Down for 53 days ! Phone and Broadband. Come on Plusnet!

[#1]

Thinking of joining Plusnet ? Consider this....
My fault started on the 2nd December 2011 and after a month of it not being resolved i wrote a mesage on the forum expressing my dissatisfaction.
See the original post at the end of this...
I was allocated a single point of contact in the form of a [removed] who updated me on a daily basis ...have not heard from him for a while now though and the problem continues......The latest update is that BT has declared a MBORC (matter beyond our reasonable control) as we had severe storms at the start of the month so i have been waiting since the 5Th January for them to get through the backlog.  (Plusnet supplies my phone and broadband...allegedly)
The result is that my telephone line is still scratchy and my broadband still useless. 53 days ! Come-on that is beyond a joke. Irritatingly i am still paying 33.77 per month for this "service"
I realise that Plusnet has to rely on their owner BT but 53 days and counting?  That is not my idea of a service, never-mind a good or even acceptable service.
Have i just been unlucky, slipped through the cracks or is this typical of Plusnet ? If you are looking for a new provider think long and hard about Plusnet. You might be luckier than i have been but in my experience so far, i am massivly dissapointed.

Quote

I have had a fault now (that is still on-going) which is in excess of a month. Originally after a BT tech came around i thought that it was resolved only to discover that i had no telephone service and a painfully slow connection. I then re-reported it and it was "repaired" for a few hours but then the telephone line crackle is and was so bad that i don’t bother using the phone because people can’t hear what i am saying...if they are lucky enough to get through that is. Also after a fault is repaired you need to wait a few days for the line to settle which it never did and which makes the wait even longer…as well as the frustration! The response from Plusnet has been, it’s my line, it’s my router, it’s my authentication, it’s my router, it’s my line, etc etc. I can’t help but feel like i am being fobbed off or am going through the processes endlessly. Could one person not take ownership (taking into account the history of the fault) and work at getting it resolved considering the time it has taken? So far this issue has cost me 2 half days off work (With the most recent not having an engineer show up or even call.) A month’s line rental and broadband charge.  Buying a new handset to confirm it is not the handset and of course not having a decent internet service or telephone at the time when i needed it most during the festive season. One month in total seems excessive to me. I understand that sometimes faults can be intermittent etc but i would imagine that my problem is pretty straight forward with oodles of information available to tech’s and had it been dealt with efficiently it could of been resolved a while ago without the frustration and going through the same process time and time again. I am now onto router three, telephone two, two BT callouts, 3 filters, 3 sets of cabling and way too much time and frustration wasted on this. The only efficient thing has been the constant “threats” that i will be charged £60.00 (if the fault is on my side) with every email i receive and every telephone call and every text message and of course the billing where i am paying for a service that i no longer receive. I don’t care about having to pay £60.00 if it my outside cable causing the issue, I just want it fixed. It’s the same with moving to the parent company BT, I don’t care if I have to pay £60.00 to move to another supplier, I just want it resolved. What is the hold-up and more importantly if a fault is outstanding for this long should it not be prioritised or given extra attention?

adie:green removed agents names as per link:rules and also fixed quote]

[#2]

Hi tox,
I can assure you that this is not typical for our customers, if it was I don't think we'd have many. It looks to be just a combination of unfortunate circumstances, which I appreciate will be no consolation to you. I'm sorry you've not been updated but I will go across now and get someone to pick this up.
Jojo

[#3]

Hi there,
I'm sorry to read about the problems you've been having with I'm sure Jojo will get this sorted for you.

Quote

The only efficient thing has been the constant “threats” that i will be charged £60.00

I just wanted to clarify that we never want that to be perceived as a threat, it's a heads up and an incentive to make sure that your equipment has been ruled out, if it has and we needed to book an engineer you should not be worrying about being charged £60.

[#4]

Hi tox,
My colleague has been in touch with our suppliers and they say they cleared the fault yesterday. They also say that an engineer called you today, so I'm hoping all is well now.
Jojo

[#5]

Hi JoJo
Thank you for your help...
I have not received a phone call from an engineer however i have a missed called with no message so presumably that was it...
I returned home to test but i can confirm that my line is still making a noise and my internet is incredibly slow. In the last five minutes the "No broadband found" message has popped up (like when you are waiting for it to be activated) and the router log gives XDlinestate down message.

Jan 25 15:07:03
SNTP Roundtrip exceeds limits

Jan 25 15:06:59
SNTP Invalid response from server 212.159.13.50

Jan 25 15:06:26
UPnP action 'AddPortMapping' from ip=192.168.1.69 (Success)

Jan 25 15:06:22
UPnP action 'AddPortMapping' from ip=192.168.1.69 (Success)

Jan 25 15:05:37
UPnP action 'AddPortMapping' from ip=192.168.1.69 (Success)
 
Jan 25 15:05:35
FIREWALL event (1 of 1): deleted rules

Jan 25 15:05:34
GRP Default destination is routed via gateway 46.208.231.51

Jan 25 15:05:34
xDSL linestate up (ITU-T G.992.1; downstream: 7008 kbit/s, upstream: 448 kbit/s; output Power Down: 19.5 dBm, Up: 12.5 dBm; line Attenuation Down: 20.5 dB, Up: 8.5 dB; snr Margin Down: 15.5 dB, Up: 29.0 dB)

Jan 25 15:05:29
UPnP action 'AddPortMapping' from ip=192.168.1.69 (Success)

Jan 25 15:05:25
UPnP action 'AddPortMapping' from ip=192.168.1.69 (Success)

Jan 25 15:05:21
UPnP action 'AddPortMapping' from ip=192.168.1.69 (Success)

Jan 25 15:05:18
FIREWALL event (1 of 1): created rules

Jan 25 15:05:18
GRP Default destination is not routed anymore via gateway 46.208.231.51

Jan 25 15:05:18
xDSL linestate down

Jan 25 15:04:34
UPnP action 'AddPortMapping' from ip=192.168.1.69 (Success)

Jan 25 15:04:29
UPnP action 'AddPortMapping' from ip=192.168.1.69 (Success)

Jan 25 15:03:42
UPnP action 'AddPortMapping' from ip=192.168.1.69 (Success)

Jan 25 15:03:38
UPnP action 'AddPortMapping' from ip=192.168.1.69 (Success)

Jan 25 15:03:01
UPnP action 'AddPortMapping' from ip=192.168.1.69 (Success)

Jan 25 15:02:24
UPnP action 'AddPortMapping' from ip=192.168.1.69 (Success)

Jan 25 15:02:20
UPnP action 'AddPortMapping' from ip=192.168.1.69 (Success)

Jan 25 15:01:42
UPnP action 'AddPortMapping' from ip=192.168.1.69 (Success)

Jan 25 15:01:37
UPnP action 'AddPortMapping' from ip=192.168.1.69 (Success)
 
Jan 25 15:00:59
UPnP action 'AddPortMapping' from ip=192.168.1.69 (Success)

Jan 25 15:00:12
FIREWALL event (1 of 1): deleted rules

Jan 25 15:00:12
GRP Default destination is routed via gateway 46.208.231.51
Jan 25 15:00:12
xDSL linestate up (ITU-T G.992.1; downstream: 6912 kbit/s, upstream: 448 kbit/s; output Power Down: 19.5 dBm, Up: 12.0 dBm; line Attenuation Down: 20.5 dB, Up: 8.5 dB; snr Margin Down: 15.5 dB, Up: 28.0 dB)

Jan 25 15:00:12
UPnP action 'AddPortMapping' from ip=192.168.1.69 (Success)

Jan 25 15:00:05
UPnP action 'AddPortMapping' from ip=192.168.1.69 (Success)
Jan 25 15:00:00
UPnP action 'AddPortMapping' from ip=192.168.1.69 (Success)

Jan 25 14:59:56
FIREWALL event (1 of 1): created rules

Jan 25 14:59:56
GRP Default destination is not routed anymore via gateway 46.208.231.51

Jan 25 14:59:56
xDSL linestate down

[#6]

Hi tox,
Sorry to hear it's still noisy. I've informed our phone faults team who will look into this a bit further for you.
Jojo

[#7]

I was/still am one of these "combination of unfortunate circumstances" and have been for 6 months. I fully understand the anger and frustration of the complete rubbish you are constantly fobbed off with.
I Have had a constant battle with PN to get someone who actually does the job professionally rather than the " it'll do / it’s fixed/ it’s your router/ the line is too long and the classic "what do you expect?"
I spent a lot of time pointing out the glaring errors to one person only to have a new name look at the call and repeat the same old diatribe.
My advice is stick with it, don’t let them get away with it and above all stand your ground.
I was actually taking legal advice as I was so sick of the constant automatic apologies and no progress when I finally got someone to take an interest (from the complaints dept).
Now after 6 BTW eng Visits and a lot of line work a few lift and shifts I am actually getting some where.
The only reason I have stuck with PN was because of the poor customer service! I was determined to ram it down there throat and not let them get away with it (and the fact that they have over charged me by 3K but that’s another story)
As I write this I now have an average service which is a massive improvement and am getting ready to close a 6month old fault ticket, so take heart and insist on the so called customer service that they somehow won awards for.
adie:quote

[#8]

Why was the quote removed?
Excerpt from Forum Rules
Use of Quotes
Quotes can be a very useful way of making your reply to a post clearer by indicating which post or part of a post you are referring to.
However using them incorrectly can be annoying and make threads very hard to read.
The following rule applies to the use of quotes.
Only quote the full content of a post if :-
a) it is NOT the post immediately before your reply
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In all cases you should think before quoting and wherever possible only use a part of the post you are replying to in order to make it clear which bit of a post your reply refers to.
The Moderators will remove unnecessary full quotes where they are posted immediately after the post being replied to.
I think that reason a applied

[#9]

Quote from: _Adam_Walker_

I just wanted to clarify that we never want that to be perceived as a threat, it's a heads up and an incentive to make sure that your equipment has been ruled out, if it has and we needed to book an engineer you should not be worrying about being charged £60.

Hi Adam
I do realise that it is not a threat or that you would not like it to be perceived as such however in my experience with dealing with support i agreed to this on one too many occassions.  If you are asked once or twice then that that would be fine but when it is repeated over and over it does begin to feel like it is taking on another meaning...of sorts. I also felt that it was used in a manner at least on one occassion where it did not feel constructive or a "heads up" as you say, rather it felt defensive and possibly that is why i used the word threat in my earlier post. Personally i agreed to it and i saw it noted in a  ticket that said i had agreed to it so it could of been left at that. Naturally , because of the times that we live in things do need to be clarified and liability made clear but there is a limit....and it could be open to abuse by support staff if they were that way inclined. Having said that, despite my issue being ongoing for an unacceptably long time in my opinion, the vast majority of the support staff that i have dealt with, have in fact been friendly. Efficient at diagnosing and resolving my issue timeously ? Well that is another story.
I did see in another post the mention of a kind of insurance to cover this and i think it would be a good idea if it could be built into a monthly charge but not all people would agree or want that type of cover and most people (like myself) would like to have the option. If it was reasonably priced with the cost being distributed amongst a large group of your subscribers it could work as an opt in option, i would go for it...

[#10]

Jez, I thought I had problems, I have been experiencing problems for just over a week. My connection seems to be getting slower and now it just will not connect. Check router, yes, £60 comment yes and so on. Problem is with BT, OK. BT fixed it, it went wrong again, BT fixed it it went wrong again. So when I check in the morning for mail, and my machine is partly for business, I hold my breath, and yes this morning, no go. It's something to do with switching so I am told and the guy will not be available until Monday to "sort" it out. I am sorry to say that the support is very similar to a Spanish bank I once used. Sorry PN but I cannot rate your service at the moment, unreasonable maybe, unhappy most certainly. Checking other providers as we speak.

[#11]

Quote from: keith4x4

I was/still am one of these "combination of unfortunate circumstances" and have been for 6 months.

Wow, what was the problem Keith4X4 ?

[#12]

@Philjay50,
We're happy to help as much as we can to resolve your issue,

Quote

It's something to do with switching so I am told and the guy will not be available until Monday to "sort" it out.

This is actually appropriate advise as we had identified an issue at the exchange for which an engineer (the type of which only work during the week) needs to be dispatched, I can see that an agent has picked up your ticket this morning and is dealing with arranging this now for you.
Adam.

[#13]

Tox
My main problem was a huge latency (it was like parcelforce delivering the packets) as well as a slow connection.
the big give away on mine was the MTBE (mean time between errors) was 2 seconds  but it took a long time to get past the "it's your router etc" phase. When I got a lift and shift done ( change of port at the exchange) that made no difference, It took a lot of effort to get it looked at further.
On a positive note its a lot better now (touch wood) and I hope it stays that way (had a few false positives along the way)
I hope yours is resolved a lot quicker.
On a sub note I am still waiting for a reason why my quote was removed.