No smoke without fire

[#1]

I often read the negative feedback about customer service here and assumed that this is not a true reflection of PN service - until I had a problem of my own.
The gale brought down the phone line on Thursday night and I reported to CS (Ticket 36969479)  on Friday morning. No problems - PN reported the matter to BT.
By Sunday afternoon there was no word. I went to a neighbour's to phone CS - 25 minute wait to be dealt with. So I borrowed his connection and updated the ticket asking for a progress report. No reply.
Phone line and BB were eventually restored late on Monday afternoon. I updated the ticket to express my dissatisfaction with being ignored.
Just now I was phoned on my mobile by Kris from PN CS. He informed me that as BT were unable to find the fault and  they would require access to the house to check out the installation. Somebody must have missed the tree down over the line.
Clearly Kris did not read the whole of the ticket. When I asked why my additions to the ticket were ignored, he came up with this little gem. If you add to a ticket then your question automatically goes to the bottom of the queue and can take up to a further 72 hours for a reply. Is this really true?
It seems the others were right all along - PN customer service is not what it's cracked up to be. All I asked was to be kept informed.

[#2]

Quote from: legion

If you add to a ticket then your question automatically goes to the bottom of the queue and can take up to a further 72 hours for a reply. Is this really true?

Yes - for some ticket queues: http://community.plus.net/forum/index.php/topic,90397.0.html

[#3]

Thanks for that. I see what you mean. Maybe in future I will have to hang on for 25 mins on my 19p per min PAYG mobile.

[#4]

Hi legion,
I can assure you as per jelv's comments that we weren't ignoring you. I'm also sorry with regards to the agent's response I will make sure feedback is given here.

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It seems the others were right all along - PN customer service is not what it's cracked up to be. All I asked was to be kept informed.

Our awards should speak for themselves and the main reason people post on this site is to give negative feedback. Human nature seems to dictate that those with complaints or issues are vocal and others tend not to be. I hope your experience from here improves, I'll certainly do what I can personally from here to help with that.
Adam.

[#5]

Adam
Thanks for the reply. I was unable to respond as we had another storm on Wednesday night which brought another tree down over the line. Square one!!
I reported it on Thursday morning and was suspicious as I received neither a follow up call from your phone team or a call from BT, both of which happened last time.
This morning I phoned to see what was happening. Spoke to Luke around 8am and was told phone team did not start until 9, but I would get a call back ASAP. I also discovered that the new problem was still under the old ticket no. Luke read over the entries, and there was no definite mention of the new fault being reported to BT. There was also another entry about a home visit being booked for Thursday - God alone knows why. There was no current BT job no. shown either.
No follow up phone call came, but the line was repaired around midday. I spoke to the engineer who told me he did not have a worksheet for my number, only one for the house next door. I am now convinced that PN did not make an accurate report of the fault.
Waiting around the PN queuing system on the mobile has cost me nearly £5 in PAYG charges. I discovered it is no use adding to the ticket from a borrowed connection from my experience last time.
As I said before, I have always given PN the benefit of the doubt when I read comments on this forum. This last 10 days has been the first time I have tested the PN customer service, and it does not work. There is no excuse for failing to listen properly to customers, failing to monitor the progress of fault  reports, and failing to call back as promised.

[#6]

Deafening silence from PlusNet.
This just gets better. I had a very unhappy BT engineer at the house just now under the impression that we had a internal fault. He had a worksheet that originated from PN. I knew he was coming because there was another surreal addition made to the ticket from a support staff member. Unfortunately I was unable to cancel the visit because of the 20 minute queue on the helpline. And of course any additions to the ticket are put to the bottom of the list and not actioned.
Phoned for a MAC at 9am on the dot this morning. Automated voice told me that because of the high number of calls there would be a delay in answering. They had only been open for 10 seconds. Then a very helpful lady answered almost immediately. Obviously the delay warning was just a ruse to get me to go away. How many times have I fallen for that one during this whole sorry affair?
Well Plusnet and Adam, I did give you a chance to sort this out but no help or explanation was forthcoming.
MAC with me within 4 working days. I'd rather return to IDNet for the extra £3.50 a month. Somebody sensible always used to answer the phones pretty promptly there.

[#7]

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Deafening silence from PlusNet.

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Well Plusnet and Adam, I did give you a chance to sort this out but no help or explanation was forthcoming.

Upon checking your ticket on the 17th I didn't intervene as this was already being dealt with an updates have been forthcoming since then. I can also see that you called on the 23rd which is when we booked the visit for this morning.
I can assure you that accurate information was provided to our suppliers with regards to the exact nature of the fault, we will be questioning this with our suppliers shortly but can you confirm in the meantime if they did resolve your issue?

[#8]

Adam, If you re-read reply #4 he reported the fault on the 18th. The 23rd was when he rang to check on progress.
Why did it take from the 18th to the 23rd to report it to BT?

[#9]

Adam
The fault is resolved but the following questions are fair and deserve an answer:
1. Why was a new ticket not opened up on the second fault?
2. Luke's response to the ticket was a fair assessment of the situation early Tuesday morning. He suspected that an incorrect report had been made to BT and sent an internal memo to try to get me an update. He requested that the phone support section give me a return call to clarify the situation and also asked that it be confirmed with BT that they knew the fault was down to a broken cable. I did not get a phone call. Whoever replied to Luke seemed to ignore these requests. Why?
3. I report a fault that is obvious and does not require any technical expertise. (Tree has brought line down). Is it too much to ask that, once PN has reported the fault to BT that they monitor progress and keep the customer informed? After 4 days PN should have picked up that this is a lengthy delay and a long time to be without service, and kept me in the loop. An unreasonable request in the light of the fact that it has been exceptionally difficult to contact PN support by phone? (Hanging on with the mobile at PAYG rates cost me around £5 in the end).

[#10]

Hi all,
To clarify a fault was originally logged on the 12th and was raised on the same date, that ticket was closed on the 17th.
Following a call from legion on the 18th the ticket was responded to by faults on the 21st, the only reason I can see for the delay is how quick our faults team were able to respond at the time.

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1. Why was a new ticket not opened up on the second fault?

To answer this directly, it was originally as per my comment above, however this was closed in favour of the existing ticket, this is our usual practice as it keeps all the relevant info about the recent fault history in one place. Any closed tickets are not immediately visible to us when we open account which is the main reason we do this.

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2. Luke's response to the ticket was a fair assessment of the situation early Tuesday morning. He suspected that an incorrect report had been made to BT and sent an internal memo to try to get me an update. He requested that the phone support section give me a return call to clarify the situation and also asked that it be confirmed with BT that they knew the fault was down to a broken cable. I did not get a phone call. Whoever replied to Luke seemed to ignore these requests. Why?

Looking at Luke's response he did go into detail, these comments were used:
The tree has fallen down on a telephone cable approx 0.5 miles down the road that is affecting him and his neighbour, and an engineer is not needed to visit the premises, but just visit the site of the fallen tree/broken cable ASAP.
could the customer please be called on his mobile and informed either way.
Following this I can see that an engineer was booked, but no confirmation to show that you were called so we are very sorry about that, however a text was sent, I will be giving feedback to the agent that did this though.
With regards to the details that were passed to BT on the report, I have personally read the notes that we submitted and can see that we did pass on all the details as conveyed by Luke from you. Any failings by our suppliers are to be fedback as a complaint.

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3. I report a fault that is obvious and does not require any technical expertise. (Tree has brought line down). Is it too much to ask that, once PN has reported the fault to BT that they monitor progress and keep the customer informed? After 4 days PN should have picked up that this is a lengthy delay and a long time to be without service, and kept me in the loop. An unreasonable request in the light of the fact that it has been exceptionally difficult to contact PN support by phone? (Hanging on with the mobile at PAYG rates cost me around £5 in the end).

As mentioned accurate details were passed to our suppliers, as such a complaint is to be raised with them. The other requests you were made were not unreasonable and we would like to apologise for that and the delays encountered.

[#11]

Thanks Adam. We'll call this one closed then.