"Three day remote activation" – three weeks (and counting) later

[#1]

Thank you @RealAleMadrid - and thanks also for your help earlier upthread, I really appreciated it.

Hoping you get some fibre to your premises soon!

[#2]

Cheers for posting back Mayer. 

It looks like we’ve been messaging you privately, but I thought I’d drop you a reply here.

I’m glad we’d managed to arrange an engineer so quickly and they’ve got you up and running now!

I’ve said this elsewhere but if you can fill out this form https://www.openreach.com/help-and-support/thank-an-engineer-form I’m sure both the engineer and Openreach would appreciate your thanks.

If there’s ever anything else you’d need help with, feel free to let us know. 

[#3]

Hi Anoush - thanks for the link (and of course for your work getting me connected 18 days earlier than I otherwise would have been!).

I'll definitely feed back to OR via that link - I think it's as important to give positive feedback as negative.

I missed a call from one of the PN team today when (believe it or not) I was washing a cat – I'll shoot over a Direct Message in response when I have a moment tomorrow.

Thanks again!

[#4]

My account has just been credited with £16.80.

As noted in previous correspondence and on this thread, I was *promised* on the phone multiple times that there was a note on my account to reflect that I was verbally promised activation by September 1, rather than the surprise first in-writing confirmation of September 12.

So my understanding was that:

- I'd receive automatic compensation of £5.25 per day credited to my account for the period from September 12-16 (five full days) = £26.25

- I'd also have the same level of compensation manually added for the period of September 1-11 (11 full days) = £57.75

Which totals at £84."

I've now been told:

"The OFCOM automatic compensation system is in place that applies a credit to your account of 8.40 per day starting from the day after, the 2nd full day of no service.

News to me. I was previously told in writing:

"As discussed, I have also noted that on sign up you were advised it would only take 3 working days to activate your service and we will contact you back to discuss a gesture of goodwill for this after your services are active as requested."

My advice for anyone moving to Plusnet or considering it:

1. If you're promised anything vague by Plusnet reps, even in writing, you should totally ignore it.

2. If you're promised something outright on the phone, insist that you get it in writing with zero wiggle room *immediately*, or they'll pretend it never happened.

3. You're likely to get the statutory minimum compensation for any issues, with whatever loophole used to make sure it's as low as possible. Don't believe you'll get a penny more, regardless of what you're told when they're trying to stop you giving up and going with someone else.

4. Plusnet don't like sending out routers until shortly before your supposed activation date or sometimes after it. I have no idea why. Once you make an order that includes a hub, phone up immediately and ask them to put it in the post.

5. If you're moving to Plusnet, ignore any estimate they give you for activation times. It's not in their hands so they're just hazarding the most optimistic guess. It's not their cables, not their ONTs, not their engineers. Make sure you have an affordable 4/5G data solution to tide you over for at least 4-6 weeks.

6. You get good-ish service and very competitive prices with Plusnet, and the staff are always courteous. But if they can't help you and can't compensate you and you're not prepared for that, you'll be over £100 in data and countless hours on the phone down by the time you get connected. That more than obliterates any savings over their competitors over the course of the contract.

I'll admit that I'm very disappointed, and the whole experience has left a bit of a sour taste. I shouldn't have to be on the phone every other day for two weeks chasing my order, making my own guesses as to why things aren't working, and being promised a certain amount of compensation which is later rescinded.

After six odd years with Plusnet, I'll definitely be moving on when my contract is up, which is a shame. I'm in a position where I'd rather spend £50-£60 a year more with someone else and hope that I can recoup that amount in an Amazon card special offer or something, rather than keep giving hundeds of pounds a year to a company that's messed me around so much.

Moderator's note by Mike (Mav): Two posts released from Spam Filter and threads merged.

[#5]

Hi Mayer,

I'm really sorry for how we've handled this as we should've listened to your call from when you signed up to us. I feel like the very first agent may have set wrong expectations here and I'm really sorry again about this. 

Having reviewed this, I can see on the 26th August we emailed you advising "We expect your service to activate with us on 12-09-2022. We're in the process of confirming this and will let you know if it needs to change."

On the 27th August within those 2 working days, we emailed you confirming "The engineer appointment to activate your broadband service is confirmed for 19/09/2022. The engineer should arrive between 08:00 - 13:00."

You were then up and running before then on the 17th September, so we effectively brought the appointment date forward.

I haven't however listened to your call yet as the call recording software's giving me an error, but I've asked my colleague @SammyM to listen to it for me tomorrow so we'll get back to you then with the outcome. 

As for why your posts are being marked as spam, the spam filter works in mysterious ways. I've asked the mods to release the post although it's likely they'll lock or remove it in favour of this post, now I've responded here. 

[#6]

Thanks Anoush as ever for the reply.

I don't remember the exact wording on that first call. IIRC I rang up to sign up because I couldn't use my old Plusnet account to switch to full fibre when trying to online, AND yes, because the quoted time jumped from three working days to 12th September on-screen right at the end of the process.

I queried this on the phone and was told by the rep that the September 12 date was almost certainly inaccurate and caused by an automated hiccup, and that if there was an ONT on the premises (which I knew there was having seen it myself) three days was what I should expect.

So nothing legally binding there, though I definitely had assurances about receiving compensation dated from Sept 1 on later calls.

Regarding the early doors shift to September 19, again that was an appointment to ostensibly fit an ONT we all knew was already there, so me and the PN team on the phone weren't taking it as gospel.

It is what it is.

The paperwork said September 12 and then September 19, so despite the what I was led to believe and the assurances I was given, I understand I can't expect anything for before then. That's life.

I do think it's worth underlining here that I *did* have an ONT, it *did* work and that I could and should have been connected a few days after signing up.

The work the engineer actually did was fixing OpenReach's borking up what house on our street each ONT was assigned to on their end, which he sorted by ringing up someone to do it remotely.

That's OpenReach's messup, but on Plusnet's side of things they should have sent out the Hub immediately on completion of the order when they took my thirty quid (I couldn't even test the line for a while after moving in so we didn't know and couldn't find out about the OpenReach error for a full week). Plusnet should have also completed off the order sooner in our dialogue so OpenReach would have believed us that the ONT box existed and was functional.

I'm not asking or expecting you to trawl the logs. It's not worth your time is it? At this stage I'm not expecting more than my £16.80.

I'd already written off the money spent on data and time spent on the phone and forums. Now I've written off the £67.20 I assumed (and had definitely been led to believe) I would be getting.

Two years is a long time and I'll probably feel less miffed and more lazy then, but I'll absolutely be shopping around at the very least when it comes to that point in time, which I don't think given my experience is too difficult to understand.

[#7]

No problem and thanks for getting back to me Mayer. 

I'm a little confused now though. Did you contact us before the 26th August to sign up? When the account was created then, we placed your order straight away with Openreach and received a confirmed date of the 19th September a couple of days later. We then automatically ship our routers a few days before a confirmed completion date. 

I appreciate we've had difficulties figuring out why the delay based on what you told us, and ultimately we should've trusted our suppliers decision here as they could see an engineer was needed. If we haven't confirmed the activation date of 1st September then we wouldn't be able to provide "automatic compensation" from then.

However if we've given incorrect information along the way like assure you we'd offer compensation back from a certain date which we didn't confirm then we can offer a goodwill gesture for that and the time you've spent calling us.

[#8]

Hi Anoush,

It was the 26th when I first rang. The three-day turnaround is what it said when I was checking available plans and then what I was verbally told when I spoke to a rep.

He suspected that there was an error on the system suggesting I'd need an ONT fitted, as we both knew I didn't.

At this point there was no suspicion of a faulty ONT or of any ONT/address mixup. The rep said something along the lines of "if you have an ONT, it will be remote activation within days and an engineer won't need to come".

Me and you both agree now he shouldn't have said this - but in his defence had OR not messed up at their end he would have been right.

Remember on the Thursday evening when my order was closed off and we thought all would be well? That was done without an engineer coming. When it failed we got a "fix" engineer out who realised OR had assigned someone else's ONT box to my house and vice-versa.

That original September 12 (then September 19) appointment was on OR's books to fit an ONT - not fix an address mixup. That was always mistaken.

It seems me and the original rep shouldn't have been bold enough to think we could override the system saying something, even if though we both knew what it was saying was simply wrong.

The fact that the system said September 19 - albeit for completely the wrong reason - means that regardless of what I was being told verbally (and being led to believe in written correspondence without an out-and-out promise) means I'm not entitled to further compensation.

As an aside, given postal strikes, etc. etc. I'd urge PN to send out the Hubs earlier. One fewer potential headache for customers should it go AWOL.

As said, it is what it is. I'm not expecting anything more to be honest.

Thanks again for all your help through this.

[#9]

Hi Mayer, thanks for the info.

The only reason that your order completed remotely was because an agent in the supplier helpdesk stepped outside of process and did it manually. As I recall we tried requesting this on several occasions.

Turns out it was the wrong thing to do as an engineer was required after all, and if we’d left the order to go through on the 19th November, I’m sure the engineer then could’ve taken the same steps that the engineer took on the 17th to fix the problem with the ONT mismatch. The silver lining to this however is we got you up and running early, albeit only a couple of days, but early nonetheless. 

Ultimately I want us to do the right thing so we’ll still listen to your call and get back to you tomorrow.

[#10]

Thanks Anoush, much appreciated, however this plays out.

Whatever happens from now, I'll quit with my rambling posts relitigating September anyway, as we've all probably invested too much time in this at this point.

[#11]

No problem, that sounds like a plan Mayer

[#12]

Hey Mayer,

We've listened to your call and the agent confirmed your service would be up and running within 3 working days, so we're happy to offer you automatic compensation from the 1st September.

As we've already applied £16.80, I've added a further £67.20 to make it up to £84 which you'll see on your next bill.

Additionally I've offered a gesture of goodwill which you can view and reply to by going Here.

If you're happy to accept let me know by replying to that ticket and I'll add it for you as a complaint resolution.

I hope this helps! Cheers

[#13]

Hi Anoush,

As said on the ticket just now, I'm very happy to accept the discussed sum, and I'm really grateful for you taking the effort to track down the original call and make the very fair offer.

Big thanks for your efforts throughout this whole process - you've been an absolute star and a credit to Plusnet.

It goes without saying that barring some sort of massive changes in my life or Plusnet's (or global thermonuclear war), I'll very likely be sticking with Plusnet for years to come - and a big part of that is how well you've dealt with my issues.

Thanks again.

[#14 · Accepted solution]

Hi Mayer, cheers for the feedback, much appreciated! 

I've added the credit and I've closed the ticket (again, hopefully it stays closed this time )

No problem at all though, genuinely just happy to help and wanting to do the right thing for you. 

If there's ever anything else you'd need help with, feel free to let me know (Although from the 31st October, I'll be running away from the Social Media/Forum team onto new ventures, so might not have a regular presence around here)

Cheers