Leaving Plusnet after 18 years

[#1]

Thought I'd share my plusnet expeirience and broadband/ADSL experiences to date...

My First  Broadband connection was with Freeserve, with a box purchased from Dixons containing a Speedtouch "frog" modem , and the various bits needed to sign up/connect, each evening/day it was a case of waiting for the green lights to stop flashing and show two solid greens, when that came i could then browse the internet at a blisteringly fast 512kb down and 256 up ( or 1/2mb down and 1/4mb up) speeds that now would trigger a deluge of complaints and a fault investigation.

 Things were working well, the frog gave way to a router, and that in turn gave way to a Wifi enabled router - although at the time i didn't see why i needed wifi as i didn't have many wifi things to connect (!)

 Eventualy i became aware of a little known ISP called Plusnet, via the adsl guide site/forums ( and a few other places, as well as recommendations in the pub ) UK  - Sheffield based company that amongst other things was proud of the fact that they didnt advertise, except for on the local football teams shirt and relied upon word of mouth this was roughly the time when freeserve was re branding to wanadoo..

So i signed upto this Plusnet company - the things that stuck out were the no advertising, and openness - things such as webcams throughout "plusnet towers" so if you needed to you could physically see the inside of the call centre ( as well as corridors entrances etc) live call stats etc.

I think my package came at a then generous 60GB/month allowance

Time went on, the speeds went up from 0.5mb to 1 then upto 8 (ADSL 1 max speed) , and the service worked with out any major issues - including one where open reach ( who were working in the road) accidentally disconnected something - easy to fix by asking them in person, and another issue where someone drove into a street  cab again fixed by speaking direct

 Anyway over this time the limits went and plusnet became unlimited - all be it with a fair usage policy and a bad boys pipe which generated a fair bit of bad PR , the bad boys pipe faded away - and the service just worked

 Each time my contract was up for renewal i was able to get a competitive quote, sometimes it took a little effort and a few calls but when presented with competitors prices and deals, the enthusiastic call centre staff were always ready to come close, sometimes even offering a better deal, sometimes two or three pounds more - either which way when combined with taking up Line rental saver things worked out at a good price for a service that worked, wth a gaurentee that there would be no mid contract price rises.

And if he service didnt then i would be able to call the call centre 24 hours a day 7 days a week - another little thing that was made a big deal of .

Fast forward a little, the webcams went, the openess went, the 24/7 call center went - but still the service worked and still i was offered a good deal even more so when taken up with line rental saver.

 There was plenty of talk about Plusnet launching an FTTP product , and a trail was launched, at the time there was no FTTP in my area

FTTP eventually arrived, and plusnet made plenty of noises about this service in places such as ADSL guide, FTTP is, like garlic bread the future and eventually its something we will have to accept , plusnets rumoured  launch dates came and went with more coming soon, sometimes, perhaps, never?.

 It had become clear that at this point plusnet had been downgraded to noting but a sub brand of BT - reading through various other sites it would also appear that the only reason plusnet exist is down to their archaic billing system that, if plusnet were to be folded into BT fully and the plusnet  brand retied would require the copying of all customer data by hand

But still plusnet worked without a hitch

Eventually my contract ran out/fixed term expired I was sent an email with some offers - one of which i was considering taking up - but the links in the email were not valid I ended up paying the out of contract price i hung in to see if they would offer FTTP but nothing came - re-assessed what i need in terms of speed (VDSL 80/20 would be fine and even 40/10 at a push)  and went shopping for deals .

 Did as i always had done and called plusnet retention's .

First call, i got through to someone who sounded tired bored and distinctly unenthusiastic - a complete contrast to the previous encounters with plusnet CS ( retention's)

the next few times again, tired bored and cant be arsed  wouldn't match the competitors, and instead waffled on and on about a UK call centre

 And the last time again sounded tired, bored etc, noticed i called previously, and again no price match or even coming close.

So now about to join Now Broadband, after 18 years ( or so) off to new pastures , i just hope that plusnet dont make a big mess of the final bill, like Freeserve did when i left them for plusnet

 The freeserve/wanadoo experience / farce ended with them sending a stamped addressed envelope so that i could send a cheque to them to the  huge value of Zero Pounds, and one penny

The Telecommunications world has moved on significantly since 2004, and Plusnet are not the same plusnet as they were back then , but through it all - upon renewals they have , up until now been enthusiastic.

 the very recent experiences just makes plusnet come across as a bit "meh"  almost as if BT have left PN as a hulk of its former bubbly self, with bored and fed up employees that have been demotivated and can no longer be bothered.

Will i be back after my Now Tv contract ends? dont know - depends upon what deals are available, or even if i can as my area is soon to be a copper stop sell zone

[#2]

Good luck, my parents just ended 12 months with NowTV and i can say their internet connection was terrible, and the now TV router was complete rubbish. (they had BT before which was fine also)

I've moved them to plusnet a week ago, and speeds have doubled instantly and still settling so should go up even more.

[#3]

I'm well aware of the shortcomings of Now, and Sky routers  ( as well as the various plusnet offerings) - looking forward to the challenge of setting up MER connections on my current router (archer vr2800) , neighbor has Now Broadband and it works without a hitch - their  phone line is on the same pole, and on the same cabinet

[#4]

A very interesting post @pint , and I can relate very much to what you say.

I too started with a 'Frog' with Claranet, until a friend pointed out how they were 'having a larf' with their prices, having gone all corporate and losing interest in the little guy. He guided me towards his ISP, Plusnet, and I'm still here, having been made an offer I couldn't refuse on renewing a few weeks ago.

But, as you say, it's not the ISP it once was. Every BT annual report over the last several years refer to Plusnet as their 'budget brand', or words to that effect. Being ex BT and fairly tech savvy, I'm only likely to need assistance from Plusnet if I need to report a line fault - and that's less likely than average, being in an area with relatively modern, non-aluminium D side cables.

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So i signed upto this Plusnet company - the things that stuck out were the no advertising, and openness - things such as webcams throughout "plusnet towers" so if you needed to you could physically see the inside of the call centre ( as well as corridors entrances etc) live call stats etc.

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Aye, those were the days. Remember the 'End of Day' blog, which then became weekly, before disappearing? And Mand's 'big stick', or was it a cricket bat. All a long time ago.

Good luck with your new ISP.  🙂

[#5]

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@198kHz wrote:

And Mand's 'big stick', or was it a cricket bat. All a long time ago.

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I remember the cricket bat! I never met Mand though as I joined Plusnet in 2014, but when I started on the social media team in 2017, the motivational bat was there. 

It stayed with the social team for years, but unfortunately we seem to have lost it in 2018 when the floor we were on was renovated and we moved around the building. On the bright side, we got shiny new computers and monitors.

I’m confident though that the cricket bat is serving some other great purpose now, and we’ll always remember it.

@pint, I’m really sorry to see you go after so many years. Some of the experience you’ve described isn’t what I’d expect so I’ll make sure calls are listened to and feedback’s passed on where appropriate. 

We may not have all the same stuff as we once did (webcams etc) as times have changed, but we’re still enthusiastic and wanting to offer the best products & services we’re able to for a good price.

Thanks for loyalty over the last almost 2 decades, and I’d like to wish you all the best with your new provider. 

@mikedoh, I’m glad to see you’re still around and I hope things are working well, after the little mess a couple of years ago. Thanks for moving your parents over to us! 

[#6]

I'm in the same boat. I've been with Plusnet for 12 years (I think...) and have always had fantastic service. Never had an issue with my internet, the support staff are awesome and the pricing has always been great. (I've never had disinterested staff on a call, thankfully, but we can all have our off days!)

Now, I'm really looking to get FTTP (handy for working from home and massive game patches!), but with the lack of communication on when and what this will look like, I am having to review my options.

How long will we have to wait, and what will they offer? Is it going to be the full 900Mb?

I'd love to stay with Plusnet, but don't want to be waiting indefinitely...

Should I just ship (maybe more like a cabin transfer to EE (I'd rather not)? - someone convince me to stay!

[#7]

Hiya @iflo, thanks for getting in touch. I am so pleased to hear that you have been happy with the service you have received from us and would like to thank you for your loyalty to us over the years, we really do appreciate it!

I'm sorry to hear you are thinking of jumping ship to get FTTP, though fully appreciate your reasons for this.

Whilst I don't have any information for you on how long you will have to wait for FTTP with us or what speeds would be offered, I would just like to say that I do hope you stick it out with us

If you do decide to go to EE or BT for FTTP though, you can do this by contacting our Customer Options Team and they can transfer you through. They are contactable directly on 0800 013 2632 and are open between the following hours:

Monday - Friday: 08:00 - 20:00
Saturday: 09:00 - 19:00
Sunday: 09:00 - 18:00