Service status - why no information?

[#1]

The recent widespread outage of Plusnet's service had a major impact on users.  It has prompted comment in the press and on specialist websites.  Thankfully as a private user I suffered only minor inconvenience......But.....

Plusnet makes a big deal of customer service and effective accessible communication with users.  When the service failed, like thousands of others I tried to find out what was happening.  The obvious source was Plusnet.  Inevitably their phone lines were overloaded.  But - using a mobile to access the internet - it was possible to get to the Plusnet website.

Was there any notification, announcement or explanation on the main Plusnet website?  No.

Was there any advice on "workarounds" (some online comments on other websites referred to changing server  configurations)?  No.

Was there anything on this Plusnet community website?  No.

Indeed the "Service Information/News and Announcements" Forum seems moribund:  there has been no post there since 2022.

Was there information available via the "Service Status" link on that community forum page?  No.

The link led to the Help and Support website pages to 'report a problem' .  Was there anything there about the outage, how long it might last, or advice on what to do?  No.

That is a pretty damning list.  It suggests a major failure not only in terms of the server outage problem, but in Plusnet's strategy for communicating information to its many customers.

As a long term and loyal Plusnet broadband user, I am deeply disappointed.  Operating an effective and up to date "Service Status" page, upfront and central on the website and immediately visible to all, ain't rocket science.  All major utility-providers do so as a matter of basic good practice.  Why isn't Plusnet doing so?

[#2]

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@br1anst0rm wrote:

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.  Operating an effective and up to date "Service Status" page ain't rocket science.  All major utility-providers do so as a matter of basic good practice.  Why isn't Plusnet doing so?

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I'll probably get it in the neck for saying this, but as Plusnet are now merely a 'brand' of the BT Consumer Division, it is operated in the way BT operate, and that is like the days of 'GPO Telephones' of old - i.e. treat customers as a nuisance, rather than people who pay for a service.

[#3]

I raised a similar query about the lack of status information some time ago.

I can't remember whether it was a member of staff or a moderator that replied, but the reply was that it was a corporate decision not to "publicise" service issues because the marketing people thought it made the Plusnet brand look bad.

I guess it's simple logic -  if there is no information published, no bad news will show up on google searches, and Plusnet will look good...

[#4]

@corringham For 'corporate' read BT - as I said earlier, they still work to GPO Telephones practices.

[#5]

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@corringham wrote:

I raised a similar query about the lack of status information some time ago.

I can't remember whether it was a member of staff or a moderator that replied, but the reply was that it was a corporate decision not to "publicise" service issues because the marketing people thought it made the Plusnet brand look bad.

I guess it's simple logic -  if there is no information published, no bad news will show up on google searches, and Plusnet will look good...

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I'll be interested to see whether a moderator or staff member responds to my post this time round.  But this line of "marketing-people" thinking (it's not logic!) is both perverse and counterproductive.  It leaves Plusnet looking incompetent, inert and ineffective.

By sheer coincidence, there was a major electricity power-cut affecting our area about a week ago.  It's winter, and we're in the Scottish Highlands.  So this matters.  What did we find?  The electricity network (SSEN) has an app, a website, a social media presence and a 'direct' phone number (just like the emergency number you call if you smell gas).  I called the phone number.  No doubt hundreds of others in the area did too.  It was answered within half a minute.... by a real human, not a recorded message.  She immediately said - they knew about the outage, it affected hundreds if not thousands of customers, engineers were en route, they estimated power would be on in about 2-3 hours, they would send updates on progress by text if I gave my number.... and then asked if we or anyone in the neighbourhood was "vulnerable" or for example dependent on electrically-powered medical equipment, because if so they would send out someone to provide help or advice.  Similar information was posted up on their website and then widely recycled on to social media.  We didn't need any assistance, so got out the blankets and waited.  Power was restored after three hours, and a text arrived to confirm with an invitation to call back if we needed help (eg in resetting appliances).

And the impression given?  That - far from reflecting badly, the prompt, pro-active, informative response from SSEN demonstrated that this was an organisation on top of its job, staffed to deal with contingencies, and able to explain the situation in a timely (and reassuring) fashion.

So there's a lesson there for Plusnet, its corporate parent BT, and its marketing people - who are at the moment all getting it wrong.  Far from preserving the brand image, Plusnet's failure to provide timely and accessible information on service-status is damaging their reputation.

[#6]

It's 48 hours since the outage but still no explanation from Plusnet.  Are they still trying to figure it out? I guess it's not an easy task.  After all, it took years for the Post Office to acknowledge the Horizon disaster. I just hope no one lost his job or any money because of the outage. 

[#7]

@redsox9 A couple of hours - hardly a life-changing period of time, and if people are so reliant on connectivity, they should have a fall-back strategy in place.

[#8]

It may not be a life-changing situation but Plusnet owe their customers an explanation. The Service Information on the Plusnet website only has an announcement that the contact centre will be closed on 19th September 2022.  That was two years ago.

[#9]

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@jab1 wrote:

@redsox9 A couple of hours - hardly a life-changing period of time, and if people are so reliant on connectivity, they should have a fall-back strategy in place.

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I think that attitude whitewashes over the issues:

• there has been no information about the failure
• there is no assurance that it won't happen again (and again) (and it has!)
• DNS is resilient by design - it is engineered to withstand multiple points of failure within a network (yet Plusnet's failed)
• a router having only two DNS servers configured shows how reliable it is expected to be (i.e. max of 1 failing)
• expecting customers to have a backup if they use Plusnet isn't a good advert

[#10]

1. I agree, but that is, I think, down to the 'GPO Telephones' attitude that BT Group apply to all their residential accounts.

2.Difficult to assure anyone that a system won't fail/fallover at some point, and the PN system is old and frail.

3.See (2)

4.Fair enough - but unless these issues occur increasingly regularly, do you think BT Consumer Division are going to worry?

5. I'm not with PN, but I have had a backup for the past 10+ years - only had to use it once when I was with PN, and once with my current provider. Neither instance was due to an ISP-related issue though.

[#11]

" and the PN system is old and frail."

I understand that the new DNS systems were installed in 2023.

Anyway, dismissing failures as being due to the system being old and frail is also not a good advert for Plusnet!

[#12]

I had forgotten that, so feel free to ignore that comment, but as we are not going to be told what the issue was, we don't know what failed.

I'm not putting out an ad for Plusnet.

[#13]

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@corringham wrote:

" ... the PN system is old and frail."

I understand that the new DNS systems were installed in 2023.

July 2023, so only six months in service !  and still no sign of IPv6 in 2024 !

[#14]

As the OP, I'm following this conversation with interest.  In particular, I think @corringham makes some very valid points.

We all live in the real world, and we all know that systems fail, machinery breaks down, networks lose connectivity.  The crucial point is - how the supplier/provider/manufacturer responds.  Hence the illustrative example I described in an earlier post.  And that is where Plusnet is falling short.  It may be the result of a "GPO attitude".  [Incidentally, given the story about the Post Office corporate approach which is currently headline news in another context, that is not a good look for Plusnet!]. 

But also, it is no excuse.  The point is - will Plusnet recognise the issue and do something about it - like reinstate an effective "Service Status" notification/helpline/whatever?  After all, it does seem that they used to have this;  and the justification for scrapping it seems feeble and not credible.

[#15]

Purely as a point of interest, my ISP has had a spell of DNS server 'failures' recently, but these have been in the small hours, so wouldn't have affected many. However, they do have a mitigation - they immediately switch to public ones, and back again once the issue is resolved.