Migrated out - Thank you PlusNet Staff .....

[#1]

I have migrated away from PlusNet today, 31 March and feel that I owe PlusNet and other customers my assessment of what has been good and perhaps not so good about the service I have received here.
Firstly, I should explain that I am NOT leaving PlusNet because I am dissatisfied with the service. I am migrating to BT because I want to use the Openzone and FON WiFi Hotspots while I am away from home. That is my sole motivation for migrating and indeed it will cost me marginally more each month.
So what has been GOOD at PlusNet:

• The responsiveness of the PlusNet staff who monitor these fora and pick up issues raised by customers who are frustrated with the "pass the parcel" first line of support. With apologies to all those not mentioned, the service ethos initiated by Ian Wild and enshrined by James Bailey which has been fostered by Mand and Joanne and Adam and Bob and Matt and Nick and Chris who stick with the issues raised until resolved.


• The 24*7*365 service provided by the Sheffield CS Centre and the immediate provision of a FREE Dial-up service in the event of an outage. AFAIK, no other ISP provides this.


• The Broadband service gives the customer exactly what it promises on the Tin .... No more, no less. I like that and the fact that the throughput management profiles are clearly published.


• The reliability and Resilience of the Broadband service has been excellent. I can only recall one long outage when the Edinburgh centre went down and a couple of half hour outages over the past 5 years.


• The comprehensiveness of information provided on the Portal. (See also the downside of this below.)


• Competitive pricing. .... although I hate the headline grabbing advertising that hides the true cost to Market 2/3 customers.

There are some areas where PlusNet could serve its customers better:

• The (recent) poor first line of support provided by CS and the "Question" system. There has been a noticeable deterioration in the service level coincident with the closure of the Durban Centre and the increase in customer numbers resultant from the recent push for market share. I would have expected this to have recovered ere now.


• I am not impressed with the Project Management standards at PlusNet. In particular, the Change management and testing of changes in the production environment has caused several issues affecting me over the time I have been a customer.


• The PlusNet Website Portal is poorly designed and the nesting of menus is far from logical. I have the impression that it was never designed but simply grew by bolting on pages as required. In contrast, take a look at the BT Portal and you will see what I mean.


• I hate the Product concept where the Price is built on the knowledge that MOST customers will use a small fraction of their Data usage allowance. This means that most Low usage customers fund the hogs who use their allowances to the limit. Yes I know that the big numbers attract customers but I don't like paying £5/ 5GB when I am only gong to use a few MB.


• The email platform is flaky .... but then I don't use it.


• And lastly, the MAC debacle .... but there's no point in wasting my (and your) time on this!

Thank you to all of the PlusNet Staff and helpful fellow customers who lurk here. I will continue to lurk here myself. You never know, I may be back when my BT Shackels rust off in 18 months.
Best Wishes, Robin

[#2]

Robin,
What can I say?
We've had some, erm, interesting debates in the past ;), but I'm really genuinely sorry to see you go.
I'd like to thank you for your time and effort you've spent on the forums in the past, and hope you'll still stick around.
Is there a cool-off period on that shiny new contract?

[#3]

Quote

Firstly, I should explain that I am NOT leaving PlusNet because I am dissatisfied with the service. I am migrating to BT because I want to use the Openzone and FON WiFi Hotspots while I am away from home. That is my sole motivation for migrating and indeed it will cost me marginally more each month.

I have access to these, except premium Openzone hotspots, and I'm not with BT and if any non community member use my Fon spot I get paid.

[#4]

Hi Mand, I suppose that the concrete on my new contract is still wet because BT Openreach still haven't managed to migrate my Telephone service. As a result, they cannot release my Broadband Userid so I can't use Openzone or FON yet. Strangely, because of the way the Home Hub 3 authenticates, it has connected as soon as I plugged it in, without giving it a Username or Password 
I have to say that I like their Live Chat support and had a very constructive chat with an agent this morning. He identified the root cause of my Access issue and is calling me back tomorrow to follow up. They also seem to have an active support forum so there is somewhere to play 
Now, if PlusNet want to give us access to Openzone and FON for Free or alternatively discount the current products by enough to buy access from BT, ..........
I suppose that it all boils down to shekels in the end!

[#5]

I have to chuckle at the ineptitude of BT Openreach.
I placed the order to migrate my Broadband and Phone service to BT on 21 February, and requested a migration date of 31 March. All seemed to be going well; My BT Home Hub 3 was delivered on 31 March and when I plugged it in, it came to life, authenticating automagically, without even needing a Username and Password. So far, FANTASTIC!
The order tracker was still showing the Phone service as NOT complete and also, when I tried to activate FON, it said that my Username and Password was not recognised. Called BT and was told that there was a problem with my Phone migration. In short, Openreach had mis-transcribed my Postcode in the communication to PlusNet so PlusNet had refused the migration. They then re-submitted the order but had to give 10 WORKING days notice so were given a date of 15 April, Unbelievably, they repeated the error in Postcode on the order so that has been rejected and the latest date I have is 19 April.
However, I am really impressed with the Customer Support from BT. The Delhi Call Centre is no better/ no worse than any other First Line of defense! But, they have a Live chat which after a couple of sentences, referred the chat to a Scottish support agent who was able to activate my UserID and Password so I could sign into Openzone and FON. He called me back as promised and I even got a call from a Scottish woman who was checking that I was able to activate FON. They even gave me a temporary ID and 500 minutes .... just in case!
So, I am still a PlusNet Phone customer and will be until the 19th of April at earliest. That should make Mand very happy  

[#6]

19th April eh, interesting.
I'll come back and answer all the feedback points you raised when I'm officially working but incidentally, do you mind sharing what product you've bought from BT?

[#7]

Hi Mand,
I signed up for the £16 Broadband Option 1 and Anytime Calls Package on an 18 month contract and the £120 for 12 Month Line Rental package. I think that they also charged ~£5 P&P for the shiny new BT Home Hub 3 which looks good so far.
Enjoy your weekend and looking forward to chatting next week. - R
Edit: The Phone Line order has only today been placed successfully after having been "rejected" four times by BT Openreach. Nobody admits to knowing why but I suspect that PlusNet refused to release the Line because of a transcription error in the Postcode submitted.
The result is that my migration will now be 20 days later than my Broadband transferred. Oh Well!