Plusnet. Very unimpressed.
AKW
Posts: 1,050 Forum Member
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Moved over to Plusnet last Friday from Virgin in an attempt to save a few bob a month, totally regret my decision. Internet still not working and now there is a fault on the telephone service. Many calls to Plusnet made since Saturday morning. They are very nice people and seem to care but unable to sort anything out, everything will be dealt with tomorrow, its all the fault of their supplier, they will get back to me, etc etc.
If its the fault of their supplier why don't they make sure the terms and conditions with them have good KPI's; why wait until tomorrow to do something, getting back to me is all very good but I would prefer action.
Contacting Virgin tomorrow to try and negotiate a return.
Very disappointed.
If its the fault of their supplier why don't they make sure the terms and conditions with them have good KPI's; why wait until tomorrow to do something, getting back to me is all very good but I would prefer action.
Contacting Virgin tomorrow to try and negotiate a return.
Very disappointed.
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Comments
But it must be remembered that whilst your contract is with PlusNet and it is them who should listen to your complaints and take action to get them fixed, they are only an Internet reseller like anyone else. (Yes they are connected to BT but that doesn't mean anything). So PlusNet like everyone else is at the mercy of Openreach. They send them to do a good job and to fix your problems, but if they don't, all they can do is send another Openreach engineer and help that they can fix it.
PlusNet can't and are not allowed to fix anything themselves regarding the actual physical connection to your house. That's exclusively BT Openreach's domain.
In a way I feel sorry for them: We (me included) phone up some poor teenager at a call centre and bend their ears off and their is no magic button they can press that fixes anything. All they can do is send an Openreach Engineer and I'm sure they really hope they fix the problem. That is good for their business.
the supplier is Openreach, just like it is with every other ISP that uses telephone line for delivery.
Openreach have the same terms for every ISP.
only emergencies will get dealt with on the same day, and your issue is not an emergency.
faults take precedence over new installs, so you are already as high a priority as you can be.
Came home from work to find phone working, about half an hour later had text to saying broadband activated. Better situation than I had expected!
Once it was fixed it took another day to get the Internet working properly as it should be. I give credit to Plusnet even though it wasn't there fault and they were as helpful as possible they did credit my account with 2 free months of broadband, phone line and calls package and I have had no problems since, except when the exchange I'm connected to is getting congested on a night time and my speed drops from 78 meg download down to 1 meg download....
Plusnet use the BT network - who are their supplier (and also their parent company - I understand they're a subsidiary of BT), and so all engineering work has to be requested from BT. Basically, aside from the fact that I believe they don't have their own engineers, no-one is allowed to touch the BT network. Companies that are unbundled can service their own equipment in the exchange but can't touch the network in the exchange or any of the cabling etc anywhere on the network. So for every company, a network issue requires a BT engineer. I understand that's the same for every company using the BT network which is basically any broadband company other than cable or satellite delivered services. So it doesn't matter who you go with, fault on the BT network = wait for BT engineer.
Virgin is different obviously because they have their own cabling to the door..
As to renegotiating a deal with Virgin, I doubt Plusnet will let you out of the contract so you're stuck there for that long at least unless you're prepared to pay the full contracts term worth of line rental / fees.
Plusnet are actually one of the best out there for service, behind only BT. Many other broadband providers use Asian call centres full of people who can barely speak / understand English and who are reading from computer based diagnosis scripts. At least with Plusnet you get people in the UK who know what they're talking about rather than asking pointless questions that are the same every time you call up.
Usually if you're phone / broadband isn't working, Plusnet will pay you compensation for the days that it's down.
Plusnet tend to be very helpful, but as I said above, as for every provider, if there's an exchange or network fault, you have to wait for BT engineers. There's no way around that.
ps reason bt line rental and call charges have gone up again, hope it all goes as smoothly they say.
im paying upfront line rental for a year so save extra money on that too.
*Well, I installed 95% of it myself (Wall mounting everything and connecting it all with high spec cables of very short lengths. (0.5m)) the installer just changed the faceplate and went off to do the cabinet bit, whilst I wall mounted the BT modem. He came back and tested it all.
All working more than fine in the 2 hours that I have had it.
Many phone calls later Plusnet have agreed to allow me to terminate and go back to Virgin.
My experience
Customer service 10%
Equipment supplied 20%
Price 80%
Broadband service 1%
I would not recommend them, I can accept technical difficulties but not when combined with poor customer service.