What is going on with this ISP

[#1]

These last few days the service has been abysmal, the router is like a bloody disco ball and it is extremely rare to see it not flashing!
I am having to reset to factory settings to try and resolve things to no avail. I have just run a speed test and the result was a 1.3mb speed.
I'm paying nearly £50 for a broadband speed that is no better than the old dial up connection.
It's outright fraud but it didn't stop them from paying tens of thousands on TV adverts in an attempt to betray customers into thinking Plusnet is of any value.

[#2]

@whitbycolin I suspect, from the price you are quoting, that you are on FTTC and not ADSL, but irrespective, and bearing in mind that the Help Team are a bit thin on the ground, I will post a 'check-list' that may give us a clue as to what is happening - if you are prepared to follow it.

For Community members to be able to help, information from these two sites, as screenshots:-

BT Broadband(obscuring your phone number) and BTW Performance Tester - Over a wired (ethernet) connection if at all possible, please report the 'ADDITIONAL DIAGNOSTICS', and sight of the broadband connection status from your Hub would be a good starting point.

For the Hub One -

Navigate from the Home Screen to Troubleshooting > Helpdesk

For the Hub Two -

Navigate from the Home Screen to Advanced Settings > Technical Log > Information

It may also be a good idea to report the results of a Quiet Line Test - dial 17070 option 2 from a (preferably corded) phone. After the confirmation of your phone number, there should be total silence apart from the regular 'Quiet Line Test' announcement. Any other noise - report a PHONE fault first.

[#3]

@whitbycolin 

It’s easy to blame the ISP when things go wrong but your symptoms indicate that this is an Openreach network problem, which you would experience if you used any other ISP that uses the Openreach infrastructure.

A very slow speed can indicate that one of the phone connections that delivers your broadband is disconnected. This can be checked by doing the QLT suggested by @jab1 

[#4]

Nearly £50 a month sounds a bit steep, are you out of the minimum term contract period and onto the standard ( expensive) rolling contract price?

[#5]

@Baldrick1 , @pint - don't expect any reply to this from the OP. I've just, out of curiosity checked his last four posts - he never comes back after the initial moan - even when he gets a response - another time-waster.

[#6]

Well spotted John. Plusnet has its faults -- that accounting system -- but its cheery helpful staff are not among them. I have noticed that some of the strongest attacks on PN are from customers who, on investigation, turn out not to have not paid their bills and are surprised when they are disconnected. 

Regards to everyone, Mike

[#7]

Hiya @whitbycolin, thanks for getting in touch.

I'm really sorry for the issues that you're seeing with your connection and problems with your speed. I'd like to do what I can to help you here. 

I have tested your line and we are seeing a sync speed of 19.6mb which no faults detected. I can see there has been some intermittency (I've provided an image below for you) though the tests haven't highlighted what could be causing this. 

I've created a fault ticket here for you: https://www.plus.net/wizard/?p=view_question&id=223709432 with the next steps in getting this resolved and if you give me a nudge if you add a reply to the ticket, I'll get that picked up for you. 

With regards to your monthly cost, I would advise to call and discuss this with our Customer Options Team, they are contactable directly on 0800 013 2632 and they are open between the following hours:

Monday - Friday: 08:00 - 20:00
Saturday: 09:00 - 19:00
Sunday: 09:00 - 18:00
 

[#8]

The costs mentioned include the telephone options, although I rarely make many calls.

I cannot comment on whether i am on FTTC as I have always thought it was an ASDL package, one thing I can confirm is that it is a simple broadband deal where I am not contracted and moved to this ISP around 2012. I would like to say this is an isolated incident but if you check you will see that this has been going on for years. I was once advised to switch to Fibre but when I checked on the community forums there seemed to be as many clients who were dissatisfied with the service, so I chose not to waste even bigger sums with Plusnet.

I will not accept that the help team is thin on the ground as that is an excuse nearly every business in the country is using to pacify its clients.

 I regularly use the BTW Performance Tester - and have run countless 'ADDITIONAL DIAGNOSTICS', the hub is connected to the master socket and my microfilters do not need changing. I carried out the Quiet Line Test and had no issues with it, hence the phone line is not the fault!

Colin

[#9]

The costs mentioned include the telephone options, although I rarely make many calls.

In answer to Johns suggestions.

I cannot comment on whether I am on FTTC as I have always thought it was an ASDL package, one thing I can confirm is that it is a simple broadband deal where I am not contracted and moved to this ISP around 2012. I would like to say this is an isolated incident but if you check you will see that this has been going on for years. I was once advised to switch to Fibre but when I checked on the community forums there seemed to be as many clients who were dissatisfied with the service, so I chose not to waste even bigger sums with Plusnet.

I will not accept that the help team is thin on the ground as that is an excuse nearly every business in the country is using to pacify its clients.

I regularly use the BTW Performance Tester - and have run countless 'ADDITIONAL DIAGNOSTICS', the hub is connected to the master socket and my microfilters do not need changing. I carried out the Quiet Line Test and had no issues with it, hence the phone line is not the fault!

Colin

I tried to send a reply to John, but it returned an error (no surprise there), so I tried to resend the post and it has now been flagged as Post Flooding.

[#10]

@whitbycolin 

Have you checked recently to see what's available to you via the OpenReach system.

https://www.broadbandchecker.btwholesale.com/#/ADSL

VDSL is (FTTC) and will give you good and impacted line results (high and low).

WBC FTTP is another matter if it's available.

Brian

[#11]

Hello Lauren

I could only dream of the thought of having speeds that go into double figures, getting 19.6mb is definitely not what I am getting in use. In fact last night it was actually that bad that I could not get programs from catch up on Sky with the constant blue box message "There appears to be an issue with the broadband connection at this time" so I gave up and thought I would just have YouTube music videos playing which was a nightmare as they were frequently stopping leaving me with a blank screen with the message "Loading"?

The results in the chart look good on paper but do they represent the aforementioned 19.6mb or just represent being online.

Colin

[#12]

Criey that returned a plethora of information,

Thanks Colin

[#13]

My telephone exchange is currently not in a current fibre priority programme.

I can get WLR, SOADSL is restricted at the exchange and FFTP is not available.

I have considered other ISP's but when you research them there isn't a clear provider that does not seem to provide an adequate system free from trouble.

Colin

[#14]

Having checked my last posts the reason I "never come back even when I get a response" is because they have not been very useful, I am certainly not another time-waster. that I leave to Plusnet.

[#15]

@whitbycolin Now you are back, and if you really want help, it would be a very good idea to reply in detail to my original reply to you (at post #2 on this topic).