Are Plusnet good?

[#1]

Because I am on the Anytime tariff which hasn't changed - still £3.50 - and I have opted for the 12 month line rental so my overall bill for the year will have reduced from £185.88 to £155.88
That will easily pay for the setup fee for the few chargeable calls I make
Also if you are on the basic tariff you would need to make a lot of calls to cover the £30 reduction. If you are making that many calls you would be better on Anytime as the approximate total call cost would be at least £180 (equivalent to £15 per month) to generate the extra £30 from the price increase
That is why the other posters are saying that their bill won't increase

[#2]

Anyone who thinks that PN are bad has clearly never been a Tiscali customer (and then a TT "Tiscali legacy" customer!  :'()
The no-nonsense information on the website about all aspects of the products is a refreshing change, and the difference in attitude towards solving customer's problems in the forums is almost palpable! 
My first post, because I like to give credit where it's due, and no, I have no connection with PN or any other communications company!

[#3]

Quote from: Labman

ok why are people saying that there bill hasnt increased, when they emailed everbody saying a call is 1.1p more plus somthing else and another £1 for line rental.. pn customer service is good admit-tingly.

Well my bill hasn't increased as I don't pay any call costs to PN.
Remember - they are an ISP not a TELCO by design.  The phone service is an optional extra that you can take - if you don't like the charges then go elsewhere.

Quote

Well to be honest they are slowly losing to virgin because of the 60gb cap

Is the cap that important?  I'm only using 15GB/month at present tops.  No iplayer involved in that admittedly; but there is youtube & other streaming involved; along with gaming downloads.

[#4]

60GB is not really a "cap" anyway, it is the amount of usage allowance that has been paid for in advance.
If it was a "cap" then once you exceed that usage then you would get cut off - as most other ISPs (using BT lines) do.
You can CHOOSE to "cap" your usage and additional expenditure to anything you want by logging in to the 'Member Centre' and setting a suitable threshold in the "Product Change" page.
If you then exceed your chosen limit, then all that happens is that traffic management kicks in and reduces your download speed, but you can still download as much as you like - but just more slowly.
Comparing Plusnet to Virgin is not a very valid comparison either, as Plusnet pay BT for the amount of broadband traffic that is passed over the BT network, whereas Virgin is an LLU ISP who own their own network hardware and DON'T pay BT (or BT prices) for the volume of traffic on their network.  Therefore there is a fundamental difference between ISPs that use the BT network and those that use non-BT LLU connections, and that it is the LLU ISPs that can offer 'unlimited' data downloads without traffic 'shaping'.

[#5]

l have to say lve been very dissapointed in plusnet, having been with sky for lyr with no problems at all, re disconnections, slow speed, useage unlimited, never had to contact them, freeview box and router provided, prior to them 4yrs with virgin for just broadband again as above no probs.
l changed to try and economise as things get tighter economically, looked around, plusnet sounded a good price, plus bt connection and yorks co.
First week had about 30 loss of signal,s, most for 5min or so, still annoying losing emails, l or 2 for a few hours, whilst l desperately check and recheck all connections, whilst this is going on l,m informed my logb allowance has been passed so have to get another 5 at 5pound cost, within 5 days thats used so need another 5 now ten pound over, wondering where it will end, so agree to upgrade to the 60gb meaning my price now goes up to ll.49 instead of the initial 3months at 3.49, thereafter 6.50, which l was led to believe would suffice for normal useage, which mine is, dont download films, utube, files, just email, ebay, a little surfing, by the 3rd week another 5gb used, meaning l5pound on top of the new rate of ll.49 bringing my first bill to near 48pound, when l left sky due to bills of 33pound average, virgins were 24 pound average for broadband, phone calls being through the internet company sipgate pay as you go, which l would have used again but not being technically sussed and my son who set all up now living a distance away, and pn sounded good, line rental and bb use for l5-l8pound pm. Reality lve paid going up to 60pound in the first month.
And will be on at least 30pound per month from now on, increased line rental added.  l also find it a little slow, my son thinks a lot slow on his laptop, drove him mad last night, wanted me to pack in with pn, reconfirmed to him that l had found out later l would have 90-100pound to pay to pn if l cancel, presumably without contract, router price, which l probably didnt need, having sky,s left, and one of our own, but led to believe it best to get pn,s router. 
l dont doubt there is nothing illegal about pn,s set up, probably all in the small print, reams of it, as with everything, if you want to spend half your day reading terms etc for everything, and it is in keeping with many other companies, as ive found out to my cost, as with buy now pay lyr later, no notification and interest banged on.  Guess l grew up in a time when people and companies were more upfront, words rather than terms.
So at present l have just started the 60gb allowance, the disconnections have stopped, hopefully it will be more straightforward and l will not have to go through service problems, and try to manage paying far more than l expected to.  This is a statement not requiring

[#6]

i feel plusnet are a good isp

[#7]

twitchy14
I don't think things should be as bad as you describe  
I have the 60GB package and anytime phone and pay just under £20 as a new starter with PB  
Did you take up an offer or reply to an advert?
I would give the nice people at Customer Support a ring on Monday and tell them, giving details of any offers, rather than putting it on here when it won't be picked up by PN staff till Monday. I went through a similar expeience at the start but am an happy bunny now  
In fact, remembering back, one issue was upgrading from a cheap entry offer and loosing my discount and they were very fair with me  

[#8]

Thanks for advice, might give it a try, at present feel as if l,m spending half my life chasing one firm or another up, my connection problems seem to be now settled, although a little slower than sky its near enough for me, it was always more about signing up for what l considered an economy measure near halving sky,s price, not being aware that my light internet useage with rare downloading would take me past the l0gb limit so soon and l would have 5pounds added on for every 5gb, making my first bill 47pound instead of the 20 or so expected, and now with the 60gb 30 or so.
Also just discovered from my online bank account lve had a dd taken by sky, despite notifiying them verbally 6 wk ago, in that like plusnet email address,s are nr impossible to find, so more expense ringing them sorting that out. Should l start on my buy it now pay a year later, where they dont inform you at year end and just bang on interest, and automatically take dd,s out, apparently the law covers all, wrapped up in reams of terms and conditions, which you could also spend half you life reading.    So wont even start with dentist experience, and the time consuming conflict with them, maybe its a bad phase, or maybe more business,s are not very upfront and ad on,s the usual practise, all tied up in lengthy terms, and if l decide l wish to leave plusnet, after just listening to new wonderful terms from sky l have to pay up to 90 pound cancellation, half for the router which l never needed, having sky,s and own, but led to believe l did.  So my last month,s packages have so far cost me 70pounds, added to that the cost of buying a norton anti virus, led to  believing that may help with some of the initial problems, re disconnections, crash,s, speed, so think it understandable l am annoyed to say the least, though not just with pn, business practise generally, and the minister who tells us its our fault if we dont `simply switch` to economise on services, a deluded or devious, millionaire, seems you cant win if your not, rant over.

[#9]

Hi,
Not sure I follow fully what you are saying; however could you not have cancelled the DD with Sky?  If I login to my online banking website; I get the option to manage my direct debits which includes the option to cancel them.  It does then remind me to contact the company to let them know it's been cancelled.  This seems to be a much more sensible way of doing things rather than relying on the cancellations dept speaking to the finance dept.
I'm still a little puzzled as to how you've downloaded so much?  If you log into the portal and click on View My Usage at the bottom of the page is a "view usage breakdown".  Does that tie in with what you've been doing or are you seeing high amounts of "gaming" or other unusual categories?

[#10]

Hi twitchy14,
I have replied to your ticket. I hope you find that satisfactory.
Jojo

[#11]

Quote from: JayG

Anyone who thinks that PN are bad has clearly never been a Tiscali customer (and then a TT "Tiscali legacy" customer!  :'()

That made me laugh, I was a Tiscali customer for years before moving to PlusNet, and I've never looked back. I still have to deal with Tisclai/TalkTalk for a relative and their customer support is so brutal that it may as well be non existent.
As for PlusNet, I have been with them for almost 2 years and I have only ever had to report 2 problems. Once a speed issue that was quickly resolved, and just recently (this week) another speed issue, which probably cropped up as I just moved home. Both times were dealt with quickly and professionally. Even when I moved home this was dealt with efficiently.
Another plus about the service, I originally signed up for unlimited broadband, PlusNet informed me that they are changing the service and would I like to downgrade, I told them no and I still enjoy unlimited to this day. PlusNet honoured the original contract with me and continue to honour the contract.
Just to give a comparison, my relative who is on Tiscali had an unlimited package, they emailed them and told them they were discontinuing the product and she had been downgraded to 40Gb a month at the same price for her unlimited. 3 months later and Tiscali/TalkTalk started offering unlimited broadband again. Very dodgy in my opinion.

[#12]

It seems amazing the different responses you get on here. I was with Tiscali and couldn't praise them enough, helpful and diligent. Then it went to talk talk which was ok but never had any issues with them apart from the sales promotions and the accents. My own experiences with Plusnet on the other hand have been bad so far. Even on this forum you get told off if you don't wave the plusnet flag enough.
Despite all this I thinks its like all big businesses sometimes you'll find someone who cares and othertimes "computer says no...." Shame because I wanted it to be better but am now regreting ever signing up.

[#13]

Personally I have been very happy with Plusnet, especially when compared to my two previous ISPs who were borderline incompetent.
I've only needed to deal with Plusnet on two occasions, once when signing up (where I was continually kept updated on my order progress) and the other time, when my line developed a fault. This was resolved as promptly as is possible, after a couple of BT Openreach visits.
I personally don't feel the need to fly any kind of flag for Plusnet; the only thing that's required is a bit of patience and understanding.

[#14]

I've had previous experience of five ISPs. After four years with PN I am in no doubt that normally their customer service is second to none. Yes, occasionally there's a hiccup, but they are much more open and willing to engage with their customers than any other ISP.
Where, #spannerhappy, has someone been told off for "not waving the plusnet flag enough"???
Which other ISP has their staff engaging with it's customers so regularly over a large number of forums and I believe, uniquely, usenet (which is my preferred method).
I agree with this comment:
"Highlighting that it wasn't just about being cheap, the judges concluded that "Plusnet has proven it is possible to offer cheap home broadband while also going above and beyond when it comes to customer care - something some of its larger rivals can learn from".
http://www.plus.net/residential/awards.shtml

[#15]

it wasnt flag waving that was pointed at the broken spanner man.  he was told off by the Staff and the Moderators for breaking forum rules and jumping from one thread to another with the same problem