Calls from 0114 307 3836

[#1]

This post was not about service calls or the security issues it was about marketing calls made by an outside company when customers had made it clear that marketing was no wanted. The security issue was raised by users that were asked security questions without proving that they were PN or its agent. As stated previouly PN have tried to avoid the original question by muddying the water and intrducing the customer service issue. This post was not about any call from PN on service issues for existing services it was about PN passing customer details to an outside company for direct marketing of new services not related to the service the customer had signed up for.

[#2]

@stribs, I've just gone back and re-read your OP. Whilst you raise some good points on being contacted by email before the call and such like (I'm sure Plusnet did that once with me a while ago), you didn't talk to anyone to know what the call was about.  It's been a while since I've done much Data Protect work, but I'm sure I remember a clause allowing for a company to partner with other companies and share data for that particular purpose.  ie the "marketing" company could use that data for contacting customers about Plusnet work, but nothing else.  It could be quite conceivable that such a company is performing service calls for Plusnet.  The potential problem there is what could be considered a blury line between a service call and a marketing call,

[#3]

"How faced with this topic and that are they supposed to please everyone?"

OK Townman, since you like to oversimplify things, I will give a very simple solution to this issue.

1 - Plusnet can check if someone has ticked the marketing/sales contacts as per their account preferences.

2 - If these indicate someone has said not to contact - then don't contact them. If they then later complain about not being told about offers/contract ending etc, Plusnet can then refer them to this choice and advise them to change this.

3 - If someone has indicated acceptance of marketing/sales contact, then you can try to contact them in the way allowed.

Any call should be a simple courtesy one to advise the customer of potential offers and to suggest they call the customer options number to discuss options if this is of interest to them.

This would not fall foul of data protection and would be safest for the customer as it would not give away any more information than existing calls that have asked for the person by name and advised them that the call was from Plusnet.

This method would totally avoid any potential security issues while giving the customer the same amount of information and choice as the current unsafe method.

Is that simple enough?

This might appear obvious but there is an issue here which has made this malfunction. This is either Plusnet has relabelled "Cold Marketing/Sales Calls" as "Service" calls so marketing/sales preferences were being ignored (indicated in answer to a formal complaint) or that the preference database has malfunctioned, so even those who have said no contact are getting cold calls (As indicated by the staff answering on this forum).

I don't know which is the issue but both of these can be easily dealt with.

Either stop the relabelling process and stop all cold style "service" calls (That solely discuss new offers or re-contracting matters) to everyone who has indicated no sales/marketing contact if this is the issue.

If the preference database is not functioning correctly, admit this and stop all cold calls until it has been corrected.

This would stop most of the different issues raised by most on this thread in one go. It would also solve the much more minor issue of those who do not seem able to use a calendar in the other threads you mention.

While I might not agree with these other people and believe that some expect far too much from their service providers, I do respect that these people have the right to bring their concerns to the forum.

Plusnet have a wide variety of different people using their services, from the technically advanced to the amateur, from the able to the vulnerable and from the very intelligent to those less bright individuals.

All should be treated with equal amount of consideration and respect, even if their concerns do not match those of others.

I believe MauriceC hit the nail on the head in his last post (Number 84) and hopefully he can get some results in this superuser forum that was mentioned.

EDIT - In case anyone is interested - I have made my opinion upon the expectation of Plusnet to advise upon offers and my own expectation when someone has indicated they want no marketing contact in the thread Townman referred to in his recent posts here -

https://community.plus.net/t5/My-Account-Billing/Contract-end-no-warning/m-p/1455171/highlight/false...

[#4]

Thanks great response. As for the claim of "over simplification" that's what is necessary to drive change - clarify the issues and options to remove ambiguity. I'll get this into the SU discussion space directly.

Edit - this is now in the SU discussion space and is under active review.

[#5]

I've had 2 calls from this number in the past 24 hours. First time I didn't ring back. This time I answered and they asked all sorts of questions e.g. address and password number. I hung up. Now i'm on the line to Plusnet waiting to report the number.

[#6]

Hi @Nezzac,

Calls from 0114 307 3836 are us, so there wouldn't be a need as such to report the number. However if you're considering re-contracting and would like to discuss this further by calling us to be on the safe side (As opposed to discussing account details off a call you received) I'd recommend calling us on 0800 013 2632, selecting the option for thinking of leaving.

If you'd prefer not to receive these types of calls in future, I'd recommend updating your contact preferences here: https://www.plus.net/my.html?action=modifyMailOptions

[#7]

@HarryB

Does PlusNet use this number for anything other than these marketing calls? For example, for customer support?

If it really is just marketing - and leaving aside whether the calls should be made at all - there would then be the option of blocking them using 1572: PlusNet Call Protect.

[#8]

No point in b reporting this number this despicable company that use scammer techniques and encourage their customers to give out security info just do not care

[#9]

I realise this thread is a month or so old, so I might be accused of resurrecting a dead thread - but I hope you can see that my post follows directly on from the others, and is strengthened by the other people's posts.

I've just been bugged by two calls from that number - once on my landline (I didn't get to my phone in time to answer), then two hours later on my mobile (which I answered because it was a geographical number and wasn't withheld).

1. After my landline call, I went to https://www.plus.net/my.html?action=modifyMailOptions as HarryB advised (in a previous post in this thread) and unticked the relevant options there, but that page says it may take up to 28 days for those settings to be applied.    I was also disappointed that the options there are all automatically ticked by default. 

2. The caller asked for me to tell him ("confirm") my details for data protection.  But there is no proof that the caller is who they say they are.  Apparently in this case they were legit, but there's nothing stopping someone with nefarious intentions making such calls and claiming to be someone legitimate and asking for my details.  So when a supposedly trustworthy company like Plusnet (and I've had my bank do it too  ) makes calls in this way, it makes innocent members of the public accustomed to giving their details to someone ringing them.  This actually reduces data protection, making it easier for scammers.  

3. When the caller asked for my details, I refused to give them because they couldn't prove to me that they were who they said they were.  As a result, Plusnet have emailed me:

We called you today to discuss your account, but the person we spoke to either refused or failed the DPA (Data Protection Act) check. We have left your account unchanged.

If there is anything else that we can help with then please do not hesitate to get back in touch. You can reply to this ticket through the Member Centre at http://www.plus.net or you can call us on 0800 432 0200 or on 0345 140 0200

This is all very well, but you actually can no longer reply to tickets through the Member Centre! 

Please Plusnet, take note, and address these points. Thanks.

Moderator's note by Mike (Mav): Post released from Spam Filter.

[#10]

Sorry to hear you're not happy with the call from us

This is all very well, but you actually can no longer reply to tickets through the Member Centre!

Sorry about that, the agent should have left an open ticket where you would have been able to reply to it by going here: https://portal.plus.net/wizard/?p=search I'll get feedback passed on about that.

[#11]

@Gandalf  Sorry....        ? ? ? ?   

Yeah ... Ok...  

@Townman  Any chance you can do some "bashing" and "carping"  through the SU environment/group/space wherever , and stop these stupid things happening...  

This is exactly the kind of stuff that gives customers unnecessary stress, and subsequently to leave bad feedback.

More/better  training,... and more "forward" thinking from the customer point of view, regarding how things are received/perceived from the actions presented to them by customer service staff, who, presumably are following management and leadership pre -- designed and ( not quite )  fully thought out procedures .....

[#12]

@shutter this has already been picked back up in the SU section by @MauriceC earlier this morning 

[#13]

@ITWorks  Good...

Pity it wasn`t "picked up" by the management when the thread was started.... but... hey ho... neither was the  "employ more staff to answer phones" thread... until this "SU" thingy came along and helped to get Live Chat  "partially" disabled. ....

[#14]

Pity we have to have some superposter forum, why cannot Pnet just listen to the average customer on here, or is this a filtering system by customers so that only those things that 'might' be 'important' to Pnet get through to staff?

[#15]

Unfortunately not only do Plusnet have Customer Churn , looks like they have staff churn