Can't Report Fault due to DPA

[#1]

Having had a similar experience recently regarding this stupid DPA excuse I feel somewhat annoyed why a simple incident was met with a very stupid reply.

  Phone line along with BB goes down we have no way of reporting the fact, finally managed to get a family member to send up the fault too Plusnet. After an approx wait of 40 minutes a human being answered the phone but would not accept the fault report or even entertain any conversation on the matter stating the data protection act forbids it.  What on earth has the DPA have too do with a request for reporting  a fault. Do the Plusnet customer service staff actually know what the DPA means ? I think not. Look it up Plusnet train your staff.

  I had to drive some 5 miles too use a phone as it was the only way I could report this fault, I too eventually managed to get through and get a very helpful lady who also insisted I go through these stupid security checks.

When I pressed her for information on how do I notify Plusnet of any fault of this type she told me that they suggest asking a neighbour for help or use your mobile (I do not have a mobile phone) with the amount of time we customers or on hold on the phone asking a neighbour is a bit much, that’s if you can find one who’s at home.

  The upshot of this debacle which happened on the 19th Aug 2021 was that I along with my sister and her husband sat on the phone for over an hour trying to get through to Plusnet trying to report my fault. Eventually I had to travel 5miles each way to use her phone where I spent 20 mins trying to get through. Once I had supplied all this irrelevant information she checked my phone line and confirmed the fault and ordered a fix with Open reach. During our conversation I asked her if she new what the DPA meant regarding this incident and all she could say was it is company policy..What a load of old rubbish, come on Plusnet you have to do better than this.

Moderators Note: Changed topic title

[#2]

Moderators Note

This topic has been split from an old topic for better visibility and to help customer and staff 

[#3]

Thanks for your post @longshanks67

I'm really sorry for the bad experience you've had while reporting a fault to us.

I can firstly confirm that if we find an external fault through testing your line, we don't need to go through our data protection checks to report that to Openreach for investigation. This is documented as a process internally which also says: 

The estimated repair time can be provided. The line may be tested and the results shared. 

Updates and the estimated repair time of an [already] open fault may not be shared.

I've listened to your family member's and your calls and I've written up feedback to be passed onto both the advisers through their manager in regards to the way they've handled this, as it absolutely wasn't how we'd expect. 

Really sorry once again for the inconvenience we've caused. I believe you've since spoken with an adviser after your service has been fixed and we've agreed on a goodwill gesture?

[#4]

Thank you Anoush.

Although I spent time on the phone with one of your CS people and apologies were offered and accepted by myself, I decided to write my experience on the community forum. What still bugs me and I was not given an explanation too why CS staff insist on going through security questions just to accept notification on a reported fault. The data protection act is not and should not be an issue when customers are just trying to report a fault. I received a follow up phone call from a plusnet staff member, upon me answering the phone I was asked if I was Mr H......n to which I replied yes I was then asked to answer security Q's my reply was "but you just called me so you must know who I am" but still I had to answer these Q's!!

  I do appreciate that in this day and age security is a serious issue but with my very simple request and every Q I asked I am told that the under the DPA they can't answer, I we were just trying to report my BB and phone line down all due too an external problem and not Plusnet. I must add that the staff I spoke with were very polite but when stating the DPA they should have a better understanding of why they use the phrase " The data protection act". Add all this to the fact that we spent a long time on hold for both our phone calls and you can see how the frustration builds up.

[#5]

No problem @longshanks67 and thanks for the feedback.

I agree with you that we shouldn't have pushed you or your family member to pass our data protection checks to report a fault when line tests were showing an external fault as we could've quickly and painlessly raised this to Openreach.

For updates on a fault and when we make outbound calls, we do need to pass our data protection checks though.

While I appreciate we rung you, realistically we'd dial a set of 11 numbers so we'd have to verify the person on the other side of the phone is in fact yourself as the account holder or an authorised user.

Also let's not forget as humans we can make a mistake when dialling a number and get someone completely different so going through security checks on an outbound call is important.