This response of mine is in a more calmer manner and you will that I'm not your usual nut-job irate customer who thinks everything should revolve around him.
For a start it was a friend who suggested I try Plusnet when he strongly advised against me going with Talk Talk fibre. And so here is how it went... *Cue twinkle music and wobbly fade in - out - in focus*
When signing up on the 27/11/2014 I couldn't have been happier with the Plusnet salesman who I think may have been called Craig. Every question I asked was explained clearly and when required he knew when to put it in laymans without being patronising (Well done Mr C). The only concerning questions I had were about speeds as most fibre customers would be. I asked even though they say I can get 34mb download speeds out of 38mb, does that mean I will also experience most days between 3 and 12 meg. He made it clear that I would get 34mb give or take a couple of mb.
30+mb for the first 6 months at £20 and then from month 7 to 18 at £35 a month? Sign me up.
He then explained that an engineer would only be available from 12/12/2014 after me asking for the earlier date of the 08/11/2014. Would have been nice to have the 08/12/2014 but as an ADSL Virgin member, I know its not always the ISP who does all the installs and that I live in a very big population. 08/12/2014 Ii request as its the start of my holidays time from work, and the 12/12/2014 is just over the halfway mark, but hey ho.
I then immediately phone up Virgin to end my contract of which I won't be charged as I went over the 12 months I signed up for, and the next day had my MAC code. Immediately I replied to the MAC request text from Plusnet and then got another response letting me know it was the correct code and now things were under way.
So there I am. MAC'd up a notch, happy to accept that I have to wait a while to experience groovy speeds and there's a chance that the first few days might be slow whilst lines register, as every ISP around informs you of this.
Then Sunday 30/11/2014 arrives and I get an email from Virgin. It explains how they're sorry to lose a customer and that from the 27/11/2014 my phone line will be disconnected as will my broadband. Now it was 30/11/2014 and yet I was still connected. I accepted that perhaps it may happen at midnight Monday 01/12/2014 (but its now 02/12/2014 and I still have phone and net access). So I told myself I would contact Plusnet on Monday from work.
The reason wanting to contact so soon? Because I wanted to see if by any chance they may have made it possible for an earlier install than the 12/12/2014. It would have been a long shot but it was worth a try, and its from there where things went weird.
From around 10am Monday I was unable to get through to Plusnet and the instant message you get was that they'd suffered a powerdown over the weekend. Crapper, but its the net and even the best modems have to be switched off at the wall I suppose (South Park fan :)). But after a few hours and multiple attempts it started to get a bit silly, but even then not truly put off, because you've not experienced being put on hold until you've phoned HMRC for a tax refund. And then thats when out of it nowhere it dawned on me to look Plusnet up on the web for reviews.
Now the reviews seemed to be around 1 positive to 40 or so complaints, but knowing customers I know that when something is working you don't get a peep from people, its only when something goes wrong and all hell breaks lose because they don't understand whats going or don't wait to found out if the problem is an easy issue to address. So my concerns weren't the complaints about speeds, or genuine faults, it was the difficulty on certain customer services from Plusnet. Basically it came across that if its working thank your stars, but if it goes wrong then you better hope for a miracle because trying to get Plusnet on the phone is a really bad problem. And this isn't from this weekend, these were posts from months back, maybe over a year and then some very recently. Again the ratio of nut-job outnumbered the genuine customer, but none the less all concerns seemed to match delivery standards from installations and setups, to the obvious problems with the customer service helplines.
Now around 20:20 or thereabouts I was on the phone to Plusnet as well as trying to find a way to contact them through web abilities. Eventually that instant chatbox popped up and asked if I wanted to talk to an agent. I accepted and was once again greeted by how long it will take to connect to an agent. I waited around 30 minutes and then finally spoke to a salesperson/customer service agent by the name of David on the web chat. I immediately explained how I'd been trying to get through all day as by this time it was over 10 hours before I was in live contact with a Plusnet employee (If any of you are surprised as to why I felt nervous towards them, over 10 hours of trying to reach someone should really not surprise you as to the way I felt).
Anyway he explained due to the engineer issue I would not be able to get an earlier install date. Now this was fine, it was what I expected before I even finished suggesting it to myself the day before. But because of how long and how difficult it is to get through to a Plusnet staff member through live web chat or on the phone, you can see why a simple known request turned into a major concern after then studying reports about them.
So once it hit 9pm I learned from Plusnet and accepted that at that point that I could resolve nothing *cheeky dig to the ribs ;D) and made my first post of this thread. The rest of the night I decided that I can't do anything until morning and that I will take the opportunity to ask some of the 2000 customers/tenants/clients/colleagues/staff that I come into contact with, and ask if they know of Plusnet. First people I ask... IT staff from one of the companies that work in the building I work at. All knew of Plusnet and some were former customers who had only positive things to say even now that they're with other ISP for whatever reasons. I then check this site on my break see a few comments from people wanting to assure me that joining Plusnet is the right thing to do. Now this is what motivational workouts are made of. SOMEONE GET ME A TREADMILL AND SOME CHEESY 80'S ROCK MUSIC........... I'M PSYCHED!
I then read concerns issues that poor connection speeds aren't always Plusnet's fault and more often than not its the BTOR issue. Now this is what I thought I cleared up when I spoke with Craig on would I experience between 1mb and 34mb or would I get 34mb which he cleared would be the case give or take a mb or two. Then a Plusnet member on here mentions that I was informed that I would get speeds from the low side of a clean line. Until that post by Matty, I had never even heard the term low side of a clean line. If I had been sold something with the term low side I would have said goodbye and stuck with my current ISP. So that was one point away from my first contact with a Plusnet staff member on here.
I then read more post on here and interact with more people at my building and start to get lifted again. Then I get an emailed ticket from Plusnet giving me the most bizzare phone number to contact that I was put off again. So whilst customers were trying to entice me, its been Plusnet putting me off.
And again I was unable to make phone contact, but was also unprepared to risk my job to stay on the phone for 45 or more to maybe talk on the phone to a Plusnet staff member.
So now we're up to date and here is where I stand.
I appreciate Plusnet have had a rubbish weekend themselves from a business point of view, but they must also understand that for a customer who hasn't received anything from Plusnet other than a reduction in my bank account, that I'm bound to be upset with the service so far. I understand the technical issues you guys have suffered, as well as all those customers losing actual net use over the weekend, but I've also had a rubbish experience since signing up only a couple of days ago.
So here is what I will do... More background checking. I will look for more experiences from people I meet and then decide in the next couple of days if I should cancel my order before its installed. If I was to give a percentage of if I intend to stick with Plusnet, I'd say I'm in a 40/60% percentage and most of that 40% is from me being realistic and reasonable.
