Router not arrived yet - New Customer

[#1]

We are moving our provider to PlusNet and have been told the change over will be on 03rd February 2022.

We have not received a PlusNet Router yet.

Can the Router be despatched soonest please so it is received before close of business on 02nd February 2022.

Many thanks!

Arthur

[#2]

Hiya @Arthur1935, thanks for getting in touch and a warm welcome to Plusnet!

I'm sorry for the concern caused with your router, I have had a check and it looks like it was dispatched in the early hours of this morning.

If you have any further queries at all, please just get back to me.

[#3]

@Arthur1935 Welcome to the forum.  🙂

Plusnet have adopted the Just-in-Time supply chain process, which is fine when used in the right place and circumstances.

How it helps Plusnet or frustrated customers waiting for a router I cannot imagine. How is anything gained by not sending a little earlier to ensure it's there when needed?

[#4]

How is anything gained by not sending a little earlier to ensure it's there when needed?

I can only assume that it reduces the number of routers sent to customers who cancel a transfer or order within the 14 day cooling off period.

The main problem at the moment is that the dispatch process assumes that by using 1st class post it will arrive the following day. In the current situation , that often is not achieved but it seems the process is not capable of easily being changed.

[#5]

Cancellations is certainly one possible reason. I was wondering also whether it was the accountants trying to keep the cash flow positive. If the routers aren't paid for until they are ordered that would be a financial benefit.

I am due to go live on 3/2 and I got a message saying it was posted just after midnight last night. It seems to go wrong relatively frequently and the cost in dealing with enquiries and customer upset should be factored in, especially with the known delivery delays.

[#6]

@mac51 - the physical dispatch was actually late afternoon on 31/01 and your activation date is 03/02. Outside of extenuating circumstances, that's typically enough time for the device to arrive when shipped by first class (in a lot of cases, it would have arrived in yesterday's post?).

The dispatch is dependent on us having a 100% committed installation date from the supplier which is why it is not sent immediately on sign-up. This, and the potential commercial exposure of having devices land with customers who then go on to cancel before their service is installed.

[#7]

Thanks, Bob. I wasn't actually panicking about my own router delivery, although the router has not arrived yet, and the email that was sent says "Date of dispatch: 1^st February 2022" not 31/1.

I was just reflecting on why there seem to be so many users that have problems with router arrival on the forum, and presumably others that get sorted by phone calls.

I absolutely agree that you don't want to send them out too early but the alternative is not immediately on sign-up as you seem to be suggesting but maybe a day or two before your current planned issue date would give a better balance of outcomes.

[#8]

@mac51 - the dispatch notice is a bit misleading as it reports the time the confirmration processing script was run, rather than the date the router was physically dispatched (I know).

We don't start processing the confirmation from the warehouse until late in the evening so it can sometimes bleed into early hours of the following day.

Quite a bit of noise on the forums at the moment relates to customers requesting one of the new Hub Twos as part of a Fibre speed regrade (i.e. Fibre > Fibre Extra upgrade, or similar). There is a known issue that's preventing automatic dispatch of some of these orders at the moment and it's being looked into (ref: TSC-159). In the interim, quite a few are having to be given a friendly nudge in the right direction.