Does Plusnet have any happy customers?

[#1]

@quickbrew  The information came from a post on this forum; see bobminors's post here (message 11):  https://community.plus.net/t5/Everything-else/Best-way-to-quot-Resync-quot-router-DLM-etc/td-p/13794... although I don't think I got it from that particular post.  The same information is vociferously promulgated on other forums e.g. KingfisherUK's post 4 here:  http://helpforum.sky.com/t5/Fibre/BT-Fibre-vs-Sky-Fibre/td-p/2475124

[#2]

Finally, I am up and running.  Download speed only 1.92 at present but I trust that will improve as the system beds in over the next 10 days.

Plusnet has been a a Jekyll and Hyde story for me.  In the first phase when I was setting up the deal and in the final few days when their JonoH had started communicating with me through the community forum so I knew what was going on and was being told what was being done to fix it and by when in language I could understand, things were fine.  In the middle period when things had gone wrong and I could communicate only through the 15-minute telephone queue or their question ticket system which could take days to respond (their otherwise very good chat-line not working from my android smart phone which was my only means of internet connection), they were a total nightmare with different people giving me different stories, often in jargon language I simply could not understand, and failing to call me back to avoid the queue and ticket system after promising to do so.  The result – eight days down time in a migration that is supposed to be virtually instantaneous – is clearly impossible to defend.

The one thing I have been deeply impressed with is the quality of their front line staff; always polite and courteous no matter how much I lost my rag with them, and when they WERE able to help they were EXTREMELY helpful, nothing being too much trouble for them. My impression is of excellent people left to take the flak from customers for the faults of a deeply flawed system imposed on them by their senior management who have left them powerless to fix them.  The charitable view is that this is not because the senior management themselves are cynical and/or incompetent, but because they too are the victims of a BT/Open Reach dictatorship which is undermining them and through them us, either deliberately or because of their own incompetence born of their being insulated from customer reactions.  But if so, Plusnet’s own failure to go nuclear and demand action by government to fix that problem makes them a guilty party too. And if the reason for that is that, as a subsidiary of BT, Plusnet dare not kick up a public fuss, then Ofcom and government are at fault for allowing the acquisition of Plusnet by BT to go ahead.  It is clearly incestuous, not in the interests of a genuinely open competitive market, and should not have been allowed.

[#3]

Perhaps I should have added that the other thing I have been deeply impressed with is the abundance of kind advice and moral support from members of the Forum.  Thanks everyone!

[#4]

To answer the thread title, yes me so far!

Decided to change over to Pnet mobile last Sunday, Sim arrived Tuesday, number successfully ported by close of play Wednesday. 

One other query which was sorted via PM after reading the forum.

Excellent service so far with no complaints, hope it continues!

[#5]

Glad you are now sorted.

[#6]

@Jonpe, 

3 days or 10 days,  so long as it settles I shall be as happy as my daughter who activated on 14th Feb. 

I visited her yesterday and ran a speed test on my new Huawei Media tab M3 and got just a whisker under 39 MB download and almost 3MB upload. 

As the upload on her package is supposedly capped at 2MB and she is way out of sight of her cabinet which is 5 mins walk away.  She told me when I asked her directly how has she found the whole experience of changing from an equivalent but more costly Sky service,  that she is very happy. 

Ironically,  I suggested Plusnet to her as I had decided to switch from Sky anyway and I applied on line and when I saw the referral gift incentive,  I texted her with my Plusnet ID name and asked her to use it in her application as a referral. 

She had already completed her signn up 10 minutes earlier by telephone so the opportunity was lost. 

Although we both applied for the same thing but using differing methods within 10 mins of each other,  she got her service activated a full 14 days before mine which is due 28th.

As I am only 650 paces from my exchange and I can almost see my cabinet from my upstairs window,  I am expecting a good speed.  However my final run to the house is aluminium,  but that is a whole new conversation. 

[#7]

@DC1, 

So glad you are activated and I hope your speed does increase from that which you have reported thus far. 

What are you on ADSL OR VDSL? 

I like your comment regarding the Forum.  I belong to several and used to be a mod on one so I have first hand experience at how difficult things can get for the administrators.  I also certainly agree with you about the efforts of @JonoH who certainly seems to have gone that extra mile in helping you. 

Perhaps you will re-visit this thread after an appropriate period of use of your new service to continue with your valued contributions,  particularly as (so far) your experience has been such a varied one. 

Personally,  I find forums a good source of information which may or may not always contradict online reviews. 

What ever the comments may be,  it is always good to get it straight from the horses mouth on a Forum and I hope this Topic/thread continues to encourage members to not only contribute about their difficulties but their satisfaction as well. 

I found one of your earlier posts interesting when you referred to "malcontents" ,  not a phrase you hear too often nowadays but descriptive of people who are never satisfied no matter what.  I certainly was able to identify many of these in online reviews not just for broadband,  but on product sales too.  

My own experience when things go pear-shaped in a contract is to ensure that the right questions are asked if/when a dispute arises.  I have often been amused when reading reviews on sales of technological devices where a potential buyer having read the sales description of an item and presumably the published reviews on the item,  then ask a question which can not be appropriately answered by the masses  -  ie: and I have seen many similar to this example of: "will it be better than the one I have already got?" ☺️

So pleased for you now things are settling down and as you say it is nice that so many forum members have been supportive - in my experience that's how forums generally are. 

Regards. 

[#8]

Thank you quickbrew.  I have particularly valued your support and advice.  I hope all goes as well for you as it had done for your daughter.

[#9]

DC1 wrote:

Download speed only 1.92 at present but I trust that will improve as the system beds in over the next 10 days.

As per my PM hopefully a restart of your router will see this issue fixed. If it doesn't please let me know.

Hopefully it's plain sailing from here.

[#10]

Thank you JonoH.  You are a star. Disconnected and reconnected Broadband by going into IP settings and instantly got 6.82 down and 0.4 up.  BT/Open Reach seem to have done their best to bodge things all along the way but between the two of us we won the battle.

[#11]

Fantastic, Jono asked me to take a look at this yesterday and I contacted our suppliers and responded to your ticket so I'm very happy that it's done the trick and fixed the profile issue.

[#12]

Plusnet certainly get 10 out of 10 for making amends. This morning received a nice chocolate bar with "Sorry" on it. This afternoon I received my application form for £50 cash back. Don't think I"ll be taking up their other kind offer - to let me out of my contract if I want to leave!

[#13]

@DC1,

Brilliant news. I am so glad you are now settled into your new contract and are happy.
10/10 is praise indeed considering how difficult things got for you.

My own date for activation on 28th Feb grows nearer and whilst this will be 4 weeks since my application I am content as my service with Sky has been maintained exactly as Plusnet assured me it would after they spoke with them about it.

I have been kept informed by email and told my router is on its way.
I am looking forward to getting hooked up.

Happy surfing @DC1.

[#14]

@DC1

@JonoH

Yes, to answer the OP -  Plusnet does have lots of happy customers and I am one of them. 

I said I would report back when I was up and running well here I am. 

Plusnet promised me activation by midnight on 28th Feb and indeed I was up and running on my same old telephone number and new FTTP broadband well before the evening was out. 

Although still very early days, I am already almost getting my maximum speeds. 

I am having problems with my TP Link powerline extenders which I need,  as my router is at one end of the house and I get no WiFi signal at the other end. 

These did work before on my old ADSL2+ service but I think I have IP conflict issues I need to sort out. 

So we'll done Plusnet and thank you to everyone who helped me on my way. 👍👍

[#15]

I'm pleased that you're up and running, if you need anything just let us know!