Another very upset long standing customer who before today loved Plusnet.

[#1]

Hi there
Thanks for time on the phone this morning. Sorry it was a bit noisy - I was on a train to Leeds!
As I mentioned I didn't call you last night as HLE had set an update time of 1800 and I wanted to give them a bit of extra time to give me an update. I called them when I got in at 1930 and as there was no further update I asked Ross to give you a ring.
This morning I called them again and they duly called Openreach to find out if they could push for an appointment for today which sadly they couldn't. However they have booked next Saturday. I'll call you again on Monday to let you know when in the day this is going to be.
Again I'm sorry for how long this has taken and I hope that we have a good outcome next weekend.
Enjoy your weekend!

[#2]

Thank you for ringing me this morning and thank you James for your efforts - as I indicated I was shocked to get the communication update from Adam that basically said nothing could be done.
Perhaps he should have spoken to you first?
I am sad that they would not attend today but realise that this was probably unrealistic - and am pleased that you have secured an appointment for next Saturday.
Looking forward to hearing from you on Monday.
Pete.

[#3]

Quote from: Grimbleweed

I thought James was THE MAN to get things sorted.

That is about right, unfortunately I get the impression that OR failures are higher than usual at present so James is probably rather heavily loaded.
It's a crazy situation really as Plusnet are contractually responsible to the customer but they must 'subcontract' faults work to BTOR,  the trouble is that BTOR are a monopoly and however poorly they perform Plusnet has no option but to continue to use their services (no doubt entirely at BTOR's terms).
Maybe the solution would be for the government to break BTOR's monopoly and allow other competent contractors to work on what was, after all, a public funded infrastructure (but that's going off topic and a whole other debate).
I sincerely hope the next appointment is successful.

[#4]

Quote from: Grimbleweed

but OR just lied when they said someone had come but no one was in! Then changed their story the next day to SYSTEM ERROR and then today its was a RESOURCES ISSUE.  Why won't someone tell the truth.  If i didn't turn up at work then 30 9 year oldsand their families would be put out - I would probably be disciplined for not giving notice - I cant see me saying there was a system error being accepted as a valid excuse.

I guess the thing with Openreach appointments is that they don't know, in advance, how long any individual appointment is going to take. When booking 2 weeks in advance, all they know is that there are N bookings for the day, and M engineers available.
I believe the computerised job-allocation system works dynamically, so that when an engineer clocks off one job, the system chooses the next job for him to do (from the list of the day's bookings), and lets him know where it is.
This kind of system is great at allowing flexibility of all engineers - anyone can fill in anywhere dynamically. The downside occurs when those M engineers can't actually handle the N jobs that day... and the system won't be able to recognise it until the last engineer has clocked-off at the end of the day.
Unfortunately, this prevents any one engineer from taking any kind of personal responsibility for ensuring his customers get their appointments. They can't even see who those customers ought to be! Overall, the people are dependent on the computer - which starts the day with the best of intentions, but cannot give anyone advanced warning that their appointment will not be met. A modern version of "the computer says 'No'."
I understand that sometimes appointments cannot be met. However, Openreach seems to be particularly bad at the moment (weather-related?), and the computer system makes it act in a very inhuman way. The very worst thing about it is that Openreach have no decent (or effective) way to escalate or prioritise jobs, so that the same thing doesn't happen twice to the same customer. You'd think that there would be a way to mark a job with a "screwed up once, don't do it again" priority!

[#5]

Quote from: WWWombat

this prevents any one engineer from taking any kind of personal responsibility for ensuring his customers get their appointments.

Which means that the responsibility transfers to the management, hopefully assisted by their computer system.
In complete contrast, British Gas (who don't exactly have a great name either) actually phoned me during the day (I'm the contact) regarding an appointment at my in-laws house that they were going to be late for, to check whether an afternoon arrival for a morning appointment was OK. It was the office-based supervisor/manager who did this not the engineer.
There's absolutely NO reason why "PlusNets suppliers" can't do this, even if they have to go via PN as an imtermediary. Or maybe they do and the chain is broken at PN?  
PS It also seems to be normal practice for BG engineers to "phone ahead" to give an estimate when they will arrive. 

[#6]

I've seen cases where engineers have been running late and will call our customer to let them know. Granted this doesn't happen all the time.
I've always been "rung ahead" for any of the appointments that I have had.

[#7]

Quote from: HPsauce

PS It also seems to be normal practice for BG engineers to "phone ahead" to give an estimate when they will arrive.

Perhaps you have highlighted one of the tricks used by BT engineers. If they phone ahead and get no answer they report that no-one was in and go on to the next job - even if the fault is that the phone isn't working!

[#8]

All seems very interesting but at the end of the day it is the customer who ends up out of pocket whether that be in time or hard earned cash.  In these days of excellent communications equipment and handheld computers there must be a way to ensure correct information gets back to the customer.
I notice that when I have deliveries from companies often i receive several text messages to say th item has been despatched - on its way and delivered.
Until we get a system whereby the lack of service is identified and can be dealt with then this situation will remain.
What concerns me now - is that on Saturday there may be no guarantee that the engineers will attend - i have had to get a friend to housesit - and pay them - as I have had to make a urgent journey.  I am assured by James that the appointment will go ahead - but listening to you guys talk I am not sure that I any better off than being back on a list.
BTW James thank you for your phone call on Monday morning confirming a morning appointment on Saturday 20th October. Please remember to advise BTOR of my mobile number and not have them ring the landline !!  Thx

[#9]

I suggest you raise a ticket to formally notify Plusnet of the expense you will incur if BT fail to attend.

[#10]

Hiya,
Just to confirm that I have rerequested that they call you on your mobile and ensure that the engineer checks in with the HLE team to ensure that everything that can be done is done.

[#11]

OR arrived as planned on Saturday thank you. System up and running. Will contact you shortly - thanks Pete