Dealing with Plusnet

I've been trying to change my account with Plusnet and move to BT.

Main reason was my line speed and wish to add the phone package. But to give Plusnet one last chance I started the message trail below to resolve my requirements or end up moving to BT.

The following mail trail back and fowrard with the help desk gives an idea of how hard it is to deal with Plusnet Customer support....

If I dont get an answer by Monday I'm off to BT.... and sod them.

So my question is : is there any other way to contact them by phone etc to get an answer or MAC key.

thanks

david


1st Post to help line 8th Sept.

I'm moving to the BT total broadband package. I want to get a total broadband and phone package. Whilst generally I've been happy with the level of service from Plusnet, I've been waiting 6 months to get my line upgraded through adsl MAX process and I still dont have any visibility of when this will happen. I am running at 1mb (usually a LOT slower) and by moving to BT I will also get my line adsl Max'd immediately to an estimated 5.5mb connection. I would NOT move to BT if I was guarenteed that if I took on the phone package that my line would be adsl max'd at the same time then I would stay with Plusnet and add the phone option.

my contact phone # is '999999999

the date for transfer would be 1st October 2006

1st Reply

Annette Stones CSC Agent 7:15pm, Sunday 10th September 2006
We are willing to give you a free regrade to max dsl but you will need to confirm that if you leave within the next 12 months the regrade charge will be payable, please advise us how you want to proceed.
Regards,
Annette Stones
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Your comment 9:37am, Monday 11th September 2006
I'm willing to stay for the next 12 months and repay the fee if I dont do so. Can you first tell me the cost and when the regrading will take place. I will then confirm acceptance of the deal and sign up for the phone package

##############################################
Your comment 12:47pm, Thursday 14th September 2006
Can I please get a response to my question.... if I dont receive feedback in the next 48 hrs I will re-request my MAC key and move to BT.

################################################
Liam Martin CSC Agent 3:21pm, Thursday 14th September 2006
Dear Mr Murray,
The charge for this regrade would normally be

Hi there,

I have raised this to the Comms Team for you but it would help immensely if you could post a ticket ID or PM it to me so that they can track you down and respond accordingly

usually its better not to put the agents real names in your post.

It is done overnight, usually within 24 hours of them submitting the order to BT IIRC.

This is the major problem of not having enough support agents to answer tickets quick enough..... hence massive customer frustration.

Did I miss something? Plus net are charging you for a DSLMax upgrade?? I thought they were free?

I inderstood that PlusNet had paid BT for ALL its users to be regraded to MaxDSL. Because of the limited numbers which could be regraded daily, PlusNet offered those users who wanted to regrade early in the programme a "Queue-Jump" option which would put them at the front of the queue for regrade .... but at NO CHARGE.

This is a new one on me. I seem to remember a discussion around May which concluded that a PAID FOR super queue jump would NOT be offered.

Does anybody recollect this differently?

They are for customers willing to wait. Admitedly this is the first time I have heard about a chargeable (or deferred chargeable in this case) queue jump being available as well but guess they are being offered on a case by case basis.

There is a thread on the plusnet forum to upgrade, it normally takes a couple of working days after a request is posted for max to be enabled, so I cant see the sense in csc charging anyone.

I can't either, although in this instance they aren't charging either (as long as the OP stays for 12 months). There could be something else in the OP history that means Plusnet aren't willing to give the FOC upgrade now but only in the future. As outsiders we will never know for definite.

I have asked the usergroup to speak to the Voice Of The Customer and clarify the policy.

Hi the olny info I have is ID: 20243768 and if you require my username is DRMURRAY2006

regards

david

Hi there. Thanks for this valuable information.

I have raised the issue with the usergroup as to why Plus Net have reversed their free upgrade policy. Some of the usergroup seem unaware of this, whilst Mark (PSCNI) has replied with a typically robust post. Apparently he has raised the issue of your free upgrade with support... no doubt you will hear more shortly. Please do post back with any developments.

The Max DSL upgrade has been widely trailed as free for at least 2 years... you shouldn't be being charged. If you still want to stay with PN and get a free upgrade, there is an "upgrade requests" thread on the plus net portal. People who post to that seem to be upgraded, for free.

The fact that customers unaware of that thread are being charged for their free upgrade is extremely serious, imoho, (although I am sure others will be along shortly to disagree.)

In reply to:

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are being charged for their free upgrade is extremely serious

---

Get real, there are things happening in the world that are extremely serious. By no stretch of anyone's imagination, except perhaps yours, is paying for an ADSL upgrade one of them

Within the context of this board and the purpose it serves, Plus Net breaking yet another commitment and mischarging customers, seemingly ripping off those who don't know better, is an extremely serious matter. Someone came on here asking for help... I am trying to ensure that we understand whether or not they are being appropriately charged and whether plus net keeps its promises. Additionally, it has uncovered similar instances of the same charge and potentially systematic mischarging. All of which, I consider, are serious matters within the context of the topics on this board.

There are undoubtedly more serious things going on in the world.

However, as you are fully aware, this board is not the place to discuss them.

I'm not sure if they are meant to be charged because according to this thread on the Plus.net run forum you only have to ask and they will put you on the Max list, though this would be sweet FA for anyone who doesn't visit the forums and then rings up the CS to request an upgrade that way..

i.e

<Quote>

Posted: 08 Sep 2006 17:46 Post subject: Comms Max Upgrade Requests.

Please use this thread for any MAX upgrade requests to the Comms Team.

Many thanks.
_________________
Mark

PlusNet Small Business Customer and Forum Moderator
Forum Guidelines and Rules I Usertools I PlusNet UserGroup member

</Quote>

http://portal.plus.net/central/forums/viewtopic.php?t=48043&start=0

Edited by caesar_salad (Sat 23-Sep-06 23:14:59)

I have also experienced this. In my case, my PlusTalk account was not working and it took FIVE MONTHS of tickets to get them to reset the account. You should be better off to get your MAC key and run rather than lock yourself into a 12 month commitment with Plusnet for the sake of a MAXdsl upgrade.

In reply to:

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I have also experienced this. In my case, my PlusTalk account was not working and it took FIVE MONTHS of tickets to get them to reset the account.

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It's exactly 11 months today since I raised my PlusTalk ticket, which STILL hasn't been resolved (in fact I can't even connect to PlusTalk today and haven't been able to for about a fortnight now) but of course it was cleverly one of the tickets PlusNet "closed" incorrectly during their recent automated ticket closure fiasco, which has meant they're having to try and pick up the pieces in ticket(s) raised since... trouble is, I'm getting nowhere. At least I'll be getting back my subscription fee (unless they're going to be pro active about it and pay it back to me without me chasing them?) seeing as I've told PN that I'm not paying due to what's happened... It's an unacceptably poor service when I'm being asked to pay for it, but whilst it's effectively "free" I'm prepared to hang around (for a while longer) with the hope that they'll actually achieve the improvements and return the greatness which they keep going on about...

Edited by fenlandbroadband (Sun 24-Sep-06 11:07:32)

Why don't you contact Ian Wild to see what can be done since this obviously needs a manager's intervention to sort out?..

Edited by caesar_salad (Sun 24-Sep-06 11:15:51)

I believe Ian Wild is fully aware (within reason, considering I'm just one of many customers so he can't know all of the problems off the top of his head) of the issues I'm experiencing, and a number of the "comms team" staff have during the time of the tickets had their hand in various replies to the ticket, yet still it's not getting anywhere. Maybe PN are just fed up with me and want me to go, and never really believed I'd stick it out for so long with such a dismal (personal opinion) service...?

In that case, it may be time to make a plan B.

If a manager hasn't even got on top of the situation then that's not a good sign..

"It's exactly 11 months today since I raised my PlusTalk ticket, which STILL hasn't been resolved"

Wow. I knew you'd had problems, but I didn't realise it was nearly a year. What are your symptoms? What client are you using?

TT

I'm using a Linksys PAP2NA VoIP adapter connected to my router (used to be a Speedtouch 510v4, now a Linksys WAG354G which I've had since about April).

Sometimes it'll work fine, others it won't. Current problem is that I can't even connect to PlusTalk, yet it'll connect to other SIP providers fine. The problem(s) I was getting included calls not coming through to my phone (diverting straight to voicemail) and of calls out not working (some would, some wouldn't - I could often dial 7000 and 7001 but not 01 landlines or sip numbers). It's all pretty much at random and by the time PlusNet get round to looking in to what's wrong it's often "fixed itself" and something else has broken, so they come back saying it's all fine and I go back to them saying that it's not and that x, y and z are broken/faulty, etc...

And then there's the two months in a row of 01/02 UK Landline calls being mis-billed on my account, which still hasn't been resolved. And the fact that the PlusTalk Itemised Bill is inaccurate and doesn't itemise all calls.

I can't remember if/where I said this the other day, but PlusTalk is pretty much all that is keeping me with PlusNet at the moment... but seeing as it's not working for me, I'm really wondering why I'm still here...

I must admit, and this may seem odd, but I wouldn't want you as a customer. Mainly because I wouldn't want a customer of mine to (a) live with such poor service (b) still feel compelled to use such an abismal service and (c) I'd want you to be beating my door down to fix the issue after 11 months. That's disgraceful, no issue should last that long.

"Sometimes it'll work fine, others it won't. Current problem is that I can't even connect to PlusTalk, yet it'll connect to other SIP providers fine."

One of my concerns about BT Centrals was the asymmetric nature of the connection. You do not get a 622Mbps pipe. It is 622Mbps downstream, 310Mbps upstream, or 557Mbps downstream and 278Mbps upstream of actual customer IP traffic. BT use a strict policer to keep this under control. You can hit this with 25600 users on a pipe, but now that there are 32000 users on a pipe I'd imagine the policer polices more and more. The policer doesn't care what type of traffic hits it as there is no QoS. I think an increasing amount of peak time problems with VoIP/gaming/other UDP based services being intermittent are caused by this policer.

Not being able to connect to PN SIP servers is another problem entirely. IIRC you are on BB+? Have you got access to a Premier account? Can you replicate the problem with a Premier account? Do you know of other BB+ users having no or similar problems to you at the same time? Does swapping BB+ accounts have any effect?

TT

In reply to:

---

Not being able to connect to PN SIP servers is another problem entirely. IIRC you are on BB+? Have you got access to a Premier account? Can you replicate the problem with a Premier account? Do you know of other BB+ users having no or similar problems to you at the same time? Does swapping BB+ accounts have any effect?

---

I'm on a Premier account.

I have known PlusNet Plus account users who have had problems, although they're able to connect fine at the moment. Funnily enough when other people have seen problems mine's been working fine (eg: 100% fine) and when those problems are "fixed/solved" mine breaks again. I can only pinpoint it to there being something incorrectly set at PN's end with the PlusTalk system itself...

"I can only pinpoint it to there being something incorrectly set at PN's end with the PlusTalk system itself..."

Does jumping gateways have any effect?

TT

Not that I've noticed.

Well that's it done... I'm off to BT as off the 2nd October. After all my communications and requests & support from this forum.... in the end Plusnet just sent me my MAC code and so good bye.

I'm a customer who wanted to add additional services (phone) and was willing to stick it out with them after waiting 6 months for an upgrade.... but they obviously dont want my money.... and to be honest BT did everything to entice me to join... line upgrade within 8 days... new equipment for free.... and its cheaper than plusnet.... web ordeing process which works and tracks your order properly....I know I will potentially have problems with BT but so far way more professional than Plusnet in dealing with.... I even got to speak to someone on a query I had (no ore 8 day delay in response to a question)

good luck to all the plusnet users out there.... your going to need it with this level of support

regards

david

Yours is a DREADFUL tale. Good luck with your new ISP.

Quite how any company, however awful, could turn down your offer of increasing your subscription and deferred fees in return for merely having the advertised service.....?

Quite shocking.

I'm sure you will be in better hands at BT, and I hope you will pop in here from time to time!

Fen

I remember leaving Zen the same time as you and to be honest overall have been pleased with plusnet. But the last few months have been a bit of a mare, What with e-mail issues and my speeds dropping from 5.5 to 2 for the last 2months. I've decided to move to pastures new and see how i get on

Dave

Let me know how you get on elsewhere