Cancellations Line inundated!

[#1]

It would be a nice gesture if the cancellations line was 0800........ 

[#2]

Quote from: HPsauce

PN take note.

BBC report on Tiscali/TalkTalk non-cancellations scandal: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11673194

[#3]

Quote from: _Adam_Walker_

We should be advising that MAC keys will be issued within 4 days as per OFCOM regulations. It's up to you ih8plusnet if you want to tell us about your experiences in more detail but they would help us learn about why you've grown to be dissatisfied with the service we've been providing you.

Adam, I have been in lengthy discussions with [mremoved], [mremoved] and the fella Baliey - no one cares to listen to the problems i have encountered since day 1. It strikes me that you are one of the very few who cares. regardless, I am off as i cannot tolerate such bad service. I thought I had seen the lot with talktalk -  my experience with you guys has been no better.
jim:csa

[#4]

ih8plusnet,
We all care and causing problems and stressful situations for any of our customers is in certainly not in our interests.
I'm sorry if you feel like you have been given contradictory responses or maybe have not been dealt with in the best way. From here on as it seems you are in the process of leaving I would prompt you to contact me with any concerns you may have as using a single point of contact could be preferable at this stage.

[#5]

Adam, Any comment from Plusnet on this suggestion?

Quote from: jelv

Suggestion: If the number of MAC calls coming in leads to a wait of more than 5 minutes you draft in extra agents to just take the username and a telephone number and you call them back at your expense.

[#6]

Hi jelv,
I'd be very surprised if that hadn't already been considered, but I'll certainly make the suggestion again. IIRC this has been tried a number of times from various departments (certainly faults) and didn't work particularly well either from a customer or resource perspective.
It's worth bearing in mind that a letter will pretty much always result in a callback though, I appreciate this isn't ideal but it is a way to ensure a call.

[#7]

I'd accept the letter route if Plusnet provided the MAC within 5 days of the letter being posted but we know you won't do that.
An ISP wanting to be one of the leaders recommending snailmail as the best method of communicating with them. 

[#8]

Quote from: jelv

An ISP wanting to be one of the leaders recommending snailmail as the best method of communicating with them.

Please don't put words into my mouth, that's not what I said. I pointed out that sending a letter in is a good way to ensure a call back, and nothing more.
It's worth noting that sales agents are being trained to take COT calls from the end of the week, and we're recruiting for more agents in that team. We also include the current wait time on the messages when customers are waiting to speak, to set expectation correctly.

[#9]

Quote from: HPsauce

It would be a nice gesture if the cancellations line was 0800........

It'd be nicer if you could raise a ticket and request a MAC. If people want to leave, people want to leave.
I see it as if you're trying to leave a car park and the NCP Mussolini says "Are you sure you don't want to stay a little longer, we can get you a nice spot in the shade for you as an incentive to stay"

[#10]

ISP's are bound to try and make things a little difficult when trying to get hold of your MAC code, in the hopes that it'll deter people from leaving. I'm not justifying it, but it makes good business sense.

[#11]

We do have a retentions procedure but we don't want to make things difficult for customers. The OFCOM regulations are in place to both ensure that the customer gets their MAC within a reasonable time frame and also to give the ISPs a chance to gain feedback as to why people want to leave and discuss if there is anything we could do to change their mind at all.

[#12]

Quote

...give the ISPs a chance to gain feedback as to why people want to leave and discuss if there is anything we could do to change their mind at all.

I've never heard that GC22 was put in place to benefit customers AND ISPs . My recollection is that Ofcom finally (and with some reluctance) wrote the rules because ISPs just couldn't resist forcing people to stay against their will using every device they could. While not the worst offender, Plusnet had a less than stellar reputation for providing MACs at the time. (They were also the only UK ISP not to be a member of an ADR until Ofcom plugged that consumer unfriendly gap as well)
If I wish to leave a service provider, its usually got to the point where I have little desire to help them improve their service or give them a second chance - quite the opposite, I just want out fast. Figuring out where you're getting it thoroughly wrong is hardly the customers role, and making users jump through hoops to be allowed to leave is both unreasonable and poor customer service - hardly likely to induce the disaffected to play a few more rounds of ticket tennis. Its your business, work it out yourselves.
Five days for a MAC is still too long, and having to listen to a modified sales pitch and offer feedback to get it is not the spirit in which GC22 was created.

[#13]

Quote from: _Adam_Walker_

We do have a retentions procedure but we don't want to make things difficult for customers.

Excuse me shouting Adam ... THEN WHY ARE YOU  INSISTING ON MAKING IT SO DIFFICULT?  What does it take to get your Suits to understand this issue?

Quote

The OFCOM regulations are in place to both ensure that the customer gets their MAC within a reasonable time frame

You are about to exceed this on my request on TWO Accounts. I am going to take these to OFCOM. Be warned.

Quote

and also to give the ISPs a chance to gain feedback as to why people want to leave and discuss if there is anything we could do to change their mind at all.

OFCOM don't require this and We customers DON'T owe you this information. We are more likely to discuss this with you if you make it easy for us to do so, either by:
a) Providing a Toll Free Number .... or ...
b) Allowing us to raise a Ticket authorising you to call us back.
Adam, Instead of defending this outrageous policy here, I suggest you wrap this message 'round the business end of a cudgel and take it to your Policy makers.
:Note to mods: Please feel free to chastise me for venting my frustration here. If you know of a better way to communicate this message, please enroll me at your school.
R 

[#14]

Hands slapped as requested 

[#15]

Quote from: Wheel_nut

b) Allowing us to raise a Ticket authorising you to call us back.

This would allow them to check for any issues on the account, check if the user is on the appropriate account type for their usage etc BEFORE they made the call.
I can't see anything like this happening however - it's far too sensible.