To set the scene - currently on Starlink with no phone or broadband service to worry about. Rural location previously on copper ADSL but recently fibre-enabled, and I know this as the aggregation node is 100m down the road and I was chatting to the engineers when they pulled the line up to the base of the pole outside our house!
So, spotted the ordering was enabled and placed order on 31st October.
Received the welcome emails and an automated "we've opened a question" email, so all good, and the 17th November was the earmarked connection date.
I noticed a day or two beforehand some Openreach engineers up the pole doing something, so presumed this was some prep work in readiness for the 17th. Heard nothing more.
As per this thread, 17th arrived and not heard a peep via email, SMS, call, etc. Also, slightly worryingly, no router - but wasn't too fussed as I intend to use my own anyway.
Following a period on hold, finally go through to a nice lady who explained that the order wasn't going through as it had been put on hold due to some technical reason (a 'disconnect' needed, I think). Pointed out it would have been nice to have been told. Informed that I was emailed with each ticket update.
Consulted my mail server logs, since I run my own domain, only to confirm that absolutely no incoming mail deliveries were attempted to the server since the original automated order one mentioned above - not even errors on the part of my server; just not attempts at all. Suspect Plusnet systems *think* they are delivering but actually aren't and no-one is watching their mail relay logs to actually spot and report any failures, but hey ho, what can you do. I change my registered email address to an alternative (hotmail) address in the hope that fixes it.
Told order is now delayed until January of next year. Not happy at all but what else can you do, totally understand we're at the whim of Openreach and their engineers, so back to the end of the queue I go.
A call from another Plusnet agent a week later, reacting to a forum post rather than anything else, to apologise for the problem... but then informs me the connection date is still on track for the 30th November. 30th, I say? Are you absolutely sure, because I'd been told it was now put back to January? Yes, he says, I can see it here for completion on 30th. Wow, OK, well then I'm suddenly a happy bunny again!
Thursday 24th and four Openreach engineer vans turn up unannounced - to do the phase 1 connection work (external cables from the pole to the external wall the other side of the OTN) - which again is all fine, but letting me know wouldn't have been a bad thing, but again I guess the story is "Openreach didn't inform PlusNet", so we'll give them the benefit of the doubt on that one.
Fast-forward to today, the day before connection day. Still no router, still no updates, emails, text messages, etc. so it's another query via the ticket system to just get an idea of what time they are coming tomorrow to connect me.
Then it's a missed call (my fault) from the CS agent at the end of the day (just gone 7pm). I made an assumption that the ticket had probably been updated, so logged on myself (no, I didn't received any automated notification that the ticket has been updated, despite it saying "Email notification sent to <blahblah>@hotmail.com" !! No, it's not in my spam either!) and sure enough... order is delayed until 11th January 2023.
At this point, I don't think the internal systems and/or processes within Plusnet are anywhere close to working properly.
Coupled with the fact that BT are doing the same service on a Black Friday deal for £2 cheaper, plus 6 months at half price AND 12 months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate thrown in for free with no up-front charges... sorry, I'm a lost customer.
Order cancelled.
Resign myself to the fact I'm waiting another 2 months but at least I'll be saving some money.
I get that everyone will say this is just Openreach causing the issue, that's fine, but there are still quality of service concerns with Plusnet that are just yellow flags for me...
