I signed up to Plusnet last week on the recommendation of a colleague, who told me that Plusnet have excellent customer service.  I was told my order would take a week to process. 

Since last week, nothing has happened.  I was told I said I would provide a MAC code (I didn't); I've had a number of callbacks promised and not provided; and the people I've had to deal with seem to have missed the classes on dealing properly with customers.  In short, it's one of the most (if not the most) shambolic order experiences I've ever had to deal with and it still seems far from being resolved. 

I'm more than willing to accept that a large part of the problem is down to the previous residents of my property and Openreach (part of the same company as Plusnet) not removing the marker but I would have expected - from a company that is supposed to offer excellent customer service - to be kept informed. 

Has anyone ever had joy after battling with Plusnet or should I take this as an indication that I'd be better off with another provider? 

Welcome to the forum beefqueen.

I'm sure a member of the Plusnet Comms team will pick this up shortly. They're usually pretty good at that sort of thing.

Have you had broadband at this property with another ISP? If not MACs don't come in to it!

I've just taken a look over your account and asked one of the provisioning team to take a look too, I believe they've just given you a call?

Basically as the line was still active when you moved in, that's caused a delay with the order. I'm sorry this wasn't communicated fully to you previously.

The easiest way to resolve this would be for yourself to contact BT (we can't do this on your behalf as we don't own the circuit) and request a stop of the line. This normally takes 3-5 days and then we can place the order to activate broadband and talk which will take around 10-15 days to complete.

I'll keep my eye on the ticket and make sure it's moving in the right directions.

Hi Chris,

Thanks for replying. 

As I explained in my email this afternoon, I've spoken to BT who've confirmed they won't stop the line unless requested to do so by an ISP.  I was not asked on Thursday or Friday - when I spoke to Plusnet - to contact BT and your staff spoke to Openreach on Thursday, when this issue should first have been discovered.  (I understand, however, that the staff member who spoke to Openreach on Thursday made no notes on the account.)  You've known for more than a week that there's a service on the line; you just didn't bother calling me to find out what the problem might be. 

I couldn't advise you of the above this afternoon because the person who promised he would email and call me at 4pm (Marlon) hasn't emailed me or called me back.

I've no confidence this order is moving in the right direction as it appears your staff aren't positively taking forward the order and I have not received one returned phone call from you in the last five days.  I was told on Friday that I would have broadband and phone up and running no later than 27 November; this seems to have been an entirely made-up date. 

Quite honestly, the whole process has been a shambles.  I understand why an active BT phone and broadband account from the previous tenants will make the order process harder.  However, I can't understand why you have done nothing for more than a week (especially when BT and Openreach are sister companies) and why you can't return a phone call when promised. 

Given this whole order has become even more of a shambles today, can you now confirm that you will be crediting six weeks' payments if and when you finally start providing a service? 

Sorry that there hasn't been a callback as promised, I'll be having strong words.

There is now an order in place to move your Home Phone line over to us, I'll check it tomorrow to make sure it's still going ahead.


I'm sure I can sort something out once we've got you activated.

1. Unless the previous occupant had their broadband service from Plusnet, there is absolutely nothing Plusnet can do about getting rid of the old Broadband service - in fact the rules are that they are absolutely forbidden from doing anything about it.

2. As soon as you manage to convince BT Wholesale that they need to kill off the old service and that is done I'm sure your Plusnet order will progress swiftly - I don't think this would be any different with any other ISP.

3. Plusnet is a subsiduary of BT Retail. OFCOM rules have put in place a wall between BT Wholesale and BT Retail so that BT Retail is treated exactly the same as any other ISP. Being part of the BT Group is not allowed by OFCOM rules to provide any advantages.

(One small consolation - the previous ISP and/or occupant will probably be paying BT Wholesale for the unused service until it is disconnected)

I've checked your order this morning and all seems to be in hand, I've made myself a note to keep an eye on your account and sort you out a discount once the line is activated.

Hi Chris.  Thanks - it does seem that the order is now (finally) being progressed. 

However, the last email I had told me my broadband would be active on 1 December.  When I check the order, it now says that it won't be activated until 2 December.  Can you guarantee that there will be no more slippage in the order (the delays have already been ludicrous) or, if there are even more delays, that someone will at least tell me why? 

Given you say you've taken the first payment, I assume you've also now arranged the refund? 

Hi there,

The order will complete on the 1st, and you should be able to connect then as it's a simultaneous order. Our automated emails say the 2nd as with standard BB orders they can complete up to midnight on order date, so it's best to set expectation accordingly.

I can see that my colleague has arranged a free months service for you, and we haven't billed you anything so far, so hopefully that's everything sorted for you.

Hi Mand,

Thanks.  The automated email actually said 1st; it's the Order Tracker that says 2nd. 

Can you tell me when my wireless router will be despatched?  I would have expected it to have been done by now.

Cheers,

'Beef'

...and this morning I receive an email saying that my question has been returned to Plusnet's Customer Support Team. 

I haven't asked a question!! 

Can someone explain how I am now able to ask questions I haven't asked.  And, rathe rather than making up questions, can someone just confirm when my router will be posted?!  I don't see why I should start paying for a service when I can't access it due to equipment not being provided.  And, being blunt, you've had more than enough time to do it...

Excuse me why do you want the router, you are not due to be connected until 1st December, and PN normally make sure you have it by then

there customer service used to be great, responses to tickets used to happen within a few hours. used to even get a few within 1 hour..... but not lately oh no, ive had a ticket over for over a week now and they still havent responded, and its not the first time either. customer support through those tickets has dropped rapidly over the past couple months...

just needed to get that off my chest.  still waiting for a reply aswel.

Because I placed the order over two weeks ago, it's not Tuesday afternoon and, if I'm being connected on Monday daytime I should have the router by Saturday. 

It's hardly a stupid question to wonder where it is, particularly when they're launching questions that haven't even been asked but seem incapable of replying to this point. 

It shouldn't be hard to get an account set up; but Plusnet have turned it into an absolute shambles.  It's even more disgraceful that they can't be bothered to reply to their customers. 

Give me 5 minutes and I'll go reply to any queries you've raised on the ticket and order your router. Normally we order this 2 working days before the line is due to go active.


We call the open tickets on your acount 'questions', the one you are referring to is with our provisioning team to ensure the order progresses correctly.