Any good experience with Plusnet?

Are there any good stories about Plusnet? I suppose it is inevitable that the forum is dominated by problems and complaints. I joined Plusnet in March this year on a monthly contract after escaping from E7even (and I did eventually get all my money back from my credit card company). To date the service has been pretty good and I have nothing to complain about, apart from email on occasions. However, as I don

I've had virtually no problems with my Plus account and the couple of people I have recommended don't have any issues either. My use doesn't include gaming or p2p, although it does include a lot of surfing, email and VPN and is virtually always within what I expect of the product. The speeds are fine. I certainly have less problems with Plusnet than I had with Pipex, and than we have in work with Easynet. My friends also have nightmare stories of several other ISP's. The only comms issue I've had recently was when the water board chopped the wires in half whilst installing a water meter next-door! Can't really blame that on Plusnet.

To be honest, the state of the forums has been annoying me recently and only this morning I was tempted to post saying that I for one had no problems - despite the prophets of woe. Watch - I'll probably get flamed now.

Cheers,

TFG

Well iv been with PN the longest to date . Been with pipex (brand new customers only ) Hi Velocity ( leave and will threaten you with violence) and UKonline (UKnoline)

Pipex great deals for new customer only , leaving loyal customers to foot the bill for new customers. Hi velocity, dns issues, told it was my end for 7 weeks and then oops sorry its our end . Mac code please and threats down the phone from an ex director . UK online . Fluffed up my migration tried to lie to me and say BT put me on the wrong pipe All they had to do was generate a user name and password for the pipe they put me on, one week later and i got it .

Plusnet are full of bull that Blair would be proud off. They are far from perfect. What im trying to say , its better the devil you know .

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The only comms issue I've had recently was when the water board chopped the wires in half whilst installing a water meter next-door! Can't really blame that on Plusnet.

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Some people on here would

I found my request for a MAC was quicky dealt with.

I also have no problems on premier 2 my brother is on premier 1 and no problems and my father and friend are on bb+ and yes you guessed plusnet works for them too

I'll probably get flamed now
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No-one gets flamed for posting their positive experiences - not even the ones who post them repeatedly. The ones who do get flamed are the ex-customers who have negative experiences to report ...on the basis that they have no right to post here according to some.

To the OP: I suggest you read the customer-only forums at PlusNet and at http://usergroup.plus.net/forum/ to get a broad view of topical issues.

Simon

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Are there any good stories about Plusnet?

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Loads yes. Back in August 2004 PlusNet were the (THE!) Market Leading ISP. The one that everyone else would look up to - even if they'd not admit it.

PlusNet lead the way with getting consumers on to higher speeds, and at lower prices.

Everything was great. This continued for quite a while, and even a year later in about July 2005 things were still pretty good.

Share prices were on the up, everything was looking great.

PlusTalk was launched

That's where the "good story" ends.

Since then PlusNet has been bad.

PlusNet got caught out with their traffice management which was introduced "secretly" and denied for some time.

PlusNet officially changed their terms and conditions.

Share prices were clearly starting to slump.

Download speeds plummeted.

PlusTalk was patchy at best

PlusNet put their foot in it.

Again.

And again.

And again.

PlusNet became somewhat evasive and anti-customer in their ways. People started to get dismayed with what was happening.

Customer service waiting times on the phones spiralled. Tickets took ages to get replies.

PlusTalk was still little better than months before

Traffic management was increased...

...and speeds kept dropping

Perceived satisfaction kept dropping.

PlusNet had a major power failure at their Sheffield offices, knocking a large part of the services offline.

DSLmax was introduced. Upgrades started. and stopped.

PlusNet introduced LLU. Moved people without warning, without a care, without a clue possibly.

Everything went wrong. MaxDSL was blamed.

Then LLU

Then something else. The supplier. Anything but PlusNet, of course.

Supporting everyone with problems was clearly unsustainable so PlusNet decided to launch a consultancy helpline at premium rate...

...and refused to say exactly what would, and wouldn't, be covered by the various phone numbers that were available.

PlusNet wipe thousands upon thousands of customer emails...

...and then email a load of customers the details of lots of their customers.

A major "foot in mouth" moment for PlusNet...

....followed by PlusNet staff dropping off this forum.

A load of customer's CGI site data was lost.

followed by a powercut at Telehouse which knocked users offline - apparently it couldn't happen again.

It did though a couple of months later.

The share price kept dropping.

More traffic management was put in place

More restructuring was put in place

More promises were made

More tickets in the queue, more people holding on the phone lines for ages trying to get an answer.

PlusTalk is still unreliable

Email repeatedly has problems

FTP, P2P, Usenet and more is pretty much unusable.



I could go on, but I'm sure you get the idea.

Maybe I'm biased. Maybe I've just had enough of PlusNet's constant (broken/empty) promises. I would leave, but I'm sticking around because PlusNet keep promising that things will get better and back to how they were - until then, they can foot the bill for my broadband, because I'm not prepared to pay for it how it is currently...

I just read a thread on the Nildram forum and it is like deja vous from a year ago on the Plusnet forum. Nildram introduce traffic shaping on the sly, then state P2P users are 'taking the mickey', but will not state what an unsustainable level of use is etc etc etc unbelievable!

Good summary by the way, I have been a Plusnet customer for four years and have witnessed first hand everything you mentioned, the latest Ellacoya update has finalised my decision to migrate, oh and the fact that Plustalk is STILL unreliable and I missed two important phone calls on Friday, I am not happy with Plusnet.

Edited by deleted (Mon 06-Nov-06 19:57:46)

The people who get flamed are those who make wild accusations and when challenged fail to produce any facts to back them up.

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I just read a thread on the Nildram forum and it is like deja vous from a year ago on the Plusnet forum. Nildram introduce traffic shaping on the sly, then state P2P users are 'taking the mickey', but will not state what an unsustainable level of use is etc etc etc unbelievable!

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I thought EXACTLY the very same thing of the Eclipse forum !!!!
Maybe Plusnet REALLY ARE the inovative company they always claimed to be !!!!
(Heaven help us all !!!!!!)

Purdy

Yep happy, and any problems I've had have always been resolved quickly and efficiently, service has been fine too.

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Maybe Plusnet REALLY ARE the inovative company they always claimed to be !!!!
(Heaven help us all !!!!!!)

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Do you think that will mean the current ISP's who only charge for activation
you leave in the first year, will now up it all the way to 5 years?

Then why don't you leave ..your clearly unhappy. Plenty of offerings out there that should suit you. Get your mac and go .. IDNET aint bad or Newnet. A lot of people whinge but dont do a thing.

Edited by onlyme2 (Mon 06-Nov-06 21:06:20)

To quote what I said:

"I'm sticking around because PlusNet keep promising that things will get better and back to how they were - until then, they can foot the bill for my broadband, because I'm not prepared to pay for it how it is currently..."

I have been with Plusnet for nearly two years now, and have had nothing to complain about, apart from occasional losses of sync when first maxed in May I have always had a reliable and stable connection with good speeds. The only time I had a major loss of broadband connection which was down to BT it was sorted in three days, so cannot complain about CS either.

While I have not been happy with the way some of Plusnets changes have been done, I still reckon that for

How long does one wait????? Now theres a question! I hope you win out ... it is remarkable what they will do if you say your leaving .. hint!

I haven't made any wild accusations - that is wishful thinking on your part (and several others). I have PM'd kitz to tell her where to get confirmation of her free upgrade - and invited her to post again when she gets it.

Simon

You said to me elsewhere on this forum:

Could you perhaps try to get your head around the concept that, unknown to you or other PUG members, PlusNet may be enhancing your connection (for reasons which should be obvious)?

Could you tell me where I can get confirmation of my supposed free upgrade please.

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"I'm sticking around because PlusNet keep promising that things will get better and back to how they were - until then, they can foot the bill for my broadband, because I'm not prepared to pay for it how it is currently..."

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Are you saying that you are not paying for your broadband?

Plusnet are lying scumbags, don't use them as an ISP.

Whatever you do.

Why do you insist on seeing things which aren't there? Note that I actually said that PlusNet "may be" enhancing your connection. Why does this possibility fill you with such antagonism towards the messenger? I have identified only one person whose service has been enhanced gratis by PlusNet, I have told her by PM where to find out about it and if you want to know more, I suggest you ask her.

Simon

You have made several statement clearly designed to make other people think that I and others, when members of PUG benefited from an enhanced connection. I request that you make a post making the following points:

• You have no evidence whatsoever that I benefited from an enhanced connection.
  
• You wish to make it clear to everyone that you are not making any suggestion that I benefited materially during my membership of PUG.
  
• That you wish to apologise to me for any misunderstandings that may have arisen as a result of others reading the public posts you have made in reply to my posts in this forum.
  
• That you desist from making any further posts either making such suggestions, or that could be capable of misinterpretation that you were making such suggestions.
  

Been with them 3 years. No probs at all. To be fair I have rarely used CS which is what most on here moan about.

And if any members of PUG have got free connections/upgrades, where is mine lol. Could do with a free connection so I can put an extra 30 quid a month towards my wedding next year.

Ian

They're taking my money each month (which is fair enough - I don't want to cancel my Direct Debit with PN because when everything is fantastic again I'll be more than happy to pay again...), but I've told them I'm not prepared to pay for it currently and until I'm happy with the service again. They've not declined my offer of that, despite members of the comms team directly replying to my original ticket where I notified them.

At some point I'm expecting to either see that money appear back in my bank account, or I'll have to chase PN up for it. I'm more than happy to try and stick around with PN to see things return to how they used to be, as long as PN will foot the bill in the meantime. I just hope it gets better sooner rather than later, otherwise I'll be off, and they'll have lost out on the money and lost out on a once-loyal customer...

If you want a reliable email service with your Internet connection, Plusnet is not the ISP for you. There have been continual promises of improvements to the email platform but nothing has materialised and it has become progressively worse over the last 2 years.

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At some point I'm expecting to either see that money appear back in my bank account, or I'll have to chase PN up for it

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Haha this is the funniest post I've read on here for awhile. If only it were that easy to get free broadband...

To be honest I find it ridiculous you guys don't get a free connection for the work you do for the company. Footing the bill for your connection is the very least PN could do as a gesture of thanks for your time.

Read this again Simon http://bbs.adslguide.org.uk/showthreaded.php?Cat=&Board=plusnet&Number=2742706&page=1&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=0

Given you said things in a very public place .. you owe that individual a public appology.

I couldn't give a toss about PN or the things you say about them but in this respect you were very wrong.

Edited by onlyme2 (Tue 07-Nov-06 08:08:08)

In reply to:

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At some point I'm expecting to either see that money appear back in my bank account, or I'll have to chase PN up for it. I'm more than happy to try and stick around with PN to see things return to how they used to be, as long as PN will foot the bill in the meantime.

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What on earth leads you to believe Plusnet will refund your money?

Have you raised an official complaint with one of the regulators? If Plusnet voluntarily refunded even a single unhappy customer the floodgates would open and they'd soon go out of business.

To Plusnet another unhappy customer is just water off a duck's back.

Surely its better to take your business elsewhere and then return if/when Plusnet improve their service to what you deem an acceptable level?

But you are mistaken. I have made posts only to flag up the *possibility* that PlusNet may be enhancing certain people's connections - for PlusNet's own benefit. I have claimed that only one individual has had their connection so enhanced by PlusNet and that individual was not you.

Perhaps you protest too much?

Simon

Please dont play with words .. This makes it perfectly clear what you were saying.. http://bbs.adslguide.org.uk/showthreaded.php?Cat=&Board=plusnet&Number=2742706&page=1&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=0

If that is the case you will have absolutely no problem making a post along the lines I requested will you?

You had various warnings the other day about conduct on the bbs, and you appear to be making accussations about a company - with what would appear nothing to do back you up.

While we welcome both criticism and praise, using the phrases you have is just going to devalue anything constructive others have to say on the matter.

Andrew

It would be absurd for me to make such a post and I will certainly not be doing so. I can only suggest that you read my posts more carefully.

Simon

I have had a refund from PlusNet due to an overcharge on my PAYG account. I think that the refund was about

im sure many people have had excellent service from PN but far far too many have been treated like dirt which is why they are generally so badly regarded around these parts.

Apart from the odd email problem I've had very good service from PlusNet. I upgraded through the various speed upgrades without any problems. If there is any fault with them it's their customer service which is not as good as it once was.

In this post you said:

In reply to:

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Could you perhaps try to get your head around the concept that, unknown to you or other PUG members, PlusNet may be enhancing your connection (for reasons which should be obvious)?

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I repeat:

You have made several statement clearly designed to make other people think that I and others, when members of PUG benefited from an enhanced connection. I request that you make a post making the following points:

* You have no evidence whatsoever that I benefited from an enhanced connection.
* You wish to make it clear to everyone that you are not making any suggestion that I benefited materially during my membership of PUG.
* That you wish to apologise to me for any misunderstandings that may have arisen as a result of others reading the public posts you have made in reply to my posts in this forum.
* That you desist from making any further posts either making such suggestions, or that could be capable of misinterpretation that you were making such suggestions.

A direct refusal to make such a post is effectively a confirmation that you stand by your allegations which I consider to be libellous. If are not prepared to make the post as requested, please address each of the four points explaining the reasons for your refusal.

And it took me over 3 months to get a refund of

"A direct refusal to make such a post is effectively a confirmation that you stand by your allegations which I consider to be libellous."

Libellous to whom?

TT

I do not wish to enter this particular argument that is ongoing but I do have a valid observation to make having watched it go on for the last couple of days.

When I posted the response from Ofcom I noticed a distinct lack of input and total silence on the thread from PUG whereas two days ago, when one member was potentially accused of something, everyone came out in force to defend her.

If your first duty is to PN's customers can you tell me why all my hard work that went into communicating with Ofcom didn't elicit any response from your group? Why it was even necessary for an individual to raise the issues with them and it wasn't your group that made the complaint to them? I know - you like to work in partnership with PN and not rattle the cage. How long will you keep using that excuse when the partnership is clearly one sided and doesn't bring about results? Surely, as a user-group you should be using all possible means of getting a fair deal from the company whose customers' interests you represent?

Until recently I had no strong emotions or opinions about the PUG and had secretly hoped we were all heading in a similar direction but the last 3 days have conclusively proved to me that the PUG is worth absolutely nothing.Your group doesn't and never has represented PN's customers or their true interests in the way or with authority that it should have done and the group is nothing but fancy window dressing designed and created by PN. Yet your group manages to find time to enter in mindless arguments but finds it impossible to achieve anything of importance.

What happened to "Wish-list for PN", Mr Blobby, and all the other threads where PUG asked for input? Did any of the changes go into effect or were the responses a waste of everyone's time?

I won't go over old ground and the issues on which the PUG have failed but even today your group is achieving nothing. If the only reason for your group's creation is to permit PN to test and get feedback on their websites before roll-out, for Kitz to test their different profiles to see if they work etc. then you are a toothless and meaningless organisation. Unfortunately for PN's customers there is not one single thing that the PUG have achieved in any of the major issues to-date on their behalf or ones that I can remember.

I've been with them almost three years, and overall, my experience has not been bad.

I did have a frustrating few weeks after my Max upgrade, when my speeds were right down, and I kept getting disconnected. I don't feel we ever really got to the bottom of it, but I guess PN/BT must eventually have tweaked something, because things are OK again now (touch wood). In fact, lately, I've noticed speeds creeping up. For a long time, I couldn't sync higher than 3.9 Mb, but I've noticed it's back up to 4.4 now. Not bad, considering my line stats and distance from the exchange. I only hope the higher speed doesn't start the disconnections all over again! If you've opted out of Max, this probably won't affect you. I've just found it seems to have stable and unstable periods. Once it enters one of the unstable periods, it seems difficult to get someone (anyone!) to put it back how it was. The interface between Plusnet and BT does not seem to be as seamless as it could be, with Plusnet evidently reluctant to escalate issues to BT, and both of them putting the onus on the customer to prove it's not their fault. I got a bit sick of both parties refusing to investigate until I'd ruled out every single bit of my kit, to be honest.

Still, though, the above problems only account for a very tiny proportion of my time with Plusnet. Most of the time, it has been trouble-free. I rarely raise a ticket, from one month to the next.

T.

Plusnet are obliged to offer refunds if they've mischarged you.

But not if you are just unhappy with the service, which seems the case for fernlandbroadband.

Please let's not keep repeating things for the sake of it. The whole basis of your post is flawed and I won't be responding to any more in similar vein.

Simon

Please let's not keep repeating things for the sake of it.

Ha ha ha! Pot, Kettle, Black comes to mind.

Why do you feel ANYONE has to comment on actions you took as a priivate individual and not a customer?

Been with plusnet for 5 plus years on ADSL and dialup. Used CS very little to be honest. I don't really have much of a problem with FUP these days, run all downloads outside of peak time, mainly just surfing during peak with windows updates and a few podcast downloads. if you play to the rules I found the service to be fine, we average about 40-50gb a month in total so I'm not a 'lite' user. I download torrents using uTorrent which has a scheduler built in, peak time it switches off, off peak it runs at rate which I find fine. Most of the time scheduled stuff from the night before is there next morning.
I moved house above 5 months ago and the move was more difficult than it should have been, I would say it was 2 weeks longer than it should have been, asked for a refund and they gave me one.

Recently had an intermittent connection problem this weekend, so far the responses have been quick, within 4-5 hours, and they have asked me to do various checks which all seem sensible.

I upgraded my firmware on the router and that seems to have fixed the problem. My experience with CS was an OK one, polite responses and I felt they were positive ones trying to help fix the problem.

Can't comment on the phone service as I didn't need to resort to it.

I've been with PlusNet since November 2002. I've recently moved house and currently have a rock steady line with no disconnections, regularly getting speedtest results around 5-6mbps.

My connection is fine for surfing and gaming (pings average around 20ms), however my experiences with email (regular time-outs) and P2P (0-20 kbps d/l speeds not unusual) aren't so great.

My 'Max' upgrade has been fine and my connection has only improved as a result. However - a friend of mine had terrible experiences on their LLU 'upgrade', so I opted out of that one !

Once again a thread gets hijacked by you for your personal crusade against Plusnet, as usual there are the insidious accusations that you refuse to back up with hard evidence, which make your claims seem even more ridiculous.

I suggest you read here taking particular notice of the last sentence in the first paragraph.

Also have a read here I know who I would believe in this matter, someone who has done a lot more work on these forums and for broadband users than you have ever done.

Just look at the implications of what he is saying. If I were on an enhanced profile there are two possibilities, either I knew about it or I did not.

1. I knew about it: I have on a number of occasions posted my experience of the speeds I have been experiencing - particularly in respect of binary usenet which I do use on occasion. The implication is that I made favourable posts knowing that I was getting referential speeds and that other users could not expect to see the same as me. Hardly ethical!

2. I didn't know: The implication here is that over a number of months I was too stupid to see that what I was getting was better than other people were seeing.

Nether of those are true and it is because of these implied slurs upon my character and/or abilities and am asking Simon to withdraw the allegation.

Simon, I intend to keep this up until you either withdraw your accusation and apologise or some other action is taken by the owners of this board.

You know that the you have no basis whatsoever for suggesting that I am either on or have previously been on an enhanced profile. Please retract your allegation in the manner which I have indicated.

You really should include a reference to the allegations against you for which you are demanding an apology.

Why??? Because you say so??

Back on to the topic of this thread...

As an ex-plusnet customer, I would recommend you escape at your first opportunity. There are some 'good' stories floating around where people have had adaquate services, but this does not make up for how they have treated their customers and moved goal posts around in the past.

There are so many bad things said about plusnet on this forum and I would say there's no smoke without fire.

No, because he is suggesting an offer of amends.

How can PR100 make a qualified or unqualified offer of amends if he does not know exactly which statements are supposedly libellous!

Edited by deleted (Tue 07-Nov-06 15:13:56)

I don't know why you're making all this stuff up but for the sake of clarity let me state, hopefully for the last time, that a) I haven't accused you of anything and b) I know nothing about you or your connection. Doesn't it occur to you that constantly defending yourself against some "accusation" which has never been made looks a bit odd? It's like an old B movie: "I didn't do it, officer." "Didn't do what, sir?"

Simon

I notice when the prickly questions are asked they are ignored;

http://bbs.adslguide.org.uk/showthreaded.php?Cat=&Board=plusnet&Number=2744796

"What happened to "Wish-list for PN", Mr Blobby, and all the other threads where PUG asked for input? Did any of the changes go into effect or were the responses a waste of everyone's time?"

The changes are still there. We are just trying to get a release date planned for when the tracker goes public. I have just spent some time on a conference calls with the others regarding this.

Ian

Is that it?????

I think you protest too much.

But I will say one thing, you and others debating your points have an excellent track record in derailing or taking over other peoples threads to serve their own agenda, whatever that is.

Andrew

Sorry to say the thread has been hijacked.

Perhaps the simple solution is best, those that always end up dragging threads back to their own topic will have posting rights removed.

Andrew