Is plusnet the worst internet provider on the market?

[#1]

I have recently joined plusnet (should be called no-net), and we have nothing but excuses upon excuses for the shockingly bad service. And we are tied into a 1 year contract and will have to pay the full years contract fee to leave. Is there anyone else that had the same experience? Any advise would be much appreciated. Ty

[#2]

How can we give advice if you haven't said what problems you've experienced?

[#3]

I have no idea if they are the worst internet provider as I can't get any joy from them.
They do have the worst customer expereince I have ever had for any service.  I have spent over 3 hours waiting on the phone on several occasions and still not managed to make progress.
I have had numerious web chats that have been disconnected.  I have no phone or internet and am still waiting to book an engineer for a non internal problem which will be 24th Dec.
I serioulsy have never had any expereince like it.

[#4]

Hi there,
@bash22
I've had a look over your account and you reported a speed issue a few days ago, but our testing isn't showing any issues. There's a comment on there that you are using wireless, what are the speeds like on a wired connection?
@cimlaboy
If you can let us know your availability for an engineer by replying to the fault ticket on your account we'll get that booked in.

[#5]

To be honest Id say no, I guess all ISP's will experience faults from time to time, I was once upon a time using xstream for free dial up! that was a nightmare to get on to but since ADSL i joined plusnet 11 years ago, In that time I dont think ive ever actually needed to call them, I have experienced 2 separate periods of 'downtime' which combined was maybe 6 days? Even they were due to botched BT wiring at a local junction so not anything fault wise with Plusnet really.
I finally upgraded to fibre about a fortnight ago, the engineer arrived as advised. Had a new faceplate and a data extension installed, the line is functioning within the speeds i was quoted and the billing seems to have adjusted correctly. Im a happy customer with no issues to speak of,
I think the main problem is we only rush to the forum if we have a problem, nobody ever thinks 'oh my broadband has worked perfectly 99.83% of the time i have been with Plusnet, hey hows about i heard over to the forum to announce that'
Like all businesses only the complaints are usually visible, any other lurkers here who are actually happy?
Lee

[#6]

I have been with 4 ISP's - and without a doubt PN have been the be st by far.  Whenever I have had a problem, and that is not often I
have had excellent service from the PN staff in Sheffield.
I agree that we tend to see more negative comments on here but that is because of the reason Lee has said, few people think to post praise.
BUT - I will admit things seem to have got worse recently - I havent participated in these forums much for the last few years - but a month ago I came back because I noticed BT, and others were offering very high speed FTTP, but not Plusnet. A call to the callcentre I got an answer within 15 minutes and was delt with very well, but they couldnt sort FTTP, and I was advised to raise a ticket, which I did and it took over a week to get a reply. I was on the verge of signing up with another ISP but made one last effort by PM'ing a senior member of staff and they kicked the system and my FTTP was ordered and to my suprise 3 days later BTOR knocked on the door to say they were putting the fibre in.
It then took over another week to get the internal works order confirmed and then the last stroke was no new router was sent until I posted in here and Harry again got things sorted, but I may be without serive until the router arrives.
I do think there is a serious problem with customer service at the moment - I think the senior management need to get a grip.
But I still wouldnt call PN the worst ISP - but they have lost their top place they were on with Which awards a few years ago.

[#7]

As a ISP PN are GOOD , i have been here 5 years with no major problems .
Where PN are BAD is Customer services have FALLEN well below expectations , all we get is Sorry and we are sorting it  lost track of how many times we have heard that

[#8]

As a service provider they are fine although I have modest requirements. Service seems to have gone to the dogs however. I have a call in to check why my speed is so low and it's been the longest 24 hours before response I have ever known. I appreciate this is a minor problem, and expect them to do not much. This only came about because I asked elsewhere if there was a better router. As they make such  deal about their Yorkshire based service you would think they would try to live up to their boasts. When you get through to somebody using IM they are fine and friendly but otherwise it's like drawing teeth. I suspect they are living on a reputation that they no longer really deserve.

[#9]

Sorry to hear about the problems that the OP has been having.
TBH, touch wood, Plusnet is the 'best' ISP I have been with so far, apart from a recent annoyance with their Plusnet Protect product which sent me scurrying back to Norton Internet Security.
Have been with two of the major ones back and forth a couple of times and have been with Plusnet now for around 18 months. If I do need to move from PN, not sure where I would go. The other two ISPs had/have call centres in third world countries (no, not the UK) and I found it rather difficult to communicate with many of the people I spoke with, more owing to a cultural rather than a language difficulty, when there was an issue with the broadband. I would say I had issues with both the level of service and the level of customer service.
With PN there have been issues with the service but, I get to speak with a person in Sheffield when there has been a problem, after I have got through. Communication is easier. During the latest episode, an Openreach engineer came out twice and a third visit was booked for a friday afternoon, but he never showed up. Was not charged for that. And the issue turned out to be the router, which was replaced.
So happy so far. I think with copper wires to the exchange, problems can be expected some of the time, eg, due to rain ingress, but, hopefully, they will resolvable.

[#10]

Been with PN for about 9 years now i think (heck... where has my life gone?  🐵 and to start with i gave them hell. They really were awful... p2p speeds measured in BITS per second... yet i could get KILOBITS per second on dialup 
Anyway it went on... and on... and on.... and if i'm honest... they've only got better. You just have to give them chance. Yes they do fluff a lot of new orders / customer accounts... no idea why that happens or why they don't get that sorted as a priority but once they get you put right there seems to be very little hassle from them after that (in my experience anyway).
I've heard far worse about BT and talk talk...

[#11]

Much to my surprise Plusnet are the best of the big ones http://www.thinkbroadband.com/isp/compare.html?isp_7=1&isp_77=1&isp_21=1&isp_22=1&commit=Compare

[#12]

It's always been the same  you only get what you pay for, If quality of the service it's self and support are what you want from an ISP then the 4 biggest ISP's are probably best avoided TBH
Sky has a good network and peering (or did have) but their normal support  isn't the best , All 4 providers charge eye watering amounts for line rental, should buy into their bundling antics
I choose plusnet  for a couple of reasons, 1, they do offer the option of a static IP, and the price for 80/20 fttc as at  May 2013, that and the buyout price of any unused remaining months of the min term (18mths)  Should things of not worked out as they did as far as the sync, DLM intervention due to physical line conditions
I experienced problems with throughput performance mainly during peak times and Sundays quite a lot during the time i was a plusnet customer, some of which was down to plusnet and their networking , and the rest was down to BT wholesale and their back haul capacity , something that plusnet didn't actually get fixed,
I have had issues twice with BT and it's run a svlan to the wire  mentality  with my current isp, and they have got this resolved  each time within weeks not months or never, The pn support maybe pleasant to speak to about thinks, some who are more knowledgeable than others,  but if they don't get the results from their "supplier"(BT) then they are as much of a benefit to customers as a chocolate teapot,  then there was the on hold waiting times to actually speak to someone, even 6-8mths ago it wasn't good
I currently pay for both line rental +calls (inc caller id ) and FTTC 80/20  around £52.00 per month, but as from next month that will decrease to £44.00 excluding calls, but at 1per min no set up fees  that isn't going to be £52 any time soon, and both FTTC and line rental are on a 1 mth min term

[#13]

Quote from: Merluza

As a service provider they are fine although I have modest requirements. Service seems to have gone to the dogs however. I have a call in to check why my speed is so low and it's been the longest 24 hours before response I have ever known. I appreciate this is a minor problem, and expect them to do not much. This only came about because I asked elsewhere if there was a better router. As they make such  deal about their Yorkshire based service you would think they would try to live up to their boasts. When you get through to somebody using IM they are fine and friendly but otherwise it's like drawing teeth. I suspect they are living on a reputation that they no longer really deserve.

I think that is a little unfair - you did come looking for advice on buying a new router in the hope that a new one would increase your internet speed.  The help provided by other customers has avoided you expense which would have delivered no benefit.  That insight has directed you to raising a line fault for investigation with PlusNet.  I suggest that you'd be even more disgruntled if you had spent a pile of dosh on a new router and saw no improvement?
Happy Christmas.

[#14]

I wouldn't say they are the worst, for me TalkTalk are by far the worst, although only seems to be when you get problems, until then the cheap service is great. (they actually wanted original drivers license or passport sent in the post when we eventually gave up and tried to cancel after 3 whole months of not having a line for the phone or broadband and TalkTalk refusing to admit there was a problem, every time we phoned we had a happy voice saying well we left a voicemail on your home phone and no one responded within 48 hours so we closed the call assuming it was sorted, problem being we had no phone line, before that we were with them for 7 years!)
for me personally, sky have been the best, had a couple of issues and support seemed to always be next day and sorted (if an engineer was required that is)
I was very negative about plusnet at the start of my contract, and yes I agree support are slow, but after 18 months, and little issues after the initial few months, the price does seem to be one of the best, but I guess lower prices does mean lower service levels, after all, if your employing uk staff and low costs, how can you compete? corners need to be cut at some point, sadly it seems response times for support calls are those that suffer, I guess UK employee's having pesky things like employers that have to live with human rights, and contract laws and such hinder such an experience, but I'm happy to have a slightly longer timeframe for problems if it means staff are being paid & treated properly.
I'm torn between renewing with plus net, or going back to sky who I personally feel have excellent support, although the sales team and constant phone calls to take out sky packages have a lot to be desired, the actual technical support to get things done has been by far the best experience from any company for me. (I have an IT background, and have been on both sides of technical support many times, and I know first hand its not really a fun game, biggest issue is getting a decent person on the other end of the phone that works for a company that encourages free thinking) all
I can say is try and hold out over the hopefully rough start!

[#15]

Quote from: Oldjim

Much to my surprise Plusnet are the best of the big ones http://www.thinkbroadband.com/isp/compare.html?isp_7=1&isp_77=1&isp_21=1&isp_22=1&commit=Compare

I'm not surprised - it just goes to show that for the bulk of these ISP's PN is best - the vast majority will never need customer support that often - so how can the people doing the survey get a representative survey.
I've not used BT, Sky or Talk Talk myself but have heard from friends how bad they can be at times - especially with foreign call centres.