Leaving Plusnet

I am half way through a 2 year Plusnet Unlimited Fibre Extra FTTC contract, having previously had a contract with Plusnet preceding this. I pay £29.70 per month for a boastful suggested average ( on their landing page ) of 66mbs download speed, though quietly downrated to an estimated 35-40 mbs on their 'upgrade' page.

Over the last year I have contacted Plusnet on 3 occasions due to periodic extremely slow download speeds of 4-5-6 mbs which 'freeze' my entire streaming set ups ( Netflix and Prime through Firestick and Quboz through Naim Uniti Atom streamer ), make web sites unloadable and make uploading files to my photo website ( Fuji GFX - medium format - files ) impossible. Most of the time the average 'upload' speed is 30-40 mbs as they suggest on their 'upgrade' page but far less than their lauded max 'average' speed of 66mbs. All of these speeds I obtain over wifi, not ethernet connections, and are just about adequate.

When the speeds drop to 4-5-6 mbs, this can last up to half an hour, and it is unclear what happens to restore speeds to their higher average. I close everything down until it appears to function again. I have phoned Plusnet on 2 occasions over the last year, who immediately clarify that their claimed average speeds are only guaranteed over ethernet cable, they make no promises of any description over wifi. Even so, engineers on both occasions suggested that maybe the thickness of my walls, the proximity of mirrors, the height of the router off the ground were all determing factors for my problems. Even so, they asked me to reboot my Router and said they pulled a switch at their end, which temporarily did appear to restore my speeds somewhat. Frustrated again with very low speeds, several days ago I rang Plusnet again and asked how much it would cost to free myself from my contract to look elsewhere. I was given a price, but was again invited to speak to an engineer or to consider the BT FTTP available for aproximately £45 per month, an appreciable increase. I suggested I had no confidence in speaking again to an engineer, and declined the invitation to accept BT FTTP contract. I mentioned I had seen a recent promotion for Jurassic Fibre, where a FTTP 450 mbs download and 100 mbs upload speeds were available for £22.50 per month fixed for 2 years, and Plusnet's services seemed woefully inadequate and underperforming. That interaction was later written up in my account in the worst possible way, making me out to be awkward and difficult, refusing to discuss with engineers and declining alternative offers from Plusnet.

I am not remotely technical and could, with research and hassling Plusnet, get this service working properly and appropriately, but digital services should surely just work, and ISPs do not appear to be customer friendly. Wifi is a mature product now and should be able to capably disseminate internet throughout my relatively small terrace house without the need for boosters or mesh technology. I found Plusnet arrogant and unhelpful, dismissing my request for a replacement router with no explanation whatsoever, and happy to let me continue as an unhappy customer by merely suggesting I reboot my router and them magically flicking a 'switch' at their end.

I have since placed an order with Jurassic Fibre for the above described package, for some £7 less than I am currently paying for Plusnet and providing up to 10x the speeds I shall obtain. For Plusnet to become competitive it will need to redefine its entire pricing structure and work in its customer service and technological advice, and rather than defensively insisting that unless devices are connected by wire, they have no contractual obligation to respond, embrace the ubiquity of wifi and build their routers to a specification to provide state of the art connection speeds. I look forward to FTTP services with Jurassic, to all my streaming devices functioning with no buffering and stuttering and finally being able to upload my photographic collection to the 'cloud' at reasonable speeds.

You need to test using ethernet as your wi-fi might not be up to the job.

This, in a nutshell, is why I am so glad I no longer have to work with the public

In reply to a post by broadband66:

You need to test using ethernet as your wi-fi might not be up to the job.

yep

when the problems occur use ethernet and you'll soon find out the culprit. More often than not WiFi is the problem.

So you think your ISP should guarantee your speeds as received by YOUR wifi equipment which might be a length of string between two cans for all they know. Every tech forum I have seen tells you to connect via ethernet cable as the first step in faultfinding. Good luck to Jurassic ...

Yes I do. I have some £5000 worth of 'wifi equipment' ( Naim Uniti Atom streamer, M1 Macbook Pro, AMD 9000 workstation, iPhone ). Is it unreasonable to expect a Plusnet router ( maybe of the value of £50 ) to provide a reliable wifi service to this equipment? Is the 'public' unreasonable to expect reliable, predictable ISP services over the ubiquitous wifi technology? Is not the fault inherent in the ISP technology provided? Jurassic will be fibre to my property, limited to 8 connections per 'box' to guarantee speeds as advertised, into their router, there should not be a problem. Why should the public, paying good money, accept connections which do not work, or are inconsistent? Why wasn't an engineer sent to visit my property? I am not a wifi technician; I report a fault on 3 occasions and all I get is sound bites that it is not Plusnet's responsibility if my rates drop over wifi. No explanation was provided as to why rebooting my router appeared to solve the problem. Apparently frequently rebooting a router can lead to other problems and internet throttling, so how often should I reboot to prevent a problem?. Why wasn't another router just provided without question? Why should 'the public' have to resort to 'tech forums' to get a reasonable service and advice? Is that not why I pay my ISP for help? Is not wifi a 'mature' technology, and therefore should 'just work'. How is it that there is tacit acceptance that the delivery from some ISPs ( and I have no idea whether Plusnet is one of these ) can vary depending upon the time of day and the number of users on the service? Malwaremike, why are you so defensive? Jurassic will send a member of staff to install the technology, router, check the reception thoughout the property, provide an explanation for how everything works and provide excellent post installation service. Should'nt every ISP provide something similar? Finally can you suggest why my £5000 'length of string between 2 cans' wifi equipment is being starved of adequate internet provision from an ISP who, by default, apparently repeatedly blames me for the problem and internet shames me by providing inadequate explanation of apparent remedies. Jurassic appears to respect me......and it feels so refreshing.

Naim are excellent audio manufacturers but their Wi-Fi components cannot perform miracles. I would always recommend a wired connection over a wireless one regardless of manufacturer. Speaking as a Naim system owner.

Wifi is a mature product now and should be able to capably disseminate internet throughout my relatively small terrace house without the need for boosters or mesh technology.

Respectfully, this is not necessarily the case. WiFi signal strength hugely degrades when passing through walls, by other objects etc. and can suffer from myriad sources of interference.

It’s unreasonable to expect an ISP supplied WiFi router to give you uniform coverage and speeds etc. everywhere in your home.

I hope all works out well with your new ISP, but don’t be totally surprised if you need to installl additional access points to get improved WiFi coverage throughout.

You have unrealistic expectations from what £30 a month can buy you. You want engineer visits to your house to help you plan Wi-Fi coverage?

Why are you still using the plusnet router when you know its junk? Pickup something else, a second hame bt homehub will cost nothing from ebay and be miles better.