Extremely Poor PN Fibre Speeds

[#1]

I despair with PN & their parent Company BT!!
Just over two weeks ago I moved from John Lewis standard Broadband (managed by PN for JL) onto PN's Unlimited Fibre (up to 76mb). First impressions are, this is probably the worst mistake I have made in a long time! The fibre speeds I’m getting are no better than what I was receiving with my old standard broadband with JL! Like many others I’m also extremely annoyed with the long response times by phone & messaging to PN Customer support & Technical Services. Shouldn’t you have got more staff in months ago?
The BT contractor turned up on the due day on Mon 18/11/13 but he did not change the BT master box, instead putting the new fibre box on my last phone extension using the existing extension cable.  He also put the BT modem and Plusnet router on this last extension but did not change the main BT master box with the new filter in. He did not fix the 30m of internal fibre cable as I was told by PN. Also I do have very old cable (50 years plus) before my BT master socket from the overhead line, which is in both twin cable and twin paired and I pointed this out to him but he did not change it. I would have thought BT would have changed done this to get maximum performance from the fibre, but sadly no!  He also left the PN router on top of the BT modem on my desk and as this was getting extremely hot so I had to subsequently wall hang the BT modem, the way it is designed, with the air vents at the top and it is now a lot cooler!
I also told him before he left that the phone that is directly connected into BT master socket was making a noise on the line for about 15 seconds before clearing and sometimes causing broadband to disconnect, after he fitted the fibre. He tried to blame my phone for this but it did not happen before fibre!! I have subsequently had to put a filter back on this phone direct into BT master socket and the noise has now stopped. The DSL light also goes out when I make a call which according to the PN literature is not correct.
My line speeds for fibre are around 4 mb download and 1 mb up.
I tried to ring PN on 20 Nov but got fed up holding on for more than 30 minutes so sent a message instead. It took PN until 26 Nov to respond to tell me line tests had been done and there was a fault. I was told a BT engineer would have to re-visit. Well that was arranged by PN for this morning (3 Dec) yet here I am, more than 2 hours beyond the 8-1pm timeframe and no BT engineer has turned up! Another text message has been sent to PN!
What also baffles me is why a friend of mine who lives 300metres down my road and has BT fibre and gets his fibre from the same fibre box and same exchange as me, is getting 30 mb down and 7 mb up!! Yet PN only estimated 17 mb with me?! Although to even get that speed would be nice!
How PN have won so many awards as advertised on the website, over the last few years, quite frankly beggars belief?! Perhaps the new CEO Andy Baker needs to bang a few heads together especially with his BT background?!
Well PN, what do you have to say to an extremely unhappy customer who is not receiving the service I’m paying for?  

[#2]

Quote from: tommy129

The BT contractor

Kelly?

[#3]

Firestly, it's annoying having problems with installs and speeds and it seems like you've been let down by the BTOR engineers.
The difference between your estimate and your friends can be correct as he could be, as you said 300m closer to the fibre cabinet. if you put your details into this, what does it say is available in your area (estimated)
http://www.dslchecker.bt.com/
It does sound as if the line hasn't been installed correctly and there are problems. Did you request for the fibre to be placed at the end of the extension socket or at the master socket, from my previous fibre installs at my last three properties they've only ever installed the fibre at the master socket unless I specified otherwise.
PN, do have issues with the call waiting which is being address and their new call centre has just opened and the staff are being trained as we speak, whilst the call wait times should have been sorted months ago obviously opening call centres and getting/training staff does take time.
However, in Plus.nets defence it does seem it was BT Openreach who let you down and all Plusnet can do is try to resolve it, regardless of who your provider is all the work would be carried out by BT Openreach (or their contractors)

[#4]

Hello Jel - no it wasn't Kelly. I think it was a contractor called MJ Everett?
Thank you gnicholson8 for the web link. The speeds I'm being given there are, in the high range for FTTC (clean)  Range A are : Down 28.7 (low 20) and up 6.7 (low 4.9) and for Range B (Impacted) Down 23.1 (low 11.2) and up 5.9 (2.9). As the crow flies he is probably closer to the cabinet than me but it is in another street, so I don't know how the cabling is routed.
No, I wanted him to put the new master at the front of the house (where the existing master is) and run the new fibre extension to the back room but he thought otherwise and said it would be fine! I think he was just being lazy!

[#5]

Quote from: tommy129

I think he was just being lazy!

So do I.

[#6]

I third the motion that he was just being lazy,
Sounds like you got a bit of a duff engineer, I am sure someone from Plusnet will help you out regarding that.
As for the missed appointment, you're not alone. I had two of these myself recently. BT Openreach are the BIGGEST pain in the ass ever and seem unaccountable.

[#7]

tommy129
Really sorry to hear of the engineer not turning up. I've just been speaking to one of our faults agents on this and he's going to be responding to your ticket either this evening or tomorrow morning with the next steps and what we can do from here.

[#8]

As an update to my earlier postings, the BT engineer didn’t turn up on 3 Dec because my request had been lost in the system from PN to BTOR!! A very apologetic text and phone call from Daniel at PN, so thank you Daniel for this.
A very efficient and polite BT engineer turned up first thing this morning (5 Dec) and basically said there were a number of faults on the internal wiring done by the BT contractor (according to BT engineer it was probably MJ Quinn and not MJ Everett as I said in my earlier posting).
Basically the BT engineer has now done what I expected to be done in the first place. He re-wired the twin cable down from the gutter to the master socket by the front door (the cable had perished on the insulation) and then laid Cat 5 cable to the BT modem in my back room. I’m now getting about 23 mb down and 2 mb up. He said the BT contractor mis-wired initially and hence the drop outs and slow speed and should have seen these faults!!
I did have to ring PN Customer Services because the BT engineer was getting 24 mb download on his machine but I was still getting about 4mb on my pc but PN had capped at 5mb because of the faults, so I had to get that released (another 20 minute wait for PN Customer Services to answer whilst the BT engineer was hanging around). So all in all I’m reasonably happy now!! Just hope it continues!
Certainly all the PN staff I’ve spoken to are very pleasant and helpful but they just seem to be overworked. It’s probably the usual old story that management don’t put in place the systems to cope with the influx of new customers and existing staff struggle with the workload?! Hopefully the new Leeds office will be up and running efficiently soon!
Perhaps as a gesture of goodwill from PN, they will give me my first month of fibre free as I’ve not had the fibre service for 15 days that I’ve been paying for and also the missed BT appointment that left me hanging around all day?! We’ll see!!

[#9]

Thanks for posting back, and I'm really happy to see everything is up and running now for you.
I'll drop a ticket on your account (once I've spoken to Dan) with a goodwill gesture and hope that your service now continues to be fault free!

[#10]

Thank you Chris and also for your PM that I will get next month's fibre service for free as gesture of goodwill. As you say, I also hope the "service now continues to be fault free".