Having been with Plusnet for 11 years, on July 2nd I saw an offer from SSE for Superfast Broadband and line rental for £26 per month including free weekend and evening calls etc. I decided to go for it.
Because I believed that I had to notify my current broadband supplier and get a migration code if I wanted to move, I contacted PlusNet via chat. (I am now aware that the regulations changed a few weeks ago and you no longer need a migration code)
Anyway, they said they’d match the SSE price so as I’ve been with PlusNet many years, I decided to stick (in spite of the loss of the £100 cashback for moving).
The account is in my husband’s name but I’d logged into chat under my own name and, despite being an authorised user of the account and all the details of the account being handled by me, they said they couldn’t do the switch on my authorisation and to get my husband to ring. For some reason I didn’t keep a transcript of that chat, very unusual for me.
Anyway, when I got him to contact PlusNet, we were told that PlusNet would match the broadband price but the only way to match the line rental was to pay 12 months up front in advance and I’d been advised incorrectly in chat. Getting fed up with the whole business by now, I paid the 12 months line rental and was told an engineer would be out around 21 July to swap us over but the date would be confirmed nearer the time.
I emailed SSE to cancel and received confirmation from them on July 12 that it had been cancelled
Then, by some weird coincidence, our line went faulty. We had neither phone nor internet for a week. After waiting 25mins on the phone to Plusnet eventually an engineer came out and repaired the fault. I repeatedly asked PlusNet if the 21 July was a definite appointment now as I had to take time off work. Trying to get a reply to an email question is like pulling teeth .
Eventually I spent another 45 minutes on the phone to be told that the broadband order had been cancelled because they had word that I was changing to SSE. I went through all the above again and was told that SSE had not cancelled their application to take over the service. On contacting SSE I was told that it had been cancelled from 12 July. Backwards and forwards to PlusNet again – numerous questions that weren’t answered, phone calls that weren’t returned etc and eventually, by going public via the FB page and forum, I was told that fibre wasn’t available at my line. It turns out whilst all this toing and froing had been going on, my local box had reached capacity.
So then I requested a refund of my line rental since, although fibre was likely to be available soon, I was really fed up of the lack of customer support these days at PlusNet. This was refused as it was not within the 14 day period, despite the reason for me paying it upfront was now no longer valid.
Fibre is now once again available from my box but can I get a reply from PlusNet as to whether they will honour the original agreement and if so when I could feasibly expect to be changed over? Can I hell! I’d leave in an instant but I’d lose 11 months line rental.
What a shambles PlusNet has become.
