PN 24hr support
Well this all happened whilst I was away, but the issues involved are significant so I'm going to throw my tuppence in -
It's not the now lack of 24/7 support that is the primary issue here, it's the lack of comms.
As pointed out by AndyH, but more importantly by MattyC, they do have a 24/7 team that were "working through the night".
However, what is of greater significant is this
I think that highlights a major failure in internal comms, never mind the failure to communicate with customers that was (yet again) highlighted in this post -
It the good old days of DCT, and before IIRC, and even when CRT started I think, there used to be member on call, so when there was a significant issue they were contacted by Networks or the then 24/7 Support Team, and it was their job to post the relevant Service Status etc.
With all the cutbacks I wouldn't expect that to be the case now, but overnight I would expect that function to be taken on by the business 24/7 team.
But what disappoints me more is here we are one month on, and no explanation of why the comms failed (I don't expect detail, just a general explanation) and what will happen in the future to try and prevent a re-occurrence.
I've raised the issue of the Service Status Line more than once before - there's threads here somewhere (I think I even raised a ticket - when it was possible to do such things) and it's clear that Plusnet have done sweet fa. When there's a major network outage (for whatever reason) it's pretty obvious that on-line status information is not going to be available to the great majority. The Service Status Line should always be updated with any Service Status, so in event of a major disaster it's there as a back-up. But is would seem Plusnet are no longer interested in award winning customer service
It's not the now lack of 24/7 support that is the primary issue here, it's the lack of comms.
As pointed out by AndyH, but more importantly by MattyC, they do have a 24/7 team that were "working through the night".
However, what is of greater significant is this
Quote from: Townman On discovering the issue around 01:45 so as to ensure that it was "known about" I just phoned business support and told them that there was a network problem. They claimed no knowledge of one and assured me if there was one "the networking boys upstairs would be monitoring it".
I think that highlights a major failure in internal comms, never mind the failure to communicate with customers that was (yet again) highlighted in this post -
Quote from: martinu
Quote Just rang the PN service status line ( 10:28am), as usually no one has bothered to put the issue on there , why?
What a great feature especially , when you can not get a service status up on the website. Yet PN choose not to use out , or promote the number to customers . 0800 9176714
This has been brought up numerous yet PN do nothing
Yes I keep telling PN about this issue whenever I report a problem with their servers etc - that they MUST be a LOT more pro-active with updating their Service Status page with precise details of faults, as soon as they are reported and identified as being a genuine problem rather than user error.
In the past when I've mentioned this, they come out with lame excuses like "we'll change the status when we've identified what the problem is", which is far too late. Users want to know "Is everyone having a problem, or is it just me", even though the cause of the problem hasn't yet been identified and a fix isn't yet being worked on.
I get plenty of status emails most days about local broadband outages and intermittent loss of access to PN's web servers (I signe up to their email alerts) but when something really big happens, there's no email and nothing on service status.
These days, it's hardly worth checking Service Status because it almost certainly won't list faults which I know exist. This Community forum is probably a better place to look. Makes me wonder why they have the Service Status on the Portal.
OK, I know that today's problem has affected the Portal as well, so you can't even access Service Status any more, but when I first noticed the problem at about 08:15 and was trying rebooting router, changing to a different router etc, Service Status *was* accessible and listed no faults, even though by then Bob Pullen had responded to one of the threads on this forum to say that the fault had already been logged on an internal PN system. The fact that it was logged internally should have set in motion a process for announcing the problem on all the standard places that customers will look when there is a problem.
Everyone has problems and service outages from time to time, and I'm sure the technical guys are working hard to fix them However PN need to make dramatic improvements to how they keep customers informed of progress and any workarounds (eg the 8.8.8.8 DNS server fix).
It the good old days of DCT, and before IIRC, and even when CRT started I think, there used to be member on call, so when there was a significant issue they were contacted by Networks or the then 24/7 Support Team, and it was their job to post the relevant Service Status etc.
With all the cutbacks I wouldn't expect that to be the case now, but overnight I would expect that function to be taken on by the business 24/7 team.
But what disappoints me more is here we are one month on, and no explanation of why the comms failed (I don't expect detail, just a general explanation) and what will happen in the future to try and prevent a re-occurrence.
I've raised the issue of the Service Status Line more than once before - there's threads here somewhere (I think I even raised a ticket - when it was possible to do such things) and it's clear that Plusnet have done sweet fa. When there's a major network outage (for whatever reason) it's pretty obvious that on-line status information is not going to be available to the great majority. The Service Status Line should always be updated with any Service Status, so in event of a major disaster it's there as a back-up. But is would seem Plusnet are no longer interested in award winning customer service