Anyone else with problems in the Bexley area?

My parents have been without a connection since the 12th July...

This was after being moved across to the glory that is Tiscali LLU. I've been on and on to plus.net, who are quite frankly rubbish at CS now compared to a couple of years ago, and need frequent kicks up the backside just to put a "we're chasing Tiscali" on the ticket.

After no response for well over a week, I said I was getting fed up and they needed to respond within a day. Well they did, and said:

"The broadband issue is due to a major issue affecting the crayford exchange and is causing problems for multiple users with various ISP's. We have been informed that the suppliers thought they had resolved the issue but this isn't the case and they now have multiple engineers working on this problem as a high priority. "

Is there anyone else on the Crayford exchange that has experienced similar problems? Both my nan and my uncle had (again, both with Plus.net and both in Bexley). Their's is now fixed but my parents arn't. I'm on both NTL and Zen, and have had no such problems (well the Zen has been rock solid and NTL doesn't go through there)

I have now cancelled the service (as they want to get rid of one phone line) and am in the process of signing them up with Sky, but quite honestly Plus.net are a complete joke. I've had to wait over 80/90 minutes to get through to them on the phone (and by that time I loose the will to have a right moan at them), and I think its stupid that "high ranking" CS people reply to posts on the PUG, yet you have to be connected to Plus.net to register or post! Which is useless for me at home (on NTL) or at work (leased line).

Quite honestly I urge all users of Plus.net to get out while you can. Not trying to start a war, just simply saying that their CS actually bother to answer the phone (how many people do they emply in CS? 2?) and the way they've handleup their "preferred LLU partner" is cack with a capital C.

I used to be a "Premier" subscriber with them back in the days when they had an excellent network infrastructure and were helpful, and cannot quite fathom how they could have turned into the Plus.net they are today. How do they expect to survive when HD shows are transmitted over broadband and after you've watched 2 shows you can't as you've used up your alloted bandwidth for the month? Insane.

Anyway, I digress - has anyone else had problems on the Crayford exchange?

Thanks

EDIT: I just phoned Zen to get my MAC code to migrate to Sky (2mb free to be used as a backup) and it took all of 5 minutes. I then phoned Sky and got it all sorted in 7 minutes. See, not hard is it? 82 minutes on hold...jesus...

Edited by atpcz (Tue 15-Aug-06 18:11:30)

I would suspect this is referring to an issue/problem with equipment at the exchange, and as you are on LLU - a Tiscali issue.

You should have been able to use a free-dialup backup service as per new PlusNet procedure, and you would also receive a pro-rata refund for downtime over 7 days. Were you offered this? If not, then it's likely because these are new policies. But you can find out more at http://usergroup.plus.net.

If it's a BT issue, then you can see current BT Outages at http://usertools.plus.net/exchanges/mso.php

my parents have been on holiday since the third week of July so using it hasn't been that much of an issue (although my sisters who are still living at home will disagree with me )

I was aware of the refund for downtime and will be bringing it up after they've responded.

Still doesn't help that I can't register on the PUG to get a proper response though...

In reply to:

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Anyway, I digress - has anyone else had problems on the Crayford exchange?

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No, but I took the precaution of opting out of LLU. I did have a problem with cut-offs after dark, but that seems to have been solved by increasing target SNR.

I've been posting here on behalf of my friend who hasn't had any service for over a month and he lives near bexley in kent. Believe it or not you've actually had more of a response out of Plusnet than he has had, so your post had made very interesting reading. He's now so fed up he wants to migrate but who does he migrate to if it's a problem with the crayford exchange. Apart from Zen, is there anybody else from this area who is currently receiving a good service from another ISP?

Suspect it is a problem with Tiscali LLU at the exchange. Zen don't use Tiscali (use BT) and most other ISPs don't use Tiscali either. Sign up with any ISP that use BT wholesale and you should hopefully be fine (this is based on the OPs comments, I don't live in Bexley and therefore don't have personal experience of the exchange).

Yep i am a Plusnet customer using the Crayford exchange and havent had a service since Tuesday 11/7/06, i have posted on the PUG re this. I received the exact word for word response you did here are some recent responses including the word for word one

CSC Agent 5:23pm, Tuesday 15th August 2006
Dear Mr Hall,
If you can retry the dial up connection it should now connect without a problem.

The broadband issue is due to a major issue affecting the crayford exchange and is causing problems for multiple users with various ISP's. We have been informed that the suppliers thought they had resolved the issue but this isn't the case and they now have multiple engineers working on this problem as a high priority.

As soon as we have further updates we will provide the information to you.

BOT - DSL Faults 4:36pm, Wednesday 16th August 2006
Dear Mr Hall,
I have spoken with Tiscali, our LLU Suppliers, again today and they have advised us that they have had engineers working on the issue at the crayford exchange equipment, but have confirmed that this issue is still ongoing.

We are escalating this issue on a daily basis with them, and as soon as we have more information on this we will notify you.

BOT - DSL Faults 2:57pm, Friday 18th August 2006
Dear Mr Hall,
We are continuing to investigate this issue with tiscali, the problem is still a known one with the crayford exchange effecting most customers on it and BT are working on it. As soon as we have more information we will let you know. Apologies for any inconvienence caused.