Plusnet phone and broadband is Which? recommended

[#1]

Which? - the largest independent consumer body in the country - has given Plusnet’s UK home phone and broadband its fifth consecutive product recommendation. Plusnet home broadband is the only internet services provider to gain a Which? recommended icon for their stand alone broadband following their latest customer satisfaction survey, of which the results have been released today.  Plusnet is also one of only two providers to gain a product recommendation for our combined home phone and broadband packages. Read on to find out more ... Plusnet broadband gained a five star rating for accuracy of bills with four star ratings for technical support, customer service, ease of contacting, ease of set-up, connection reliability, clarity of bills and value for money. Our home phone and broadband gained four star ratings across all categories.

How we scored

To become a 'Which? Recommended Provider' a product must receive an overall score of at least 70% in the survey and get an average or above ratings for all other aspects of service.  Plusnet broadband gained an overall score of 73% with our home phone and broadband packages achieving 76%.  The Which? survey takes place every six months and we've now featured in the list of recommended providers since September 2011.

What they said

In the Which? magazine out this week, the broadband report concludes that:

“Plusnet’s broadband and home phone packages are great value and are highly rated by its customers.”

Our CEO - Jamie Ford, had this to say:

“We have made many improvements to our products and services over the last 12 months including the launch of unlimited broadband.  To get this recommendation for the fifth time running, based on genuine customer feedback, is very rewarding after all this hard work.”

Switching to Plusnet has never been easier, simply visit www.plus.net/switch to choose a broadband package that suits you. Provide us with your MAC (migration authorisation code) when you sign up (available from your current provider) and we'll do the rest of the hard work for you. Thinking of switching to Plusnet and have a question you'd like to ask? Feel free to leave a comment below and we'll do our best to get back to you ...

Additionally you can also choose one of our new cheap sim only contracts for your mobile.

[#2]

I will say this - when I was with Plusnet until I left last month, it worked straight away, I had no problems and it was (I repeat WAS) good value for money and worth recommending. Having switched to TALKTALK, which so many people advised me NOT to do as they had poor customer service, I can honestly say that I have not regretted the switch. Plusnet are Still trying to 'close' my account, and in doing so, are prepared to keep debiting my account until they do so (backlog apparently), and then repay any money when they've completed their closure. So I've cancelled my DD. Yet they still try to claim money from my Credit Card (thankfully the one they have on file is expired), and now they are trying to tell me I pay by cheque and will also add £1.50 surcharge. What a complete shambles. Customer service from Yorkshire is only as good as the systems in place and ex-customers will get shafted. I was positive about leaving Plusnet having had good service - NO LONGER!

[#3]

@Tony Hopkinson - Really sorry to hear that Tony, it sounds like your order was delayed but we didn't receive any notification hence not letting you know. I apologise for that. If you could post up a ticket ID from your account I'd be happy to check the order for you and confirm that it is indeed all booked in and still going ahead for the 7th? @Mal Reston - It sounds like you may be on one of our older packages? If you'd like to move onto a new one just log in to the member's centre on our website and choose 'product change' from the links at the top of the page. If you'd like to move up to Fibre that should be offered there, though it is subject to availability in your area - that'll be checked for you as part of the product change if you choose one of the fibre account types. @JGalvin - Really sorry to hear that, that doesn't sound right at all. If you could post the ticket ID where the engineer was booked in here I'll be able to find your account and look into what happened there, hopefully so we can get things sorted but also so I can feed back on that issue and make sure it doesn't happen again. @Barry arnold - Sorry we didn't let you know about the line activating early, I'll give our Prov team a heads up. I've been able to find your account and believe you should be seeing the full 7Mb you were getting previously, that's certainly the speed I can see when checking our supplier systems and also checking the speed we have for you on your account as well - please advise if that hasn't improved? @Old Guy - Yes, there are, though unfortunately human nature means that you'll see more complaints than compliments on these blogs as people don't tend to go out of their way to tell others about *good* service. If you take a look in our community forums though you should see some happy customers (though again there are some complaints we do attempt to fix them, we're also very careful not to edit any posts or comments so you can see exactly what's going on). Hope that reassures you somewhat.

[#4]

@charlesb224 - Really sorry about that. We should have cancelled the account before the payment was taken, but failed on that score - I can only apologise for that. The account is only still open at the moment because the payment is still going through direct debit, as soon as that's cleared we'll be refunding you in full and closing the account - I'll keep an eye on that for you to make sure it happens.

[#5]

Pure ASF&*^5aSGAS. Was told i'll get sorted on 28th october, now it's 6th of november and my internet still not working. was"estimated" to get sorted on 12 of this month after numerous lies and mix infos and promises. never in my life had so much hassle with something. will seek legal action

[#6]

just changed from sky fibre and phone hoped and was promised by the sales person that i would recieve better speeds than with sky have done my ten day wait since installed and its worse than i had before when you call the customer service they say its acceptable speed and its upto 31 that i can get not that im actually going to get it so i am now paying for something worse than what i started with there is a fault but just get fobbed off when i call them with its my pc or its the best im gonna get not a happy bunny intend to take it further

[#7]

hi I signed up yesterday you asked me to pay £23 and set DD up with my bank which I did ive been trying to contact you since 3pm yesterday 22 mins was the longest I stayed on the phone waiting not happy you were quick to take my money but I have no idea off when I will be connected I have not had any emails from you also the username and password will not let me login to check my account

[#8]

Looks like a few people have commented since Bob set up my Static IP. Just to keep the story going, the static IP hasn't made much difference (apart from my line speed now being 25% of what it was 4 weeks ago.. which is when Plusnet last added any information to the ticket for my problem). The only way to get any response out of these guys is to scatter comments and posts around their forum, hoping to embarrass them enough that they will actually do something to help.

[#9]

@JohnWho - Sorry to hear that, I'm guessing that's an order that's been delayed? I'd be happy to chase it up for you if you could send us the ticket ID? @mrichards47 - Hi, doesn't sound good, sorry about that. It might be worth running through our faults wizard at http://faults.plus.net - that'll take you through a few tests that might help to improve the speed and if not it'll pass a ticket to our faults team who'll be able to test the line in full and give you better advice on that score. @emma kinnear - Really sorry to hear that. We'd like to get your username but wouldn't recommend posting it in this comments section I'm afraid, so it'd probably be worth giving our support team a ring on either 08004320200 (landline) or 03451400200 (mobile) and they'll be able to advise you. @syates - The static IP wasn't there to fix the problem, it was there so you could set up an external monitor - did you manage to get that working alright, and has it shown any issues? Regarding the ticket updates I believe Martin is still awaiting a response from our supplier, I'll chase him about this and see if I can get him to update you.

[#10]

@matt taylor - Yes, I know it wasn;t there to fix the problem and yes the external monitor is set up and results have been posted on the ticket showing the excessive lag I have been telling you about for months. As for the ticket updates... 4 weeks without a peep from you guys... seriously? I know you say you are waiting on your supplier, but common courtesy and good customer support would warrant at least some indication that you are doing something rather than twiddling your thumbs. Four weeks ago I asked you why my line speed was set to half what it was and I am still awaiting a reply to that question, even an explanation as to why it was done would be nice. You guys really have to start and get your act together!

[#11]

I was a new customer waiting to sign up with plus net. I had an activation date of the 20th November. I called the customer service team and waited over 35 minutes. Called again waited 30 minutes then had the phone put down on me. Cancelled my order with immediate effect and will stay with my current provider. Sounds like i had a lucky escape.

[#12]

@syates - I've raised that to the faults team leader there, so something should be done for you shortly. Regarding the line speed though, there's obviously something there that's causing speed fluctuations but as that's not been found in the course of the fault investigation yet it's not really something I could explain - there aren't many drops showing on our connection logs so it'd have to be some kind of interference. I've asked Chris Pettitt to have a look for you, hopefully he'll be able to find something. @Bernie - Really sorry to hear that, can't say I blame you though. We do have the new callcentre opening soon which will help a great deal with the call wait times, unfortunately though at the moment they're much less than ideal as you've found. I apologise that we didn't come up to scratch there for you.

[#13]

Dear Plusnet, All I want is for you to provide what I've ordered and paid for. You accepted the order and any decent company would want to fulfil it. I understand fully that issues may crop up but trying to get those issues resolved is impossible. The total lack of communication from you is pathetic especially as you position yourselves as a communications company. A 2 hour wait to speak to the support centre - I don't think so. And it's no good you telling me to raise a trouble ticket as us poor customers can only have 4 open tickets and you use these for internal comms purposes. So if you have 4 different threads open, I cannot raise a ticket. Brilliant. As you can tell, you have one very unhappy customer. I look forward to hearing from you albeit through this open forum medium.

[#14]

Excellent service from PN. I signed up back in July of this year and it's been top-notch ever since

[#15]

Well Bob we are now in Groundhog territory. This has been going on since August and I am now back to the beginning with your tech department. Even though BT have identified the problem, I am again getting the same nonsense on my complaint. Just to make it clear, my line is capable of a virtually error free 3Mps if the signal noise ratio is hard set to 9. This is not my opinion this is what BTW have said and what was agreed. My line was running too fast at about 4.3Mps and was creating errors. By fixing it so that it could not exceed about 3.7Mps and hard setting the signal noise ratio to 9 it fixed the problem. Unfortunately I am now once again getting the nonsense that a speed between 1.5 and 4 is acceptable so if the speed drops to 1.5Mps your tech are saying everything is fine. Well Bob I am telling you it is not fine. Everybody knows that these parameters were set by BTW as a getout from Ofcom and basically are dishonest. BT only get away with this because they are a privatised monopoly and with the collusion of ISPs such as Plusnet. As I said before, Plusnet have a long way to go before they deserve the above award and when the rural fibre broadband rollout comes to my area I shall be moving on.

[#16]

Ive jsut fall off my chair laughing so much , customer services is so shocking it unbelivable . I tried Getting out off my contract which didnt even get setup correctly . Phone / line/fibre .. Fibre great but Line and phone a big mess. WHne I did cancel I asked quite frank with the question , Any hidden charges "NONE" was the only to find charge for fibre cancellation . I wish I never heard of plus net . Im still not got the phone and line transffered even thou promised in 11 days after complant ..see call note saga running since 30/9 .OFcom reccomends 11 days transfer ... I just wish I could cancel everything at plusnet cost and go back to sky . But they hold me to ransom .

[#17]

Hands down the worst ISP I have ever dealt with. My connection was set up five weeks later than initially stated. Since then, my router has ceased to function. It is impossible to even report this issue as phone delays are consistently over 40 minutes long. I e-mailed a complaint ten days ago which has still not received a reply. My next stop will be OfCom. The lack of transparency and total absence of customer service offered by Plusnet is appalling.

[#18]

started 2013 off at £21 a month - plan still same but got £29, even £31 a month HOW ? On so called unlimited fixed package Also. back in January was getting a little over 10mb download speed. just checked over three days with plus nets own checker 6732 kbps and thereabouts, once I hit the magic 7 !! where is the advertised up to 16mgb I have noticed they will do ANYTHING for newcomers, same as I get but a fraction of the cost Wait until the honeymoons over people, keep an eye on those 'fyi' emails stating how much is leaving your account - I am unlimited so am going around accusing family of calling mobile numbers. By the way - NIGEL Nov 17th, 2013 @ 12:11pm. You are aware that BT owns Plusnet .. aren't you?

[#19]

I had nothing but trouble since Plusnet took over my account from Yourcalls.net. First they overcharged me for call and then cut my phone off. You can only get through on the phone if you are prpared to wait 30 minutes. Noe I cant log into my account because they say I havnt paid lst month but it went through on the 28th Oct. Fed up with them. Was goint to BT but if its the same company dont know who to go to.

[#20]

Hi Shaushie, Yes I am but when I joined Plusnet, BT only had a very small stake and Plusnet was still helpful and obliging. Unfortunately they seem to have adopted all of the worst traits of BT. About three years ago Money mail readers awarded BT the Wooden spoon for the worst customer service of any UK company. Unfortunately some at Plusnet seem to think this is something to aspire to! When my current contract expires hopefully the Rural broadband may have hit my exchange and I am off. Life is too short to keep going back over the same old book of excuses. I think they are now on page 23 with me.

[#21]

I am a very recent subscriber to Plusnet from BT whose customer service I found appalling - looking at other comments above, nothing new there. I find Plusnet customer service agents very helpful in contrast, especially being slightly deaf and born in Yorkshire so I can actually understand what is being said. However, I just cannot get through to speak to them and Rogsparks' 30 minutes would be wonderful if I ever got that. My worst was 2 hours 57 minutes before I got through to Chris U who took less than 5 minutes to get my account connected after 38 hours from my transfer from BT. After five days of service, my line speed is excellent - phone due to change in a week, but, like others, I have to ask why Plusnet could not foresee the problems of waiting time. I'm sure the new centre will make a difference but how long will that take? I am glad to have escaped from BT but do wonder whether I should have been more careful in my choice of ISP because, really, Plusnet service is just not good enough.

[#22]

@WelshWiz - I'd be happy to chase that up for you, sorry for the delay in replying here. Just need a ticket ID if possible so I can find your account? @Nigel - if you could likewise post a ticket ID I'll be able to find your account and arrange for the SNR to be set at 9dB as per your request. @simon elsey - Ofcom regulations state that a phone migration must have at least 14 days before completing in order to give the end user time to cancel it if required. Having said that I'm really sorry it has been that long, though it looks like we have an appointment date booked for the install and our provisioning agents are keeping the ticket up to date and answering your questions? @Orla - really sorry to hear it's not working, it might well be easier to raise a fault to our dedicated team via our wizard at http://faults.plus.net. I'd expect your complaint ticket to be picked up soon. @Shaushie - That sort of increase sounds like possibly phone call charges? I've not been able to find your account so can't advise in full. Regarding the speeds, it depends on phone line quality - 7Mb is counted as 'up to' 16Mb, though we'll be happy to see if there is anything we can do to increase the speeds there for you. @rogsparks - really sorry to hear that. Please post a ticket ID in here and I'll take a look at your account for you, make sure everything's in order.

[#23]

HAVE YOU GOT THE MESSAGE YET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Your customer service centre is a complete joke - from where do you get the impression that making a customer wait on the phone for 30 minutes on the off chance that you can be bothered to pick up the phone is acceptable!!!!!! It's not hard- put staff on the phones to answer their queries - you may be amazed to know that I am trying to upgrade the service CRAZY I KNOW! Ring me back, you never know your luck!

[#24]

Oh goodie, I get to talk to a human at last

[#25]

Plusnet have a logo that states "we'll do you proud " what load of crap ! I asked for my landline to retain my number when I dial out, which it doesn't ! Reported it to CS and they said they would raise the fault with there provider Open Reach, basically passing the buck , still not sorted, I was sent a email stating they may have to send an engineer out to rectify the problem at a charge of £60!! , I have just moved over from Sky who use the same wiring , and previously supplied the same service I asked for when moving to Plusnet and yet Plusnet cannot supply the same service, the installation engineer who wired my services up for plusnet a sub contracted could set the broadband up either I did it my self, it seems to me Which magazine gave praise where it's certainly not deserved, I think ill cancel and give Virgin a go!

[#26]

@Ninja7, sorry to hear that you're having problems. The £60 engineer fee is only charged if the problem is found to be something your side of the master socket e.g. dodgy extension cabling, a faulty telephone handset or something like that. As long as you've carried out any diagnostic checks we've asked of you then you should be fine. Sky only use the same wiring from the exchange to your premises. The equipment in the exchange and beyond is different. It's quite feasible that a jumpering mistake has been made an Openreach engineer at the exchange whilst transferring your service. Unless you've ordered fibre, then the broadband element of your service is self-install and I wouldn't expect the engineer to help set the router up. They're not supposed to. I hope things get sorted quickly.

[#27]

I have been on hold for technical support now for 50 minutes waiting to speak to somebody about my elderly parents faulty telephone line (their account is also in my name). I held for 30 minutes earlier this evening and eventually it sounded like I would get to speak to somebody and the line went dead. I have been a loyal plusnet customer for five years but have only recently switched my telephones to you. I am appalled by this pitiful level of customer service. On reading your stats it seems the average time to rectify a telephone line fault is 9 days. 9 days? Why not be honest and put that on your adverts? If my fault is not rectified in well under that kind of time I will be contacting Radio 4's consumer affairs programme You and Yours to warn other consumers against switching to Plusnet.

[#28]

Hi Marc,really sorry about the lengthy waits. We're very busy at the moment however we are recruiting pretty aggressively at the moment and have just opened another call centre in Leeds to help take some of the burden (it'll take a few weeks to get things fully operational). The length of time it takes to rectify a phone fault is largely dependent on the type of fault and whether or not we require an Openreach engineer to get involved. If we do, then we're somewhat bound by their availability. This is no different to how any other BT Wholesale reseller operates, BT Retail included. Hopefully you're parents line will be fixed before then. If you've a fault ticket reference to hand then I can certainly take a look and see if there's anything I can do to help?

[#29]

Aimed at Gareth in the Customer Help Team. Just to say the connection to the local Phone Exchange was restored at 1400. Many thanks for your help - as you see I am now "back in business" Best Regards

[#30]

Joined Plusnet from Sky end Oct 2013. Bad mistake by me - please be warned any potential joiners - Don't. Never had a problem in over 5 years with Sky. 1. Given a date of transfer and a promise of a text when available. The date was 2 days after the correct closedown date from Sky and no text to say working 2. Pronised free voicemail on phone. Did not get it - I discovered a week after and had to ask for it - 20 min delay waiting on phone for customer services 3. Internet worked fine to start with - Plusnet monitored as promised for new customer. Received e-mail on 13 Nov - Estimated line speed: 11Mbps Current line speed: 4Mbps. Since then speeds have been awful. Their 40 second "brass band advert" held on Your tube took 1 minute 10 seconds to run. Subsequent test froze after 14 seconds. 4. In line with their adverts I tried to check their "easy to use" broadband speedchecker. It has returned an error on the 10 occassions I have used it. I have run the USwitch checker tonight - worked ist time - download speed = 0.2Mb. I'm not technical and don't know what it means but I do know it lines up with the Plusnet experience Do not sign up. Please will all who have a bad experience contact "Which" as I will when I have their formal response to the questions I have raised which I understand will be dealt with after 35 hours 59 minutes and 1 second !!!!! according to their automatic response (Now there is precise customer service imaging!!!!!)

[#31]

Ummm, gonna be cancelling my recent order 51 mins plus waiting for customer service then gave up so who knows how long I would have been hanging listening to crappy repeated songs. These guys seriously need to sort this out as there sales team are quick to respond. I for one wont be recommending them!

[#32]

@Shiela, thanks - I'll let Gareth know. Glad to hear you're back up and running :) @Chris, 1/2. sorry you had problems with the Voicemail provisioning and that the communication around the line activation was lacking :( 3. That doesn't sound right. You should be getting close to the estimate. If you haven't already, then please report a fault by completing the troubleshooter at faults.plus.net 4. Which 'easy to use' speedchecker are you referring to here? If you can provide me with a support ticket reference then I'll happily take a look and see if I can spot what's wrong? @Lolly, sorry about the lengthy wait. We are really busy at the moment although there's lots we're doing to address this. Anything I might be able to help with?

[#33]

Bob, Thanks for the offer of looking into my parents problem. I have unfortunately only just checked in on this forum and found your offer. After waiting for the best part of an hour for my call to be answered I spoke to a very helpful chap called Richard who tested my line and found a fault outside. He arranged for the engineers who have now visited and solved the problem. My parents are now thankfully back on line. I have my fingers crossed that your recruiting goes well and you can reduce your call answering times in the very near future. An hour on hold is unacceptable and sadly the weak link in what is otherwise a great service. Regards, Marc

[#34]

If Plusnet wishes to improve customer service how about investing in a phone system that will call the customer back when they reach the top of the queue so that we don't have to waste 30 minutes of our lives each and every time listening to the pop chart mistakes of the 1980s? Over the past 2 months I have spent about 6 hours of my life in Plusnet queues... it's even killed the batteries in my DECT phone!

[#35]

Been with plusnet for the past 3 years loyally. Unfortunately they''ve become uncompetitive recently and my finances were being stretched and decided to ask them for a PAC code and whether we'd be charged for moving. They said no, so we moved to a cheaper service, however the new provider didn't require the PAC code and could do the transfer without it. This gave Plusnet an excuse to charge us over £26 extra because no PAC code was used. Now I'm not an expert on how transfers work and shouldn't have to be, but they are thieves.