From what I've seen moderators taking over long to respond to issues on the forum is not uncommon. This is in no way to criticise the moderators - they are doing their best.

The problem is that the Plusnet community forums are fairly active. I've just looked and it is showing over 60 active users online at present, I'm guessing at around 200 posts a day. There is no restriction such as the first few posts for new users requiring moderation. To look after this there are only THREE moderators. There have been more in the past (it has not been as low as this in the 15 years or so I've been on the Plusnet forums), when previous moderators have resigned they have not been replaced.

These three are guys who voluntarily moderate the forums in their spare time - not surprising situations sometimes get out of control before a moderator steps in.

People could also look at how quickly Plusnet deal with system issues: https://plusnet.servicestatus.net/plusnet/status?_ga...

Issue first occurred on : 12 April 2016 12:00 PM

When will the next update be?

6 March 1:00 PM

Is that an issue they've failed to update or are they actually saying don't expect any news until next year?

Most plusnet members highlighted plusnet failing/broken promises it was the norm because change was needed.

@Jelv , i totally agree with you post , the 3 mods do a great job but as they are volunteers you cannot expect them to see everything .
Its like @shutters post from over 8 years ago ,, Employ more staff ,, what happened More promises

Webmail is just one of many things that need fixing

Ok yes i expected Jono to post Plusnets side , but they just show how much customers who help are treated

Edited by sneekyhen (Wed 13-Jun-18 22:39:16)

It doesn't sound like PlusNet banned you though. The moderators did. And from what I understand the moderators are volunteers that are not paid for, or work, for PlusNet. Is that correct?

PlusNet were a technical ISP when I joined them a very long time ago but as they grew (and before BT bought them) they moved to a mainstream ISP. They have had significant waves in their delivery, sometimes they are pretty good (especially for the price) and sometimes they are at the bottom of the wave. They are a relatively low cost ISP and that does tend to mean there isn't much cash floating around to provide a top notch service - and I would never use an ISPs webmail as it acts as a lock in and also it is not their core business so likely will suffer from under investment.

Hi Ian72 , yes i understand that cheap is cheap , but for taking Years to fix known problems is unacceptable
have you read Jelvs long thread here of thing awaiting a fix ? https://community.plus.net/t5/Plusnet-Feedback/Why-I... .
Also when they were fined for charging people who had left , they said its fixed and it wont happen again !
https://www.ofcom.org.uk/about-ofcom/latest/media/me...
But there has been several cases posted on forum where it had still occurred .
The new billing system was promised over 8 years ago and as yet has not been implemented hence regular mistakes

In reply to a post by ian72:

and I would never use an ISPs webmail as it acts as a lock in and also it is not their core business so likely will suffer from under investment.

What about using the ISPs mail services to handle the mail for your own domain? That isn't a lock in and does have the advantage of no buck passing.

In reply to a post by sneekyhen:

Also when they were fined for charging people who had left , they said its fixed and it wont happen again !
https://www.ofcom.org.uk/about-ofcom/latest/media/me...
But there has been several cases posted on forum where it had still occurred .

Another one just yesterday!

https://community.plus.net/t5/My-Account-Billing/sti...

Using an ISP�s mail servers with your own domain I still regard as dodgy jelv, especially if they provide the domain. Even if they register the domain in your name and address, which historically not all ISPs did.

If you use a mail client rather than webmail, when you migrate you still have to update the servers for every mailbox in every domain you have. You also rely on the ISP�s mail server backups which I feel are less robust and flexible than dedicated hosting companies.

In the same vein, on changing the servers at a migration there is a slight chance of losing a few incoming emails as the MX records have to propagate through the system. I suppose the same problem is there if you migrate between hosts, but for most of us that is a rarer move than ISP migration. I did it when moving from Prodigynet to TsoHost and I�ve also moved some since to elsewhere. I�m not aware of having lost anything.

Just reading this in the Ofcom link provided:-

As a result, 1,025 customers who had cancelled either their landline or broadband service continued to be billed, meaning they were overcharged by more than £500,000 in total.

That�s an average of £500 per customer affected. Yet it didn�t come to light for over four years!

Plusnet discovered its billing error, whilst undertaking a routine asset reconciliation exercise of its customer base and identified a customer as having a chargeable account but with no active telephone of broadband service. Further investigation by Plusnet showed this was not a isolated to one account. The matter was subsequently brought to Ofcom�s attention. The penalty imposed relates to an infringement from 26 May 2011 to 3 September 2015.

That�s almost unbelievable, for several reasons.