Pretty [-Censored-]ed off with Plusnet 'support'

[#1]

I'm posting this in the 'phone' section, but it is a general complaint right across the board at Plusnet: 'getting in touch' and getting 'help' and 'support' is becoming increasingly more difficult, and it seems to me the system is designed to discourage the customer.

We are almost always simply directed to a list of FAQs, invariably none of these is relevant to or covers your particular problem and it does not seem to have occurred to anyone at Plusnet Towers, that we have already exhausted all possible solutions and answers before, as a last resort, trying to get in touch actually to SPEAK to someone.

The systems is designed to send you around in circles, and that cannot be by chance. This is not good enough, I've been a Plusnet customer for about 15 years if not longer and it seems to me increasingly the customer is being taken for granted on the assumption 'if we lose, one there are plenty more out there (so sod it).' If that is not the case, why does Plusnet give that impression?

I shan't go into the reason here why I need to speak to someone, but I'll repeat: Plusnet, put the customer FIRST,  not yourselves.

[#2]

PS Prissy little idiots that they are, I've just noticed the title to this post has been 'censored'. For those who might to know, it is very similar to 'Pretty [-Censored-] with Plusnet 'support'.

Plusnet, spend more time satisfying the customer instead of getting all hoity-toity about language which is certainly NOT offensive and hasn't been for the past 30.

Moderator's note by Mike (Mav): Avoidance of swear filter edited as per Forum rules.

[#3]

Moderators Note

This topic has been moved from Home Phone to Plusnet Feedback.

[#4]

Hi @pfgpowell I'm sorry to hear that you've been unable to get in touch with us to discuss your query and for the inconvenience this must have caused you.

If there is anything we can assist with, please send a description of your query and I'd be happy to help in anyway I can.

Beth - Plusnet Sheffield

[#5]

Thanks, Beth, but apart from replying like this, there seem to be few ways of getting in touch. 

My post says it all: we are forever sent from pillar to post to a list of FAQ which, invariably, don't touch upon my problem. So I wanted to get in touch. When I tried - I'm in Germany for a month and won't be back till the end of next week (28/10) - the 0800/0300 numbers won't work (from Germany) and a number I kept from a while back - 0114 296 5198/0044 114296 5198) - die work but I was simply recorded in a recorded message no one was available to answer my query. Great.

This morning I got an odd email from Plusnet warning me that 

'We are contacting you today in order to make you aware of the most recent calls you have made from your landline. After doing some investigation on your account, we can see that your call charges made in the past 24 hours are higher, compared to your average monthly call charge usage. Your credit limit is currently £75.00. You have spent £17.11 on calls for this month so far. This means you have £57.89 remaining on your credit limit before you are restricted. This will be re-set on your next bill date which is 28-Oct-2021.' (See attached screenshot).

So what is going on? I don't know. I logged on to my account to look at the record of 'my' calls (i.e. those made by someone at home) but was given the message 

'You cannot make any changes to your account while there is a phone order in progress.' 

Well, I don't want to 'make any changes', just look at who has been called from my home phone. Far more worrying is that 'a phone order [is] in progress'. Well, I haven't made any changes or asked for any changes to be made, so what the. bloody hell might be going on? Might my account have been hacked? Who knows, but getting in touch with Plusnet is pretty pointless because - see above.

It would help if the old system of posting a ticket or even replying to the one I'm referring to were still in place. But, presumably to save money and to stop being bothered by the customers, that went by the board many years ago.

How about being able to email customer support? No, can't do that either. So basically I and many others find ourselves up [-Censored-] creek without a paddle.

 Great, eh? Plusnet has gone downhill these past few years, as far as I can tell since BT bought it out. I joined because Which? gave it pretty much top billing at the time. Now, it's just like any other ISP. OK, problems such as they above occur seldom, and otherwise the internet service is fine. But when they occur, it is real pain.

Thanks for replying, Patrick.

Moderator's note by Mike (Mav): Avoidance of swear filter edited as per Forum rules.

Moderator's note by Mike (Mav): Personal information removed from a public forum.

[#6]

Thanks for getting back to us @pfgpowell287

I'm sorry for the difficulties you've had.

@pfgpowell287 wrote:

Thanks, Beth, but apart from replying like this, there seem to be few ways of getting in touch. 

From our Contact Us page Here you can also call us on 0800 432 0200 or message us on Twitter (@Plusnet)

My post says it all: we are forever sent from pillar to post to a list of FAQ which, invariably, don't touch upon my problem. So I wanted to get in touch.

Genuinely interested in feedback to make our help & support pages easier to use. For your query I'd go to Contact Us at the top right > Select a category then sub-category and you'd get the options to call us, message on Twitter or post here.

Let me know if you have any suggestions to make this easier to use.

When I tried - I'm in Germany for a month and won't be back till the end of next week (28/10) - the 0800/0300 numbers won't work (from Germany) and a number I kept from a while back - 0114 296 5198/0044 114296 5198) - die work but I was simply recorded in a recorded message no one was available to answer my query. Great.

We haven't had those numbers in a very long time, certainly not since I've been working here in 2014.

To call us from abroad, try 00 44 345 140 0200.

This morning I got an odd email from Plusnet warning me that 

'We are contacting you today in order to make you aware of the most recent calls you have made from your landline. After doing some investigation on your account, we can see that your call charges made in the past 24 hours are higher, compared to your average monthly call charge usage. Your credit limit is currently £75.00. You have spent £17.11 on calls for this month so far. This means you have £57.89 remaining on your credit limit before you are restricted. This will be re-set on your next bill date which is 28-Oct-2021.' (See attached screenshot).

So what is going on? I don't know. I logged on to my account to look at the record of 'my' calls (i.e. those made by someone at home) but was given the message 

'You cannot make any changes to your account while there is a phone order in progress.' 

Well, I don't want to 'make any changes', just look at who has been called from my home phone. Far more worrying is that 'a phone order [is] in progress'. Well, I haven't made any changes or asked for any changes to be made, so what the. bloody hell might be going on? Might my account have been hacked? Who knows, but getting in touch with Plusnet is pretty pointless because - see above.

From what I can see a couple of call features on your account were stuck in an awaiting removal state.

I've just removed them now so you should be able to view and/or make changes to your account normally now. 

It would help if the old system of posting a ticket or even replying to the one I'm referring to were still in place. But, presumably to save money and to stop being bothered by the customers, that went by the board many years ago.

We've largely moved away from the ticket system a while ago in favour of other ways of getting in touch. That may be by phone, Twitter (@Plusnet), Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/plusnet) or here on our Community Forums.

How about being able to email customer support? No, can't do that either. So basically I and many others find ourselves up [-Censored-] creek without a paddle.

We've never offered email as a method of support but there are a variety of other ways ^ to get in touch.

 Great, eh? Plusnet has gone downhill these past few years, as far as I can tell since BT bought it out. I joined because Which? gave it pretty much top billing at the time. Now, it's just like any other ISP. OK, problems such as they above occur seldom, and otherwise the internet service is fine. But when they occur, it is real pain.

We've been part of BT Group since 2007. From what I can see we haven't made a billing error but do feel free to let me know if you have any further queries or issues (you can private message me if you'd like to take it privately)