Sorry to be Leaving

[#1]

Sorry I am posting here as there is no contact Email to the Plus-net mail i have just received.

Thank you for your mail and information regarding me leaving Plus-net.

I would like to take this opportunity and ask you please look back over the past years contact and ticket raised two weeks ago together with posts on the forum, please tell me if I have been treated as a loyal customer or not.

When I first joined Plus-net, the first year and half contract i had I could not sing your praises enough to all and sundry but this last year contact has been a living hell with more engineers visits then there should have been considering no fault was ever found a my property.

I would be more than happy to hear from you and any offer you may have but it would need to go a long way to build any trust and faith I have now lost in Plus-net.

[#2]

@sacha100 - This issue you're experiencing appears to be nothing to do with Plusnet. If you are needing an engineer then the implication is that the issue lies within the BT OpenReach infrastructure which is out of Plusnet's control.

If you do decide to leave then all the best to you, but with this issue being external and dependent on who your new provider is you could end up taking it with you and be no further forward as a consequence.

As you're out of contract it will do no harm to see if Plusnet and their partners (BT OpenReach) can resolve this issue for you in due course, but as always the choice is yours.

[#3]

Totally understand what you are saying but for the past year and over twenty OpenReach Engineers finding no faults what so ever within my property and having a complete stable connecting for the first contract which lasted a year and half with a constant speed of 37Mbs at the PC i find it strange to see such behavior.

But what made me decide is the none response to a ticket i opened over two weeks ago which has only just been replied to with may i add incorrect information as this has never had anything to do with wifi speeds.

And now to top it all have just received a phone message to say my Data has been switch off even though i have paid for this.

Not good advertising is it.

[#4]

Wow, I didn't realise there were that many, I thought this only happened toward the end of your contract i.e. within the last month!

[#5]

Yep that many, as said first year and half was great full speed and not one dropout or problem, the fiber box is only around the corner and even though i can get higher speeds above my 40Mbs package i am receiving below guaranteed speed promised by Plusnet.

But as shown my phone data has now been switched off even though i have paid for a month in advance.

Plusnet are not doing themselves any good at all doing this sort of underhand thing, Ofcom will have a filed day 

[#6]

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@sacha100 wrote:

Ofcom will have a filed day 

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I quote from the Ofcom web site:

Although Ofcom does not investigate individual complaints, your help in highlighting problems plays a vital part in our work and we may investigate a company if monitoring data reveals a particular problem.

So don't hold your breath that they will arrive mob handed at Plusnet's office to right the wrong!

I suspect that the cause of your problem is incompetence, quite possibly due to Plusnet's flaky business system and not a deliberate underhand act

.

[#7]

It sounds as though there are two separate issues here...

1. Problematic broadband connection "over twenty OpenReach Engineers finding no faults what so ever within my property"
2. Mobile phone service has been terminated "received a phone message to say my Data has been switch off"

One really does hope that no faults are found within a customer's property for that leads to No Fault Found charges.  As for BTOR engineers not finding a fault, well that depends on how hard they try.  A business user has now finally got their 9+ month woes sorted after yet more engineers attended the installation reporting no fault found.  The final two engineers tried harder - the first reported that on inspecting the drop wire "It just came away in his hand - the cable was perished - cannot understand how this has been overlooked".  There was though still a residual fault on testing but not found on inspection - that engineer spent two hours looking properly and found an old junction box under the eaves, in which the wires were corroded.

The bottom line is that copper circuits deteriorate and sometimes the faults take a lot of finding.  I personally have had 18 engineer visits over a period of 8 months until one lady engineer physically inspected EVERY joint on the circuit.

These are not issues within the direct gift on an ISP to remedy.  All they can do is to keep calling out BTOR engineers until they find ALL of the issues, which (especially with damp joints) might not be manifest on the day of the visit.

as others have mentioned, you can change ISPs but it is very unlikely that your circuit will change ... so anticipate the same problems until BTOR locate the elusive fault.

Never equate "No Fault Found" with "There is not fault to find".

[#8]

It has never been my intention to cause problems or stir up trouble and think up until may last contract PN did a great job, i received what i was paying for, questions answered quickly and precociously with complete professionalism what more could anyone ask for. I am fully aware and understand PN are just a supplier and not the operator of said service.

My problem is on the renew of last years contract, within a week of renewing the service i had expected and was reviving in the past had gone, no longer was i obtaining full 40Mbs speed with download's of 37Mbs, as stated previously this was the start of a year long contract of living hell, constant dropouts which resulted in loss in speed, phone line disconnects with no service on landline.

If possible i would like Townman whom i have great respect for to look into my file/ contact for the past year, he will see what he mentions regarding copper circuits deteriorate and other problems that could be the cause have all been tested replaced and inspected  more than once, even the card has been replaced and this has been done from the very top level.

I understand the complexities involved, i used to work as an electrical engineer and also provide data and fiber installations for large corporations in the city 20 years ago, so as you can guess am not a novice regarding this matter but do understand that many factors are hand.

As stated i have had two many OpenReach Engineers visit my property for this to be acceptable, there is either incompetence or lake or skill for this many visits all of which involved cost's and time to myself with an end result in allays telling me that my line is clear with minimal fault, within acceptable tolerance and the line is more than capable or receiving higher speeds which may i add have seen previously for the last year and half without any problems.

Today's OpenReach Engineers have so much more of an easier job the equipment used by them gives pinpoint accuracy and location of any fault or problems on a line so again am finding what is being said hard to swallow, if one of the installations i undertook at a stock exchange or data center performed in this way then there would have been uproar as millions of pounds would have been lost in seconds and just because these are large corporate business makes know difference at all.

Speed and stability is either there or not and if not can be identified at the very least, i am not saying this can be fixed due to costs involved but at the very least any given problem can be flagged up.

I fully understand that any problems i may have can be taken with me to a new supplier but am hopping that i will receive a better service as this last fault flagged and ticketed took over two weeks to reply to and when it was replied to i was given misinformation regarding wifi which has nothing to do with the problems i had listed.

I hope for yours and PN information i have made what is going on clear. First contract one and half years with full speed, no disconnects on phone or broadband and great service from PN, second contract one year, constant speed and line disconnections on phone and broadband, over twenty OpenReach Engineers visits reporting know fault found and then to top it of no reply to fault ticket raised for over two weeks then incorrect information and reply given.

[#9]

Thank you for the kind words. However I am a customer like yourself and am not able to access anything.

Sometimes in life there are coincidences - extend / re-contract and in a similar time frame things start to go wrong. The problem is not solid, it’s intermittent. Plusnet are unlikely to send an engineer if the line does not test faulty when tested. However it’s not uncommon for an intermittent fault not to be found when the engineer visits. Part of the issue is that escalation to senior engineers needs to happen IIRC within 14 days of the first visit otherwise it’s back to grade 1 engineers!

@Gandalf - can you add insight here please?

[#10]

Totally understand what you are saying Gandalf has gone above and beyond and i can only say is a credit to PN, unfortunately all that work at PN are not the same and here lies the problem or should i say problems.

The things i say may be trivial to some but coming from and engineering background i expect 100% as nothing else will do, little things like time to reply, Responding to questions effectively and going out your way to help all of which i think you will agree has been lacking.

Then there is the ongoing part of offering a better price for new customers over loyal exciting, i know this does not affect you guys as you get your broadband free but when a loyal paying customer constantly hears and see offers they are not entitled to it can become quite offensive and build barriers that should never exist like the very TV add being promoted at the moment what does that say to anyone whom is with PN, sorry tough luck its only for new customers we wont do you proud as we are going to charge you above our new customers that have been loyal for many years.

[#11]

@sacha100 All that work for any organisation are not the same - I was frustrated to work with one of my colleagues and was glad when he left, although it nearly doubled my workload.

I too come from an engineering background and would have loved for everything to be 100% all the time but you just need one link in the chain to be defective for things not to run smoothly, as I said above, not everyone has the same work ethic.

As to the price you are offered, I have always found PN to be amenable to discussion on this subject - in the close to nine years I have been with them, I have never paid the list price for my services - a short call to them when approaching the end of my contract has always resulted in an offer close to, or, as now, much lower than the 'new customer' price - not something I was able to always achieve with my previous providers.

FYI, @Townman is a customer just like you and I, and will be paying whatever price he has managed to negotiate - only Plusnet staff get free BB.

[#12]

@jab1 Understand what you are say regards to (loved for everything to be 100% all the time but you just need one link in the chain to be defective for things not to run smoothly)

I was never given this option and is something that was never allowed to happen. As said I have worked on Data centres, stock exchanges / banks, hospitals. Power networks, historical buildings, pharmaceutical industry and many more. the three that had to goth though extreme testing was the Data centres, Hospitals, Stock exchanges / banks, and the pharmaceutical industry, not only did this work involved be responsible for saving life, but also if a data centre or stock exchange went down then as previously stated the costs involved were hundreds of millions per day, the penalty clause for the company's I work for was truly extreme in the event of any failure so everything did run without fault.

This was going back 20 or so years ago, technology has moved on at an extreme rate since I did such work and which make it so much easier to pinpoint and locate faults, I do understand in the public domain there are other factors that can be involved but again with the technology at hand these can be identified and if not rectified at least documented.

I received the stranded mail regarding Before your broadband and phone services move and to talk with someone or go to my Member Centre, I had a quick look and there is no price reduction on offer but I did see an offer to put me on a faster tariff which is a bit odd given the problems I have been having with dropouts and speed issues.

[#13]

@sacha100 I understand your last post entirely, but you were working in safety critical areas - Plusnet aren't.

In my work environment (VERY heavy engineering), the safety rules were strictly enforced, but sadly we still had accidents, some fatal, but overall, the the testing and monitoring prevented this 99.9% of the time. Similarly, product testing meant the final product was safe - we didn't want nuclear accidents because the rod sheaths we made were defective, for instance.

[#14]

@Townman Very surprised that no attempt has been made what so ever to talk to me regarding leaving or about the ongoing problems.

I do understand the Covid situation and the changes that are ongoing but the complete silence is one that is baffling me.

[#15]

Power networks, historical buildings, pharmaceutical industry and many more. the three that had to goth though extreme testing was the Data centres, Hospitals, Stock exchanges / banks, and the pharmaceutical industry, not only did this work involved be responsible for saving life, but also if a data centre or stock exchange went down then as previously stated the costs involved were hundreds of millions per day, the penalty clause for the company's I work for was truly extreme in the event of any failure so everything did run without fault.

and that is the crux of the problem, power, water and gas are considered essential services and so there are service level agreements and support infrastructures to maintain them operational. Broadband is currently not considered an essential service and so is still maintained on an almost 'best efforts' basis, although the phone service does have a better SLA. During the current crisis people are relying more on their broadband and so de-facto it is almost an essential service! Problem is the support infrastructure isn't there to maintain the level of service that people need and it's unlikely to be there as long as people want broadband at the current price that they seem willing to pay. There again it's probably a catch 22, people won't pay for the support service unless it's actually available, and with Openreach largely a law unto themselves its not going to happen soon...