Avoid PlusNet

[#1]

I am new to posting comments (on anything, frankly) but my experience over the past week with PlusNet has been so challenging that I want to try and help any other poor soul from ending up with this miserable service. Broadband has become our life-blood. When it works its fine, its in the background, you don't think about the provider. When it goes wrong, you look at the 'Customer Service Awards' and think, "good, they clearly know what they're up to. Good honest Yorkshire no-nonsense service…". Wrong. You cannot in any practical sense get them on the phone - they have made the art of holding into a virtue. When you get them on the 'Chat' service (which is admittedly faster) they have an almost Orwellian 'customer-speak'. Ask a straight question, get a hedged, 'check-list' answer. Brief story: I lost the phone. It was a BT fault (first problem - obvious really, but its not actually PlusNet you're dealing with, and BT seems to give less attention to those of us who've opted out of their clutches). So it took 7 days to fix, with extra coaxing and time-sapping reminders - but the BB was OK throughout. As soon as they fixed the phone, the BB went to a glacial 1980's speed. Virtually nothing would run. No streaming, no Skype, no VPN for my office. Straight onto the phone to PlusNet and the minutes, the hours tick by. "we're sorry to make you wait, etc etc". Not, “punch in your number, we're busy, but we'll phone you”. No, just the endless wait listening to a medley of tunes selected to drive you up the wall. So tried 'Chat'. "Your line has been capped".  Says the seemingly helpful ‘agent’. "This often happens after a phone fault".  Well at least we’ve got the bottom of it and he promises it’ll be right within the hour. I then think for a second….imagine that line from your garage after the car comes out of a service. "sorry about the fault we induced in your car, its quite normal, re-book an appointment and we'll fix it within 72 hours". Anyway, it didn’t get ‘uncapped’ (or ‘unbanded’ as I believe the jargon goes). A second agent says “sorry, first agent logged it but didn’t actually unband it. I’ll do it and if you reset your router it’ll be right in an hour”. And, to sweeten the relationship “we’ll give you a free month of BB” (Implication – its their fault it got capped after the fix). Still no BB and I look visibly older. After numerous frustrating 'chats' it transpired that the first 2 'agents' were wrong - there is no 'cap'. Indeed, they "don't cap the download". So its another fault, and I’m told to go online (this dear reader is the 'online' that barely works) and report the fault. “But I'm reporting it to you” I protest. "No, no, we cannot action that, go online or phone". I say "no, you are PlusNet, you speak to the 'faults department' and get the ball rolling". Cannot/will not (not sure actually). "Get a manager". "What will you ask a manager that I haven’t already told you". I list the issues that a manager might be useful for – an apology might be too much. "Not possible" and "no, we don't do 'ring back' from chat". To cap it all, I am "uncooperative". So, I am in a limbo world of misleading advice, every assistance short of actual help, and no prospect of getting the BB fixed. Like I say, when it works you don't think about “what if it goes wrong?”. And when it does go wrong, I suspect my experience is not isolated – indeed this blog testifies to it. So, I suggest you AVOID PlusNet and think hard (as I am currently doing) about who you’ll entrust this vital service to. (BTW, in case anyone thinks that a switch to John Lewis would get you into a better (albeit more expensive) realm  - think again. It’s a front for, you guessed it - PlusNet. Hope this helps.

[#2]

From reading that post it would appear that better training of the customer service agents might help get things resolved quicker (or actually issues identified correctly) which would, in turn, avoid customers having to repeatedly follow up on 'fixes' that didn't happen, this would then mean less customers queueing on the phone and more issues being dealt with in a timely manner rather than repeatedly dealing with what should have already been dealt with.
Please, Plusnet, take heed.

[#3]

@TB,
That's a well articulated piece which points to the whole reason that there are so many internet issues needing ISP attention.  Reading between the lines...
1. You had a phone fault
2. BTOR fixed it
3. After that your broadband was pants
4. Plusnet tried to fix it
5. When those attempts failed you were directed to the trouble shooter
I suggest that this is what actually happened...
Your phone line had been 'decaying' for a while during which time BT's broadband management system (the DLM) has been 'adjusting' your service in an attempt to manage stability.  Though you might not have noticed, I suspect your broadband had been degrading before the phone line failled.
When the PHONE failed, BTOR attended and fixed the POTS problem, but did not bother to consider what other services provided on the line might have been impacted by the line fault because they do not take a holistic view of their service delivery.  So a good working line is reported back, with no consideration for the goosed broadband service.  An automatic reset of other services provided on a repaired POTS circuit could have avoided the rest of this episode.
Back to Plusnet who report that the line was capped - capping and raising of SNRM is a common characteristic on lines in difficulty - when the cause is rectified they need resetting.  Unfortunately the tools BTw provide to ISPs to undertake these tasks are highly prone to failure.  Though 'change' orders have been correctly processed, they fail to apply to the line.  This is particularly the case since BTw 'bent' the CN21 tools to manage the older CN20 services.  Note that sometimes this form of 'synch speed capping' can be confused with the concept of capping data band width which indeed is something which plusnet do not do, unless you've not paid your bill!
The need to keep reapplying the change and it still failing (even when undertaken by some of the best support staff) is not uncommon.  At that point, the issue sadly needs to go through the full fault reporting channel as a broadband issue, if for no other reason than to be able to engage the right bit of BTOR / BTw to fix the issue they should have done when they fix your phone line.
Changing ISP might get phones answered more quickly, but it will not escape the causes of your tale - BTOR's failure to deliver a holistic repair service and the inadequacy of BTw's support tools.
Synch speed is determined solely by BTOR equipment and your router.  If you want to poke this further, posting your RouterStats here will show if you have the correct synch speed for your line's potential.  There is always the risk that the line was not repaired properly...!

[#4]

Hi there,
I'm really sorry to read of the issues. Townman seems to have outlined what I think has happened here pretty well.
The reset *has* gone through, your line is back in sync at 8218 (the maximum for a 20CN line) and your profile has matched to 7150.
Can you try a single disconnect/reconnect through the router and see what the speed is looking like? I've just replied to the faults ticket with more detail and line test information too, if you can let me know if it's still low we can look further again.

[#5]

As I suspected, you are on CN20 / ADSL1.  If you had been on a CN21 service your experience might have been rather different.  Sadly there are many exchanges which BTOR have not bothered to upgrade to CN21 services.
The good news is that your line performs at the very top of the CN20 capability.

[#6]

I think the pp Inc plusnet are missing the point!
The OP is quite rightly pointing out that technical issues are one thing. Customer services not doing their job is QUITE another THATS when you can even get hold of them!!!