Plusnet worst in phone queue survey? Thought not.

[#1]

Indeed it does. The average wait in calculated over a 24 hour period from midnight to midnight. The exception to this is the portal which shows the period of midnight to when it is generated.
Overnight calls are a minimum though and will have very little impact.
All calls between 9am to 10am will have a higher statistical impact than the entire nightshift statistics of midnight to 7am.
Only actual calls count towards the statistic as well, so total wait time devided by total calls offered. Hense why the period of actual call numbers have little impact.

[#2]

I made a call to CS about lunchtime today. After about 1m 30 seconds of automated number choices, the automated system then said that the queuing time was expected to be 10 minutes.
However the call was answered by a human about 15 seconds later.
After the call I checked the call stats page, where it said average call waiting was 17 seconds.
So, maybe the quoted PN call stats only start counting after the customer has already spent 1 1/2 minutes listening to an automated voice.

[#3]

I've never been that lucky   Maybe PN need to look into this.  When I've got through though I've always had good service. 

[#4]

I think the "timer" starts as soon as you hear "Welcome to Plusnet".

[#5]

James, if that's the case, then how is it possible to get an average of anything less than about 30 seconds?  The welcome to Plusnet message takes 14 seconds, and then you are given the 1st set of menu options, which if you listen to them is 32 seconds from the beginning of "Welcome to Plusnet".  During the initial 14 seconds you can't press any option, so the very minimum average would come from everyone pressing a button at the very beginning of the options after the Welcome to Plusnet message and getting straight through to an operator.  I'm sure that is extremely unlikely, so the timer mustn't start then.
Phil

[#6]

That's a very valid point Phil
In which case, the timer will begin the moment you have actually hit the call queue, rather than being in part of the IVR itself.  There's a diagram of how the IVR works in the blog post I did about the telephone system.

[#7]

I though it was unfair to implicate Plusnet as having a premium rate support line.
BT no longer charge for 0845 and *Most* telcos don't charge for the national rate number.
So I fail to see the relevance of mentioning  Plusnet in this flawed survey.

[#8]

Quote from: ctech500

BT no longer charge for 0845

BT charge outside the period when a customer has inclusive calls. Someone with Free Evening & Weekend calls would have to pay to call 0845 at other times.

[#9]

Quote from: ctech500

I though it was unfair to implicate Plusnet as having a premium rate support line.

I don't know why some people think that - the original news item http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7923636.stm doesn't imply it at all.
It states that some providers use premium rate numbers and others use 0800. No hint is given as to what numbers PN use.

[#10]

Quote from: 4Candles

I don't know why some people think that - the original news item http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7923636.stm doesn't imply it at all. It states that some providers use premium rate numbers and others use 0800. No hint is given as to what numbers PN use.

The article stated that a 10 minute call to Tesco's support costs £10.00  it then stated that Plusnet waiting time was the longest without clearly stating that
no premium rate numbers are used when making these calls.
That is misleading especially given the context of the article in question

[#11]

I have the Which? report in front of me.  It says,
"We called eight of your favourite ISPs and seven of your preferred laptop manufacturers ten times each in December to see how long you would have to wait before you get to speak to someone and how much money you waste while holding on.  The average to speak to someone on your ISP's technical support line is 1 minute 33 seconds.  However, Plusnet customers will have to wait on average nearly eight minutes.  One call to the company's helpline took 12 minutes before a conversation started."
I've been taking Which? for years and they don't make this sort of thing up - why would they?  I've had to hang on for ages waiting for customer support in the past.  However, take heart from the fact that Plusnet is seen to be one of "your favourite ISPs".