topic Re: Closure of Plusnet Business - Date Confirmed as 28 May 2024 in Business

Closure of Plusnet Business - Date Confirmed as 28 May 2024

Phil_Cleary — Mon, 04 Mar 2024 11:47:27 GMT

We've just had an email confirming Plusnet Business will actually cease on 28 May 2024, not 31 December 2023 as BT sales kept on telling me on the phone.

The email confirms this would take effect for us on the billing date prior to this, 1 May 2024.

But I have already arranged to transfer our supply to Vodafone before then.

It's cheaper and they haven't lied to me.

A word to BT: lie to people and they will take their business elsewhere.

Re: Closure of Plusnet Business - Date Confirmed as 28 May 2024

Townman — Mon, 04 Mar 2024 15:52:22 GMT

That would be the same pool of cold call lies that the business service will be ceased immediately if one did not take the option of going to BT.

Indeed sadly, it is now time to jump ship into a sea of sharks!

Re: Closure of Plusnet Business - Date Confirmed as 28 May 2024

ToodlePip — Fri, 15 Mar 2024 22:46:30 GMT

It is definately Shark O'Clock, I had THE CALL a few days ago.

The salesman argued that I was in a Fibre enabled area and could get a bazillion GB a second with no issue.

All because I was on a "Fibre package" already.

He had no understanding of the difference between FTTC and FTTP and I had to describe the situation thus.

200 metres from my house is a green cabinet that boast "Superfast Fibre is HERE!"

200 metres of damp Vintage copper wire, slowly oxidising away under the road connects to my house to provide a DSL service.

There is no BT fibre connected to my premises.

I pay BT for calls and line rental and have had the same number since 1998.

For some naieve reason the idea existed in my head that I would be able to transfer the number to an independant VOIP provider.

Instead I have had a sack pulled over my head, been bundled into a van and arrived in BT Business with a new Digital-voice service.

All of this means when the line is cut off on drop dead day, I will have no service whatsoever.

BT Is dead, all that is left to do is burn the body.

Anybody want a bag of BT DECT handsets ?

Re: Closure of Plusnet Business - Date Confirmed as 28 May 2024

corringham — Tue, 19 Mar 2024 20:46:30 GMT

@ToodlePip wrote:

All of this means when the line is cut off on drop dead day, I will have no service whatsoever.

If by drop dead day you mean the day PSTN is withdrawn in your area, your phone will still work as the FTTC will still be working so Digital Voice will continue just as it does now.

It will still be delivered over copper wires from the cabinet because copper is not being retired (for decades yet), only the analogue PSTN phone service is being retired by the end of 2025. There is a lot of confusion regarding the difference between "copper" and PSTN phone service - but they are two separate things.

Re: Closure of Plusnet Business - Date Confirmed as 28 May 2024

Townman — Thu, 21 Mar 2024 01:00:16 GMT

@Phil_Cleary wrote:

But I have already arranged to transfer our supply to Vodafone before then.

It's cheaper and they haven't lied to me.

Indeed the Vodafone packages do look very attractive, however their prices seem to vary widely week to week. When I first looked at Pro 100 it was £18pcm for the first 12 months and then £36pcm for the following 12 months on a 24 month contract.

When I decided to place the order this week, the price was £31pcm ... HOWEVER on attempting to sign up, their system fouled up on the credit checking twice and (according to their help desk) they have now put a black mark on the company's credit file. It is very odd that they are the only supplier to ever fail the company on credit checking. We even offered to pay for the whole 2 years up front (cash / credit is not a problem) ... and Vodafone still refused to do business.

The agent said they did not understand why the credit checks failed, nor why they placed a marker on the company. Yet another issue to be fixed, which we just do not need.

Vodafone will now NEVER get any business from anything I have influence over.

Now looking for another provider, only a very substantial bribe would induce me to consider BT Business!

Re: Closure of Plusnet Business - Date Confirmed as 28 May 2024

Townman — Fri, 22 Mar 2024 11:48:24 GMT

I forgot to mention that Vodafone sought to claim that Plusnet does not allow number porting!!! Hogwash!

Re: Closure of Plusnet Business - Date Confirmed as 28 May 2024

Phil_Cleary — Sun, 24 Mar 2024 18:49:13 GMT

Update:
Transfer to Vodafone went through relatively OK.

Old number ported through to VOIP fine on the same day as broadband, so yes it is nonsense that number porting doesn't work.

It took a day or so to get the content filter on but that is now working.

Some users say the connection is slow at times - buffering - which I guess is because the Vodafone standard modem\router is a bit basic, so time to look for a better modem\router....

Oh - one other thing. Plusnet seem to have bricked our Hub 2. I wanted to recycle it myself but it refuses to connect on my home broadband account. Seems a bit churlish of them.

Re: Closure of Plusnet Business - Date Confirmed as 28 May 2024

MisterW — Sun, 24 Mar 2024 18:53:40 GMT

wanted to recycle it myself but it refuses to connect on my home broadband account

younhave changed the username & password to your home account ones ?

Re: Closure of Plusnet Business - Date Confirmed as 28 May 2024

jab1 — Sun, 24 Mar 2024 18:58:04 GMT

@Phil_Cleary BT/PN/EE Hubs will only connect on BT Group networks - a bit like you will find on other ISP's - A TalkTalk one, for instance, wouldn't connect o your PN or Vodaphone one.

Still don't think it would work, @MisterW - but ICBW,

Re: Closure of Plusnet Business - Date Confirmed as 28 May 2024

MisterW — Sun, 24 Mar 2024 19:15:05 GMT

@jab1 my understanding was that @Phil_Cleary was trying to use it on a home Plusnet account

Re: Closure of Plusnet Business - Date Confirmed as 28 May 2024

jab1 — Sun, 24 Mar 2024 19:18:32 GMT

Thought he had transferred to Voda, @MisterW ?

Re: Closure of Plusnet Business - Date Confirmed as 28 May 2024

Phil_Cleary — Sun, 24 Mar 2024 19:21:55 GMT

Yep, I was trying to use it at my home Plusnet account.

I'd swopped it over and it was working fine in the morning, slightly better wifi than my BT Smart Hub from ebay, but at the exact time Vodafone took over the business account, the Hub 2 at home disconnected.

It can "see" the internet is there, but refuses to connect to Plusnet.

Re: Closure of Plusnet Business - Date Confirmed as 28 May 2024

MisterW — Sun, 24 Mar 2024 19:22:04 GMT

I'd assumed that since this thread is about the closure of the Plusnet business side. His business account has been transferred but that he also has a home account still with pn

Re: Closure of Plusnet Business - Date Confirmed as 28 May 2024

jab1 — Sun, 24 Mar 2024 19:24:32 GMT

OK, @MisterW I see your point - I admit I haven't read the full thread - apologies, I'll crawl back under my bridge. 😂

Re: Closure of Plusnet Business - Date Confirmed as 28 May 2024

MisterW — Sun, 24 Mar 2024 19:25:44 GMT

But unless you had changed the credentials , it would still be connecting as your business account even on your home aconnection. Once the bus account transferred to VF the account would be closed and those credentials would no longer work.

If you change the username and PW to those of your home account it will work

Re: Closure of Plusnet Business - Date Confirmed as 28 May 2024

Townman — Sun, 24 Mar 2024 19:42:26 GMT

I suspect that even if the credentials were changed manually unless the serial number of the router was transferred to the residential account … auto configuration is going to kick in and reset the credentials.

The router is not bricked it’s simply reverting to type when connected to a Plusnet connection.

We’ve seen similar when someone gives away a Plusnet router to another Plusnet user … two customers end up being connected on the same account. Causes no end of confusion if there is a fixed IP on the account,

Re: Closure of Plusnet Business - Date Confirmed as 28 May 2024

MisterW — Sun, 24 Mar 2024 19:48:40 GMT

AFAIK It should only autoconfigure if it currently has the setup user configured. If another username is manually configured it should not get overwritten UNLESS it's factory reset

Re: Closure of Plusnet Business - Date Confirmed as 28 May 2024

ToodlePip — Mon, 25 Mar 2024 08:50:59 GMT

Maybe I misunderstand the term "Digital Voice".

I have had a VOIP service to provide a separate business number.

This was provided by the lovely people at SoHo66 and just worked using a Cisco branded SIP router.

My BT phone service uses an ordinary BT phone plug into a DSL filter/splitter.

I am not using BT Digital voice at all as far as I can tell.

What I find odd and perhaps troubling is the idea that I have to move a Plusnet Business account to BT Business ?

If I decided to switch to Zen as a non business user there is SFA BT could do about it.

The BT line rental is and always has been paid from a Non-Business account.

So is the decision to prevent Plusnet Business Users switching to PN Residential Broadband driven by BT or Plusnet ?

Re: Closure of Plusnet Business - Date Confirmed as 28 May 2024

MisterW — Mon, 25 Mar 2024 09:30:40 GMT

Maybe I misunderstand the term "Digital Voice".

Digital voice is just a term invented by providers to cover the transfer of traditional phone services to what is really a VOIP service!

It seems they didnt want to use the term voip as it may confuse some people and also make others, who actually knew about voip, query why the service was more expensive than traditional voip suppliers.

Re: Closure of Plusnet Business - Date Confirmed as 28 May 2024

Townman — Mon, 25 Mar 2024 09:49:02 GMT

Plusnet Business to Plusnet Residential restrictions have at least two considerations.

A residential account does not produce a proper VAT invoice which would be in cumbersome to VAT registered businesses.

A residential account needs to be in the name of a person not an otherwise legal entity such as a limited company

I believe that this is all about big bad BT wanting to stop businesses getting excellent internet service at prices not dissimilar to those for residential use. The products are to all intents and purposes identical … same technology, same support, same repair time … but business at a grossly inflated price.

The service we’ve been paying Plusnet £35pcm for will cost over £50 from BT Business with AFAICT an overseas support desk.

Vodafone had some excellent prices (was £18 for the first 12 months and £46 for the next 12 months) but their prices vary widely and we found their credit checking deeply flawed.

Zen’s offer is £48 plus £25 connection charge. No credit check problems as with Vodafone … though some gremlins in the FTTC to FTTP migration ordering process