topic Re: No broadband for over a MONTH in My Order

No broadband for over a MONTH

stem — Fri, 23 Jun 2023 12:20:32 GMT

Switched house tenants and had to change our broadband. We were previously also with Plusnet, had a functioning router and good connection. I signed up for and paid for broadband services around the 23rd of MAY and we had our lines installed on the 31st of May. No service, no broadband since then, had a new router delivered but STILL showing orange. Was told the order is stuck with supplier, but over a month now? I call Plusnet every two days or so and they push back a review every two working days. Got another email that they are going to review on the 28th of June, surely this is an UNUSUAL amount of time for the order to be taking? If there still isn't a resolution by the 28th of June we will be without service for five weeks. The case has been escalated but it doesn't seemed to have helped. Any way to further escalate or reach out to someone higher up to try and get this sorted? I work from home and my 4G is sufferinggg.

Thanks :")

Re: No broadband for over a MONTH

MatthewWheeler — Mon, 26 Jun 2023 10:08:56 GMT

Morning @stem

I'm really sorry to hear about this and for how long you've been offline.

I can see the case is with our Customer Assist Team who have escalated this with our suppliers.

As soon as we have a further update we'll be in touch

Re: No broadband for over a MONTH

stem — Fri, 07 Jul 2023 14:21:37 GMT

Just an update to say that this issue is still not resolved. Still no broadband since the 20th of May. Every time I call an agent they assure me that the issue will be fixed by the following Wednesday and that they will call to update me - I have never recieved any of these schedulled update calls and instead they just get deffered to the next week.

Coming up to 50 days with no broadband :,)

Re: No broadband for over a MONTH

adamwalker — Sat, 08 Jul 2023 10:44:35 GMT

Hi @stem I'm so sorry this is taking a long while to resolve. The order is stuck in our supplier's order platform due to a systems issue. It's due to be resolved by the 12th so we'll do our best to update you as soon as we can.

Apologies for the calls not happening that have been promised, I'll definitely pass on some feedback about that as we shouldn't be promising that unless we're following up on it.

Adam

Re: No broadband for over a MONTH

stem — Mon, 10 Jul 2023 11:27:35 GMT

Hi Adam

Thanks so much for your response, I really appreciate it, and sincerely hope that we get access to our broadband this Wednesday. I'm sure you can imagine it's been really difficult to work my job as a desktop video editor this past month and a half, having to buy access to BT hotspots and extended 4G for file sync and transfer. I've been as patient and understanding as I possible can, and I know it's not the fault of anyone at Customer service - but I really really need this to be working as soon as possible so it's doesn't affect my income.

Have a great day, and looking forward to an update on Wednesday.

Thank you.

Re: No broadband for over a MONTH

ClaudiaG23 — Wed, 12 Jul 2023 18:31:49 GMT

Hey @stem I've checked your order and it is still stuck in the Suppliers system. I can see an escalation has been raised for this and they've advised the next review date is going to be the 18th July.

I'm sorry for how long this is taking, I know it's not ideal but your account is with our Customer Assist Team and they'll be case handling this for you.

Re: No broadband for over a MONTH

RealAleMadrid — Wed, 12 Jul 2023 18:43:08 GMT

@ClaudiaG23 This was supposed to be resolved by the 12th of July (msg#4 above) Now Openreach say the next review is not until the 18th July, that doesn't even mean it will be fixed by then. What does an escalation actually achieve, not a lot by the looks of things. I don't think OR know what escalation means, apart from add more delay. Totally unacceptable service from your supplier.☹️

Re: No broadband for over a MONTH

stem — Wed, 12 Jul 2023 20:32:02 GMT

Hi Claudia,

Thank you for your response.

Of course, I'm really disappointed that yet again this has been deferred for a week. That will bring myself and three other occupants of my household to two months with no working broadband. I'm also incredibly confused because at around 3pm today, I received a call from someone from Plusnet informing me that the broadband had been activated and I also received a 'welcome' email confirming this. A few hours later - your reply was posted on my community forum post. When I got home, the router is still orange, so I can check which information is actually correct and why multiple different agents have given me different information? I'm really distressing to be in this situation without knowing if there will ever be a solution.

For almost 60 days we have been unable to work from home, to relax at home, and I have been unable to spend quality time with my long distance partner, this is affecting my mental health because it's incredibly difficult to function in 2023 without access to a broadband connection, and this is a service I paid for almost two months ago. I'm fully expecting another deferral on the 18th, but please be honest with me and stop giving me new dates for a resolution unless there actually is going to be one.

Thank you, and once again I understand it's not customer support's fault and you shouldn't take the flack for this but as the only line of communication, I need to emphasise how much this procedural delay is actually affecting me.

Have a good evening

Re: No broadband for over a MONTH

jab1 — Wed, 12 Jul 2023 20:56:17 GMT

@RealAleMadrid We hear this 'stuck in 'our suppliers' - OpenReach - system on a worrying number of topics, but not usually for this length of time with literally no sense that they are doing anything to resolve it - almost like as I have said in another topic as though they are 'managed' by the ghosts of the old 'GPO Telephones' monopoly, where the attitude was 'sod the customer, we'll have as many tea-breaks as we like, and get round to the job when we feel like it'

I know this won't happen - they appear to be a protected species - but is it not time the were dragged into the 21st century?

Re: No broadband for over a MONTH

198kHz — Wed, 12 Jul 2023 21:12:41 GMT

@jab1 wrote:

@RealAleMadrid We hear this 'stuck in 'our suppliers' - OpenReach - system on a worrying number of topics, but not usually for this length of time with literally no sense that they are doing anything to resolve it...

@stem

In the circumstances, the OP has been remarkably forbearing, but in this case Openreach really are taking the proverbial.
A strong but polite email to their CEO Clive Selley might just get things moving.

clive.selley@openreach.co.uk

Re: No broadband for over a MONTH

stem — Thu, 13 Jul 2023 12:47:36 GMT

@198kHz @jab1 @RealAleMadrid

Thank you all for your responses and support, I really appreciate it and helps it feel like my shouts aren't just going into the void aha. I'm going to try calling OpenReach also send an email to Clive Selley. Still no response from anyone at Plusnet to clarify what's actually going on with my account following the conflicting information. Could either @adamwalker or @ClaudiaG23 Offer any clarity as to why my broadband is apparently marked as activated when its not?

Thank you

Re: No broadband for over a MONTH

ClaudiaG23 — Thu, 13 Jul 2023 15:11:08 GMT

@stem, I can see that Adam did say it would be resolved by the 12th, this isn't correct, this was just a review date as well. I can see our Provisioning team have raised the escalation as a level 2 now, this means it will be going to a manager with the Suppliers. The next update on this is at 5.30pm today. Once I have this information I will update you. At the moment all I can give is review dates, I can't say when it will be activated.

Your account was manually activated by an advisor, sometimes doing this does push the order through, unfortunately, this didn't work on this occasion.

Re: No broadband for over a MONTH

stem — Thu, 13 Jul 2023 15:24:21 GMT

@ClaudiaG23

Thank you Claudia, I appreciate the response and information. I look forward to hearing from someone before 5:30 today. I will update here if I hear back. I want this process to be as transparent as possible in case anyone else is struggling with a delay. In the meanwhile I have made contact with the suppliers myself via emailing Clive Selley. Hopefully one of these escalations makes some kind of impact and we can get this resolved asap.

Re: No broadband for over a MONTH

ClaudiaG23 — Thu, 13 Jul 2023 17:00:05 GMT

@stem I've checked on the escalation and I can see it has been assigned to someone on the Level 2 escalation that has been raised. Due to the timescale of this evening, the timescale for an update has been pushed to midday tomorrow. This will be to give time for the new case handler to look into your case and see what they can do. We'll update you once we've got an update.

Re: No broadband for over a MONTH

Aly — Thu, 13 Jul 2023 19:54:25 GMT

Hi Stem,
I'm in the same boat as you exactly the same responses from OR and Plusnet.

I'm relaxed about it all, as it stands I'm due around £400 compensation through the Ofcom scheme. I was supposed to get a review today and low and behold still no internet.

I wonder if it's worth pocketing the money and buying Elon Musk's Star link, at least I will bypass all of this OR rubbish!

I hope you and everyone else with this issue gets connected soon. I'm surprised this issue hasn't hit the news, I imagine this issue will end up costing OR quite a lot in compensation pay outs.

Also Stem, have you got an open complaint with Plusnet?
Next week I can go to Ofcom, I plan to complain with them. This issue has been handled very poorly by Plusnet.

No one has rolled their sleeves up and attacked the issue with any sort of priority. I want a full explanation and Ofcom to investigate this so it doesn't happen again

Re: No broadband for over a MONTH

stem — Thu, 13 Jul 2023 20:37:10 GMT

@ClaudiaG23

Hi Claudia, thank you again for the update. Once again incredibly disappointed this has been further deferred, and probably will be tomorrow as well. But I will wait until midday tomorrow for an update before I raise an official complaint.

Re: No broadband for over a MONTH

stem — Thu, 13 Jul 2023 20:47:12 GMT

@Aly

Hey Aly,

Thank your for you reply 😭 I'm both relieved and disappointed that there are people in the same situation as me... Really sorry about your delays also it's the WORST. ALSO THANK YOU for alerting me to the Ofcom scheme, I will be contacting Plusnet for compensation after this, and currently they owe over £300 to me if this is correct - That's incredibly helpful information and also slightly reassuring. But really I just want to use... the internet.

I'm going to open an official complaint tomorrow with Plusnet if this isn't resolved by midday, and will subsequently go to Ofcom following any further delays. Have an amazing evening and thank you again! Would also be happy in joining any efforts en masse contacting Ofcom or any external organisations if it may help bringing attention to this.

Take care

Re: No broadband for over a MONTH

Aly — Fri, 14 Jul 2023 10:33:11 GMT

Hi Ro,
No worries. We have a lot of smart stuff in our house, camera to monitor the baby, tado for heating and cameras none of which we can use without internet.

It's lucky for us it's summer otherwise in winter it would be difficult to use our heating without the internet.
I was a Zen customer for many years, I only came back to Plusnet because Zen are getting a bit expensive and in a time when everyone is feeling the squeeze I couldn't justify staying with Zen, I regret that decision now.

My order was placed 21st May
Engineer installed 2nd June

Frustrating for me, my line has been connected since 2nd June, synced at 46mb down 11mb up (I knew it wasn't going to be great, FTTC is poor where I live). The line is there but I can't connect to it.

Hopefully my service works soon 🫤
(alistair89)

Re: No broadband for over a MONTH

MatthewWheeler — Fri, 14 Jul 2023 12:29:56 GMT

Hi @stem and @Aly

I'm picking this up on Claudia's behalf as she's not in the office today.

Unfortunately, we've been advised the issue hasn't been fixed yet but both your orders have been escalated higher up the chain.

We'll be in touch as soon as we know more

Re: No broadband for over a MONTH

Aly — Fri, 14 Jul 2023 14:45:33 GMT

Hi Matthew,

Thank you for letting me know.
I don't want to wait another week. I want an update on Monday. The last few 'updates' have been a week apart.

Can you answer this for me?

Why are Plusnet accepting Opean reach's responses of 'we will update in 48 hours' etc. If I was a business knowing they were paying £9 a day compensation I would be doing everything in my power to have the issue resolved as quickly as possible.

I have documented everything that has happened until now and i'll be submitting a detailed complaint to Ofcom. The way this has been handled is a joke.

To hear customers have been sent replacement routers in a hope to solve the problem is laughable.