Well...

[#1]

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@Anonymous wrote:

@Anon - Don’t get me wrong, I know Plusnet aren’t perfect nor is any ISP or indeed any service provider.

But with all due respect your details say you registered on the forum nearly 10 years ago, which at that point it was Plusnet customers only. So you have either been a satisfied customer for the entire time, or if you did leave because or price or bad service and then return then it was your decision to do so.

I know it's frustrating when things don't go as expected, and I do sympathise with those who are in an awkward position as regards service or the lack of it, it can be like wading through treacle at times. So here's hoping you get a resolution to your issue sooner rather than later.

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10 years ago was when these forums first started and I think it was at that point they ceased to be for Pnet customers only, if you could look into the ones before these you would see that I go back to at least early in the 2000's.

I have posted saying how brilliant THEY WERE in those days. I have argued with them when they went from fantastic to abysmal. At that point I left, which was just as these new forums came into being. I returned 8 years ago when, people I respected, said that they were great again. They were and they went down hill some time later.

I managed to persuade myself that perhaps they had been passing through a bad patch late last year and signed for another contract. My experiences told me they were getting worse, and I sought to leave them and would have fought in the courts to do that. Sadly my wife became unwell at that point and I needed to get out of the stress of the fight, so I left it. But with two promises

1. I would ensure that others knew how bad they could be

2. That I would leave again as soon as it was financially viable.

I am still committed to both.

[#2]

I came to Plusnet on the recommendation of my Brother-in-Law, so when I joined to say I was impressed would have been an understatement. The service I got and the near instant answering of the phone when I needed help was commendable and a real eye opener having been a BT business customer before hand.

However, in these few years since I joined even I have spotted the noticeable decline in the service Plusnet are providing. A decline, that I think, is being driven by cost in order to save money to complete with other ISPs.

But what can we do about it; nothing! Plusnet are more than aware (well I hope they are) of the level of discontent within the ranks of their customers but no matter how loud we shout there is nothing that any of us can do to force them to change or move forward; take the new Billing System and IPv6 as an example. The only thing one can do is leave, but if you jumped from the frying pan would you end up in the fire!

For me at least when things go wrong they have always been put right within a matter of days. I’ve been with Plusnet long enough now to know what I’m getting, both the good and the bad, and I’m sticking around for the duration, in the sincere hope that it can’t get any worse.

[#3]

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Mook wrote:The only thing one can do is leave, but if you jumped from the frying pan would you end up in the fire!

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When I left Pnet 10 plus years ago, I researched and did well, but the ISP got taken over  and it went down hill, so I researched again and, as I said earlier, Pnet had been taken over by BT and everything started to move up again. So when I moved I on both occasions I did not move from frying pan to fire.

The communality of all the earlier 2 downhill slopes was a takeover and then pressure on the company to deliver at less and less cost. At first that pressure was far less from BT than the previous owners, but things have changed.

There is a story about a man who had a donkey that he used to take his goods to market, things got tight and he slowly fed the donkey less and less and less. One day with no food at all the donkey died and the man could now not take any food to market and soon he died too. I don't think it is long now before Pnet get sold out again or just merged into BT.

As BT put in more of their management and demand more profit, the present staff run round and round to try and deliver that or they lose their jobs. But as with the last time Pnet did that and did the same to the staff and the staff behaved in the same way, pretty soon the last saving is to axe the top staff. It happened last time, it will happen again.

Carol Axe, by name and nature discovered that.

Your last words in that post Mook were

"I’m sticking around for the duration, in the sincere hope that it can’t get any worse"

But I think you will find that your hope is badly dashed.

[#4]

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@Anon wrote:

10 years ago was when these forums first started and I think it was at that point they ceased to be for Pnet customers only, if you could look into the ones before these you would see that I go back to at least early in the 2000's.

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Just to confirm that these forums have been going since before I joined in 2002 but switched platform in 2007.

The forums were opened to non-Plusnet customers when they were switched to Lithium last year.

[#5]

Accurate but not completely so - ex customers were able to continue posting

I can't remember when that changed from ex customers being prevented from posting but it was before I became a mod

[#6]

I changed user name with the new platform and if they were not open to nonPnet customers to post, they were open to view by the public, but I remember a fuss about them being public and that was not recently. It was soon after the debacle of customers being thrown out of being customers.

But I guess we cannot now view those earlier forums to look.

[#7]

@Anon - There's an archive here, but how far it goes back I do not know.

[#8]

Thanks for looking that up. Sadly many of the posts have now lost their poster's names.

Fascinating.

[#9]

Whatever the small size of the poll, the other likelihood is that very few of those polled will have needed customer service very much and wouldn't have much to say, good or bad. PlusNet's broadband service in my experience is pretty robust and in the grand scheme of things people join, get online without difficulty and stay that way. You only hear about the exceptions. I have a few gripes (eg email recently!) but on balance it's a solid cost-effective service.

For instance, I've been a customer since 1998. In all that time I've probably contacted CS only a handful of times (back in the days of tickets) with tecchy queries, but these days there's so much online help I wouldn't have needed to do even that. I've not needed CS since my last house move 9 years ago. I doubt if I'm alone, and I'm quick to grumble if I've a problem!

This doesn't mean that CS is good or bad, just proves that things are easy to use and pretty reliable.

[#10]

@quelquod

Ditto! 

On balance my own experience has been pretty good and not anything to complain about. Hey I got a free upgrade to fibre not too long ago so I'm more than happy. Would be glad when the webmail issue is sorted but other than that I can't grumble.

My Niece on the other hand had a very different experience and PN have reduced her to tears on many occasions recently. She's lost days off work, paid for a service that didn't work for two months and had countless PN/BT engineers visit all without a clue what was wrong. Frustrating when you recommend a service and that happens. Thankfully it's finally resolved after one engineer eventually found two wires touching in the exchange! Customer experience/satisfaction was shockingly bad on that count!!

I suppose some people get lucky whilst some don't, it's very much a lottery with any company or service these days.

[#11]

I am willing to try the lottery somewhere else ASAP.

[#12]

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@Anon wrote:

I am willing to try the lottery somewhere else ASAP.

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You not happy? 

[#13]

You could say that. I was silly paid LIne Rental in advance, now stuck.

[#14]

@Anon

I'm surprised..., I've noticed your name a few times in these forums and thought everything was going well for you.

These things can be handy for saving a few pennies but like you say you can feel silly if it goes wrong for you.

Hopefully you'll stick around for a while yet, Plusnet still gets good reviews despite some of the moans and groans on here. 

[#15]

Signed for a new contract in November last year and it has been downhill since. Spent so much time on the phone that when my wife sees me on the phone she says "Oh, no, what have Pnet done now".

That just about sums it up, but they will have to put up with me, as much as I will have to put up with them, for a good few months yet.