cause is that PN haven't bought any network capacity even though they doubled in size and hence traffic shaping became the norm for them.

I say this because your usage is 10 times that of mine and I do everything a normal user does i.e. browse, email, download mp3, play online games, watch video news, radio, download Sky movies etc. and yet I use 5GB a month. Therefore and by definition you are a heavy user too and you are in no position to point a finger at others and blame them for PN network problems.

You claim that other heavy downloaders are doing illegal downloading, what is it that you download when you use 50GB? That is no small amount.

As you will see, it is easy to blame others for the problems at PN but I could blame you for putting too much pressure on the network and you would think it unfair. Does this post make sense?

One last thing. You say Zen is overpriced but let us make a direct comparison for your usage. With them you pay

"One last thing. You say Zen is overpriced but let us make a direct comparison for your usage. With them you pay

Edited by deleted (Tue 22-Aug-06 19:34:11)

You are right about the price.

I didn't want to know what you download, just making an observation when you claim others were abusing the network with high usage when I could claim the same of you compared to "my" usage. Doesn't make me right either but I wasn't claiming to be.

Enjoy your connection, because I for one have no problems when someone is a happy customer with PN. I just wish more could be the same.

"Plusnet only has a few trivial issues anyway, a VERY few people not having a smooth transition to Tiscali LLU, and minor blips and farts like any other ISP suffers. "

Trivial issues, like losing 700gb of emails, people with no connection for weeks on end, not being able to contact CS and being billed when you are no longer with them.

Yes all very trivial.

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Not that it's any of your business but my use is from watching video from sites such as YouTube

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I assume all the stuff you watch on Youtube is of course Legal and all have the copyright holders permission to broadcast / upload the content ?

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Not that it's any of your business but my use is from watching video from sites such as YouTube , movie trailers, google video, legal software, linux and similar OS's to sample, lots of browsing, it's not that hard to get a combined d/l and u/l of 50GB a month really.

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Your right, of course the issue is is that you can obviously use your connection off peak, I personally have to either work or sleep during that time, so my only access is at peak time.

With zen i can do all the above between the hours of 7pm and 10pm ..... can you say the same?

Actually they are investing in staff, but not mass-recruiting people without the skills to solve the problems, then they're training the recruits.

I see an improvement already and I have a feeling that there are more to come.

PlusNet can no longer be judged by anything other than action, and I'm seeing action at last.

Here you go then guys... work this one out for me then please

My useage over the past couple of months - although I have hit higher than this.

Billing Period Peak usage Off-peak usage Total usage 

28 Apr - 08 Jun  7GB      7.91GB    14.91GB 

09 Jun - 08 Jul  5.42GB   9.88GB    15.29GB 

The recorded off peak will mostly be between 9am - 4pm as this connection is used during the day time.

Other requirements.

I need at least 8 mailboxes.. although I probably use nearer 50.
I need static IP
I need ccgi/mysql/php
I host 4 domains for free.
One of those sites great a bit of hammer... no large files - html but generates a heck of a lot of hits for a hobbyist site.. daily usage is prolly about 200MB.

Not bothered about p2p/nntp hardly use it these days.. majority is classed as web therefore I dont see any slow-downs other than exchange related.

When I stop seeing staff eating sandwiches at dinner time on that web cam and theres enough bums to fill every single seat i'll believe theres some action taking place. Until then.........

That will be all the free nosh they provide the staff with, but they all seemed to eat in the kitchen when I was there!

Are you asking who you could use?

If you are then it is easy:

Zen

Edited by rsharma (Wed 23-Aug-06 00:03:45)

Personally, I'd split your requirements between 2 companies; an ISP and a hosting company. It's never wise to have all your egss in one basket, and you're severly limiting your options if you want an ISP that has PN's extras. I think you'll have more flexibility this way, with the added advantage of dealing with two specialist companies, which means more refinement and reliability for you.

Thanks for that info rsharma - appreciated

I think Id have to up to the Gold package though 200MB per day = 6GB pm
so it would be

>>> I'd split your requirements between 2 companies; an ISP and a hosting company

I think youre correct... the thing is because it is a hobbyist site and Im on a very tight budget..
hosting something over both http + cgi sites that gets > 50k hits per day starts to become a problem

I think there is no limit to bandwidth usage with Zen but I could be wrong. The 1GB is for storage space only but you correctly point out that you can only host 1 site on that package. I am using a third party hosting company and pay

Hi there rsharma

As the Zen Support site states, there is "No Bandwidth Limit (but excessive usage will be stopped)" associated with the free inclusive up to 1GB of web space with their ADSL products See link below for futher details

http://www.zensupport.co.uk/hosting.aspx?page=385

Edited by Reality (Wed 23-Aug-06 01:35:17)

That is for the free space with the ADSL connection and not for the bronze package hosting though. I am not sure because I am not using Zen for hosting since I use a third party myself. I would try the free hosting but I haven't had time or inclination to move my site to the free space.

Hi there again rsharma

Indeed I was referring to the free 1GB of web space and realistic/sustainable download and upload unlimited usage, that comes with one of Zen's ADSL Residential products.

The Bronze, Silver, Gold And Platinum Hosting deals vary in monthly traffic usage with either 3GB, 5GB, 25GB pr 50GB respectively depending on which product you sign up to, details for which are outlined in the link below

http://www.zenwebhosting.com/unix.aspx?page=80

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That will be all the free nosh they provide the staff with, but they all seemed to eat in the kitchen when I was there!

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That's right, people are being given free food so that they can work through their lunch break, to help clear the ticket backlog.

Kitz is one of the most helpful and knowledgable people around, but as with AceOfSpades and myself, he gets jumped on with OT replies just becuse he is helping rather than telling people to leave and take out ccjs.

I said before, I don't often come here, but I dared to dip my toes in the water a few days ago. The response was (all in the name of fairness of course) accusations against me for trying to stifle free speech.
Well, everyone has the right to give their opinion, but jumping on any PlusNet customer who dares to say that they aren't as bad as some other ISPs, used to be one of the best, and still provide value for money for people like me on a tight budget who needs a static IP, multiple email addresses, web hosting with mysql and cgi, plus at least 30 GB up and download a month.

I challenge the detractors to find me an ISP that charges under

An ISP will not simply go bust if people use it a lot, end-users will experience increasing evidence of contention, ISP can spend their way out of that, or just let the contention continue to control the amount of usage

This post assumes an ISP is using fixed price CBC BT Centrals.

Andrew

"Will any ISP other than PlusNet give me the same package deal at eityher the same price or a few pounds more, without demanding that I tie my phone and/or tv in with them? "

No, no ISP will, simply because Plusnet's business model is unsustainable in its current form. Look at whats happened in the last 12 months as a result of that and you'll see exactly where i'm coming from.

So you are saying that all ISPs will either cap at, say, 2 GB, or ask, say,

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.....I do not think that the new 'free' ISPs are sustainable in their present format.

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I agree to an extent, but not with Sky. In their case, levering more income from their existing assets, such as premium sport and movies, and other paid-for services that they intend to offer via their portal, is a fundamental part of the long-term business plan.

That's aside, of course, from the fact that the risk of unsustainability is mitigated by the requirement that to access their broadband services, consumers have to be subscribers to their exceptionally profitable tv subscription service. As their traditional subscription tv market starts to hit its peak, managing churn (cancellations) has increased in importance to maintain growth, and their broadband service is an important addition, to encourage loyalty, whilst also an essential move in protecting the scale of their customer base (8 million+), as alternative forms of delivering " tv programmes" emerge.

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surely we will soon only have ISPs such as AOL, BT, Tiscalli, TalkTalk and Sky.

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......And that would be good for UK broadband wouldn't it

In some ways, yes. The big players alone have the financial clout to move the technology forward, eg to spread LLU far and wide, develop fibre networks, wireless networks, etc. The small players can certainly piggy-back to an extent but I as a customer like the idea that my ISP owns the whole network and assumes full responsibility for it. And as long as there are enough big players, competition will always be there to protect the consumer.

And if there are niche services which customers demand and which the big players won't offer then the smart small provider will still survive. But there seem to be too many small providers who don't add much if any value to the equation and I think the market would be better off without them.

ISPs who are willing to invest a lot of money in driving technology forward so that they gain a competitive edge are A Good Thing, imho.

Simon

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I challenge the detractors to find me an ISP that charges under

Edited by rsharma (Wed 23-Aug-06 13:07:57)

"I think the answer is that they either rely on a large number of people using very low amounts, or they tie in to expensive phone contracts.

Do you think I'm wrong? "

I don't agree completely with that conclusion but I know one thing, higher prices *can* bring benefit. PN have plenty of low usage customers but it hasn't helped them grow into a better ISP. I know they have a large number of low usage customers because I remember how the FUP (Apr 05) was only going to affect 1% of their highest users, then it became 1% of the next high users and so on and so forth until they went from unlimited, 200GB, 150GB... to the 13GB of today. No new bandwidth capacity bought, customer base doubled therefore it doesn't take a genius to work out why and what they are doing. All this in 18 months of operation. In fact their last change in April 06 showed 95% of users using less than 10GB IIRC.

I remember a while back reading a post when network costs were being discussed and someone calculated how charging an extra

I really am sorry to hear about the problems but PN really seem to be struggling with support and have been for some time. I recommend you update the ticket and keep asking them to sort it out. Also use Mr Saffron's email and send him the details so that he can pass them to PN on your behalf. You can also log into the PN portal and use their forum and hope one of the staff members reads it and acts with it. This seems to be the only way to get your problems acted on ahead of the rest.

If you get no joy in terms of resolution or answers from PN I would suggest you contact ISPA to register the complaint with them. PN are also subject to the Alternate Dispute Resolution scheme with CISAS and if you Google for either you will get to their respective websites.

3/4 of the page down for CISAS:

http://www.plus.net/support/customer_service/codeofpractice.shtml

Thanks for the response i have done most of the steps you outline, and have taken your advice re ISPA and registered a complaint there, unfortunately my patience has run out with Plusnet and have advised them to terminate my service and provide me with a MAC key, my concern is the time they will take on this simple task as there are examples of these been delayed or not provided on the Plusnet usergroup forums

Unfortunately what you have experienced in true for a lot of customers currently. I am sorry to see that you have had to leave instead of getting it resolved but make sure they don't terminate the service because they might cease the ADSL and ask them instead only to issue you with a MAC code. This seems to done fairly quickly as long as you are still on BT and not LLU.

Who will you be going to?

No competition? I don't think so.

It does not effect my service because i have had no ADSL service whatsover for over six weeks, i am using their "free" dial up service and i had to ask for that to be activated and that failed twice and needed me to chase it. In terms of LLU i dont know my status i was with BT but then i failed and havent been back since so whether my status has changed i havent a clue.

In terms of changing i am going to sky having been given my sky activation code yesterday

Well if you are going with Sky you don't need an existing connection AFAIK but if you did then there would be no cost to activate the cheaper packages with Sky. I think for the free one you pay

I have been with Plusnet for 6 years i originally came from Netcom, and i havent a clue what Plusnet want because they havent responded to my request to leave, OFCOM show a big interest in ISP's failing to respond to MAC requests and i will definately pursue any means to resolve my issue.

This is all so unecessary all i wanted was the service i was paying

"it is strange the only fans they have are those who have no problems as soon as you have a problem you begin to realise how fragile they are as an organisation and a ISP"

This is the main problem. The people who don't suffer problems don't understand how difficult it is. If a customer was at least able to contact PN, discuss the issue and problem with them, PN acted on the information and sorted it out most wouldn't be too unhappy. That is all they want but the problem is indeed that when someone is in need of support that they can't even get in touch with support and then it begins to be a drawn out process to get it resolved or get a MAC code without having to fight over money issue. Leaves an everlasting sour taste.

Yep you are right , still not been able to contact anyone at plus yesterday waited for 2 hours still cann't get hold off anyone also added to ticket still nothing since last sunday now had no broadband from them for 2 weeks. left messages on automated phone saying the would get back to me within 8 hours still nothing.. so plus net seem to be going down the toilet very fast. i don't blame the staff. It as to be a management problems as to whats going on over there and llu upgrade problem which is tscrapy problem (oh sorry Tiscali ) does not help . when the were doing this upgrade to the exchange i wonder if there was any alternative to Tiscali. if so were Tiscali the cheapist? i was with tiscali for a year and got out off there very fast. so i now what a bunch of cowboys they can be.

Apparently someone has said that the price that Tiscali wholesale were charging was so low that even some of the ISPs weren't sure if it wasn't a mis-print.

As the saying goes... If you pay peanuts...

Edited by caesar_salad (Fri 25-Aug-06 10:42:57)