Why I have left Plusnet

[#1]

I'm going round in circles with a problem which started back in July (Outages which PlusNet can see) and speeds too low for speedtests , though on Wednesday I had a speed reading ofless than 1Mbps.

My incorrect bill (no discount for my ADSL,whose offer has two weeks left) and links on the site that don't work, is the final straw. I was thinking that if they gave me a good deal and sorted things I'd stay,but the grass is much greener at Sky,which I only left as PlusNet's deal was better (LIne rental upfront helped, but now it is a disadvantage as you need to pay fullprice for 6 months or pay more over 12 months, which cancels the discount), and has recently given my sister a brilliant retention deal (she was moving to PlusNet) of £17.99for line, ADSL and anytime calls, as well as offering her just a 12 month contract.With PlusNet you have to pay £2 more for a 12 month deal or pay full price line for 6 months if you are to have any chance of a deal when your broadband offer ends.

[#2]

Sorry to see some of the old problems still exist. I am back again for about the 5th time, I left last time due to the upload drop to 2mb, something I am glad to see has changed. I too have seen many issues, starting on dial up with Force9 and leaving when PN took them over. I left when the hassle with the ellacoyas was causing issues and went to Madasafish, who were then bought by PN! I left again and went to Sky at a new address, then came back to PN about 4 years ago, leaving with the upload decrease. I now see a lot of the same issues that were around before, coupled with less support hours. I took a look at the stats the other day and was shocked to see that business users calls were answered in less than a minute and domestic users were waiting an average of 40 minutes. I had kind of hoped the bad old days were behind PN, but I see some familiar staff on the forums who have usually always gone out of their way to help. Hoping that things don't deteriorate in my new contract 

Mark

[#3]

@jelv

Thank you, this is very informative and I see things have gotten much worse since your OP.

You're foresight is impeccable to say the least

[#4]

The latest farce is under accounts and billing.

Having paid one year for line rental in advance I usually pay £ 18 - £ 20 a month by DD for broadband.

This month I get a bill for £ 58.30.....!

Seems they have deducted my monthly BB charges from my line rental, ok mistakes occur when introducing new systems but how come it takes 3 months before this is picked up and dealth with ?

The response to my post on this is that a ticket has been raised, what for ? I have already been told what has happened, what I really want to know is why has it taken so long to be rectified ?

Who is in charge at PN ? Is anyone in charge ? By in charge I mean the authority to deal quickly and efficiently with these and similar issues.

When my LR is up I will be another customer on the move.

[#5]

Two Year's On

The original post in this topic was two years ago - it has a liked/thanked count of 95 (the highest of any post by a huge margin: see list here).

A year ago I posted a review of what progress had been made by Plusnet - see this post.

So what has change in the last year?

The big change is that the new accounts system finally saw the light of day, and what an outstanding success that has been (not!). I see that it has now made a slot on BBC radio 4's You and Yours: link listen from 32:30. Even if it was fully working it hasn't delivered all the improvements that were promised over the years - see this topic.

I've not seen anything that suggests that they are making any progress with IPv6 or secure email. I've not seen as many posts about slow webmail so that may be somewhat better, although I've noticed other outgoing mail issues that have been going on for some time.

I have noticed that the Help Team that work these forums has been enlarged considerably - a measure of the level of first line support failures that mean user have to come to these forums?

Still seeing complaints about the wait times on the phones.

Still frequently seeing failed orders not picked up.

A year ago I said:

Conclusion

Once I retire and no longer need to be guaranteed good support in the event of problems would I return to Plusnet? I did think that was a distinct possibility if they were showing signs of sorting themselves out - not much sign of that happening. They still seem intent on being a bargain basement ISP with all that implies.

If anything it's even less likely I would ever return to Plusnet. I'm really sad about that, I was with them for 15 years and had a great deal of loyalty to them. I would love them to return to being even half way towards being the great ISP they used to be.

[#6]

@jelv and unfortunately the SU don't seam to be listened to Either

[#7]

@smiffy1  The SU are being listened to, it's conversion into tangible activity that is proving a bit difficult.

[#8]

Sorry @MauriceC, would that not imply that they may be being listened to but ultimately the voice is ignored.

[#9]

I think Maurice summarises the situation well. There is good listening within the SU discussion space - the challenge is conversion to action. There is the matter of priorities and capacity. There are many things we would all like to see done differently ... then there is a whole host of changes which we cannot see imposed by the regulators ... which to be honest don’t appear to deliver much of a hill beans to users, but does consume masses of resources which could otherwise do things of greater tangible benefit!

[#10]

@Townman

It must be frustrating to be a SU, being listened to but finding that suggestions do not get actioned due to other priorities. I have spent time in a middle management role in a technology company and well remember trying to move things forward despite diktats that came from above. I used to have an extract from Winnie the Pooh on my office wall. It goes like this:

Here is Edward Bear coming downstairs now, bump, bump, bump, on the back of his head, behind Christopher Robin. It is, as far as he knows, the only way of coming downstairs, but sometimes he feels that there really is another way…if only he could stop bumping for a moment and think of it!
A. A. Milne

I wonder if this analogy aligns with the Plusnet modus operandi?