Lightening Strike blew my router power supply - tech support unhelpful.

[#1]

After a lightening storm my router light went out and my answerphone went off,  I am an electrical engineer and soon determined the problem was the transformers on both had blown.  They were plugged into the same wall socket during the storm.

I dug out my old router, and the power supplies were a match, although the end connectors were different.  I chopped the wires and got it working again.  Wanting to  permanently fix this temporary repair I contacted the help line, and after listening to the operators have a friendly chat for 2 minutes, was finally acknowledge as being on the line.  I explained my issue.  The operator was un-interested, said we don’t do power supplies.  

I have now ordered another one from eBay, I think an open reach engineer is selling them, all the photos have the same laminate floor back ground.

On reflection this is poor customer service, if I have been a little old lady (like my mum) and the light on the router went out, there should be a competent person on hand to send out a new power supply,    Fortunately I know how to match the power supplies, but other people like my mum would not.

[#2]

I fear that the little old lady would be told she needed a new router. Let's face it there could be damage to the electronics that will reduce ithe Hub's working life so the cost of diagnosing which bit has failed and keeping spare PSUs just isn't  worth it.

[#3]

I can see PlusNet's view here - they're not going to send out a PSU when they come with the router and then the router is no good then to anyone they send it to. Unless they keep spares - I don't know.

For the money you're best off buying either a new PlusNet router with a new PSU and you have that as a spare as well. Or that or a BT Homehub 5a (I believe) which can work on PlusNet (again I believe). I've no idea how to set that up, but people on here do use them and they can advise.

I had a router die on me, a Linksys and what a pile of rubbish that was. ADSL sync light went out, thought must be my internet connection. It was only when I tried it at a friends house who I know who had working broadband it didn't work. Then I knew "It is not the connection it is the router".

For what they cost, I would either buy a Hub One or BT Homesub 5a as a backup.

[#4]

Moderators Note
This topic has been moved from Fibre Broadband to My Router.

[#5]

@Boz41 

If you are replacing the router yourself buy a BT Home Hub 6 from eBay. There is a guide to using it on here.

Don't pay for another Plusnet Hub One or a Home Hub 5.

They both have well documented firmware bugs which mean the 5 Ghz WiFi probably won't work properly and the router will need rebooting almost daily.

Plusnet will happily still charge you £100 for a new Hub One knowing that it won't work properly.

[#6]

Thanks for the advice, I am only replacing the power supply. I don’t use the 5hz I put on a separate SSID. My house as thick walls and the signal does not go very far on 5hz.

[#7]

fwiw, I think most of Plusnet's customers may not be in a position to verify whether it is the hub or the power adapter that has failed.  Only makes sense for Plusnet to just stock and send out complete new hub kit to rule out all faulty hardware.

If a customer is out of contract, they can usually get a new hub for free if they renew contract.  I think Plusnet provide a 12 month limited warranty on their hubs and usually ask for the faulty units to be returned to them.

Admittingly, if either hub or power adapter fails and they are out of warranty, and you don't wish to renew contract, then there's not much Plusnet can do to help.

The power adapter for the BT Home/Business Hub 5A/Plusnet Hub One is identical spec to the one used by BT Smart Hub 1 type A.  12V @ 1.5A with non-standard round plug.

[#8 · Accepted solution]

Hi folks,

Just to offer some clarity here, we don't stock spare parts for our routers - this includes power supplies. As @Baldrick1 has mentioned, even if we did, in a situation like this it would be impractical to assume the core unit was undamaged and we would in all likelihood replace the entire unit if it was under warranty just to be safe.

@Boz41 - Looking at the account we have linked for you, I can see that your router IS still within warranty, so I'd be happy to get that RMA'd for you if you like? You'd get a full, boxed replacement through the post and a returns bag for the faulty unit.

Let me know

Best wishes

Dave

[#9]

Thanks Dave, sounds like that is the best course of action for the OP. Not much else I can say 👍

[#10]

Thanks Dave this is most helpful, tech support did not offer any options, or even check if my router was in warranty.   As I said in the post I cut the plug off to get it working with an old charger.  Has this invalidated my warrenrly.

[#11]

Just an aside, I would suggest putting an surge protector between the mains and the router psu. I personally use a small UPS with such protection, but plugin sockets/strips are also available.

hth

Mel

[#12]

Hi @ Boz41,

Thanks for getting back to us. I've sorted that out for you and confirmed delivery here.

Let us know if you need anything further.

Thanks - LF