Cancelled Fibre Broadband

[#1]

Hi.

I recently completed a house move and took Plusnet from my old property to my new one. I had several issues with the house move, however finally had broadband working around 3 weeks ago. Last Thursday (24th February) my WiFi signal suddenly dropped out and I was unable to get the broadband/router working again.

I phoned the helpdesk who advised that Plusnet had no note of a working broadband line at my property (not correct in reality) and that Plusnet would need to replace the order. Confusingly, I was advised that Plusnets suppliers did have record of a working line at the property, but that this would need to be cancelled in order for Plusnet to re-order broadband for my account.

I have since had to phone back on Friday, Monday and again today to chase up an answer from Plusnet, and have just been advised that it will now be Thursday before Plusnet will check if their suppliers records have been updated. I had been promised from the original advisor that she would keep me updated with progress but have not heard back since Friday.

Can someone please explain to me what is going on? I have went from having perfectly working broadband to having to chase up Plusnet to find a solution to these issues, and patience has long since worn thin.

Am I within my rights to withdraw from my contact with Plusnet and go with another supplier? I am not currently being given any sort of service whatsoever from Plusnet, and wonder whether these issues will sorted quicker this way. I have repeatedly asked for this to be escalated, as I am without broadband through no fault of my own. I am still meant to be working from home and require this broadband to do so.

Can someone please advise? I am fed up of having to ask advisors who keep telling me contradictory information.

These issues are under my account named "seancowling1".

Sean.

[#2]

Hi @seancowling

I'm really sorry to see your broadband's stopped working and you're having issues working from home as a result. 

I've looked into this for you and I can see that the majority of the work to get you online was carried out on the 01.02.22, but the order never fully completed in the supplier systems and eventually cancelled instead of completing.

When trying to replace the order to get you back online, the supplier records are showing that the service is both active & not active at the same time, which is stopping us from replacing the order, so we've raised a records query. 

We should know more tomorrow or the day after at the latest. I'll take personal ownership of this for you. I've escalated the ticket 220846096 into my 'pool' so I can follow up, and I've closed the duplicate ticket 222301021.

As soon as I know more I'll let you know and once things are sorted, I'll be happy to discuss a gesture of goodwill for the inconvenience caused. At this stage I can't say if we can waive termination fees, but the good news is that if you stay with us, then based on the problems, I can get a new order expedited rather than having to wait standard lead times. 

[#3]

Hi @Gandalf 

Thanks for the response and I appreciate you taking a personal ownership of the problem.

Can I ask if there has been any update to this yet? I haven't asked on the ticket yet in case it causes any further issues.

Sean.

[#4]

Good luck to you I hope they care enough to help, they certainly are doing everything they can not to help me.

good luck.

[#5]

Hi Sean,

Nothing substantial yet, but our suppliers are investigating.

From what I can see there now seems to be no records at all showing for your landline number, which I suspect could be a good sign as wiping a slate clean to start again is occasionally the easiest & quickest way to fix something broken.

We've been given a review date of the 9th March but I'll check back tomorrow on the progress.

I've also updated the ticket. 

[#6]

Hi @Gandalf 

Just seen this forum reply and the ticket update as well.

Is the the 9th March review date a typo? The 9th of March will signal 13 days since I'd first reported the problem to you guys. I'd really expect to be back online far before that..

Sean.

[#7]

Hi Sean,

It's not a typo and I know this has been a problem for too long already. Our suppliers are on top this and escalating with the relevant people internally as they're aware that your broadband's not working. 

To set expectations, once the records are corrected and I can replace the order, we'll be given a completion date far into the future, but I'll then submit an expedite request to ask that it's brought forward.

While I'd love for this to be a simple fix, I'm afraid that it's not as straight-forward as one would like. 

I am however keeping a close eye on this and I'll check back tomorrow.

[#8]

Good morning @Gandalf ,

Has there been any update to this yet? I've not replied back to the ticket so as not to confuse matters.

Sean.

[#9]

@Gandalf 

Chasing this up. Has there been any progress made?

[#10]

Hi Sean,

I'm sorry for not replying sooner. I'm personally tracking this problem under ticket 220846096 so replying to the ticket won't confuse matters, and I'm proactively monitoring. There are no further updates or changes yet to the records I'm afraid.

I'll be out of the office tomorrow until 08.03.22 so I'll ask a colleague to check in case we get anything back from suppliers before the review date of 09.03.22 while I'm away, and I'll follow up when I'm back either way. 

[#11]

@Gandalf 

Thanks for getting back to me.

Appreciate you are not long onto the issue (and I do appreciate the help), but are Plusnet doing everything they can to get this escalated up the chain? Has there just been no response from the supplier today? I reported this issue a week ago, and am being quoted a "review" date that will be two weeks from the issue being flagged. What happens if the supplier comes back on the review date and sets another one another week out? This issue is causing a serious amount of problems in my work life and it really feels like I am being gas lighted a bit here.

I appreciate you said you would be able to escalate once the order is replaced, but we are one week on and no further to having the order actually placed. This was nonsense a week ago and is now beyond the pale from a company I am paying for a "service".

Sean.

Edit - to add, I once had problems with my line at my previous address being "taken over" by another company on behalf of a neighbor who gave their broadband supplier the incorrect address. Is there nothing Plusnet can do, along these lines, to speed this up? 

Edit MK2 - if I phone up tonight to cancel my contract, would I be liable for cancellation costs? The timescales being quoted don't suggest this is happening anytime soon, which a week after telling Plusnet about this, is unacceptable. Perhaps another supplier will be able to force the line to be taken over a bit quicker than things are going over here.

[#12]

Hi Sean,

I'm really sorry for the problems this is causing.

I can definitely appreciate how hard it can be to work from home without broadband as I do also work from home.

I also appreciate from your point of view that it should be straight-forward, and again while I'd love it to be, I'm afraid that it isn't due to the way that the supplier systems work, but I can assure you that I am doing everything we can to escalate this.

As a timeline, we raised the records query on 25.02.22 and we were advised they'd passed it to what's known as their "TAGS Resolution Team" to remove the "FTTC G Marker" which is a marker that says FTTC is enabled. 

We were provided with a review date of 03.03.22, and on the 01.03.22 we received an update to advise they've escalated the issue as the problem wasn't resolved and then gave a revised review date of 09.03.22.

This suggests that work's happening behind the scenes, if they've come back to us before the review date and then escalated to the relevant people. If the problem isn't resolved by the 9th, then I can look at seeing what I can do to escalate this further, however in my experience, there's no escalation path that adds any value when it comes to records queries due to the nature of the work and that they themselves as a team have their own escalation paths. 

I'm aware of the previous problems you've had, which Matt and Harry worked to resolve. Apart from reading that thread, I can't see the specific details, because due to how long ago it was, those tickets will be archived and buried in our systems.

The delay there does however look to be more due to taking your line back & engineer availability. The difference here is that I can request a new order is expedited, based on the previous order being cancelled by the supplier systems.

I can't say if another provider's order will be any quicker or if they'd even be able to get a transfer order in place with the incorrect records as they are now. I don't feel at this stage we're yet in a position to waive termination charges as a fair & proportionate gesture of goodwill, but if you stick with us, once we do have you back up & running, I'll be happy to discuss what we can do for you as a goodwill gesture for the problems caused. 

[#13]

@Gandalf  In my opinion @seancowling  has every right to leave with no termination charges as Plusnet through their suppliers incompetence and screwed up systems have failed to deliver the service so Plusnet have broken the contract. How it can take so long to correct the records in the systems in completely beyond belief.☹️

[#14]

Hi @Gandalf
Thanks for the detailed response. I appreciate you’re coming from a technical background on this, but to a layman on the subject it just seems like a records update and a reorder - to take two weeks (if the 9th March is to be believed) to get that sorted seems ridiculous.
I’ll check back tomorrow to see if there is any update (I’ll not hold my breath) - who will be taking ownership of this in your absence?
On the subject of WFH, it isn’t difficult without wifi for me, it is impossible. The 4G signal I get on my phone is not strong enough in the flat, and I do not have enough data to work with the large CAD files i do in my day to day.
I do appreciate you trying to help but patience with Plusnet over this whole house move is now a distant memory.
Enjoy your time off.

[#15]

Hi Sean, thanks for getting back to me. 

I totally agree with you, but I find that it's helpful sometimes to know the technical background to try to understand why something takes so long to fix and the challenges other people go through to help sort a problem. 

Our suppliers haven't committed to providing an update before the 09.03.22 so I can't guarantee there will be anything before then, however this though doesn't mean that nothing'll happen between now and then, as they've given us a review date to allow time, so they can investigate further & chase the relevant people to fix the issue. 

I'm really sorry again for the multitude of issues you've had with us. I appreciate also you can't WFH at all. I know how large CAD files can be as I studied Product Design at Sheffield Hallam back in the day around 10 years ago, so I'll continue to make sure we're doing all we can to get you back up and running as soon as possible.  

I've discussed with Adam (@adam945) and he's happy to take ownership while I'm away.

No pressure to Adam, but I expect significant progress to have been made by the time I'm back.

Cheers