topic Re: 24/7 support in Broadband

24/7 support

mc4martyc — Sun, 23 Apr 2023 23:50:09 GMT

Why is there no way to contact a person after normal hours to report an issue.

The enitirity of my town appears to be without Broadband. Connection dropped around 18:10 on the 23rd April

It is now 00:47 and still no broadband.

Diagnostic bot is useless, stated 4hrs, now over 6.5. Even the bot has now gone home for the day.

I work from home and am currently using hotspot on my mobile. This is abviously slow (4g)

Why can't we report a fault 24/7?

Why is there no service status page?

Apologies for slight rant.

Martin

Re: 24/7 support

198kHz — Sun, 23 Apr 2023 23:58:51 GMT

Like most services, you get what you pay for, and Plusnet is a budget ISP.

Re: 24/7 support

corringham — Mon, 24 Apr 2023 10:15:52 GMT

I agree you get what you pay for (and quick fault fixes cost more), but I'm not sure Plusnet count as a "budget" ISP any more - I pay less for a 500Mbps FTTP connection from an Altnet than I can get ADSL from Plusnet (and that's all Plusnet can offer).

If I did want ADSL2+, then there is quite a long list of ISPs that are cheaper than Plusnet to choose from (some are a third cheaper).

I think "no frills" might be a better description,

Re: 24/7 support

Dan_the_Van — Mon, 24 Apr 2023 10:47:46 GMT

In defence of plusnet, they are not the only domestice ISP who do not provide 24/7 support and some you pay considerable more.

Zen being an example for Technical Support Monday to Friday 08:00 to 20:00 Weekends 09:00 to 17:00. See https://www.zen.co.uk/contact-us/

So it is not necessarily about cost.

Dan

Re: 24/7 support

pjmarsh — Mon, 24 Apr 2023 11:21:44 GMT

That just got me thinking about who does give 24/7 support on residential contracts and am struggling a bit.

A&A who, granted, are quite a small ISP are Monday-Friday 8:00-6:00, Saturday 10:00-2:00, Sunday closed
Talk Talk who seem to make it very hard to find a number at all is Monday-Friday 9:00-7:00, Saturday 9:00-6:00, Sunday closed
Sky - can't see any details on times
Vodafone - Monday - Friday 8:00-10:00, Weekends 8:00 - 8:00
BT Monday - Friday 8:00-9:00, Weekends 8:00-8:00

Re: 24/7 support

corringham — Mon, 24 Apr 2023 11:43:40 GMT

I don't think you will find any residential ISP that will offer 24/7 support. Even if the ISP did, most broadband faults will require Openreach to fix it - their cheapest care level 1 support (which most ISPs choose) offers 2 working day fixes. Their top care level 4 offers 6 hour fixes, but will cost the ISP significantly more.

Re: 24/7 support

mc4martyc — Mon, 24 Apr 2023 18:11:54 GMT

Am I the only one that finds this strange?

Seems we are going backwards.

Been looking as I have a billing question too, there is no live chat anymore, well not that I can see.

As I saId, things seem to be going backwards.

Re: 24/7 support

jab1 — Mon, 24 Apr 2023 18:21:09 GMT

Why is it strange? I can't see many residential customers needing 24/7 support, and keeping an office heated /fully powered up 24/7 is expensive for a very low return.

Going backwards from what?

Re: 24/7 support

mc4martyc — Mon, 24 Apr 2023 18:34:40 GMT

With the increase in home working I can see a need for 24/7 support
Also they too can wfh and not have to work in an office.

Not a lot you can't do 24/7 these days
Shopping, book eye test, tax car, order passport

Re: 24/7 support

jab1 — Mon, 24 Apr 2023 18:46:48 GMT

I don't disagree with you, but even if you wfh, you don't do it 24/7 - well, I wouldn't anyway.

'They' can wfh, but it means setting up quite complicated systems and ensuring they are secure - not exactly cheap to do on an employee by employee basis, but a lot cheaper and easier to do in a centralised environment, such as an office building.

The 24/7 activities you mention are possible, but the requests, most of which require checking and processing by humans, are usually dealt with during 'normal' office hours, except, possibly, Amazon shopping which is a 24/7 operation.

Re: 24/7 support

corringham — Tue, 25 Apr 2023 12:00:41 GMT

@mc4martyc wrote:

Am I the only one that finds this strange?

Seems we are going backwards.

Been looking as I have a billing question too, there is no live chat anymore, well not that I can see.

As I saId, things seem to be going backwards.

All it needs is a support e-mail address or ticket system where someone can log a problem 24/7, and the appropriate support staff can deal with it in the morning - without the customer having the inconvenience of waiting in a phone queue when they should be working.

Re: 24/7 support

corringham — Tue, 25 Apr 2023 12:04:28 GMT

@jab1 wrote:

'They' can wfh, but it means setting up quite complicated systems and ensuring they are secure - not exactly cheap to do on an employee by employee basis, but a lot cheaper and easier to do in a centralised environment, such as an office building.

The systems needed to wfh securely are not complex or particularly expensive - lots of companies do it using off-the-shelf systems. I work for a large company from home, and our security is stricter than most, but it is still straightforward.

Re: 24/7 support

jab1 — Tue, 25 Apr 2023 12:13:15 GMT

@corringham wrote:

@mc4martyc wrote:

Am I the only one that finds this strange?

Seems we are going backwards.

Been looking as I have a billing question too, there is no live chat anymore, well not that I can see.

As I saId, things seem to be going backwards.

All it needs is a support e-mail address or ticket system where someone can log a problem 24/7, and the appropriate support staff can deal with it in the morning - without the customer having the inconvenience of waiting in a phone queue when they should be working.

Fair enough - although AIUI the BOT system works on that principle for phone/broadband issues, and account issues can be logged on the forum (without sensitive information) to be picked up in working hours

With regards to post #12, I bow to your superior knowledge.

Re: 24/7 support

Townman — Tue, 25 Apr 2023 13:17:07 GMT

@corringham wrote:

I don't think you will find any residential ISP that will offer 24/7 support.

And that is just the point - residential services are not intended to deliver mission critical business grade support. If earning one's living from "home" is so dependent on high availability, then one needs to plan for that, either by buying a business grade service (Plusnet's business grade service delivers 24/7 access to support) or by buying some level of reliance, such as mobile broadband failover.

All that said, access to the ISP/CP to raise a fault report is one thing, BT Openreach will though fix it when they fix it.

Re: 24/7 support

corringham — Tue, 25 Apr 2023 13:43:35 GMT

@Townman wrote:
...If earning one's living from "home" is so dependent on high availability, then one needs to plan for that, either by buying a business grade service (Plusnet's business grade service delivers 24/7 access to support) or by buying some level of reliance, such as mobile broadband failover.

I'd encourage anyone dependent upon broadband to work to have a failover solution available - even if it is the WiFi in the coffee shop down the road.

However, Plusnet's Business grade service is no longer available so that isn't an option. I'd also suggest it never was what I'd call "Business grade" apart from 24/7 phone line the only difference was VAT receipts - although they failed to provide those for over a year when I had the business service.

Re: 24/7 support

Townman — Tue, 25 Apr 2023 13:55:19 GMT

...or as in my locality at the moment ... some where in the next town. The majority of two sizeable villages are without telecoms services. The perversity of working copper line phones alongside non-working VoIP taking out the local GP surgery and Pharmacy has not gone un-noticed.

Re: 24/7 support

corringham — Tue, 25 Apr 2023 14:21:43 GMT

@jab1 wrote:

Fair enough - although AIUI the BOT system works on that principle for phone/broadband issues, and account issues can be logged on the forum (without sensitive information) to be picked up in working hours

By the BOT system, do you mean texting HELP to 07800008121?

The fora can be useful in cases where community members may be able to give helpful advice - however, I don't find it appropriate for reporting faults as there is far too much variation in how long it takes for a member of staff to respond.

Re: 24/7 support

jab1 — Tue, 25 Apr 2023 14:27:15 GMT

@corringham Yes - the BOT system, which will carry out automated checks, and leaves records for staff to pick up on if required, if it is used outside hours.

As to staff response times, although it has never been (or will be) acknowledged, staff levels have been greatly reduced, so even faults reported via https://faults.plus.net are taking a lot longer to be processed than is ideal.