Does Plusnet have ANY happy customers

[#1]

@all_followers,

Well, the day before Sky's notification that they are going to cut me off, and no sign of my starter pack.

I interogated my Plusnet account page, although it is not immediately obvious how to find everything as I am still learning about Plusnet's web pages layout, but I found a series of icons and clicked on the one showing an open box and titled "starter pack".

This informed me that the order for my starter pack (i.e. router) has not yet been placed.
Hoping to avoid a period of downtime I got on to the Plusnet help chatline without any difficulties and despite having to be transferred to the order update section where I was 4th in the queue the whole process was efficiently completed within10 minutes.

So far so good and I am encouraged and pleased.

Plusnet advised me that Sky have agreed to keep me live until 28thFeb which is my new Plusnet connection date. Plusnet, were quick and efficient and I am reasured. Just have to wait and see now whether Sky still cut me off tomorrow as they advised me by letter.
I shall be completely happy when the transfer is complete and I am up and running.

I will update you all when the next change occurs.

[#2]

Thanks for that figgley. Still waiting for Godot. Irony of ironies, BT just emailed me to tell me they have lots of new capacity in my cabinet now if I would like to buy a BT Infinity connection!

[#3]

Pleased for you Star-gaze8er. It all seems to be a bit of a lottery and you have been one of the lucky ones who win it. The system, if that's not too flattering a word for it, is, according to Plusnet, that Plusnet give you a switchover date on the basis that a port is available in your cabinet on the day they accept your booking but knowing that there is no guarantee it will still be available come that day, and that you will be left cut-off if it isn't for a period of days or even weeks. It seems to me that ports can only cease to be available between booking day and switchover day if BT are in the meantime allocating them to others who should be behind you in the queue (if they had booked before you Plusnet would surely not have been told a port was available for you). Why on earth Plusnet don't kick up a God-almighty stink about this and demand an offcom inquiry God only knows; perhaps because BT own them? Or perhaps it's because that's not really the system at all; that actually there is a perfectly good system which should work seamlessly except that Plusnet keep screwing up? I just hope that once I am up and running the rock-bottom price for a hopefully reliable broadband service and very nice front-line staff will make me feel it was worth all the pain getting there. It would all be much more acceptable if they just warned everyone that this might well happen so that we all go into it with our eyes wide open.

[#4]

You may recall I was told on the 9th that the reason Plusnet had failed to connect me as promised when Sky cut me off was because they thought there would be a port available in my local cabinet but there wasn't, but there would be one on the 14th so I would be connected then. Well here we are on the 14th and needless to say I'm still not connected. This time I'm told the reason is that "the order was cancelled because the tie-pairs were not amended" but that "if the order is placed again it should go through without a problem". To add insult to injury this message was no-reply emailed to me by the person who swore she would telephone me back after I had spent an eternity in telephone queues progress chasing. I need to know:

Are they replacing the order?

When will I be connected?

Which of the two excuses about no available port and order cancelled is false and who was responsible for giving out the false one?

The "cancelled" order was one by Plusnet to BT so if BT cancelled it they must have told Plusnet. Why didn't Plusnet tell me?

The email tells me to phone if I have any questions!

Another 15 minutes in the phone queue then another 10 minutes waiting while he tries to find the person I spoke to before who sent me the email. She's busy and will call me back later I'm told. I ask to speak to a senior manager. Another 15 minute wait while he tries to find one. She's in a meeting I'm eventually told. Ask her to call me back then. That isn't possible I'm told; I have to wait for the emailer to call me back then ask her to escalate it to senior management if I still want to. What if she again fails to call me back? Then I have to call the main number (another 15 minute wait no doubt) and ask someone to try to find her for me again.

You really couldn't make this up.

Moral of the story: if you are thinking of switching to Plusnet to save a quid or two a month don't, don't do it unless you feel a lot luckier than the punk in Dirty Harry with Clint Eastwood pointing the .44 Magnum at him that might or might not have a bullet in it.

[#5]

Not even the muppet show could write the scripts for  Pnet.

[#6]

Here is her actual email with the private bits redacted:

Dear Mr C, Thank you for your call today. As discussed over the telephone I have chased your orders up with our suppliers. They confirmed the order was cancelled due to the tie-pairs not being amended. They have confirmed that if we place the orders again there should be no problems this time around as they will make the amendments that need to be done. We do appreciate your patience through this frustrating time. phone order ref: ******broadband order ref: *****Should you have any queries regarding this please contact us on 0800 432 0200 Kind regards, J*** R*****

[#7]

,

Oh dear, not good news.
I had a hunt on my account details yesterday as I read the Plusnet pages will be down for a day or two and I still have not received my starter pack which was marked as pending.

However, I can tell you that a 10 minute or so texting on the online chat service seems to have sorted it out with a rescheduled switch over on 28th Feb. Meanwhile, Sky have not cut me off as their letter advised and according to Plusnet they will not until my switchover date.

I read also that if you have a popup blocker on your phone browser you cannot use the online chat service.

Also my daughter is supposed to go live today. SKY have cut her off and her downtime up to now for any services is 6 hours.

Will keep you posted.
So far I have no complaints but I feel you need to keep an eye on things yourself. Your online account page contains a wealth of information even if finding all of it is not immediately obvious.

So far I have avoided the phone helpline because of the logjam reported and I have found the online chat a very easy and quick way to obtain help when needed.

[#8]

Hi quickbrew. It looks as though you, your daughter and I may all be up the same Plusnet creek without a paddle. Commiserations.

[#9]

I don't think I am allowed to commiserate with you both after being accused of trolling by the mods.

Strange I seem to be the most thanked posted on this forum check on its front page.

My experience is that they connected me on time, it was then the disasters started. Hope that's not true for you when you mange to get connected.

[#10]

@admin

Sorry about breach of rules, I didn't think.
It won't happen again. I have removed the attachment.

[#11]

Now you're really cheering me up Anon. Needless to say I have NOT received the promised call back. Almost 5pm now so I expect she's on her way home by now.

[#12]

There is absolutely nothing in my online account that is the remotest use to me in sorting out this mess. Needless to say she did NOT call back; the second time in one day she has broken a promise to do so.

[#13]

,

Hi there,

Oh dear not what anyone wants to hear. You genuinely do have my Sympathies.

I know this will be of no comfort to you but I was little mystified to receive an unsolicited email asking me that if Mark's and Spencer offered broadband services, what would persuade me to change to them.

Well apart from ticking the obvious boxes like low price high speed good reliability and great customer service I also wrote this in any other information box.

What follows are my genuine views and despite reading here and on Facebook so many negative Plusnet reviews, and having previously experienced rotten service from other ISPs, I can't help but think that no company would deliberately create situations that harm their reputation.

"I happen to be a savvy broadband shopper and realise that M & S are not considering opening as a new 'parent' broadband provider but yet another leased service operating on the back of BT or worse still additionally on the back of another existing service provider as well.

My broadband purchase experience over past years from dial up through ADSL, ADSL2, ADSL2+ runs across several companies all of which, in my humble opinion simply see users of their services as entrapped cash cows and who deliberately bait new customers with unattainable promises and then regularly squeeze with mid contract price increases, unfair cancellation charges, lousy customer service and take too long fixing faults as they cant fix anything because all the major network provision is provided by BT wholesale equipment and distribution systems who themselves rely on the far from satisfactory non transparent new work and maintenance/repair targets of Open Reach, who act as a law unto themselves and keep lessee providers completely in the dark.

The consequence of this inappropriate structure not only leaves the end user in the dark but even the service provider has no proper answer for their clients when problems arise.

Within these unsatisfactory longstanding circumstances I am currently switching at this time (in process) from Sky talk anytime telephone and ADSL2+ broadband to Plusnet talk anytime and FTTC fibre broadband for less than I am currently paying Sky and I avoid Sky's March increases too and get a faster fibre service.
Admittedly, it has been necessary for me to take an 18 month contract with Plusnet whose online reputation suffers as badly as other providers, but I am prepared to take the risk based on the likelihood that people are all too ready to complain but slow to praise. Nowadays I am reconciled to having to find the best of a bad bunch.

If M & S can by some miracle place themselves in the broadband market in such a way as to provide better service than the general mess I have described then they are guaranteed success.
If however, M & S enter this competitive arena hoping to trade solely on their reputation for quality and fair pricing then whilst Open Reach are holding everyone to ransom I would wager all M & S will achieve is to have their fingers burned."

[#14]

Incidentally I have tried turning off my pop-up blocker and making sure I'm using the desktop Plusnet website. Makes no difference; chat line still does not work from my android smart phone.

[#15]

Oh dear DC1,

I did put a post up earlier but ADMIN tell me it is now awaiting approval.
When I copied and pasted something it messed up lots of font characters and I needed multiple edits. I can only assume they no longer trust me after my foolish PDF attachment which I quickly deleted when I realised.