poor start, hope this isn't a sign of things to come

[#1]

Hi
Have just moved from BE to plus net fibre and a far from impressive start.
I ordered on the 21st March. The BT engineer came round this morning and set up the fibre modem, surprisingly painless, and he managed to set it up in the living room, not the hallway where the master socket is.
Unfortunately I am now left without a router as as PN have not yet delivered there's and my old ADSL one isnt compatible. Pretty bad showing considering you guys knew over a month ago the date I was being switched over.
I was told the router was shipped out on the 18th. Why did you guys leave it so late?? 4 days before switch over (and over a weekend to)
Now I am reliant on dialing up from the machine closest to the modem. My tabs, mobiles, laptop, sever and every other net enabled device have been rendered impotent.
To be honest I never realised how reliant I had become on the net until this debacle.
Customer service told me they would refund me for the time I dont have it, (£1 for every 3 days!!) but seeing the inconvenience this is causing me it is far from placating me.
Anyway I am contemplating going and buying a cable router as I don't have much faith in PN's customer service or processes at the moment (especially having now googled for reviews of plusnet, wish I had done that before I ordered and fell for the hype on the TV ad).
So if anybody does read this and haven't yet ordered, my advice would be to order yourself a cable router prior to joining these guys. If a member of PN's management reads this, why o why wait until the very last minute to send a router and cause your customers inconvenience like this? It is pretty easy to have not done this and not had me complaining on this forum.
On the plus side it is dirt cheap and my http downloads are very fast, just over 9 MB/s, although my other protocols and ports don't seem to be max out yet (will do some proper testing once I get the router and have my equipment hooked up).
I am saving this comment to plusnets own forum. I will wait until tomorrow before airing my grievance on  a more public forum such as a broadband review site (on the off chance the router does turn up and I am less annoyed than I am today)
Good (or not so in my case) night

[#2]

PN always send out the routers 2-3 days before "live" date. This is to avoid problems with customers changing their mind. As your's was posted on the 18th it should have arrived by Saturday 20 April. Before you give PN too much hassle maybe you should have a go at Royal Mail.
I have previously suggested to PN that they should use a courier service like DPD UK. Amazon now use them all the time in my area & they are brilliant. Always deliver the following day & email me first thing in the morning with a one hour delivery slot.

[#3]

If you're anywhere near Wellingborough, I've got a choice of routers you could borrow to keep you going ?

[#4]

Quote from: tijara33

PN always send out the routers 2-3 days before "live" date.

Not for me...  My order took two months to complete but the router had arrived within a week of the initial order.

[#5]

Hi paddu,
Sorry to read your post, I'm glad to see that you have at least some form of connection.
There is a few reasons why we post the router out when we do, customers not taking our services prior to activation for one reason or another, customers attempting to connect as soon as they recieve the router.
I'll feed this back to our products team as this shouldn't happen and we need to find out why.
Please let me know know if you receive your router today.
Chris

[#6]

Quote from: paddu

.......................as I don't have much faith in PN's customer service or processes at the moment (especially having now googled for reviews of plusnet, wish I had done that before I ordered and fell for the hype on the TV ad).

Whilst there is always hype with TV ads from any company, when it comes to ISPs most are worse than Plusnet. You will always find bad reviews when googling as few people post when they have a good experience. Yes, you will find some atrocious experiences but you will for any major provider and most are worse than Plusnet. You will find plenty of good reviews here and you will generally find the support from the CSC is good, and the support provided on these forums, despite it not being an official support channel, is outstanding. I hopeyou will experience the good as things progress. Oh, and welcome to the forums by the way.

[#7]

Thanks for your responses guys, still no sign of plusnets router, seems to have disappeared into the ether.
I was having a bit of a rant yesterday, sorry for the whine, but to be honest I think my point is a valid one. Why send the router so late
Anyway this is all now academic as I have just returned from PC World after buying the ASUS RT-N66U. My wallet is £110 lighter but at least I can share my internet and the household can stop bugging me now.
Chances are I wouldn't have liked the plusnet router and gone and got one anyway, but it would have been nice to try it first and not have to have gone the best part of 2 days without proper internet.
@tijara33
If I had a tracking number I would take it up with Royal Mail (parcel force), as it was sent in normal mail I can't. Seeing as I paid £6 for router postage I would expect a courier to be frank, and I think you raise a valid point around that.
Plus I kind of expect Royal Mail to be incompetent, they are a state owned monopoly, not a private firm competing in a crowded market place.
@picbits
thank you, a most gracious offer but not my area I am afraid.
@chrispurvey
Still no router mate, but mitigated by having forked out for my own. TBH I cant see why you don't send it out earlier. I spent over £140 a month ago for a years phone line and other bits and bobs, I think that should be enough to warrant having a router sent out.
And this wasn't an isolated incident as the BT engineer first called and asked if I wanted to rescedule if my router hadn't arrived, the CS guy at PN then told me make sure he tests the line etc as they always say you can't do it when this happens (implies it happens a lot), then the BT engineer on arrival said it is not uncommon to turn up and find no router at the customers house. I am not overly fussed if at arrives now or not, just that if it doesn't, should I ever leave PN, I don't expect correspondence chasing me for it (unsure if it is a lease or not).
@Anotherone
You're right regarding reviews when you google, but at the same time there is no smoke without fire. CS has been quite good to be honest, other than that and the no - show on the router I have been happy with PN so far. I am about to stress the network to see what speeds I achieve over ftp, ssh, nntp, vpn etc and play around with some obscure ports so will reserve judgement on the tech infrastructure for now. But to be honest with you perhaps I have been lucky, been with BE, AOL and Easynet; never had any issues and have actually had some very good service from BE and Easynet. With PN the no show on the router undid any positives and for the time being I would give them a -ve purely on the processes, imo a router should be sent couriered and early to counter for delays, especially if the cust has already spent a dollop of cash with you. Thanks for the welcome.
Anyway will try and be optimistic, hopefully this was just a one off and going forward I will have some decent things to say.

[#8]

Glad that you're now on PN, even without their router. I gave up after trying 2 of them & now I'm also an Asus groupy! How's your connection?

[#9]

@paddu
I'm really sorry to hear you still don't have the router.
On looking at this I'm concerned there may be an issue with the address we have listed for you. Would you mind sending me a PM to confirm it to make sure we have it 100% correct?
Adam

[#10]

Sorry to hear of your problems. In my experience (sending out 100's of parcels per day) I've also found the Royal Mail service to be pretty poor at best and would never use them by choice. As you rightly say for £5.99 and the volume of parcels Plusnet must send out I'm sure a courier signed for contract could easily be negotiated for a better service and possibly better price. Some delivery agents even text or email customers with delivery updates which improves the customer service experience further.
My first router didn't arrive and a replacement was sent but one observation I have is that it had Plusnet and router info printed on the outside of the box. I'm sure this doesn't help knowing what is inside, a plain brown box would be more sensible.

[#11]

I disagree - By reducing the packaging so the router fits through a letterbox, and using an unsigned for service, it's far easier for a customer to receive the unit.  No waiting in an no driving miles to a depot if the courier fails to deliver!

[#12]

Agreed, that is more useful for some although still I think a plain box might reduce the chances of some "getting lost in the post"
adie:quote

[#13]

Quote

Plusnet must send out I'm sure a courier signed for contract could easily be negotiated for a better service and possibly better price

We have used couriers in the past but decided to move in the favour of first class post and a router that fits through most letterboxes, that meant we could reduce postage costs and eliminate the need for customers to arrange re-deliveries or pick up their parcels from a depot etc.

[#14]

Hi Adam
Sending you a PM now. Haven't logged on in a while.
I dont think you guys have the wrong address as I received an initial letter with my login/password etc.
Still no router, would be good to have as a backup in case the ASUS ever gets bricked.
On another note, the asus is brilliant! Would thoroughly recommend it to anyone.
Looks sleeker than my old billion to.

[#15]

Cheers,
As per my reply to your PM I'm certain it was an issue with how the address was listed on your account. I've updated that for you and have dispatched another router.
Adam