9 months and still waiting for my broadband to work!

[#1]

As I live in Sheffield and as I know one of the co-founders personally, I thought that moving from Talk Talk to Plus Net would be fantastic. It wasn’t.
After 9 months and hours on the phone, my broad band still doesn’t work correctly. I have almost never been able to actually watch a You Tube video from start to finish without it either buffering or just stopping completely. After having been asked to run speed test after speed test, nothing gets done.
Does this sound familiar to anyone?
My first router kept on loosing its password and I had to call, wait for 15 minutes and then go through the process of re-setting the router password details etc. This happened about 15 times before I was sent a new router. The second router has the same fault as the first router.
Then I was told that I would be sent a third router. After 10 days I called back to see where it was. It had not been ordered. In fact the person, who answered the phone, told me that he could not see anything about it on his system and said that I was not due to receive one. After telling him that I was looking at the text from Plus Net on my phone from the 4th September, he agreed that he had found the information about the router but that it had actually not been ordered. A new router has been ordered today but will apparently take up to 5 working days to arrive.
Plus Net is quite cheap but frankly it is not worth the aggravation. The customer service for Plus Net is a complete and utter disgrace. Although everyone is very polite and it is great not to have to battle with a third world call centre, they don’t actually do anything!
I am still waiting for a solid broadband service after joining in January. I am in contract for 12 months.
I will be leaving Plus Net as soon as it is possible.
Very, very disappointed.

[#2]

Hi MPR,
Really sorry to hear that, it's not something that should have been ongoing for this period of time without being resolved.
When you mention about your router losing it's password, are you referring to the wireless password?
Your connection seems very stable;
<img src="http://community.plus.net/visualradius/generated/image13790816204322.png"/>
I presume my colleague you spoke to who did not at first notice the discussion regarding the router simply missed this at first glance so apologies for that and that the router had not been dispatched.
Are you losing wireless signal and then it will not reconnect? I'm happy to help you get this resolved once and for all for you .

[#3]

Quote from: MPR

Does this sound familiar to anyone?

Very very familiar.  We have had an ongoing problem with our broadband dropping at an unacceptable rate for 13 months now and basically Plusnet have given up on the problem.
The "options" that they present me with are to wait for Fibre, when I can pay them more money and a connection fee, then see if the problem is still there, have yet another openreach engineer turn up during the day (because they don't work during the hours the majority of the drops are occurring) so they can tell me how there is nothing wrong with the line (as long as you only want to use it for voice calls), or leave... go to another ISP and take your problem with you.
In a way I am quite envious of your situation since you can leave Plusnet to resolve your issue.  I have invested too much time into this over the last 13 months to let Plusnet off the hook on this one.

Quote from: MPR

Although everyone is very polite and it is great not to have to battle with a third world call centre, they don’t actually do anything!

That pretty much sums it up.

[#4]

This is the second time that I have ordered a router and again it has not arrived. I have just called the office and have been told that I will need to wait until the 20th to see if it arrives. It says clearly on the website that the router will be with me in 2-3 working days. It was ordered on the 13th September. Here we go again!

Quote from: chrispurvey

Your connection seems very stable; <img src="http://community.plus.net/visualradius/generated/image13790816204322.png"/>

The connection may have been stable for the last 10 day period, but I still can’t watch a full You Tube video. I have told you repeatedly about the fluctuating speed on the line which has been down as low as 3.5. I should be getting 8.
When the router fails everything stops. I am then told when I call up that the router has re-set its password and needs to be set up again.
I have called you with this problem around 20 times in all since January and absolutely nothing has been done to escalate things so as to actually fix this issue.
Every time I am forced to take time out of my day to ring you, I have to start all over again with whoever is on the line. I am always refused a manager to speak to. I asked to talk to a manager in order to complain when I called on the 13th September, and I was refused. I was told that I would need to write in via the website.
The service is appalling.

Quote from: chrispurvey

Hi MPR, I presume my colleague you spoke to who did not at first notice the discussion regarding the router simply missed this at first glance so apologies for that and that the router had not been dispatched. Are you losing wireless signal and then it will not reconnect? I'm happy to help you get this resolved once and for all for you .

I would like that very much Chris, please outline the steps you are going to take to get this resolved once and for all.
I look forward to hearing from you.

[#5]

Hi there,
I can see a new router was ordered for you on Friday, this should be with you within the next couple of days - as your connection is stable and you're getting the best sync speed possible on the line it must be a wireless issue so the new router should fix it.
Hope that helps, please let us know how it goes when the router arrives.

[#6]

How do you explain the constant fluctuation in speed on the line which I have been experiencing then?
It has been as low as 3.5.

[#7]

Is that a fluctuation in the results of speed tests or fluctuations in the sync speed?

[#8]

From checking the tickets it looks like it's the speed test results have fluctuated - as I said, the line has been in sync at 8128 since it was installed in January (there are no profile changes shown on BTs systems that we get our reports from so the profile on our side has never moved on from 7150.
@MPR were those speed tests done over the wireless, or with an ethernet cable connecting the PC they were running on to the router?

[#9]

I don't have any idea about sync speed. In 9 months that is the first time anyone from Plusnet has said anything about it. I have been asked repeatedly to do a speed test and then nothing ever happened regarding the results.
I always use an ethernet cable connecting the PC when I am speed checking.

[#10]

The most likely reason that sync speed hasn't been brought up is because it's always been at 8128 and therefore not related to this problem (it's stated in the diagnostics on the fault ticket but not mentioned or discussed).
I can see another router is on the way to you, has that arrived and has it made any difference?

[#11]

I don't have it yet, I have been waiting since the 4th of September. If and when it does get to me and if it does not solve the problem, what is it that you are going to do to take this issue in hand?
Do you have the direct contact of someone in the complaints team for example so that I will not need to phone up and go though the whole thing from scratch with someone who will refuse to put me through to a manager etc?

[#12]

Well, the complaints team aren't necessarily the best team to deal with faults, and while I can talk to them I can't refer issues over I'm afraid - it'd need to be raised to them via the complaints process. As I said though, this wouldn't be the best way to get the fault resolved.
We'd need to do some more testing as given the above posts this seems entirely to be a throughput issue. Having said that though, the speed test results I can see on the fault ticket don't seem particularly slow given the speed of the line and certainly shouldn't interrupt your streaming.
Not sure how much testing you've been through but it'd be good to get some wireshark test results when you're having the problems with the stream so we can look into that and see if there's anything going on there. Having looked at your usage it does seem it's all web and streaming so unlikely to be p2p or anyone logged into your wireless and using it, so I guess we'd go with the above and then take it on from there.

[#13]

Matt, this is exactly what I and countless other angry customers are talking about. Your breezy message reads like I may have had a bit of a slow line for a few days or so and we will have a look at getting it fixed at some point possibly.
NO – I have had this problem for 9 MONTHS!
What are wireshark test results and why has no one mentioned this to me at any stage before this point?
“So you guess you would go with the above and then take it on from there” absolutely laugh out loud funny. 9 months and you guess you would take it from there!
Is this ringing any bells for anyone else?

What you should be saying is the following ……………….
We are very sorry for the inconvenience caused to you so far, we can assure you that this is not representative of the service that we aim to offer to our customers and the issue has been referred to our complaints team who will be handling the matter going forward. In this instance we will deal with this for you as it is clear that a problem which has persisted for 9 months is completely unacceptable and we understand that you have been greatly inconvenienced already.
You will be called within the next 24 hours by (name of complaints manager) who will be with you for the duration of the rectification of the problem. We do hope to restore your faith in the Plusnet service.
Now let’s try again – Tell me the name of the person who will be calling me in order to get to the bottom of this 9 month old problem for me. I want just one person and their direct contact details so that I am not inconvenienced any more than is necessary going forward.
Many thanks.

[#14]

The next time it is running slow I suggest you run this test and post the results: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/diagnostics
BTW: When playing YouTube videos you should see the grey progress bar move ahead of the red bar. If it has done that and the video is still stuttering it's your PC, not the router or the internet connection.
(This is one of my favourite YouTube videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nr9KrqN_lIg)

[#15]

I am happy that everyone reading this chain can see the ignorance of the Plusnet team. You have just ignored everything I have said and asked of you. Well done.
I am very well aware of how You Tube works thank you.
Please respond to my previous message.