Busiest board.

[#1]

Is it me or is this fast becoming the busiest board on the forums?

[#2]

If it's just you then it's just me also Chilly
I haven't seen so many issues in one place for quite some time

[#3]

Sadly, I think you're right, Chilly - and this has a horribly familiar ring to it.
Remember the bad old days of a couple of years ago when PN lost the plot completely and service standards went south along with customer service?
Well, it's back.
As you may have read in previous threads, I've noticed the deterioration particularly over the last two or three months - both in service reliability and the willingness of CSC staff to sort the problems out.  Ticket tennis is increasing, phone hold times are getting worse - especially on the business line - and the "up to date CSC statistics" updated every few minutes on the portal are now pure Hans Christian Anderson.  On many occasions I've been kept waiting on hold for the business CSC for several minutes when the call queue stats show little or no delay at all.
I've spoken to PN staff on a couple of occasions about this - it would be wrong to repeat the conversations here without their prior consent - and whilst they acknowledged my concerns (and sorted out the immediate problems I had) I was left with a vaguely familiar and uncomfortable feeling.
I sincerely hope things improve but I fear that "BT effect" might be responsible for it - I hope to $deity I'm wrong.
Sheffield, you have a problem.... 

[#4]

Until I read this thread I didn't realise how many people seem to have problems.  Maybe this should be brought to Anthony's attention.
I've noticed in recent weeks the long length of time it takes to browse and have been getting more timed out messages than I once did.

[#5]

well I have just joined the clan with my home phone - on another thread

[#6]

Hi all,
We know there have been a number of issues mentioned with browsing and speeds but we added a segment at the end of July and have another one due on Thursday which should sort things out. Anything else we'll try and pick up as ever, what are the major issues from your guys' point of view?

[#7]

Other than line problems causing low speeds and the difficulty in fixing them - largely down to Openreach - it appears to be the really horrible speeds some people are seeing on Usenet, BitTorrent and Youtube

[#8]

Those do seem to have cleared up recently - at least they had before the weekend, and the new capacity should mop up the remainder. We haven't let it drop though I assure you.

[#9]

Quote from: orbrey

Anything else we'll try and pick up as ever, what are the major issues from your guys' point of view?

The issues worrying me most right now have all occurred on multiple occasions within the last three months (I provide first line support and installation services to something over 80 PN customers I have referred and signed up over the last several years).
1>  Long waiting times in the business call queue when the stats on the webpage clearly show either very few calls or no calls at all ahead of me.  On quite a few occasions I have found myself talking to the residential support staff when the call is eventually answered.  On querying this, SCS staff are unable to give me any reason for this.
2>  Ticket tennis has begun to get very bad again - CSC agents not bothering to read the tickets and just shovelling out the first stock asnwer that comes into their heads instead of making the effort to actually read and understand the nature of the problem.  Please see previous threads I have raised on this matter.
3>  CSC staff on the business support desk actually refusing me support, maintaining they have no access to the relevant records, despite the fact that I have been told subsequently that they should have provided me with the relevant support.  This has happened on at least three occasions - after the most recent instance (with his prior consent) I asked to be put through to James and specified his extension number only to be told that he was unavailable even while he was PM-ing me and asking me to call him.
I have no current issues outstanding that need attention - and (as mentioned in a previous thread) when James and his colleagues' attention is drawn to a problem in these forums they very quickly jump on it and sort it, for which I am eternally grateful.  This should, however, not be necessary - the CSC staff should have sorted them promptly in the first place.

[#10]

Quote

1>  Long waiting times in the business call queue when the stats on the webpage clearly show either very few calls or no calls at all ahead of me.  On quite a few occasions I have found myself talking to the residential support staff when the call is eventually answered.  On querying this, SCS staff are unable to give me any reason for this.

I've answered this in your other thread. If you have details please let me know, ie: dates / times when this occurred.

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2>  Ticket tennis has begun to get very bad again - CSC agents not bothering to read the tickets and just shovelling out the first stock asnwer that comes into their heads instead of making the effort to actually read and understand the nature of the problem.  Please see previous threads I have raised on this matter.

Can you post or PM some ticket ID's please?

Quote

3>  CSC staff on the business support desk actually refusing me support, maintaining they have no access to the relevant records, despite the fact that I have been told subsequently that they should have provided me with the relevant support.  This has happened on at least three occasions - after the most recent instance (with his prior consent) I asked to be put through to James and specified his extension number only to be told that he was unavailable even while he was PM-ing me and asking me to call him.

I believe this happened once recently due to a newish member of the team not understanding the special support arrangements we have in place for you. Said agent was duly educated. Reading your posts leads me to believe it has happened more than once. Is this the case and if so please PM me with some details.
To be clear, the business team is bigger than at any point in the past, albeit we have doubled the size of our business customer base in recent months, and we are continuing to add staff to the team. I've been working closely with the CSC management team on a resourcing plan based on continued and sustained customer growth. We provide a very high level of support to our business customers and I am very proud of the guys and girls in the BSC. The skills and service levels they have are repeatedly praised by small business customers and corporates almost daily. To see feedback such as yours is incredibly rare and I need to work out how we've left you feeling like this.
Referrers are key to our growth. They always have been and will remain so. Providing high quality business support is also paramount in our plans. My responsibility is in life service management and service delivery for our business and corporate customers. My background will always ensure that we will look after our referrers too and I want to ensure that the service levels we provide to our business base and our high end referrers is as good as it can be.
I'd appreciate the opportunity of a quick chat with you Loombucket to further understand your issues and perhaps identify ways of better supporting you and your referral customers better.
If you'd like to drop me a PM with contact details and a suitable time for a chat that would be great.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Mark

[#11]

Hi Mark,
Thanks for replying.  As indicated in the other thread, I'll PM you some details as soon as I can - I'm a bit committed on a large project for a few days but will look forward to talking to you as soon as I can dig out some usernames, ticket numbers etc.
As regards refusal of service, this has in fact happened on three occasions as previously stated - the incident involving James was the most recent - over the last few months, involving three different CSC staff.
(Edited to correct 'orrible late-night grammar & spelling)

[#12]

I think that Plusnet may be throwing some resources at this problem...
I've had a couple of tickets hanging around for quite a while and although they are still in progress,
they appear to be being dealt with by people who are a bit more on the ball (to coin a phrase).
I'm quietly confident that things will generally improve. 

[#13]

think this sums up what we all new was happening to the top qauilty service we once new
http://community.plus.net/forum/index.php/topic,78484.0/topicseen.html

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And it's that lack of care which has put the nail in the coffin so to speak. Ok so I was offered compensation for the inconvenience which was a nice gesture - but I want a decent, reliable ISP with advisors that I can trust, not a reduced bill or nice gestures. If I wanted a cheap so-so service I would've stayed with Talktalk

[#14]

If you read last weeks EoW - you will reference to several new staff members - and also a few senior PN guys have said they have been recruiting becuase of the growth in business.
So yes - lets hope they get up to speed ASAP .

[#15]

I don't suppose PN had a recruitment freeze whilst BT were busy sacking making redundant thousands of people across the organisation, did they?
Perhaps, they are only now recruiting and playing catch-up.
If PN had thought their new 18 month contract products were worth having, perhaps they would have recruited in advance?
It must take quite a long time to train someone properly.