Thinking I've made a mistake joing plusnet

[#1]

Another tale of woe here, wish I'd read this forum before being taken in by the "Easy to switch- We’ve made switching to Plusnet a doddle. Find out how easy it is to start getting good honest broadband."
Switching from talktalk ADSL (non-fibre) to plusnet fibre, ordered nearly 4 weeks ago, 3 week wait for engineer to do the install, not great, but could live with that, date set for 1-6pm Feb 11th - all fine.  Morning of the 11th, phone and internet severred by the time I was up at around 07:15- bit suprised - as engineer not due until the afternoon and the promise of a "short outage" "minimal disruption", not a great start to half term with two kids but we perservered. 
Engineer calls at 2pm, saying just getting to the exchange / cabinet and should be round in half an hour to 45 minutes.  He then called back after about half an hour to say there was a backlog on the exchange/junction box and unable to complete the order.  PSTN bit fixed at around 4pm the next day so at least I'm getting a phone line for my money..
Over weds thurs and today, various calls to plusnet - liasing with BT, first fibre install not being expedited, date set of 25th Feb, I call up  and promised it would be expedited after my existing order was cancelled, then re-ordered, then confirmed.  Chased up this morning and now told that it won't be expedited as it was a BT Wholesale issue not BT Openreach - or vice-versa (lost the will to live tbh).
SO now looking at another 10 days - maybe more who knows, without internet access, no working from home, no school projects able to be progressed, no access to emails, skype etc and with mobile internet tethering allowance used up, it has not been a rosey start and left feeling that at least if my account with talk talk had not been disabled by plusnet, I'd be in a much better position than I am now.

[#2]

I'm really sorry to hear about these issues,
I've checked your account to make sure this is in hand and can see one of my colleagues on the provisioning team is handling the request for a new order.
I'm sorry again to see that the due date means a further wait but I will check to see if there's anything we can do to bring that forward.
Adam

[#3]

It has to be said that there has been such a massive uptake for fibre that BT OR (the sole installer) has been overwhelmed. They also seem to have seriously under-estimated the uptake and not trained enough people to meet the demand.
Plusnet are like all the other ISP's offering fibre, they are subject to BT OR's installers whims and ways. Some of the reasons for failure given and posted on here beggar belief!

[#4]

Adam - many thanks for looking into it, I appreciate that my comments probalby come across as a bit of a whinge, I know the issues lie at the hands of BT / Openreach.
...But my immediate situation could be a whole lot better if Plusnet had not indicated that they had taken over my service from Talktalk until the installer had arrived at the cabinet.
Just got to hope that the installer turns up as promised on the monday (and I don't get lynched by my family in the meantime) and we can put it behind us.

[#5]

"  Easy to switch -  We’ve made switching to Plusnet a doddle. Find out how easy it is to start getting good honest broadband."
So the big day cometh again, 2weeks after the last failure, again my wife takes a half day off from work only to have a phonecall from the BT Openreach non-installer at about mid-day to say theres not enough links in the cabinet and he couldn't complete the install.  Fantastic - a pretty simple check beforehand I would have thought, but apparently beyond the abilities of Openreach.  So another 2 weeks maybe without internet, who knows???  I'm not getting any updates from Plusnet, without me  having to chase and left thinking it could be months to resolve.  This would not  happen with a water or gas or electricity supplier and I can't believe there is no SLA between Openreach and Plusnet for this kind of work, I paid my direct debit over 6 weeks ago now and still have no service.

[#6]

Hi there,
Really sorry about the continuing delay, I assure you we're chasing our suppliers over this. I've just nudged our provisioning team for you, they should get you an update soon.

[#7]

Quote from: misterG

This would not  happen with a water or gas or electricity supplier and I can't believe there is no SLA between Openreach and Plusnet for this kind of work, I paid my direct debit over 6 weeks ago now and still have no service.

Difference being that water/gas/electricity switch doesn't need any hardware changes - this type of problem always seems to be when moving from LLU to BT line with associated cabinet/exchange changes.

[#8]

"Difference being that water/gas/electricity switch doesn't need any hardware changes - this type of problem always seems to be when moving from LLU to BT line with associated cabinet/exchange changes"
But I'd have thought there'd be a set procedure(s) for going from LLU to fibre, it should not have come as a shock to anyone.  I am getting pretty disgusted with this "service, told theres another problem at the cabinet and try back in 48 hours before another appointment can be made, so that'll be 4 weeks without internet - and the icing on the cake??? Receieved this in an email from plusnet this morning ...
It pays to recommend Plusnet
Now that you've had your new Internet service for nearly a month, we thought you might be interested to learn how you can get it for free!
We give customers the chance to reduce their subscription by recommending Plusnet to others.
Arrrrghhhhhhh!

[#9]

I'm sorry this hasn't been resolved yet. There is indeed a set procedure for such a move and I'm afraid there is an issue with the cabinet. I'm sorry that you've been unlucky and have been affected by this.
Just to clarify at present we're expecting something called a "tentative appointment" to be offered within the next 24 hours. When it has we can then progress your order and arrange for the completion of the work to be expedited.
I've just checked your order and that hasn't happened yet so I'll do my best to check that again later this afternoon.
Adam
EDIT: Just a quick update to show I've not forgotten about you. I can see that you've spoken to a member of our provisioning team who is looking into this and will call you back when they have.

[#10]

Hi Adam - thanks for your response - I really do appreciate the plusnet staff at the coal face.
Are you able to confirm that although I placed my order on the 18th January - the 28th March is the earliest that I might even get a date for an appointment - which has been typically 2-3 weeks according to the last two failed attempts - so lets call it 11-18 April at the earliest I would get an internet service in my house, despite promises of escalations and expedites etc? 3 Months give or take, and about 2 of those months without any internet access at all - just to clarify I'm not making any mistakes here.
I've also been told that there is no way to have two requests, so if I say sod it, I'll have ADSL thanks, that's another 7 days without internet and I lose all the escallations and history of an unfulfilled fibre order, effectively having to start again.  And then undoubtedly have to spend more time on the phone haggling over all the money I paid up front for the service I never received, and the direct debit for the money I was charged for my monthly internet that I very obviously still do not have???
I just want to check this is the case before I decide what my next step is - I can't afford another half an hour on hold / being passed to the provisioning team to speak with someone, so would appreciate if you can get back to  me asap.
Also - can you let me know, if I decide to stay, what ADSL products at what prices are available to me, the plusnet  product checker reckons I already have internet being provided to me and the only option is the fibre essentials...
Very many thanks.

[#11]

Hi there,
Having looked into this 28/3 is the very soonest date available I'm afraid, I can't see anything that would lead me to believe it would be delayed beyond that though.
You are right about the one-way nature of the ordering process I'm afraid. Our suppliers can't process an order for ADSL and fibre simultaneously I'm afraid.
With regards to the cost for ADSL if you did decide to do that, you'd be looking at £5.99 for Essentials (10gb allowance) or £9.99 for unlimited.
Adam

[#12]

Thanks again Adam,
When you say you can't see it going beyond the 28th March - what makes you say that please?  I've been waiting 3 and a half weeks for Openreach your supplier to install extra capacity at my cabinet (extra cable from exchange to cabinet?), with quite a few  - "it's a priority, call back in 48 hours", or "next week", or in this case "2 weeks".  Why are you confident it can be done?
Many thanks for the ADSL pricing.

[#13]

Sorry if I've misunderstood what's been noted. I might have wrongly assumed that "the earliest this will be progressed is.." meant the completion of the order.
If further work is needed we'd be in a better position to understand how much longer it should take for the work to be done on or just after the 28th.

[#14]

Ok that's what I thought - I'm in no better situation in 2 weeks am I? - No one can guarantee when this extra capacity may be available, if ever.  I assume that as my contract with plusnet has been broken from the plusnet side, I'll be offered a refund of all my money paid and be able to transfer to an ADSL supplier of my chosing?

[#15]

I’ve had a similar experience. An engineer came round to “install” my broadband yesterday. The installation seemed to go smoothly and the broadband worked fine. The only problem was my phone line went dead. The engineer said “Oh, it will come back in about an hour” which I knew was a lie. So 3 hours later I phoned Plusnet, who ran some “tests” and basically told me the problem was with my current supplier (BT) and I needed to contact them, even though it was the engineer Plusnet sent who broke it.
While I was on the phone to Plusnet, I asked if I could be set up with a fixed IP address (I need it for home-working purposes) and they set this up immediately. Great. Then my broadband died. So I phoned them back and was basically told it was the same issue with the phone line that caused the broadband to go down (which I suspect is a lie given that it worked while the phone was out and only broke after they upgraded me to a static IP).
So to try and resolve the issue, I phoned BT and having spent literally hours working through the automated multiple choice quiz that cuts people off for no reason, I eventually got through to an unintelligible Indian woman who said they would investigate the fault by the 13th of May (6 days away) and if it wasn’t a problem with their equipment, I would be charged £100!
So here I am, having switched to what I thought was supposed to be a reputable company and have been left with no phone line and no broadband for a week and the possibility of paying £100 to get it fixed. Am I to expect a refund? Not the best start!