Dreadful communication from Plusnet

[#1]

We have been without internet or phone now for 10 days now due to damage to the cabling outside the house. Intially we were told that work would be carried out on thursday 3rd December to restore the phone line. Nobody turned up, nobody has contacted us. We have no idea when we will get the line restored. Have asked for an update under the fault log but no one has answered. Do not want to hang on the phone for ages from a mobile. We are in a rural area with a poor  moble phone signal and very patchy 3G - this is a very difficult and expensive situation for us - mobile charges - and nobody seems to care when it gets fixed. I understand that the cabling fix will be with Openreach but it is Plusnets responsibility to ensure this is done and keep us updated. Very poor service.

[#2]

Hi Mike,
A warm welcome to the forums.
Indeed communication on what is happening with major faults is indeed dreadful from BT Openreach.  From personal experience the information actually available to ISPs from BT OR is woefully inadequate.  In some cases what is available is highly inaccurate.  Therefore the absence of the information you understandably desire is quite likely not be down to PlusNet, but their suppliers.
Information on major issues can be found here - http://usertools.plus.net/exchanges/mso.php - or here - http://btbusiness.custhelp.com/app/service_status

[#3]

Which area do you live in/which exchange?

[#4]

It might sound daft this, but do you know where your local exchange is?I had a fault a while back, at about the same tme BT openreach had been doing some work to their cables, and at the local exchange . I managed to talk to one of them ( muttered something about water ingress bad joints and dry solder connections) and to try again in a few hours

[#5]

Quote from: mikerbrown

Do not want to hang on the phone for ages from a mobile. We are in a rural area with a poor  moble phone signal and very patchy 3G - this is a very difficult and expensive situation for us - mobile charges...

I trust that you are referring to the expense of making phone calls in general and not of your attempts to call Plusnet. Calls to Plusnet Support can be made on 0800 432 0200 and calls from mobiles to 0800 numbers are now free to the caller.

[#6]

Quote from: Townman

Indeed communication on what is happening with major faults is indeed dreadful from BT Openreach.

In what way is it dreadful? They publish MSOs (affecting more than 40 users) on a daily basis with real time updates and estimated repair dates.
If the OP tells me his exchange/area, I can probably tell him the reason for the loss of service and the estimated fix date (more info that Plusnet is providing him with!).

[#7]

Andy,
May be I have just been very unfortunate, however for my 3 different lines and a number of incidents in North Cheshire when I've had protracted issues, the information coming back from BTOR has been well short of accurate.  Repairs advised to be resolved by the end of the following day when a major under water cable was known to be defective impacting the whole village.  Then their continued notification of the line being defective (not connected) some 3 days after it was working.
Then there was the occasion that a length of copper got stolen and after a 10 day delay in fixing I got the line for the pub in the next village - instead of immediately rejoining the circuit, they took another week to sort that out - again no proper information on what was happening.
The debacle over tree cutting to install a new line - lasting 3 months with claims that they were waiting on a third party who had never been contacted by BTOR.
Also the 6+ months it took BTOR to sort out the business line.
I have to conclude that I have been very unlucky or BTOR is totally [Censored] at delivering the service.  I don't believe that I'm that unlucky and my experience matches much of what is reported on here by many users.  For a communications company BTOR is exceeding poor at communicating with anyone about what is happening.  If PlusNET have the excellent information you suggest is available, why would they not pass it on to users.  I suggest that such information is systematically not being made available by BTOR.

[#8]

Thanks for your comments -
We are in Upper Hartfield, East Sussex
Still no phone or any sign of BT 2 weeks without now and suspect will be for much longer :((
I have tried ringing the 0800 number from work but it is at least a 40 minute wait - I just cannot do that. I have tried the chat but they can tell me nothing more than is on the feed.
We have been given 2 dates for repair where no one showed up now the latest from PlusNet  is:
'
Our suppliers have advised an MBORC (Matters Beyond Our Reasonable Control) has been declared in your area. This is where issues are effecting BT's ability to repair faults in your area. Such as high volume of repairs caused to storms and natural events. Something BT cannot be prepared for and this will cause delays on the lines repair course.
Because of this we have not been supplied an estimated repair date until this MBORC status has been removed.
We appreciate your patience in this matter and we apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused'
Not entirely sure what this means as the weather here (Upper Hartfield, East Sussex) is normal for December - a bit rainy - no storms or flooding. Seems like a 'how long is a piece of string' scenario - an excuse from Openreach to indefinitely delay reconnecting us and it seems that PlusNet are powerless to do anything about it.
I guess we are well down the list being residential and in a rural area.
Cannot believe that they can't just sort the phone cable out so we get a landline and basic ADSL - it took less time to reconnect our phone after the hurricane in 1987!!!!!

[#9]

You were lied to. There has been no MBORC declared for your area. If there had been it would have been published here: http://portal.plus.net/supportpages.html?a=2&support_action=messages&ispservice_id=adsldial

[#10]

There a Hartfield on the BT list of ongoing Phone line issues here http://btbusiness.custhelp.com/app/service_status/ if it helps

Quote

Hartfield- 01892 (estimated clear date 14/12/2015)

[#11]

Many thanks MisterW  and spoon whittler, very helpful 

[#12]

I couldn't agree more with Miker. We moved house on 25/9, told we couldn't have fibre so put back to asdl. I discovered two weeks later that we could get fibre, given any number of dates from Plusnet when it would go live, which never happened, latest was this Monday when BT engineer turned up to ask where Home Hub 5 router was as he had had text telling him to install it. Needless to say we had to use old kit but speed is still the same, used chat line and fobbed off and eventuallly cut off .Earlier on I had e-mailed CEO, didn't have any effect only offer to reduce charge and promise to sort ty out.
You can only take so much.

[#13]

Hi Tim,
A warm welcome to the forums.  Availability of FTTC is a variable feast - very dependent upon the capacity in the BTOR green cabinet at anyone time.  BTOR only part populate these cabinets when they are built.  They expand them as and when capacity runs out - not in anticipation of it running out.  Therefore availability can change week to week and month to month.
When I sought to obtain FTTC for one of my clients, there was available capacity in April, but we did not order then as we were unsure when the building refurbishment would be completed.  We then sought to order mid May, at which time there was no spare capacity.  More capacity came on stream late July.  Current availability in the location is "in some areas only"!
Kevin

[#14]

Hi Kevin,  I accept the availability argument, the issue for me is that I used to have faith in Plusnet staff trying to resolve issues. Nobody comes up with a solution blaming someone else. All the offer is a reduction in fees.I am happy to pay for a service, it would be nice to get one.
Tim