We moved house on 30 September and on 12 November are still waiting for Plusnet to sort out our phone. We’d ordered Broadband on 22 September and that has worked from Day One but the system does not seem able to cope with setting up a new phone number.
Here is a simplified version of the story:
There is a working line here, the phone was working when we moved in, but then the previous owners had a new line put into their new home and the BT Openreach engineer insisted they transfer their number. So we needed a new number but Plusnet placed the order on the old number despite our protests. We had the order cancelled and resubmitted on 13 October, with a charge of £49.99 and a working date of 31 October. On 31 October they told us our phone was working, we told them it wasn’t; this process was regularly repeated. (NB we’ve had to use an expensive mobile with a dodgy signal - often outside in freezing temperatures).
Three times the following week I thought that the CSR had understood the seriousness of the situation and was going to do something about it. They phoned the number Plusnet claimed was working and got the previous occupant. Fine. Then someone else did it again, much to her understandable annoyance.
Finally I got someone who pestered the technical staff till he got a suggestion of what to do. I was given a magic number to phone to discover what telephone number was attached to this house. Progress! Getting a phone connection was still going to take the best part of a week to 11 November. In the mean time we were being charged not only for line rental for the original number, now in use by someone else, but also for the phone calls made on it. I can see the record of calls made, which seems a very serious breach of privacy.
On 11 November we’d had no confirmation that the set up had been completed but I tried the phone in mid afternoon and it worked on the new number. Today, 12 November we’ve been told our broadband order has been resubmitted. Why? The phone records still show the original number and someone else 's calls.
Huge number of issues here but one is, how can any system allow a problem to drag on for this long without a senior individual taking ownership of it? I am amazed this is the case in a company like Plusnet which sells itself on customer service reputation.
Secondly Plusnet do not seem to have any working means of communication with BT Openreach and therefore are not in a position to provide new phone lines, so should not be offering this service. The friend who recommended Plusnet is mortified and all thought of tranferring her phone service have long gone.
My patience wore out long ago. I am now in despair, wondering if this will ever end.
If someone in the forum could sort this out, I might get a decent night’s sleep at last.
