PN's future

[#1]

Can you point to published references to support these claims?  As someone who complained loudly over the poorly managed change from DCT to CRT (total loss of the skill base more or less over night) I think its fair to say that there are now more staff on the forums with an increasing level of credible skills.  The forums are covered for long hours and 6 days a week.  How does that equate to...

Quote from: chrcoluk

2 - reduction of forum team

We await evidence supporting the other claims...

[#2]

#1 is question as such, ie I am not sure.
#2 is very evident
#3 is very evident
#4 is very evident
#5 is very evident

[#3]

Quote from: chrcoluk

1 - question change in investment in plusnet (now lower) 2 - reduction of forum team 3 - 365 days a year agressive marketing for new customers regardless if they can cope 4 - regression in customer support response times (and quality?) 5 - inflation beating price rises

#1  I'm hoping that over the coming next few weeks and months that will clearly be proven to be not the case.
#2  Not true - there were at least 5 CRT members posting here Friday, and at least 3 on Saturday and other PN staff reading/checking as well.
#3  That's bad management by the CEO not ensuring enough support staff were employed as customer numbers increased.
#4  That's a direct result of #3 but is recovering, but things like this don't help us to be convinced
#5  Every ISP/CP has been doing that, they are all members of the fat cat's cartel, Plusnet is by no means the worst. Perhaps you'd like to move to TalkTalk and have their prices!

[#4]

I think we are going back to the days when PN did not care a jot about it's customers and believed that it could continue offering cheap products in every sense. They discovered it was not a satisfactory model, but staff and owners have changed again and again they seem to think it is a model they want. That's fine so long as they don't want me as a customer, and that is probably true, but it is not that long ago I was persuading people to sign up with them, but sadly have to go back now and apologize and tell them if/when I find another provided that I can recommend I will tell them so they can move.
jsm51 said

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I still find your approach to this forum depressing

sadly I now find PN's attitude to customers and it's services very depressing. But all good things usually come to an end and seems to me that PN being good is reaching that point.

[#5]

Quote from: Anon

...............but staff and owners have changed again and again.........

There has been no change in the ownership of Plusnet since it was bought by BT Retail, but it is still an "independently" operating company. Having said that, the current CEO is from the BT stable, and many believe this is the cause of many persistent issues failing to be addressed where they are caused by Openreach and BTw. One thing is for certain, his poor management has resulted in Plusnet doing a TalkTalk - taking on too many new customers without having adequate support staff at the time.
However the staff that frequent this forum do their utmost to solve any customer issues  as quickly as they reasonably can, but there are (unfortunately many) occasions where their hands are somewhat tied by their "suppliers" BTw and Openreach.

[#6]

No change in that very short run, perhaps you are anew PN customer, I have seen it through three different owners and few of the staff that were employed when i signed up are now working for them. Sorry mate there has been changes of staff and owners.

[#7]

If your last post was addressed to me, "sorry mate" (& I'm not your mate) my last post was correct. There has been no change in ownership since it was bought by BT Retail. And just FYI I've been a Plusnet customer since 2003. Yes of course the staff have changed. A lot (but not all) have moved on to progress their careers.

[#8]

That is correct. In the entire history of Plusnet there has been ONE change of ownership when it was bought by BT.

[#9]

Why let something as trivial as a fact get in the way when you have an agenda to push?

[#10]

Quote

Having said that, the current CEO is from the BT stable, and many believe this is the cause of many persistent issues failing to be addressed

All CEO's, since Lee Strafford sold the company in Jan 2007 have been from the "BT" stable. Neil, Anthony, Simon (temp) and Jamie. Staff have moved on, it's normal.
I've seen threads discussing Plusnet going downhill, Plusnet in meltdown, Customers will leave in droves, for 14 years on these boards. There'll be problems, there'll be dissat but the underlying trend is growth, continued growth and sustainability. 830k customers, growing daily, continued award winning service, high levels of customer sat, all paint a picture of successful business.
This forum and it's predecessors, have always portrayed a picture of issues / problems with Plusnet but they've always been unrepresentative, just like pretty much every single poll that’s ever appeared on these boards since that facility was introduced.

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I think we are going back to the days when PN did not care a jot about it's customers

It's a service industry. Things will go wrong, they'll make mistakes but they'll survive. Plusnet cares about their customers, they always have. Cash is king and without customers there's no cash. Customer Sat is a core business objective, directly accountable to BT Group board. To say or think otherwise is mistaken or naive.  Are these boards as influential as they once were, when Plusnet relied on the referral model as their sole marketing tool? No, they aren’t. They're clearly  still important, but a tiny number of customers post here, compared to those who report satisfaction via other channels. Those channels are way more representative and as such will determine overall strategy.

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regression in customer support response times (and quality?)

Really? Look back over the boards. That's been a claim for years. What metric are you using to make that claim and where’s the evidence, not perception, that it's much different? Consumer support is not perfect and never has been but is it any worse than it was say 3 years ago? Not convinced.
I've seen threads like this many, many times. It's the same story, different year but they're always based on perception or an agenda, seldom on reality because the thread creators don’t have the facts.
M

[#11]

Whilst I'd agree with pretty much all of that Mark, there are still absolute cock-ups like this which is down to nothing but incompetence by Provisioning. These things should not be happening and have been going on far too long. It is inexcusable that a potential customer is given the wrong information. The number of posts on this forum about this sort of issue have increased since the current CEO arrived, and nothing appears to have been done to resolve the problem. There has been no statement by any member of Plusnet staff that this issue has been address by the CEO.
As I'm sure you are also aware, the posts on here represent only a small fraction of what goes on in the real world. I don't really care how many satisfied customers there are - whilst that is obviously a good thing - the sort of problem I've linked to should be a rare event, not one that we could read about every day.

[#12]

Reading that thread, I can't see how you've drawn the conclusion that there was nothing but incompetence by Provisioning.

[#13]

OMG Andy, when Openreach cancels a proposed and supposedly firm date and nobody in Provisioning gives the potential customer the correct information, that's Incompetence, plain and simple. And the number of threads that we have read with the same issue, Provisioning clearly need a kick in the rear, along with Openreach.

[#14]

Alot of the current problems in terms of their timing do seem related to the current plusnet CEO, such as the dismantling of the digital care team and back burner of ipv6 testing, as well as the BNG gateways, and now the live chat system replacing tickets alongside the rise in call/ticket waiting times.
The dodgy provisioning was always dodgy for years tho so I dont blame that on the current CEO.
Also the plusnet CEO is the first CEO I have emailed who seems to ignore emails.  Every other company when I have emailed the CEO they respond or someone responds on their behalf.

[#15]

Quote from: Anotherone

OMG Andy, when Openreach cancels a proposed and supposedly firm date and nobody in Provisioning gives the potential customer the correct information, that's Incompetence, plain and simple. And the number of threads that we have read with the same issue, Provisioning clearly need a kick in the rear, along with Openreach.

I think there is a lot more to it than has been posted. There appears to have been some form of transfer on 6 May, as the OP was advised. Perhaps it should been made clearer that an engineer would not be necessary or visiting. It looks like TT kept tags on the line which created an issue for the broadband transfer, although this is not Plusnet fault.