Why Plusnet lost my business

[#1]

Firstly, a bit of praise for Plusnet. I've been a happy customer for a long time now and I want to make special mention of the way in which Plusnet have conducted an open and honest relationship with their customers. It has been refreshing to deal with a company with this ethos.
However, one area where they have failed to deliver is with their business products. I have been anticipating the product refreash for a long time now. I wanted to sign up to Pliusnet for my business broadband but I was waiting to find out what the products would be. I can't sign up to something which isn't available.
A year ago, the business product refresh was described as follows :

Quote from: Jameseh

I do appreciate that a Business Product refresh has been a (very) long time coming and can assure you that this is being looked into.

February 14th, 2008 at 10:17 by Mand in http://community.plus.net/blog/2008/02/14/is-cheap-business-broadband-the-answer-plusnet-say-no/

Quote

There are other things planned to further improve service for business customers over the coming months including centralised billing (through our Partner programme), a business product refresh, further faults enhancements, and business Phone services.

Neil Armstrong threw in some additional information.

Quote from: Neil

We have a business phone product in design at the moment. Watch this space

That got me interested and I said so in the forums. I stated that I would be keen to have my business broadband, my phone and my business website all with Plusnet.

Quote from: Mark

Glad to hear it geewiz. We'll keep you and the forums posted

Sadly, they didn't.

Quote from: Mark

We're still working on the Business product refresh and as soon as I have details I can publish I'll let the Community know.

Quote from: Ian

As an aside Geewizz, I'd expect we can publish news on new hosting and business products next week, but if you want a sneak preview discussion (with caveats that plans are not 100% signed off yet so things might change a little), I'd be happy to give you a quick call. Cheers, Ian

I declined the sneak preview on account of my absence that week and that the information would be available on my return if his statement was true. Obviously, it turned out to be false.
Add to this a PM from a staff member last weekend promising me some information on Monday, which has never materialised.
Who really knows when this much heralded product refresh will eventually break Mother Pluisnet's waters and tumble forth into the internet? For me, it no longer matters. I've run out of time and signed up with other companies. I'll continue to use my plusnet broadband account up here until I leave this address but my new residential broadband and my business broadband, phone and webhosting accounts are lost to Plusnet because they failed to deliver on the numerous promises they made. As I said before, I can't sign up to products which are not available and I'm not going to sign up to a product which is due (or overdue) to be replaced by an unknown entity.
I'm confident that posting this here will allow Plusnet staff members to recognise that they need to follow up on what they say to customers or be more cautious with what they promise.
So, it's not goodbye from me yet. I'll be around for as long as I keep this house on but I will be losing my ties to Plusnet when I take that last journey south to my new home.

[#2]

you'll be missed, geewizz.  your humour is unique.

[#3]

  Sad thing is, my web designers are working on the pages right now and I know that we have developers coding right now.  Is it too late Geewizz?  I could get someone to fill you in next week?

[#4]

I needed to book stuff on Friday so that I can have everything running smoothly before I shut down operations up here. I held off for weeks in anticipation of the products being outlined and a launch date being announced. From what I have been told, I'm surprised that the web pages are only now being worked up and that there is any coding outstanding. Considering the dates of the posts quoted above, this is all way behind schedule.
I'll be keeping an eye on developments and hopefully I can transfer back to Plusnet after the 12 month contracts run out.

[#5]

We managed the hosting elements announced, but getting the business products out has taken longer than anyone would have liked. An awful lot of work ended up being slipped into this stream around things like business phone lines. Each change as it's been asked for has pushed back the delivery date, as have the issues with our new partner portal that we needed to focus resources on.
Anyway, I suppose that is what it is and it does sound like we're too late, for which I'm very sorry.
Ian
Ps - is it OK if I move this post to a more relevant forum than testimonials?

[#6]

Its an honest testimonial of the experience of a customer - isn't that what this board is for?
Or is the board only for people with good experiences?

[#7]

I object to the suggestion that this testimonial should be moved to somewhere "more relevant.".

[#8]

Well, here are some definitions of testimonials. I'd personally say the above doesn't meet any of those, but to be honest I don't think it matters much as I can see the forum getting subsumed again in future forum changes.
The idea I had in mind for this area of the forum was that Rants and Raves would house negative feedback, whereas Testimonials would have positive feedback (as per what I believed the definition of a testimonial was). That way, we could feed in more real testimonials to other areas of the portal and also give people a route to the forums. From there they could see for themselves past just the good stuff if they wanted (which is what most people miss when they post testimonial statements on their site).
I definitely agree this is important feedback to get, and I'm sorry we've let you down on this Geewizz, but in any case it's probably not what I had hoped would be posted here.
Ian

[#9]

Quote from: geewizz

Firstly, a bit of praise for Plusnet. I've been a happy customer for a long time now and I want to make special mention of the way in which Plusnet have conducted an open and honest relationship with their customers. It has been refreshing to deal with a company with this ethos.

Ian, just delete the whole thread. I'm really not impressed by this nonsense.
I've given Plusnet the feedback and it has been noted. the original post has served its purpose.

[#10]

Quote

technique in argument or propaganda to persuade others to share the position

Also, Geewhiz's opening statement is testimonial to the Open and Honest relationship you share with your customers.

[#11]

Quote from: geewizz

Ian, just delete the whole thread. I'm really not impressed by this nonsense. I've given Plusnet the feedback and it has been noted. the original post has served its purpose.

He can't delete it
We'll, technically he can, but its against the whole ethos of the forums and everything they are supposed to represent to, and of Plusnet.
I suspect he'd find he had a shortage of Moderators (and an excess of criticism) if he did something like that.

[#12]

I asked a question. We had a debate. It's all good! 
And as James said, I wouldn't delete a post, or move it (ask for it to be moved) without agreement of the original poster / community either.
What I will do, if we decide to keep this forum though, is write some verbage around why I asked for it to be put here 🙂
Ian

[#13]

The trouble is though that if its only here for purely good comments, it loses its value altogether IMO.
Yup, there are rants and raves, and you [PN] have the opportunity to shine in responding to people who are pretty upset.
I think that testimonials only works if you accept that they won't all be fab, and some of the criticisms will just be 'the way things are'.
The contrast *has* to be that some of the good bits are tinged with a bit of badness occasionally.

[#14]

The whole first post is about the fact that I WANTED to stay with Plusnet but regretfully I couldn't wait for the business product refresh. I demonstrated it was something I had gone to great lengths to wait for but because of circumstances beyond my control I couldn't continue to hold off the decision. I gave positive feedback in words of praise and positive feedback in terms of recommendations for improvement.  If that's not a testimony then I think you need to redefine the word for those of us who use it regularly; celebrities ... like me. [ching]
And is it not high praise for Plusnet that I have stated that I want to come back to Plusnet after the 12 month contracts run out elsewhere?

[#15]

Lol - I appreciate that. I wasn't trying to be controversial. We ultimately gave you a negative experience, and I'm sorry about that. Although I had offered to let you know what we had planned I appreciate that things have moved more slowly than anyone would like.
Ho hum anyway - I didn't mean to end it on a sour note. I do hope when we finally do release the details of the new packages that they will have been worth the wait (even if it's too late for you).
Ian