Seemingly one cannot report a problem outside of business hours; various attendant woes

[#1]

So far as I can tell, the Plusnet website allows one to report a broadband problem, and seemingly make any sort of contact (!), _only within business hours_.

Adding insult - or at least confusion - to injury, the Plusnet site invites one - in various ways - to login when . . one is logged in already.

Further yet, the Plusnet service page, to my knowledge, _always_ says that all is peachy, even when one is having problems and even when 'down detector' sites show that many people have reported problems. (How did those people even manage to report a problem? By reporting a problem to . . the down detector site.)

PS: If anyone wonders how I write this very message whilst having broadband problems, the answer is: I am using mobile Internet so to do.

[#2]

@JustSomeAnodyne If you wish to report an issue outside the 0800-2000 business hours, you can do so, using either https://www.plus.net/help/report-a-problem/phone/ or https://www.plus.net/help/report-a-problem/broadband/ , depending on the nature of the issue.

I don't understand you second paragraph.

The Plusnet service page will only report major outages, not an aggregation of individual ones.

Downdetector is not a reliable indicator of network issues.

Finally, what is your problem? maybe other Community members can help?

[#3]

@jab1 

Thank you for the speedy reply.

I have a problem with broadband. Specifically, the problem is that I have no Ethernet or wifi connectivity. (More precisely yet, the problem is, perhaps, DNS; and I have the problem - no email, no Internet, no pinging - on multiple computers, and those computers run different operating systems but all use the same router; and fiddling with the router - by e.g. restarting it, either via software or manually - does not help.)

Since my problem is with broadband, the second of the links that you supply seems relevant. Yet, nothing on the linked page seems to allow one to contact someone at Plusnet now.

Let me expand upon the second paragraph of my original message. Here I go. Irrespective of whether I have logged in to my Plusnet account, various pages of the Plusnet website sport a 'sign in' link at their top. Additionally, the very broadband-help page that you linked sports a large 'sign' button at its foot, even though I have signed in already.

'Downdetector is not a reliable indicator of network issues': i.e. of problems with the networks that underlie both Plusnet and other ISPs? Presuming 'yes' - why? Because a problem at a lower level than PlusNet is not a problem caused by Plusnet? Granted, but it would be useful were Plusnet to inform Plusnet users of such problems.

[#4]

I add: I find that the Plusnet sms-bot - commended by the broadband page that you linked - did reply to my SMS, even though I got the impression that it would reply only within business hours. The reply by the bot was hard to understand, but I will see whether interacting with that bot yields anything.

[#5]

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@JustSomeAnodyne wrote:

@jab1 

Thank you for the speedy reply.

I have a problem with broadband. Specifically, the problem is that I have no Ethernet or wifi connectivity. (More precisely yet, the problem is, perhaps, DNS; and I have the problem - no email, no Internet, no pinging - on multiple computers, and those computers run different operating systems but all use the same router; and fiddling with the router - by e.g. restarting it, either via software or manually - does not help.)

Since my problem is with broadband, the second of the links that you supply seems relevant. Yet, nothing on the linked page seems to allow one to contact someone at Plusnet now.

Let me expand upon the second paragraph of my original message. Here I go. Irrespective of whether I have logged in to my Plusnet account, various pages of the Plusnet website sport a 'sign in' link at their top. Additionally, the very broadband-help page that you linked sports a large 'sign' button at its foot, even though I have signed in already.

'Downdetector is not a reliable indicator of network issues': i.e. of problems with the networks that underlie both Plusnet and other ISPs? Presuming 'yes' - why? Because a problem at a lower level than PlusNet is not a problem caused by Plusnet? Granted, but it would be useful were Plusnet to inform Plusnet users of such problems.

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A long long reply, but I will try to make mine slightly shorter. From what you are saying, it appears that you have lost connection with the wider network. What Hub/router are you using? What are the indicator lights implying?

Those login options are there for a reason - it depends where you start from,  but once you are logged in they can be ignored, unless of course you are logged into the forums, and then move to, say, 'My Account' - they have separate logins.

The 'downdetector problems are reported by individual users, with individual problems, rarely major network issues, and do not affect the network, as such. The Plusnet status page would only indicate if a widespread  network issue - say an exchange failure - was affecting a large number of customers.

[#6]

What did the bot say? It may reply - I don't know how it works as I am no longer a PN customer, but I understand it can 'reply' , but if any action by PN is required, that will only happen in business hours - there is not 24-hour staff cover.

[#7]

Thanks.

Logins: It seems to me that even when I am logged into both the forum and to my account, I see options to login. Perhaps the Plusnet webpages interact badly with my browser and its extensions and with the cookie-handling and suchlike that I have.

Contacting Plusnet: You seem not to mention my claim that Plusnet's help webpages give one to think that outside office hours one's recourse for problems is solely the Plusnet forum. [EDIT: ah: you have a further post that does speak to such things. Still: surely there should be at all times _some_ means of sending a person a message. Also: ah, you no longer use Plusnet?]

The Plusnet status page 'The Plusnet status page would only indicate if a widespread  network issue - say an exchange failure - was affecting a large number of customers.' Ah, OK. But that fact does limit the usefulness of that page.

My router, and indicator lights: I think that that stuff is irrelevant. I am using a third-party router, with open source firmware, and with all router lights disabled (and normally that setup works well with Plusnet). And as I said the problem seems to be (judging from my router's web UI) with DNS. [EDIT: It was an inbuilt troubleshooter - on my Windows machine as against my Linux ones - that suggests that DNS is the problem. That said, connectivity checks on my Linux machines do suggest that there is _some_ sort of connection - which again suggests that DNS is the problem.]

The plusnet SMS-bot that I mentioned is trying to do what it calls a 'refresh' of my 'line'. Perhaps that will help.

[#8]

Logins - I don't understand - maybe a screenshot would help.

Contacting Plusnet - Actually contacting them outside office hours - or the 12 hour period the offices are manned - is not possible, there is no 24 hour cover, but as I have said, I am no longer a PN customer, so don't visit them, and I am aware they have been altered in the 18 months since I left, anyway.

Status Page - that has been its purpose since its inception - to advise of major problems.

Your router &c - that is not irrelevant, it could give us a clue as to the issue. If you don't have visual on what is happening, how do you expect to be able to do self-help?

Bot - to be honest, I doubt that will be very successful.

[#9]

@JustSomeAnodyne 

Just to add to @jab1   answers.

Downdetector does not distinguish between services, so entries could be mobile, sms, email or anything else Jo Public bothers to contact them with.

Re you issue, have you done any basic checks? Is your phone working, is the line noisy dial 17070 option 2?

You say the router lights are irrelevant, but again they would help determine if you have a DSL connection, or if none are flashing maybe router locked up and just need a resetc-chave you done the turn off and back on again?

[#10]

Cheers @Mustrum .

[#11]

Thanks for the reply.

The router lights are irrelevant in this sense: as I said, I have (via open-source router firmware) disabled them all, permanently.

The aforementioned bot did some tests and then told me to text back within office hours. I did so and an advisor rang me. The advisor discovered that the problem was the password that my router sends Plusnet. I had changed that password, via the Plusnet website, but had not changed the password on the router. So: user error - and everything now works again - but it would have helped had the Plusnet website warned me that the password would need to be changed on the router.

My main complaint, recall, was that it was hard to contact Plusnet outside of user hours. It turns out that there is a semi-helpful bot that one can contact any time, and which will do _some_ things outside of office hours. Yet, it does seem to me that the Plusnet website gives one to think that one can use the bot only within office hours.

[#12]

I wonder why you have disabled the lights - they provide easy visuals with regard to potential issues, but no matter - that is your choice.

I would have thought someone with your apparent skills would realise that if you change your password, you would need to make sure it was changed on any other equipment that relied on it for verification.

I don't know where you get the idea you can only use the 'bot' in office hours, it clearly states:

[#13]

If the router lights are as bright as the Hub One I can understand why they have been turned off 😂

As for office hours only, the bold text is a little misleading as I assume that they will only apply to the call back.

[#14]

@Browni Yes, I agree the bold text is misleading - maybe I'll pass it back via the SU's for modification/clarification, although I've always taken it to refer to staff availability

As to the lights, as an aside, just stick some opaque tape over them - you still see them, but not as bright. 😀

[#15]

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@JustSomeAnodyne wrote:

Thanks for the reply.

... it would have helped had the Plusnet website warned me that the password would need to be changed on the router.

I changed my Plusnet password recently, and I'm sure it warned me. So I just tried it again - after you have entered your new password, the site gives you a "confirm" screen, mentioning the router:

If you then confirm "Change password" on there, it shows another screen with "You'll need to update the password for your... Broadband router":

I then got an email too:

It could mention that only happens automatically if you are using the Plusnet supplied router, but that's probably the common case, and even if you have your own, its still a reminder.