Complete and utter madness
Looking round the forums there as many if not more posts than ever where Plusnet support are not responding in a timely manner. It's pretty obvious that as so many of support staff are still very green a lot of mistakes are being made and CSC and the faults department are not coping with the volumes.
In the meantime marketing are still rolling out campaigns to continue the dramatic growth in user numbers. I don't ever recall seeing so many complaints from new users about delays getting their lines activated and not getting any answers until they post on these forums. The result is more and more users who are unhappy with Plusnet before they've been activated and I certainly cannot remember seeing any significant numbers of people seeking to move on before they've been activated.
If senior management in Plusnet had any sense they'd be cooling off the campaigns until CSC and faults were in a position to cope. As it is Plusnet is in danger of getting a bad reputation and that will take a long time to clear.
As the topic title says: Complete and utter madness
In the meantime marketing are still rolling out campaigns to continue the dramatic growth in user numbers. I don't ever recall seeing so many complaints from new users about delays getting their lines activated and not getting any answers until they post on these forums. The result is more and more users who are unhappy with Plusnet before they've been activated and I certainly cannot remember seeing any significant numbers of people seeking to move on before they've been activated.
If senior management in Plusnet had any sense they'd be cooling off the campaigns until CSC and faults were in a position to cope. As it is Plusnet is in danger of getting a bad reputation and that will take a long time to clear.
As the topic title says: Complete and utter madness
I raised tickets on two separate accounts (on Wednesday lunchtime) - for a simple admin issue regarding emails, that should take no more than 5 minutes to process.
Considering that the "Customer Support Stats" says -
After 49 hours I have had a ticket update on one account saying "moving to correct pool", and the other account has yet to have any response.
I guess now that it is Friday night, that I won't see any progress until at least Monday, which will be a minimum of 4 DAYS instead of 4 HOURS ticket closure time !
Considering that the "Customer Support Stats" says -
Quote
After 49 hours I have had a ticket update on one account saying "moving to correct pool", and the other account has yet to have any response.
I guess now that it is Friday night, that I won't see any progress until at least Monday, which will be a minimum of 4 DAYS instead of 4 HOURS ticket closure time !
The thing is that it would be helpful if a support member who is sent a PM that at least acknowledge your message, be they able or not to deal with it at the time or pass on your comments/request to a more qualified staff member, not to just leave me hanging up in the air waiting for a reply that never comes 
I saw support staff who on the forum answered another persons request for advice etc, now I posted to them thinking ah! they appear to know something that also relates to a problem I have perhaps they could assist me, hence a PM to that support member. Ok you can actually post on the forum but in the past I have got some helpful advice via direct PM to support member, but it does not exactly inspire you with confidence when you get no reply at all.
And they want US to spread the word about PN Hmmm me thinks not
I saw support staff who on the forum answered another persons request for advice etc, now I posted to them thinking ah! they appear to know something that also relates to a problem I have perhaps they could assist me, hence a PM to that support member. Ok you can actually post on the forum but in the past I have got some helpful advice via direct PM to support member, but it does not exactly inspire you with confidence when you get no reply at all.And they want US to spread the word about PN Hmmm me thinks not
The other aspect that makes no sense, is that bearing in mind that the majority of Plusnet's customers are residential (rather than business customers), I don't know about you, but to have customer support that only operates during business hours, and then NOTHING (of any use) over the weekend (or during the night) - when most home customers are likely to have the time to diagnose broadband problems - is plain ridiculous !. 
Quote from: purleigh ...and then NOTHING (of any use) over the weekend (or during the night) - when most home customers are likely to have the time to diagnose broadband problems - is plain ridiculous !.
There's the intermittent fault - always the hardest to crack, but PN don't make it easy for themselves, even when opportunity knocks, as in the case of a fault that happens at particular hours as my current one does. It doesn't matter how many times I say " test at XYZ time or you wont see the fault", they test at ABC time and proudly proclaim the fault fixed as, surprise(!), they see nothing wrong. Faults should be assigned to one individual (and indeed sometimes are) who sticks with it like glue (usually not) and gets permission from the OberLeutnant to use some nouse (not ever ever). The forum crew, can and do do this; no once else seems capable/willing/permitted to do so.
To be perfectly fair, a BT engineer told me they have the same problems; his home modem was broken, so he phoned up to get another. To pre-empt script-waffle, he told them he was a BT engineer who did this 6 days a week... blah blah... could they send him a new modem. "can I just ask you to plug into the master socket... can you try... what kind of OS...". It took him half an hour of begging and despair to get the modem.
So we are all, inevitably forced to post on the forum to get a result in the end because, unless the fault fixes itself (they do if you wait long enough!), it's the only way to get things moving. Nails. Blackboard. Sadly, not everyone knows this, or wishes to do it, and those I suspect are the ones who quietly get a MAC and go elsewhere.
What you are all forgetting is apart from a few friendly faces who care about their job and how they do their job, and how they support customers, Plusnet (BT) don't care one little bit about new customers having sign up issues, they don't care if faults go on for months on end, they don't care if all the loyal oldies leave and go else where, they really don't give a damn.
They want to see that the higher percentage of customers work, which above the average they do, they want a high turn over of new customers, and they get that despite the odd false start and a few complaints here and there, but really, the small fry of issues that appear in this forum, and the thousands that we don't get to hear in these forums, they don't care, never will. It is a simple fact, that as long as they have a few pretty awards, and can still attract customers, nothing will ever change that unless you get a few hundred thousand customers joining in for something, that will never ever happen.
So, where there are a few support agents who appear to care, and pretty much do their job better than the average, and perhaps go above and beyond their pay packet suggests, you have to remember that the higher up the chain you go, they don't care about them either, It's all about money, profit and margins, nothing else, no little tiny customer fault is ever going to change that.
So yes, we will probably see more people in the forums with faults, complaints, new customers having real issues, and it will probably only increase, but no one is ever going to care about that.
There is only one person who can comment on the above to suggest otherwise, but he's BT and the new CEO of Plusnet, and I think deep down we all know, that some if not all of the above is pretty true not just for Plusnet, but for most companies out there.
Hey ho! 
They want to see that the higher percentage of customers work, which above the average they do, they want a high turn over of new customers, and they get that despite the odd false start and a few complaints here and there, but really, the small fry of issues that appear in this forum, and the thousands that we don't get to hear in these forums, they don't care, never will. It is a simple fact, that as long as they have a few pretty awards, and can still attract customers, nothing will ever change that unless you get a few hundred thousand customers joining in for something, that will never ever happen.
So, where there are a few support agents who appear to care, and pretty much do their job better than the average, and perhaps go above and beyond their pay packet suggests, you have to remember that the higher up the chain you go, they don't care about them either, It's all about money, profit and margins, nothing else, no little tiny customer fault is ever going to change that.
So yes, we will probably see more people in the forums with faults, complaints, new customers having real issues, and it will probably only increase, but no one is ever going to care about that.
There is only one person who can comment on the above to suggest otherwise, but he's BT and the new CEO of Plusnet, and I think deep down we all know, that some if not all of the above is pretty true not just for Plusnet, but for most companies out there.
Hey ho!
Oh no they won't 