poor customer service

[#1]

Hi Townman

OMG, so I had been elevated from "Newbie" to "Hooked" without even noticing, or even being aware of, the privilege.

How incredibly inconsiderate of me.

FYI "hooked" I am most certainly not, and "Newbie" is I suspect a much more appropriate label: as you can see I am only slowly getting to understand the idiosyncrasies of this Forum.

But it does raise one question in my mind.

Why was I (or any other "Newbie" come to that) expected to instantly understand weird labels like "Hooked" which appeared out of the blue, or even that they are what I have now been advised by you, they actually are ?

A suggestion if I may. Rather than "Hooked" how about "Posting status: Hooked" 

Regards

[#2]

There is often a little number by your name (top right) alerting you to new messages, and if you click on "My Notifications" at the bottom left of the page, it will tell you that your ranking has changed.  Sometimes the system seems to malfunction and rank everyone up or down for some reason, and my rank changed twice on the same day a couple of weeks ago.

[#3]

Hi Jonpe

I checked as you suggested but that simply tells me that I have been "promoted" to Newbie, which is fine by me, but no mention of "Hooked", which is fine too.

WOW the wondrous nooks and crannies of the Forum 

Anyway, PN have now closed my complaint down, and it will probably make sense for the mods to do much the same for this thread.

Regards

[#4]

Service is getting worse. someone needs to sort out my direct debit, please fix it otherwise i am taking it as a counter offer for free broadband. I can't even raise a ticket on the ticket, can't get hold of anything it's the [-Censored-]est worst service i have ever experienced. bunch of clowns.

you have my contact details, call me, email me, let me raise a ticket on the account - if you don't do this in the next few days then the contract is renegotiated to be free, you WILL agree to this by not sorting this issue out. i am sick of dealing with you, 7 months of this year i have had nothing but problems with Plusnet constantly. I can't believe i have to resort to finding some random forum post just to get in touch with someone. it's a total joke, it's laughable

[#5]

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@pureedfruit wrote: but no mention of "Hooked", which is fine too.

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This PN Forum stuff must be very addictive if you get hooked after just a few posts.

[#6]

Hi @stevemills84, thanks for getting in touch.

I am sorry to hear of the problems you have encountered. As my reply contains account specific information I have created a support ticket on the account for you which you can view here

Let us know if you need any further assistance

[#7]

please make sure someone deals with my latest question 179442026 on my account. Now since your systems are refusing to take payment from direct debit you have the cheek to charge me a late payment fee. Even after the restrictions on my service were lifted i tried to make a payment by card but the option was gone, you make your systems so hard to use. it's impossible to get hold of someone, i can't even see my bills for dispute when the service gets restricted which makes me unwilling to pay if i can't see what you're charging for. your systems are a complete mess, i don't know how you function as a business.

the chat advisor today refused to remove the late payment amount (but trust me i have a feeling you will remove it or you won't get paid the 3 months outstanding), but he did give me a useful bit of information. I apparently don't need a MAC anymore to migrate my service, if this isn't sorted pronto i'll be going elsewhere.

Just remember why my direct debit was removed in the first place a few months ago - because of Plusnet's poor service, plusnet threatening to charge me for an engineer visit who never showed up. Plusnet not getting the broadband installed on the agreed date. This is all your own doing, just remember that when i leave with an unpaid bill, you've forced me into this situation and cost me hundreds of pounds of wasted time.

My advice to anyone looking for cheap broadband, is don't choose Plusnet, it's just not worth it. i'd rather pay a few extra £ and get quality service.

[#8]

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@stevemills84 wrote:

"My advice to anyone looking for cheap broadband, is don't choose Plusnet, it's just not worth it. i'd rather pay a few extra £ and get quality service."

Steve, spot on. Sadly there are few ISPs out there who do produce quality Customer Service (CS)  IMHO, and those that do are expensive, not just a "few extra £", sad to say.

Plusnet has this ridiculous hype "we will do you proud" , trying to give the impression that they give good service, but we both know that the reality is that they simply don't.

The broadband service itself has for me been stable, which is what I particularly want, so I am hanging on in there hoping that I never have to deal with PN CS again. However another experience like the last and I too will be off.

The THINKBROADBAND web site is an excellent source of information about ISPs, and their packages, and their performance if you do decide to switch

Moderator's note by Mike (Mav): Quote fixed.

[#9]

It has traditionally been stable for me, but this year i have had several issues - the start of it all was BT OpenReach disconnecting my line by mistake and the whole situation has just escalated from there on. Thing is, i don't deal with BT OR, not my problem - i deal with Plusnet, so it's PN's problem to sort not mine. I have also taken a reduction in broadband speed due to a house move (which they also managed to screw up) down from around 20Mbps to 11Mbps.

I have seen SSE offer fibre broadband for £24 per month which certainly isn't bad at all. It's got to the point where if they don't resolve this payment issue i will just leave. I was happy to pay for the service i'm getting but PN won't even take my money when i'm offering it to them and then they charge me a late payment charge. PN is a joke, totally. it's changed from years back when it used to be good.

They need to have a serious hard look at how PN mobile team deal with customers because they are so far spot on, PN Mobile have subbed me data because of PN broadbands screw ups, because i had to tether for a while - even though it's got nothing to do with Mobile's problem it's broadbands. So well done PN Mobile team, but the BB team are [-Censored-]

[#10]

Hi Steve

just had another pretty useless encounter with PN CS.

i mentioned the THINKBROADBAND site.

I use their speed tester on a regular basis to see how me connection is doing. Not that well as it turns out being typically 10Mb below the "guaranteed" 64MB that I am paying for. OK its not that bad that I can't use it, but I felt it worth trying to follow up with PN CS. Needn't have bothered.

PN seem to have removed the ticket system which only leaves their "chat" system which is so SLoooooow, or a telephone conversation. Tried the CHAT the upshot of which is that they ran a test from their system to my modem only to tell me that is doing fine. Not a lot of help since what I am interested in is what is coming out of the modem on my side. They then suggested that that I use a different tester, the BT tester which wants you to switch off everything under the sun, including the modem, leave it for a couple of minutes and then switch it back on. Which seemed reasonable until you read the accompanying warning that if you did that it would then take a couple of weeks for the modem to get back up to speed. How ******* stupid is that ?

It seems to me that PN CS is now more focused on "How quickly can I get this customer off my back ?" rather than "How can I best solve this customers's problem ?". As discussed earlier, time to look elsewhere. Although you can get good info on ISP speeds and reliability, sadly it is not that easy to check out the quality of CS before you actually take the plunge.

[#11]

My plusnet service was restricted earlier today, nobody has responded at all to either my posts above or dealing with my open ticket on my account - it's been a week now. This service is awful, it's just so totally dreadful. Can't even get hold of a chat agent (no option to join a queue and wait, it just says nobody is available and i have to keep refreshing the browser to try again - you think i have nothing else better to do with my time?)

I want written confirmation that I will not incur exit fees from the contract, this was agreed via telephone call in May with [CSA Removed] one of the managers there. Once i have confirmation of that, i will be leaving and you'll just have to take the unpaid bill as a loss (just like i've taken all the hours you've cost me as a loss

Moderator's note by Mike (Mav): CSA name(s) removed (to an area staff can see) as per Forum rules.

[#12]

My gosh that's terrible, they have removed the ticket system? no wonder i've had no reply. If i could just get hold of someone to confirm i won't incur exit fees (i did ask for confirmation back in may but obviously even the manager is useless and didn't respond to me in writing), i will just leave. to be honest, i might just risk it anyway, i owe 3 months but i refuse to pay it until they remove the late payment charges which wasn't my fault as mentioned above - i added my DD details into the system, system didn't take my money, now im charged with fees.

as for my speeds, it seems all broadband providers are returning back with around 11Mbps for my new location, which i think is probably right to be honest. the speed doesn't really bother me a great deal... but if i pay just a little more (£24) i can get fibre at 38Mbps.... and hopefully better customer service, so i think i will go with that option. just getting tired of spending so much time trying to get hold of PN CS and never ever actually getting any result. I'm a busy guy, i just don't have time for all this, so many more important issues going on in my life that i have to focus on, PN is just an irritant that i don't need.

Managed to convince a couple dozen people in the last month to not switch to PN (i work in IT so my opinion on these kind of things tend to carry a bit of weight) so hopefully i've saved some more people from PN poor service

[#13]

Not that well as it turns out being typically 10Mb below the "guaranteed" 64MB that I am paying for. ...

… Tried the CHAT the upshot of which is that they ran a test from their system to my modem only to tell me that is doing fine. Not a lot of help since what I am interested in is what is coming out of the modem on my side.

The "guaranteed" speed is SYNCH speed, not data through put speed, the measurement of which can be markedly impacted by other concurrent activity and the performance capability of the measurement device and method.  That is why the requirements of the BTw speed test seeks to eliminate factors which might interfere with assessing the DATA through put speed - for example other devices using the network, the comparative slowness of WiFi, other things which might be happening on the PC used to make the measurements.

My gosh that's terrible, they have removed the ticket system? no wonder i've had no reply

That seems to imply that you raised a ticket … in the system you believe to have been removed.  The ticketing system is still there, though its use has changed markedly since (IIRC) 2015.  Back in the day, all and sundry could be raised as a support ticket; now only certain specialist matters may be raised as a support ticket, but ANYTHING requiring monitoring and time spread activity is STILL MANAGED through the ticketing system.

You can find your tickets using the link below or via Help & Support -> Business -> Send a Message (you need to be logged into the user portal.

[#14]

Hi Steve

They have not completely removed it the ticket system, simply buried it deep in the fabric of their web site so that you cannot access it without first going through some vetting procedure either on the phone or via CHAT.

A retrograde step IMHO.

It is all about managing PN's costs rather than improving CS.

Good luck with your move.

[#15]

Hi Townman

Thank you for that clarification about what speed was actually being talked about.

As you are no doubt well aware there has been a massive outcry over along period about the marketing of "up to" speeds by ISPs, so much so that the government has stepped in to force ISPs to quote a more realistic speed namely the median speed in peak hours. A distinct improvement. However this wish to over hype speeds, this penchant for intellectual dishonesty, is clearly in the DNA of many ISPs, certainly in PNs DNA. Did they honestly feel that I was interested in the speed when stuff is dispatched from their end as opposed to what I received my side of the modem ? Was there any caveat to that effect when they gave me their guarantee? Of course not.

As to the "removal" of the ticketing system, burying is I think a better word, has there been any widely published announcement (a) that it was going to happen, and (b) as to why ? If there was it has certainly passed me by.

But that doesn't surprise me since I am pretty sure that it was not done to improve PN CS, but simply as a cost cutting exercise. Is it any wonder that this forum is full of posts complaining about the deteriorating PN CS in one way of another ?