Plusnet need to review their way of handling complaints

[#1]

We've never tweeted or blogged or chatted on-line before. Never had the need to... until now... because of Plusnet. In the past we couldn't speak highly enough of Plusnet & regularly recommended the company to family & friends.Their prices were keen & customer service used to be excellent. However, fast forward to 2016 and things seem to be going downhill (fast); in particular really quite shocked by Plusnet's Complaints "process".

A good customer complaints handling process would have a dedicated telephone number, a single customer complaints officer allocated to the complaint, written documentation of what Plusnet believes the nature of the customer's complaint is, a proposed action plan to ensure the issue(s) are resolved quickly & recompense if appropriate. One person, one letter should lead to a quick resolution. Then a Root Cause Analysis should be conducted & recommendations implemented to minimise the opportunity for the problem to reoccur.

Sadly, not one of these simple things ever happen at Plusnet. Our Plusnet's complaint (ticket, phonecall & webchat) has been on-going for months & has been viewed by over 20 people; a different person responds every time i.e. there is no continuity; each time it's like starting from the beginning again. As the complaint drags on we are still under "ticket numbers" & not a complaint reference. We've seriously no idea how Plusnet can possibly audit their complaints if they are filed under "Tickets" & "Questions". This lack of audit probably explains why the same problems keep occurring.

So this week, once again we tried to resolve the complaint by ringing Plusnet but it took 24 minutes for Plusnet to answer the phone & another 24 minutes for the Plusnet rep to review our complaint again before he explained that he wasn't allowed to put us through to the complaints department & we should contact them via a "ticket"... it is immensely frustrating. It appears that Plusnet's complaint process has been designed for the convenience of Plusnet rather than that of the customer. Something not right there, Plusnet.

Anyway, we genuinely & sincerely hope that Andy Baker (CEO) reads the posts, blogs, tweets & forums relating to Plusnet to get a sense of how things are going badly wrong at Plusnet. He could even show true leadership by contacting his customers/us to really listen to our experience & those of others so that we can help him to restore Plusnet to it's former glory. We have a 6 point action plan that would improve the service immediately & would save the company money too. We would assert that it's also in Andy Baker's interest to contact us to discuss the Plusnet complaints process lest his legacy was to be the gradual decline of a once great & loved communications company.

[#2]

Hi @YoloRolo,

A good customer complaints handling process would have a dedicated telephone number, a single customer complaints officer allocated to the complaint, written documentation of what Plusnet believes the nature of the customer's complaint is, a proposed action plan to ensure the issue(s) are resolved quickly & recompense if appropriate. One person, one letter should lead to a quick resolution. Then a Root Cause Analysis should be conducted & recommendations implemented to minimise the opportunity for the problem to reoccur.

Apart from the dedicated telephone number, this doesn't feel too dissimilar to the way we aim our complaints to be handled. I have to say that I think that your complaint became a bit too protracted and spread out, so I'll be feeding back on the individual dealing with it. This is regarding ticket: 134324318, anyway.

In terms of the correspondence from early on in May, this will require a bit of investigation on my side. Allow me to apologies for the poor experience and I'll ensure that my colleague picks up that ticket that you responded to on Friday.

Matty

[#3]

Dear Matty C

Thank you for your response to our posting but it is unclear how adding another ticket number is going to help Plusnet improve their complaints process. 

We appreciate the apology but you are sadly out of touch with how complaints are currently handled. Our relative has experienced exactly the same issues to us so ours is sadly not an isolated incident.

I'm sure you will agree, there should be a difference between contacting Plusnet about a problem and contacting Plusnet to make a complaint about how a problem isn't being resolved in a timely or satisfactory way. Complaints are being dealt with by the very people who have caused the avoidable problem or failed to resolve the issue in the first place. There is clearly a conflict of interest with this system and, in our experience, CSC Analysts appear unable to remain objective when faced with a legitimate complaint. We believe that Plusnet has an ineffective complaints process that just leads to upset and frustration. We pleaded (yes, pleaded) with Plusnet to escalate our complaint and were told (1) There is no complaints department at Plusnet and (2) if we were to write to Plusnet or the CEO our letter would merely be scanned & allocated a ticket number and would be dealt with by the CSC Analysts. We wrote to Plusnet anyway but they claim that our letter was never received. 

So in summary we encountered numerous problems with the contract, with the direct debit payments AND with poor customer service BUT we couldn't complain other than to the department who were failing to sort out the problems. Plusnet are using the same process to manage these two very distinctly different customer issues. When you consider that we have had contact with over 25 Plusnet representatives it is clearly costing Plusnet time and money too. Not good for Plusnet and definitely not good for us.

So we respectfully refer you back to our original posting to stress that this situation will only improve if the Executive Team at Plusnet are aware of experiences like ours. We don't want to see Plusnet get a bad reputation for poor customer service especially as this is supposed to be Plusnet's core strength.

[#4]

Does anyone else want to know what on earth the original problem(s) could have been for things to end up at this?

[#5]

Going by the plethora of posts in feedback., it must be one of the regular. complaints.
PN don't communicate !!

[#6]

We erroneously took line rental payment, although OP paid up their LRS. Not great on our part. A colleague in the complaints team has provided three months free line rental as a goodwill gesture.

The impression I get (and agree with) is that it's more of an issue of how the complaint has been handled, which I have reviewed and fed back.

Matty

[#7]

Hi Matty C,

"We erroneously took line rental payment" ... if once, maybe erroneous (bear in mind we paid LRS upfront) and a goodwill gesture maybe appropriate; twice... irritating, three times... systematic failure. Lets fast forward, it may interest you to know that since your post; today, Plusnet have once again taken line rental (in error yet again!). Each time we are left to identify the error and chase countless operators to get recognition of the problem Plusnet create, but we have to solve.

You are correct there is definitely an issue over how the complaint was handled, but there would be no complaint if the issue was a one off. We were forced to complain because of the repeated error and failure to address, a situation that has been repeated today.

No quality assured process should allow this to be possible, no measure of customer service should allow it to continue, no Executive Team should sleep soundly is this is considered acceptable.

[#8]

I knew it would be one of the regular complaints

PN have been promising a new Account system for YEARS

[#9]

Dear Matty C

Just a quick update... Andy Baker CEO has contacted us directly and has tasked a senior member of his team to look into our complaint. This is the kind of Plusnet Customer Service we expect and are used to. So sad that it has taken from March 2016 until now for someone senior with authority to review this serious complaint and hopefully improve the service for all Plusnet customers.

We wait in anticipation for a full and final resolution to all the problems we encountered with Plusnet and hopefully a trouble free experience for the rest of our contract.

We are thinking of changing our name from "yolorolo" to "Change Champions"

[#10]

I can see that it has been passed on. Hopefully your issue will be fully resolved.

Matty

[#11]

MattyC ?  i hope the OP has had his error resolved , as a matter of interest are PN taking steps so it will not Occur again ?