Does Plusnet have any happy customers?

[#1]

Minded now to tell Plusnet to get lost and cancel my contract if they have not got me connected by this Friday, I have been searching for possible alternative suppliers. Depressingly, if you check them out on Twitter every single one of them has people complaining about exactly the same kind of screw-up as Plusnet are inflicting on me. And I ask myself, even if I did find a supplier with a less catastrophic track record than Plusnet, what are the chances they would be able to work through the system wreckage Plusnet have caused and give me a connection at all, never mind any faster or more reliably than Plusnet? Any thoughts anyone? I think I'm losing the will to live.

[#2]

Thank you Anon. It is comforting to know that I do not suffer alone. Your moral support is very much appreciated.

[#3]

The mods don't think so, I have another warning but hey ho I have been banned from Pnet 10 years ago, reckon I can survive another. Though in those days it was staff that did the dastardly deed, and they got fed with that and passed the ********* end of the stick to mods.

It would seem that you have made enough noise to get some attention. It is a pity that one has to go to such lengths to get anyone to try and sort it our properly.

As to leaving, well you have to make up your own mind, if leaving goes pear shaped you have to pick up the bits not anyone else. Are you interested in going back to Sky, if so, perhaps you could contact them and ask what they would do for you.

Just posted some of my unhappiness on Money Saving Expert as they are bulling up the Pnet simm card.

[#4]

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@DC1 wrote:
Minded now to tell Plusnet to get lost and cancel my contract if they have not got me connected by this Friday, I have been searching for possible alternative suppliers. Depressingly, if you check them out on Twitter every single one of them has people complaining about exactly the same kind of screw-up as Plusnet are inflicting on me. And I ask myself, even if I did find a supplier with a less catastrophic track record than Plusnet, what are the chances they would be able to work through the system wreckage Plusnet have caused and give me a connection at all, never mind any faster or more reliably than Plusnet? Any thoughts anyone? I think I'm losing the will to live.

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Hi @DC1,

Glad I found you again to continue our conversations. 

What you say above  about poor reviews across the range of UK ISPs just about sums it all up. 

As I have said earlier on this matter and has been my personal experience with Sky when I lost Internet for 6 days,  our BT wholesale lesee ISPs are probably unable to confirm without damaging their own reputation what the exact problem in your case is,  I feel their latest communications to you about your situation come as close as they dare to telling you just how frustrated they are with Open Reach, as you are with (in this instance) Plusnet. 

As you correctly point out,  they are all as bad as each other when it comes to providing accurate and easy to understand information appropriate to your questions because they already know before you ask they have little hope of getting a trustworthy answer  from (as they have put it - "their supplier" )  BT wholesale - who themselves  even  know they can't rely on Open Reach targets and/or technical explanations. 

I strongly suspect that BT ensure they always maintain a commercial edge in this mess as offering ports for BT Infinity services that were previously promised to other ISPs  services seems to feature in a lot of delay complaints both on this Forum and Facebook.    I understand (unsurprisingly I think in your ongoing dilema)  why Plusnet would rather tell you nothing until they have proper information rather than spin you a line which only ends up making your situation/frustration worse. 

Don't get me wrong I am not yet myself in a position to run to Plusnet's defense and as I have previously expressed,  we have to try and find the best of a bad bunch when choosing ISPs.  I don't think that Plusnet are bad by choice and although you are pulling your hair out over this,  from what I have seen written by others on this forum,  and from your own shared communications -  and for what it is worth,   I consider from my experience with other ISPs that Plusnet are trying their best which is more than I can say for some of the others I have dealt with. 

Sorry,  none of this helps you get on line any sooner,  but I honestly believe if you try and jump ship now you will regret it as not only will you undoubtedly suffer a similar fate at the hands of another ISP,  but you also will have to contend with the Plusnet cancelation terms and costs which even if you think unfair,  you have agreed to.

 Also,  if you cancel now even if you can achieve it without any cash penalties,  why should Plusnet continue to help you transfer a non working connection to a competitor when you tell them to stuff it and you choose to walk away. 

I am still reserving judgement about how good or bad Plusnet are in my own case,  as when I checked carefully,  my disconnection information did not come from Plusnet but from Sky,  admittedly I have had to keep tightly on the Plusnet trail my end,  and if I had not done so I would be none the wiser. However, knowing Sky wrote to inform me my services will terminate on Feb 14th and as I still had not received my starter pack from Plusnet on 13th I opened an online chat and was told my installation/go live date should be 28th and that at Plusnet have requested Sky to keep my services live until that date. 

So far that promise has been kept.  I have been keeping a sharp eye on my Plusnet account page where drilling down through the menus and sub menus I found that my activation date there is marked as 1st March.  So either Plusnet are pushing for an earlier date for me or I can expect 2 or 3 days downtime.  I will let you know. 

Meanwhile,  my daughter who you may remember was due to go Plusnet  live  on 14th, lost her landline around 11.00a.m. on that day.  Had the phone working again by around 3.00 pm and received a phone call message from Plusnet that her broadband should be active around midnight.   Next morning she has broadband but she says it is a little flaky. 

I reminded her that Plusnet do advise that the broadband goes through training mode during the first 10 days during which speeds will vary and even dropouts may occur. 

Plusnet also say that if problems remain present after this time to contact them and they will investigate.  So far,  my daughter is a happy Plusnet customer which brings this lost post back on topic.  (her 10 year old son and 3 year old daughter thought the end of the world had come without any Internet that day 😀. 

You have my sympathies but I advise you to stick with it.  Keep notes and records in case things should take a turn for the worse and breath deeply to help with your rising blood pressure.  I am sure one day you will look back on this thread and smile. 

[#5]

Hi quickbrew. It's really good to have you back in the dialogue again. It's quite a coincidence that migration from Sky to Plusnet going wrong on 14 February is common to both our cases. The big difference is that when you alerted Plusnet to the fact that there appeared to be a problem they contacted Sky to get the migration postponed so you didn't lose your Sky connection; when I did so the chat line guy just said it was only an automated system glitch which he had manually overridden so all would be OK. That, I am convinced, was the mistake that caused all my problems.

I am grateful for all your advice. I am sure it is wise advice. I will probably follow it. My other option now though is that Virgin have just cabled my street. Going to them would avoid the whole BT/Open Reach/Plusnet mess - I'd just need to keep the Home Phone part of my Plusnet contract - which is working OK - they've just emailed me the first billing notice for it - and scrap the broadband part. If Plusnet wanted to argue that it's I not they who were in breach of contract on that it'd be a case of see you in court. I suspect I could crowd fund my legal costs! I'm in touch with Virgin now to see what they could do for me and when.

But I hope it won't come to that because I have just received this (redacted) message from Plusnet:

"Dear Mr C, I have looked into the original order again this morning and it appears the suppliers have now closed this as per my request yesterday. I will continue to monitor this for you throughout today and be back in touch with the broadband activation date. Thank you Kind regards, R***M******* (Internal)"

[#6]

It is not quite true that all ISP's are the same. It might be true that all cheap budget ISP's are the same.

If you read the posts from jelv, who was with Pnet for ever and is well respected for his knowledge of broadband, you will see that he is now with a provided who does answer phones quickly and does get things sorted, but he pays more for that than he did with Pnet. He also said it was worth the extra.

The maxim that you get what you pay for, is not always true, but with some research can be very true. If one pays peanuts one gets monkeys.

When this contract is finished I will research and be willing to pay extra to get people who know what they are doing and do not seek only to maximise profit by the market strategy, sell a lot because of rock bottom unbelievable prices and don't worry if there are several cracked or damaged plates in the bundle.

[#7]

Yes. I have read his "Why I have left Plusnet" post. A lot of the technology is over my head but his analysis of the problem rings all the bells with me. One of the lessons from his post seems to be that having gone through hell getting adsl with Plusnet don't even think about upgrading to fibre from it because they're likely to put you through the same hell all over again.

[#8]

Is it OK to simply reply YES to this post? I have been with Plusnet for many years and many of my friends and neighbours are as well and we are all happy customers!

[#9]

quickbrew wrote:

 I have been keeping a sharp eye on my Plusnet account page where drilling down through the menus and sub menus I found that my activation date there is marked as 1st March.  So either Plusnet are pushing for an earlier date for me or I can expect 2 or 3 days downtime.  I will let you know. 

@quickbrew Could you let me know via PM your account details and I'll take a look and update you?

Thanks

[#10]

Of course. I envy you your good fortune. But Google for Plusnet reviews outside this forum and you'll be hard-pressed to find a positive one. And the above-mentioned post elsewhere on this forum from one highly respected professional explaining why he left makes very interesting reading.

[#11]

DC1 wrote:
"One of the lessons from his post seems to be that having gone through hell getting adsl with Plusnet don't even think about upgrading to fibre from it because they're likely to put you through the same hell all over again."

Hi @DC1,

Yes he did say that, but perhaps I am more optimistic that this historic post regarding the onset of FTTC availability may no longer be a true reflection of the current circumstances.

You are quite right to complain and want what was advertised and in a timely manner. I believe Plusnet are genuinely contrite in their failure to you and the deeper I dig online I am persuaded that your awful circumstances are not the norm for the majority of Plusnet users and that any discontent is in fact in a minority.

I used to be a self employed heating engineer carrying out approximately 1,000 service calls a year. A customer once asked me if I ever had to undertake callbacks on works I had carried out. When I told her yes, usually around 2 a week, she was less impressed with me until I explained that whilst I might encounter 2 dissatisfied and even angry customers each week, when looked at in the round of my performance this represented no more than 1% of my workload - or to put in another way 99% of my customers appeared satisfied.

I dont remember in 20 years ever receiving a call from one of my customers telling me how pleased they were with me (although I did get recommended by many) but those who needed me to return to resolve a problem were sometimes very angry. I did however aim to never leave one of my customers unsatisfied.

I agree from the tone of the post from @jelv why he left - does sound full of technical knowledge and it sounds like his needs were more specialised than an average user, (running two domains). Also I aknowledge what @Anon says about not all ISP's suffer these problems, only the budget ones. Perhaps this is ultimately why @jelv left because his needs were beyond the provisions of a budget ISP.

Whilst you continue to have my sympathies, I am still not persuaded there is a cultural inability for Plusnet to provide a satisfactory service. Most of the negative posts here and elsewhere online could be attributed to many ISPs.

Keep strong, I am confident things will get sorted.

[#12]

Thank you. I hope you are right.

[#13]

Hi ,@DC1,

I decided to follow your suggestion to find a good Plusnet review via Google.

I found one on a site with lots of angry reviews, some of which from their description related to speeds and wifi coverage.

Both these issues can be greatly improved by the end user as there is loads of information online how to minimise poor performance. Indeed when I first signed up with Sky for up to 10 MB I initially only got 5. Changing my faceplate and shortening the ridiculously long router connection lead Sky had provided, I doubled my speed to the expected full 10 MB as I am lucky enough to be only 650 stride paces from my telephone exchange and approx a sixth of that to my nearest hauwei cabinet.

Anyway, here is a review I found which perhaps balances the matter slightly with jelv's one.

"Stuart Northumberland Plusnet 2017-02-04
I have been with Plusnet from a few days after it was originally launched.
During that time I have had 3 problems, all of which required me to phone their (free) helpline. Each time I was put through to a very helpful person who talked me through the problem and the means of correcting it, on one occasion requiring me to operate my PC whilst he gave me instructions on what to do.
This took about 20 minutes and the problem was solved.
Last year my contract came up for renewal and when I phoned Plusnet to
arrange it, I was told by the plusnet employee that I could continue on my existing package and that, because they were offering new customers 3 months free I could have the same.
I shall be staying with Plusnet and look forward to many more years of satisfaction."

[#14]

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@DC1 wrote:
Google for Plusnet reviews outside this forum and you'll be hard-pressed to find a positive one.

Speaking personally.

As has been said so many times, far more unhappy people post on a forum with complaints than happy people with little or no complaints so the quote above is hardly surprising.

I have been happy with my service for around 13 years. My daughter has been happy for 5 years including a seamless house move.

I think it's fair to say most Plusnet customers don't even have a forum account and have no need for one.

So in answer to the topic question, yes they do and many of them.

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[#15]

I've held off contributing to this or the other thread until now.

A bit of history first.... I used to be with BT for many years and for the most part I was happy enough with them. However it wasn't all plain sailing ...mainly random slow speeds, some random disconnections and issues with their BTVision.

After enduring many months it soon became years of BB issues, it was then that it reached a point where we could take no more so I emailed their then CEO. Now I'm not saying this is the right thing to do, nor would I suggest it now, but OR then took things seriously and they carried out a tie-pair mod, they confirmed my connection was on a hot virtual path, had a guy check and confirm BTV wasn't working as well as it should and so on. It was also confirmed that most of my physical connection was aluminium.

Things improved by quite a bit but the random slowness and disconnections continued, though certainly not as much as before. BT eventually admitted that it was caused by congestion - too many in the street cabinet. Their solution was for me to pay more and move to fibre (infinity as they call it) as many in the cabinet were still using adsl and they said my issues would go away if we moved over. So we moved and ..... it continued!! We then used the 'price increase get me out of there email' and left for Sky.

Now if anybody had told me a while back that one day I'd go to Sky, I have said they were nuts!!! I never had a good word to say about them, some from my own experience of SkyTV in their early days, some from current and ex users of the Sky offerings, but they were the only ones that were LLU and didn't use BT equipment in the exchange, except for VM. But VM were way too expensive for our budget, plus a neighbour was paying for up to 300Mbps and at peak times he could witness 5Mbps (now that's a big drop!!).

So when using Sky on adsl things were actually pretty impressive, we had around 17Mbps d/l which was fine. In the almost 2 years we had to call them for small issues, but once the connection was poor and they remote reset it and all was well again. Once the introductory deal was out of the way the price jumped by over £20pm and this was just too much for our meager budget. I checked with a friend who was also out of contract and his was cheaper then ours for the same thing!!

We tried to sort out a better deal for all three (TV, BB and landline phone) but they couldn't move and we couldn't afford it, so looked at others. The one at the time of looking was PN. So over a period of three seperate calls with PN and a couple to Sky, the final outcome was move to PN.

Now the switch didn't go as planned - ended up on a temporary phone connection/line at the exchange (I've seen some saying they too have issues when migrating from Sky recently) which only permitted calls to free phone numbers but it couldn't receive incoming - even when calling PN for updates their system kept asking us to type out the number each and every time. The fibre was also delayed (seems to be a few reports of this on these forums), though this was all resolved quickly so this wasn't a big issue for us.

The PNYV box was initially switched on, checked and the IP channels didn't work so we left it in standby for a week - in case it was awaiting updates etc. After this time it's been an absolute nightmare with the IP channels working, being switched off, showing on my portal, channels working, going awol, my portal missing the TV section and so on. Factory resetting the box 3 times and the hub twice isn't great either. I'm told it will all be resolved by 22 Feb, which will be 2 months since it went live - so no, I'm not happy atm as this was the only reason for joining PN (mainly for the TV).

Now fibre has also been hit n miss - if the hub stays connected for 14 days or so then we have to reboot it to continue to browse (seen some posts too and I've also posted on one from a user called snadge). It can go off without warning and the speed is up and down. At the time of posting it's below their lower estimate - so again, I'm not happy about this either

To put it bluntly, BT with TV, adsl or vdsl was a real pain, Sky was fine but too much for us to continue and PN is starting to go the same way as BT - but I have to believe it will all get sorted.

Now I know some of our long standing community members may not like it when newbies join PN and get a good deal and I know what it's like when others get the same for less or in some cases they get more for the same.

If ALL ISP's adopted a plan that you only pay for the actual speed you get, then that would even the playing field as yet again I'm unhappy that I have to pay the same as others that get near to their up to speed - that's not having a pop at my fellow customers as those are simply lucky that they can get what they're paying for, but some of us out there who cannot get anywhere near the download, we'll never be totally happy, will we?