21CN Trial and better service (resolved)

[#1]

Hi folks,
I'm here to have a rant because I feel people should know that it may not be a good idea to sign up to the 21CN trial.
I have been a loyal member of F9 and now PlusNet since 2001.
I was "upgraded" on Tuesday and have not been able to connect to the internet since (so 6 days now).
I have contacted PlusNet on Tuesday evening and a note was put on the Question.
I heard nothing so filled in the Broadband fault checker on Friday at 2am. At 2.40am it simply stated "Your support request has been escalated to the correct team for review."
I'd heard nothing by Friday evening so called PlusNet again and was chatting to a very unhelpful person who made the excuse "there are hundreds of issues on 21CN that they are dealing with and yours will be dealt with in order". And also that I am not able to remove myself from the 21CN trial.
(NOTE: I couldn't care if there are 10,000 issues with 21CN. At that point in time I should be your most important customer because without me you don't have a job!)
At 1pm on Sunday my question I got "[internal] 21CN fault - escalating to correct pool" and have STILL not heard anything.
I clearly stated to the unhelpful fellow on Friday that I have been a member of F9/PlusNet for 8 years and this is the longest I've not had internet access. I am paying for a service I cannot use and being forced to connect via my mobile internet at 50p a day! I also stated that if this was not sorted by Monday (today) that I will be leaving PlusNet and finding a provider I can rely on.
Having checked ISPReview.co.uk so see that PlusNet has a poor 3/4 out of 10 over 106 reviews I can clearly see why.
It it now Monday so I will be contacting you (PlusNet) later on today for my migration code and if I get so much of a sniff of "cancellation charges" I will quite happy tell you where you can place them!
I must ask -what happened? I have shouted your praises and even defended you to my friends and got quite a few people to sign up but you've seriously let me down.
I'm quite sad to even consider leaving you after 8 years but it's the right decision.
Regards,
Martyn

[#2]

My comment on my question in PlusNet 'Help & Support':

Quote

6 days without internet access? If anyone actually cares in your support department I would recommend you read http://community.plus.net/forum/index.php/topic,76490.0.html No matter how many escalations you do I'll be calling you tomorrow for my migration code and moving ISPs. The attachment I include it what I think you should replace your main logo with as I feel it better reflects your attitude to your long serving customers such as me -enjoy

I have uploaded the attachment here: http://resource.mxdx.co.uk/ww/plusnet_newlogo.jpg for everyones amusement!
Martyn

[#3]

Sounds like what happened to me , faulty port i guess. Just keep on at them , don't hold out much hope of getting any kind of compensation as i did not was told ADSL is a non guaranteed service even thou BT had messed my line up .
Good luck thou 

[#4]

Good morning.
I've asked a member of the faults team to look into the diffculties that you have been experiencing.
I'm very sorry for the amount of time you've had to wait for a response.

[#5]

After calling the cancellation department to get my MAC key a very helpful lady by the name of Heather took charge and pushed this through.
Within half an hour I spoke to an equally helpful Keith who posted tips regarding Linksys routers.
The following needs to be set:
Modulation: ADSL2 or ADSL2+
VPI/VCI Autodetect disable
VPI: 0
VCI: 38
It now works and I am finally connected after one week! I have also received a free months subscription as compensation.
This has, for the moment, restored my faith in PlusNet! I do feel that this should have been dealt with quicker and I needed to get to the point of asking for my MAC key before anything was done about it.
Kudos to both Heather and Keith
Regards,
Martyn

[#6]

Keith was who I'd asked to have a look at your fault
Very glad to hear that your connection has been restored.  Please do feel free to shout up if you have any further problems.

[#7]

Hi James,
Since I've set the following I'm getting approx speeds of the following:
Thu 14/5 3.38am: Down 3358kbps / Up 600kbps
Thu 14/5 5.43pm: Down 3143kbps / Up 536kbps
I noticed in one of the tests Keith performed my MSR & FTR are as follows:
Maximum Stable Rate 2848
Fault Threshold Rate 2278
Can these be reset? I don't know if the 10-20 day speed adjustments continue even if I'm not logged in?
I always get low speeds since I live around 4-5km from my exchange
Unfortunately I cannot provide details such as SnR since my router doesn't show this!

[#8]

Hiya,
Those relates to your synchronisation speeds and not your throughput speeds.
They indicate the (sync) speed at which point we can raise to BT, should your sync speed drop beneath the FTR.  Otherwise it shouldn't be a concern.