New to Plus Net - not impressed so far

[#1]

Hi,
As the subject says, I've only been with Plus Net a short time, and so far I'm not impressed.  Professionally I deal with enterprise networks so I get to deal with ISPs and Telcos on a daily basis, none of our customers use Plus Net so I only have my own experience to add to the comparison.
First off the order and transfer was not well managed.  They cut over the service before shipping the order, and before providing the DSL account details for me to configure alternative equipment.  Lucky I managed to get the email while at work, so could get in touch to obtain the information needed.  Otherwise I'd have returned home and found the Internet out of service, and of course no way of receiving the Plus Net email saying they'd gone live.  Surely it would make more sense to send out that email beforehand, giving the time at which the service would takeover?    I had to chase to get the router refunded as well, since you'd taken payment even though it hadn't been shipped.
The service is slower than our previous provider, although sync speed etc is all the same, when it goes through a bad spell it's effectively unusable.  Plus Net are working on that at the moment but their fault finding and resolution processes are poor to say the least.  It appears that they effectively abdicate all control to Openreach and/or BTW, so they just stonewall any request to expedite on the basis that "Openreach requires us to do this", or "BTW won't let us do that".    I've not seen that attitude with other ISPs, I'm not sure whether the problem here arises from Plus Net's relationship with BT, or whether they've outsourced more or what.  Whatever the reason where any other provide would apply pressure to BTW/OR, Plus Net apparently won't and are happy to put the whole fault on hold until OR/BTW let's them proceed.  Service managers apparently have no technical knowledge, so fault escalation is completely non-existent, and there's no point in trying to explain that the underlying issue can't possibly lie with the local loop (Plus Net first line tech agreed on that point, but apparently it still doesn't stop them letting OR/BTW bring things to a halt).
Finally I don't take kindly in the slightest to the threat of charging me £50 if an Openreach call, which I did not request, judges there to be a fault on my equipment or wiring.  We all know what a BT "customer equipment fault" report means, far from meaning they've identified a fault on the customer's equipment all it means is that BT hasn't found a fault elsewhere, for example because it's intermittent or because the underlying fault isn't with the local loop in the first place.  I would never dispatch Openreach without getting all that qualified, Plus Net presumably don't care because they think they can just pass the charge on to me.
I know that things don't always go well, and there are some good points for example the DSL account settings were correct (not always the case with UK DSL providers!).  Generally they answer the phone quick enough. However overall the service so far has not lived up to expectations.  If it continues as it has done I will have no choice but to change providers, and to argue the toss with Plus Net over the contract cancellation.
I would be interested to here whether others have gone through such a bad experience, but ended up being happy with the service after a bedding in period.  It would be far better if Plus Net could pull there finger out and get things fixed.
Tony S

[#2]

Quote from: aesmith

The service is slower than our previous provider, although sync speed etc is all the same, when it goes through a bad spell it's effectively unusable. It appears that they effectively abdicate all control to Openreach and/or BTW, so they just stonewall any request to expedite on the basis that "Openreach requires us to do this", or "BTW won't let us do that". Whatever the reason where any other provide would apply pressure to BTW/OR, Plus Net apparently won't and are happy to put the whole fault on hold until OR/BTW let's them proceed. Finally I don't take kindly in the slightest to the threat of charging me £50 if an Openreach call, which I did not request, judges there to be a fault on my equipment or wiring.  We all know what a BT "customer equipment fault" report means, far from meaning they've identified a fault on the customer's equipment all it means is that BT hasn't found a fault elsewhere, for example because it's intermittent or because the underlying fault isn't with the local loop in the first place.  I would never dispatch Openreach without getting all that qualified, Plus Net presumably don't care because they think they can just pass the charge on to me. I would be interested to here whether others have gone through such a bad experience, but ended up being happy with the service after a bedding in period.  It would be far better if Plus Net could pull there finger out and get things fixed.

Hi Tony,
A warm welcome to the forums.  I have snipped out bits of your post which as another user I feel able to comment on.
First of all, your complaint is a bit unique - service swap BEFORE scheduled date.  That is somewhat unusual!    In my experience (most recently May this year) the account details are emailed to the email addressed used during sign-up within an hour of sign-up.  The email services are not fully available until the service is activated, after which email settings are available in the user portal - see here - https://portal.plus.net/my.html?s=0&action=refresh_browser
Your speed issue - has this been replicated over a wired connection with the wifi service disabled?  I'm sure that with your experience this has been considered, but plugging a cable into a PC which was running over wifi and not switching off wifi, presuming that (some how) the cable will be used in preference is not uncommon.
BTOR: The bottom line is that no ISP has any real clout over BTOR.  I have just managed a very protracted new line installation for one of my clients.  I know that PlusNet used every avenue of escalation with BTOR however if BTOR choose to ignore the ISP there is little that anyone can do.  Not even writing to the CEOs of BTOR or BT Plc seems to have any real impact beyond opening up alternative escalation routes for the ISP.  In my case BTOR claimed that they were stalled on action by a third party, which upon my investigation was exposed to be a complete lie.  BTw and BTOR do dictate the course of action to be followed by all ISPs - remember that much of an ISP's interface to BTw / BTOR is done via India - do I need to say more?
The £50 "threat" is a BTOR condition of attending a customer's premises.  It is PlusNet who decide if it will be passed on to the end user.  Whilst your response is somewhat understandable, imagine how much more angry you'd be if PlusNet did not make the risk of the charge very clear before hand and afterwards you get the unwelcome surprise of the £50 charge?  There is only so much which can be remote diagnosed, thereafter on site eyes can be needed.  As for not caring, in my experience I have found PlusNet very caring and when having done all of the user domain checks, have never been charged for a BTOR visit - not even repeated visits - when they have (at the time of the visit) found not fault.  That said, I was able to present a significant volume of diagnostic evidence.
You have not said exactly what you problem is - the information requested under the speed issues thread would help community members to assist you.
Invariably PlusNet's ability to "get their finger out and fix things" is bound up by BTOR's unresponsiveness in their middle management.  Once you have a good BTOR engineer on the case, things do get fixed quickly.  In my most recent example, after around 110 days of BTOR pratting around not cutting a tree adjacent to their telegraph pole, the line was professionally installed by BTOR field engineers who were highly embarrassed by the conduct of their own organisation.  The FTTC service arrived 4 days later.
Hope your issue is soon sorted.
Kevin

[#3]

£50 is far less than the cost to Plusnet if Openreach say the fault was with the end user's equipment. If Plusnet passed on the full amount, it would be much more. It's up to Plusnet if and how much they charge the end user.

[#4]

Thanks for the responses.   The order process was as I set out, to be more specific I got a Welcome to Plus Net email on 4th June, at which stage I'd not yet got the MAC from previous provider.  Then 12th June payment confirmation, followed by a "your service is active" email on 19th June.   No prior indication of the date, so effectively there was no such thing as a "scheduled date".
Regarding the charges, as I say when I have engaged OR I've always qualified the "customer equipment" issues first, by agreeing what prior tests I have carried out to eliminate customer equipment issues before OR are dispatched.   Some of our customers of course would rather do things in parallel so prefer to dispatch OR and accept the risk of a no-fault charge.   I've never myself committed OR on a potentially chargeable basis without PRIOR agreement from the customer, nor have any ISP I've dealt with.   Even BT doesn't.  
In this case we were discussing issues which were impacting my service, and unrelated to the local loop which everyone agreed was extremely unlikely to be a contributor.   They were supposed to be carrying out profile checks, and reviewing VP issues before getting back to me.   I was only aware of this change of heart when they dropped me a note saying (1) that my fault was now on hold for a week and a half, and (2) giving details of the planned OR attendance.
I don't think this is the correct forum for technical details of the fault, but I'll create a thread elsewhere ... ADSL Fault Thread

[#5]

Another thing that occurred to me .. when my phone line was billed through BT, if I raised a fault they generally attended within two or three days.    Why would it take a week and a half for OR to schedule a visit on Plusnet's request?

[#6]

Still no progress from Plusnet, we appear to just be going round in circles.
The most likely underlying cause was noted on the ticket by Plusnet rep back on 9th September (capacity issue).    In fact it was mentioned earlier, when the fault was first raised on 5th, but that didn't make it onto any of the tickets as far as I can see.  At that time, 9th September, a copper line test passed clean and Plusnet had already confirmed that my line was running fine at the local level, no errors or synch issues.
However nothing whatsoever was done about that capacity issue, until 24th September when nearly three weeks into the fault for some reason another CLT was run, this time finding a fault.  Plusnet still confirmed ny DSL was unaffected by the fault, no synch or errors being detected.  Never the less the fault was put on hold for a week and a half.
Now with the line clear we're back exactly where were were on 9th September.  Clean copper line test, fault believed to be due to VP or capacity issue, and again they say they're passing to their "supplier".
At no time has anyone from Plusnet even tried to claim that the copper line "fault" could have contributed to the actual service issue that they were supposed to be investigating.
Anyone like to place odds as to whether Plusnet will get anything done this time, or whether it will wait until there's another excuse to put it on hold.
Doubtless someone's going to say it's not Plusnet's fault, but I can say absolutely 100% that I didn't have this nonsense with my previous provider.
I've provided technical information, but I don't think Plusnet even look at it.  I'm now convinced that their only so-called technical input is to call Openreach or BT Wholesale and ask them to have a look.  I would be delighted to hear otherwise, but when I've asked straight out about technical escalation paths I've been told there are none. 

[#7]

Still unresolved.