How not to transfer from Metronet to Plusnet

In my innocence of such things, I thought moving across from Metronet to Plusnet would be fairly fast and painless.
It's turning into a saga. I'm somewhat disappointed as I'd also hoped to move my telephone to Plusnet and also VoIP. If this is an indication of the service to be expected, it might be wise to stay with BT for the phone service.

*Ticket # 26917866 & 26973082*
At 1543 on Friday 7/11/08, I informed Plusnet that I wished to move from Metronet to Plusnet.
I had already opened a dial up account with Plusnet, so gave them the username and the corresponding Metronet ticket number.

I passed on the bank account direct debit details at 0820 on 8/11/08.
This was now the weekend, so I didn't expect too much to happen. I was informed that the move had been initiated and next action was due on Tuesday 11/11/08 at 0900.

At 0908 on Tuesday 11/11/08, I was informed the ticket was returned to Customer Support pool. At 1543 I was informed it was on hold to allow for completion, next action due Wednesday 12/11/08 at 0900.

On Wednesday 12/11/08 at 0910 I was informed that the ticket had been returned to Customer Support pool. (I didn't know it had been away)
At 2326 I was informed that the change could not be made as the direct debit had not yet gone active and the next action due was on Saturday 15/11/08 at 0900.

On asking *(ticket 26973082)* on Thursday 13/11/08 at 0849 if there was anything I could do to expedite this transfer as it seemed to be taking a long time, I was informed at 0951 that i could add my credit card to the account. This I did, and passed on details at 1038.

At 2346 on 13/11/08 I was informed the account was now active and to enter my logon details and connect to Plusnet..

At 0018 on Friday 14/11/08 I was informed that the direct debit instruction was interfering with the activation of the account, and could I resubmit the direct debit details.
At 0842 on Friday 14/11/08 morning, I informed them that I had resubmitted my direct debit details.
I tried to log on to Plusnet, but could not achieve authentication.
I rang support, and was told that the problem was with Plusnet. Despite having given both direct debit (twice) and credit card, the account had not been opened.
I also asked when the account would be activated. I was told 'by Monday'.


It is now 1400 on Monday afternoon. I still cannot authenticate, and nothing has been heard from Plusnet.

Disgusted of Cheltenham

I'm confused.

Isn't Metronet part of the Plusnet Group now anyway? If you look to sign up with Metronet, it refers you to Plusnet.

So what were you trying to achieve, exactly? Is there a product available under the Plusnet brand, that isn't already available through Metronet, who you are already with?

I'm not being facetious - it's a genuine question. I am surprised you need to transfer within the same organisation like this, and wonder what would be the advantage to you. Could this be the root of the problem - that they don't usually do "internal" transfers?

If they do, I agree it should be more seemless than it has been.

Hi there,

Sorry about the problems you seem to have had moving from Metronet to Plusnet.

I've just had a look over your account and you should be able to connect on username@plusdsl.net. The modify order has completed this morning (quite early from the look of it) and this should allow you to authenticate.

IIRC, the Metronet legacy product was a Payg style service with a low included Data transfer allowance and increments charged per MB rather than GB.

After the takeover, PlusNet have beem referring all Metronet enquiries or browsers to the PlusNet Products though I have seen Plusnet agents on here offering to put customers on Metronet products if it suits their needs better.

".....should be able to connect on [email protected]...."
Thank you Chrisparr, now logged in and working well.

To TLM

Yes, as you said Plusnet owns Metronet, but the products offered are very different.
Wheel_Nut explains it very succinctly.
Many people have transferred across, usually with less bother than I had.

OK, thanks for satisfying my curiosity. It just seemed a bit odd to me that (a) you should need to transfer at all, between two brands under the same umbrella, and (b) that you've had as much hassle as you've had.

T.

In reply to:

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It just seemed a bit odd to me that (a) you should need to transfer at all, between two brands under the same umbrella, and (b) that you've had as much hassle as you've had

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A few years ago I found that when moving BB from Waitrose to Madasafish (Brightview being the
connection at that time so to speak) that the process didn't go at all as smoothly as I had expected.

Hi TLM

Long time no see!

Basically, each brand has it's own products on our systems. We're not able to offer Madasafish Max Broadband to a Plusnet customer into the same way that we can't give a Madasafish customer Metronet PayGo Option 1. They have to specifically signup up for a product on the correct brand, so that would be a free dialup product. We can then "bodge" our system into thinking it's an active broadband service, by adding the correct "components" onto that account.

We also have to submit an order to get the correct realm added. The realm is the bit after the @ sign in your broadband username. So we'll have to place an order with BT to allow someone to use @plusdsl.net to allow them to connect to the Plusnet service.

It's not the easiest process in the world, but there are clearly defined processes which, if followed to the letter, will mean that the transition should be a smooth one.

Hi James!

Hope you are OK?

In reply to:

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Long time no see!

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Well, I should have thought that would be a good thing, from your point of view, as it means I haven't been having any trouble with my BRAS for quite some time.

Also you haven't lost any of my e-mails recently, either, so I haven't had much cause to post here.

However, I do still look in from time to time, to see if there's anything interesting going on.

Thanks for your response. Just a bit of idle curiosity on my part, about how it all worked between the brands.

T.