In the escalation, of Annoyed / Upset customers, what proposals would you ask PN

[#1]

@Chris
It is not a personnel attack on Andy's character at all
Tbh that is the impression that we are getting, & since we we all promised updates / feedback as far back as December 2013 & nothing to date has been fed-back & PN are having more issues since his arrival & that is fact is as facts are
& as I clearly stated (until proved otherwise (as we are yet to see the proof))
If you can not prove otherwise, then that speaks volumes
Perhaps this statement may bode true (Unless proven otherwise)

Quote from: Midnight

Knowing PlusNet they will update it after he has left.

@artmo
Can you please stop your snipping derogatory marks towards me (thank you)

[#2]

@Chris  I also believe that the comments made by @TORPC are seriously out of line and in need of review.  It does seem that no debate is considered as addressed until ALL of the pedantic little points have been responded to match his personal criteria.
Having made that point, there is still a great need to contribute to the masses some clear Timeline when some of the issues are being scheduled for fix and code release.  Many of the problems go back months (if not years), so the repetition of "it's a known fault - we're working on it" has become meaningless.  I hope that we can continue the discussion in a less volatile manner.
Maurice

[#3]

Quote from: iDan

Townsman’s reply #29 is a well balanced summary of the way some folk think.

I'd largely agree with that and see no point in adding to the list of issues that are generally well-known.
The staff here do an excellent job in the face of various adverse factors (not least BTOR and system and resource "limitations") but there is little or no visibility of what, if anything, the CEO is doing to improve anything.  
As such I've ignored this thread up to now as it didn't seem to be going anywhere, nor does it seem likely to.  
What I would say is that, being part of the BT group, one thing I WOULD expect the CEO to be doing was to represent to BTOR in a robust way the problems experienced by ISP's, and more especially their customers, due to their well-known failings. And to extract some plans for remedies.

[#4]

I wonder if we should be writing to our MPs about the failings of BT Openreach?  If BT cannot put its own house in order then corrective action could be enforced by legislation.

[#5]

Hasn't BTOR already been told to get things sorted?  They said they were taking on more engineers a few weeks ago.
This featured on Watchdog last year.
BTOR

[#6]

Extracting a promise from BTOR that they will get things sorted isn't the same thing as passing legislation to force a certain level of service to be maintained.  Maybe BTOR announced they will take on more engineers to take the heat off, allowing them to say "We have plans to make things better".  I'll believe it when I see it.
By the way, nice link to Watchdog, artmo

[#7]

I note that the CEO is coming in for a bit of a battering on this thread. A different perspective:
The prime responsibility of any CEO is surely to his superiors at the plc level, where he (or she) is responsible for running a successful business and at the same time taking cognisance of the overall aims (and shareholder expectations) of the overall business? As such it must be very difficult to publicly criticise another division of your company.
I therefore suggest that the problem is that the government has allowed BT to run both the OR monopoly and ISPs. Whilst this persists I can see no way that there will be a proper Client/Supplier relationship whereby the Client can realistically raise old harry with the regulator etc. if there is poor performance.
It would irritate me less if straight talking 'Yorkshire folk' stopped referring to OR as 'our suppliers', which I assume is meant to be interpreted as 'nothing to do with us guv' and perhaps addressed them (as I gather is the case) as 'our colleagues in our OR division over whom we have no influence or control'.
Another point: Every time some-one complains about waiting time the stock answer is that PN 'are taking on more staff'. Surely whilst PN are advertising, taking on more customers and hence more people requiring support, more staff are required to simply stop the unacceptable wait period from getting worse. If PN announced that they were stopping advertising and not taking on new customers until the wait time came down then I would believe that an improvement was coming.
Or maybe I'm just a cynical old beggar who sees 'smoke and mirrors' everywhere!

[#8]

Quote from: baldrick

Every time some-one complains about waiting time the stock answer is that PN 'are taking on more staff'. Surely whilst PN are advertising, taking on more customers and hence more people requiring support, more staff are required to simply stop the unacceptable wait period from getting worse. If PN announced that they were stopping advertising and not taking on new customers until the wait time came down then I would believe that an improvement was coming.

I understand what you're saying here baldrick. I'm sure that you can appreciate why a company would decide NOT to stop advertising completely and stop new customers from being able to join. We have seen a big improvement in call wait times compared to 6 months ago, we all admit that we have a way to go yet, however, there has been improvement nevertheless. At the same time that we're employing new people to tackle the calls we've got coming in we're also improving internal systems and processes so that we can free up some resource from those areas of the business as well.
As technology is playing a bigger part in everyone's lives we are also noticing that more and more people are opting to self-serve or ask for support online and therefore won't call in for support as often.

[#9]

Quote from: Linn

As technology is playing a bigger part in everyone's lives we are also noticing that more and more people are opting to self-serve or ask for support online and therefore won't call in for support as often.

That could be a flawed assumption  You could also interpret it as
a)  people are so hacked off being in a call queue that they seek support elsewhere ie in this forum
b)  people are not happy being fobbed off with poor quality information from telephone support agents and the lack of any evidence trail on advice given, so they go online
Note that I haven't called support so I have no experience of a) or b), but there have been plenty of examples detailed on this forum where incorrect advice has been given and the DCT team have promised to go and 'have a word' with the relevant support agent...

[#10]

Quote from: baldrick

It would irritate me less if straight talking 'Yorkshire folk' stopped referring to OR as 'our suppliers', which I assume is meant to be interpreted as 'nothing to do with us guv' and perhaps addressed them (as I gather is the case) as 'our colleagues in our OR division over whom we have no influence or control'.

I just love that! 
The "our suppliers" phrase really does annoy me, it's so "sloping shoulders" that any sensible management of PN would ban it. Take responsibility for it yourself, manage your suppliers properly or "name and shame" them when they really do drop you in it despite your best efforts. 

[#11]

Hi Lynn K
Courtesy of the aforementioned waiting times,
Isn't  that clearly a major factor, for customers , having / feeling last resort, seeking the self - service ?
Thus increasing the self - service's popularity stats & making Jess look good (for example)

[#12]

@pwatson I see where you're coming from, however, you must admit that it's a fair statement considering that there are so many other ways like Twitter and Facebook where people can communicate with companies these days and that wasn't possible 10 years ago.
@TORPC it completely depends on the customer. Some people feel more comfortable using self-service and will go to lengths to avoid having to call in to speak to someone.

[#13]

Personally, I hate phoning companies.  I'd much rather self serve, community serve or raise a ticket/email, in that order, than have to phone them up.

[#14]

Quote from: Linn

@pwatson I see where you're coming from, however, you must admit that it's a fair statement considering that there are so many other ways like Twitter and Facebook where people can communicate with companies these days and that wasn't possible 10 years ago. @TORPC it completely depends on the customer. Some people feel more comfortable using self-service and will go to lengths to avoid having to call in to speak to someone.

As we all understand that there are several channels of communication, including the Social Media
There are those & some have even mentioned on the forum that they will not use the likes of Facebook / Twitter et al, with very compelling & understandable reasons
That said
Their other more direct options, are not as efficient as once was,
Understandably PlusNet have opened a new (not so new) call centre & are taking on more staff, in an attempt to alleviate some of the issues, as a guideline, how long does it take to train staff up before they deal with the public ?

[#15]

Quote from: Kelly

Personally, I hate phoning companies.

I'm totally with you on that one ! We should go out for a beer sometime and ignore each other too
I'll always try and use email or online contact form as the first port of call.