Trying to cancel - on hold for over 1.5 hours

[#1]

Since joining Plusnet about 6 weeks ago, every single day, our connection has dropped out mutiple times. Mostly during peak times in the evening, but also during the day too.

I'm trying to cancel my account as we speak. The lady said she needed to put me through to the tech dept. so they can confirm that I actually have been having issues so they can cancel without charging me for the rest of my contract (which is about 10, 11 months left)

I was grateful for that, so I was put on hold. Over an hour and a half later and I'm still on hold.

What the hell?

I'm not usually one to complain or kick up a fuss. I've never written anything like this before.

But my god, I desperately just want to leave and no one is picking up the phone. It's unbelievable how bad this is.

Terrible connection since day one, and now I'm being left on hold for this long?

What the hell am I supposed to do? I feel trapped.

[#2]

Hi there,

I'm sorry to read of the poor experience you've had and the problems with your connection.

I've taken a look over your acconut and unfortunately can't see that the connection problems have been reported to us prior to your call today, we do ask that we're given opportunity to resolve issues before allowing you to leave without charge if you're in a contract.

Have you been through any troubleshooting yet to try and alleviate the connection drops you're seeing? We do have a guide here that may help: https://www.plus.net/help/broadband/connection-troubleshooting/

[#3]

Hello Chris,

Thanks for your reply. Whenever the connection goes down, I either get a DNS Resolution 1001 error, OR a Plusnet page offering troubleshooting solutions, none of which work.

I've gone through the link you've provided. My dial tone is clear, the router has always been plugged into the master socket via a filter with the router plugged into the ADSL modem port of the filter.

How long will it take for this to be looked at? I was on the phone for, in total today, 2 hours, 40 minutes and 30 seconds with zero reply from anyone. I don't want to be with a company where it's this difficult to resolve issues.

I appreciate that you'd like an opportunity to try and fix this issue. I just want to cancel at this point. Would you be able to have the issue looked at before the 18th of this month?

Thanks

[#4]

Thanks for getting back to us.

I'm afraid we won't be in a position to allow you to leave an agreed contract term without a termination fee at this stage. We'd need a fault reporting to us first and engineers arranged to investigate further.

If a faults investigation has been exhausted, we'd then consider at writing the contract off. 

If you can report a fault to us at http://faults.plus.net a faults adviser will aim to get back to you within 3 working days, however if you nudge us over here we'll be happy to pick it up hopefully sooner. 

[#5]

Will we be charged for having an engineer come round to try and look at the problem?

[#6]

Hi there,

You'd only be charged for the engineer under the following circumstances:

If the engineer finds the problem is with your internal wiring, your equipment, the condition of your property or the Openreach network has been damaged within the boundary of your property by things like building or garden works or if no fault is found, you will receive a charge of £65 to cover the cost of the engineer. This charge will also apply if you miss the appointment or you cancel without giving us 2 working days' notice.

Best wishes

Dave

[#7]

OK, so just to clarify.

We've had bad service since day one with the connection dropping out multiple times a day especially during peak times.

You won't let me cancel because this is the first time I've raised the issue, and you want to attempt to fix it before 'considering terminating the contract.'

To attempt to fix the issue, you want to send an engineer out which will cost me £65 whether there is an issue my end or not.

So even though you guys can clearly see that our connection has been terrible since we signed up, you're making us pay to potentially fix your mistakes, and then you may or may not even let us leave anyway.

Is that correct?

[#8]

Hi Babis,

Thanks for coming back to us.

With respect, the statement and information I've provided does NOT state that you will be charged £65 irrespective of whether the fault relates your property, or not.

Please review the statement that I've provided as it gives specific examples of when you will be charged and when you won't.

As my colleagues have advised, as things stand, if you cancel an early termination fee WILL apply. With any fault, we need to be given adequate time and opportunity to identify the cause and then resolve the issue for you. As @Gandalf has confirmed, we would only be able to look at releasing you from contract without charge once we've exhausted all of the troubleshooting and fault resolution process - sending one engineer would not count as being exhaustive.

If you have any specific questions about the engineer statement I've provided, please let us know and we'll be happy to provide further information. To summarize though, you will NOT be charged if the issue relates to any of the infrastructure that runs from the BT exchange to the test socket of your premises (unless it's been damaged by your actions).

Best wishes

Dave

[#9]

Hi Dave,

Thanks for your reply.

The section of the text you sent to me that I've highlighted in bold reads as though I'd be charged regardless of whether a fault was found at our end or not:

"If the engineer finds the problem is with your internal wiring, your equipment, the condition of your property or the Openreach network has been damaged within the boundary of your property by things like building or garden works or if no fault is found, you will receive a charge of £65 to cover the cost of the engineer. This charge will also apply if you miss the appointment or you cancel without giving us 2 working days' notice."

Despite being a bit frustrated, I do appreciate the replies, especially after the debacle I had earlier with nobody picking up the phone after being on hold for so long. I will have to go through the fault logging process and try and get this sorted as soon as possible.

[#10]

Hi Babis,

Thanks for coming back to me - totally appreciate your frustration and also appreciate you taking the time to raise a fault.

In terms of the section of text you've highlighted, I can see that drops have occurred on your connection so it's unlikely (but not impossible) that no fault will be found by our suppliers.

Let us know when you've raised a fault and we'll ensure it's picked up.

Best wishes

Dave