topic Re: Ticket system is a complete waste of time. in Plusnet Feedback

Ticket system is a complete waste of time.

cornwallsurfer — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 18:53:26 GMT

Why on earth do plusnet have a ticket system when nobody ever replies to tickets. Apart from auto replies I have never had a human being respond to a ticket.
I got off to a good start with plusnet. Now the lack of communication and indifferent attititude towards their customers is starting to make me wish I had never heard of plusnet.
Why is ticket 32497717 being ignored? Come back Sky. All is forgiven. Your customer service was so much better than plusnet.

Re: Ticket system is a complete waste of time.

Apprentice — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 19:33:12 GMT

The only positive outcomes I have had when using the ticket system is when I have gotten one of the Comms Team/Staff involved and any issues were then sorted out promptly.
Fortunately for me I've never had to use it too often

Alastair

Re: Ticket system is a complete waste of time.

reserved — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 19:52:03 GMT

You're right unfortunately, the Ticket system appears to be PN's Achillies Heel
Average closure time 23 hours, 18 minutes and 59 seconds
and that's usually a very optimistic figure!

Re: Ticket system is a complete waste of time.

Mand — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 10:04:19 GMT

Hi there,
Your line speed was reduced because you had a couple of disconnections on the 15th. This is something which is done automatically by the exchange equipment, and is not something we can control.
That said, your line has been stable since, and your profile has now lifted back to 6500. A reboot should see your speed return to normal.
I'm sorry for the delay in responding, we do have a small backlog on tickets at the moment, but are working to resolve this.

Re: Ticket system is a complete waste of time.

ianmac — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 09:06:16 GMT

Plusnet, "Yoo-hoo! Anyone home?".
Did you say "small backlog" on tickets? On Monday 15th March I raised a Question. Today is Sunday 21st March, and yet there is still no response from Plusnet.
My bills are paid on the dot, so do let's have some service, please.
Last month the website stated an average response time of 4 hours, but it took 3 days to get back to me (Some responses must have been instantaneous to get a '4 hour average'?) - strangely, that response co-incided with the probable arrival of a snail-mail that I sent recorded delivery to Plusnet's Customer Services Manager.
However, I've raised another Question about the regular evening drop in down-speed (today 607 kpbs), which makes it impossible to use SkyPlayer at lowest resolution, from my normal 6+Mpbs.
Yes, I know I'm lucky to get that, but it took nearly a year to get Plusnet to get BT to sort it's computer settings etc etc from the original 2 - 3 Mbps. (It can be done, but what a hassle to get there!)
Anyway, when might I expect a reply to this ticket? Please?

Re: Ticket system is a complete waste of time.

Mark — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 13:54:28 GMT

I've flagged your ticket to the CSC duty manager. I'm sorry for the delay here but I suspect there is something else at play. That should have been picked up by now.

Re: Ticket system is a complete waste of time.

cornwallsurfer — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 07:59:42 GMT

Earth calling plusnet. Is there anybody there to update me on this ticket. Clearly ticket responses are still being ignored. Am I wasting my time even bothering with tickets? They are the worst system I have ever come across. Come on plusnet - either get the staff in place to deal with the tickets in a timely manner or ditch the ticket system completely.

Re: Ticket system is a complete waste of time.

shutter — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 08:38:36 GMT

Ten days ago, your ticket was "flagged" to the CSC duty manager......
I think he must have taken it with him on his easter hols.....
What a shame PlusNet is STILL saying " sorry, we have a small backlog".... "sorry for the delay ".... and hoping on hope that the customer will be satisfied with that as an answer.

Edit..... just realised that ticket may not have been "cornwallsurfer`s"......
However, Mand`s response is dated the 18th..... which is even further back in the mists of time.....

Re: Ticket system is a complete waste of time.

Chris — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 08:41:11 GMT

Hi Gerry,
Not quite the circumstances you suggest in your reply, the ticket was back with the customer since the 18th and passed back to our support team yesterday, Mand's picking it up and will reply to this thread shortly.

Re: Ticket system is a complete waste of time.

shutter — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 08:42:14 GMT

OK Chris.... but still a diabolical effort......

Re: Ticket system is a complete waste of time.

Mand — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 08:43:58 GMT

Hi cornwallsurfer,
Your profile is currently set to 5000, which is why your speed is slightly lower than before. This will raise to 6500 again over the next couple of days based on your current line stats.
@ianmac, that ticket was passed back to you a few days ago.

Re: Ticket system is a complete waste of time.

cornwallsurfer — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 09:05:15 GMT

Hi Mand
Thanks for such a prompt reply. It is unfortunate that the only way I can get a response to a ticket is to post on the forums.
I hope plusnet can sort out the mess of the ticket system soon as they are clearly not working.

Re: Ticket system is a complete waste of time.

Anonymous — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 09:52:32 GMT

While I don't have any tickets open at the moment or any particular issue, I have watched over many years how the responses to tickets appear, and rightly or wrongly the following is how it 'feels' that the ticket system works.
1) If a ticket is raised between Friday evening and Monday lunchtime, then the first response is likely to occur on Wednesday. The reply is NEVER an answer to the question that was actually asked, and worded in such a way that it feels like any answer will do to achieve some target for answering tickets within the quoted timescale. It seems that tickets are either not answered at the weekends, OR the staff that need to be involved to resolve the problem only work week days and therefore on Monday morning there is a mountain of outstanding tickets needing answers, and that weekend backlog does not clear until sometime Wednesday.
2) If a ticket is raised Monday afternoon to Wednesday evening the response will come on Thursday. Responses at this time are more likely to get at least an attempt at progressing the issue, and there appears to be more assistance from those staff who really make a difference (such as Mand, Bob, etc).
3) Thursday and Friday tickets are pot luck !. Either you get a response containing an inspired "this will nail it" solution, OR the "here's some more bull@#!&" delaying reply - so the staff can go home on time and start the weekend ticket mountain at zero at clocking off time.

Conclusion - PlusNet needs to provide a high level of technical support 24/7, and not just during normal working hours, and hopefully the backlogs will NEVER happen again.

Re: Ticket system is a complete waste of time.

Anonymous — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 10:05:15 GMT

I think there needs to be a change to the ticket system where the customer or the system can escalate the problem to some higher level.
In the situation where you have raised a ticket, and have got stuck in the cycle of ticket ping-pong, where the reply is inadequate - you re-explain the problem - the reply in inadequate .....FOREVER !.
Perhaps after five times around this loop, then the ticket is taken out of the general ticket pool, and passed onto more capable support staff UNTIL THE PROBLEM IS RESOLVED !
In the situation where a ticket has not been responded to for say 48 hours, then the ticket should notify the customer that the issue has become a priority and WHEN it will be answered in the next 24 hours. If this deadline passes and the ticket has still not been responded to, then (as above) the ticket is taken out of the general ticket pool, and passed onto more capable support staff UNTIL THE PROBLEM IS RESOLVED !
If this was implemented then there would be a lot less complaints on this forum, and people requesting MAC codes.

Re: Ticket system is a complete waste of time.

James — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 10:23:30 GMT

Personally I don't agree.
If a system like that were to be implemented it would be largely abused and entirely removing the point of having it in the first place. I agree that there should be an escalation path where required and if you are seeing an element of ping pong on your tickets, then this obviously isn't what we want to see.
I completely understand the frustration you've seen in the past with having to wait a period of time for your ticket to be answered.
We're trying to get to a point where all standard tickets are answered within 4 hours (specialist roles like faults might take a bit longer), which will apply to all times of the day and week. I'm currently sat with 16 new members of staff who are going through their "grad bay" fortnight before joining the rest of the team.
We'll continue recruiting until we get to a point where calls and tickets are being responded to in a timely manner.

Re: Ticket system is a complete waste of time.

Anonymous — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 10:53:02 GMT

Quote
If a system like that were to be implemented it would be largely abused and entirely removing the point of having it in the first place.

I would agree that it would be abused if there was an ESCALATE button on the ticketing page from the start, but that is not what I am saying.
Both my solutions put in an enforced delay -
The ping-pong needs to go back and forth say five times each way before escalating - which you appear to agree is desirable.
The long answer time does the same, my suggestion waits 48 hours before notifying the customer that they have not been forgotten, then ANOTHER 24 hours before allowing escalation. Therefore escalation would only occur after the unanswered ticket has been sitting there 18 times your target 4 hours answering time, so is it unreasonable to escalate an unanswered ticket after nearly 20 time the target ?
You also need to consider, in both these cases, if the escalation point was reached, then if an "ESCALATE" button appeared in the ticket system, many people may not need to escalate and would be happy to wait, but those people with an urgent technical issue (such as no connection), need a more immediate response and would therefore request escalation. I am also assuming that the ESCALATE feature would only be needed once, as the issue should be resolved quickly as it has become a priority issue.

Re: Ticket system is a complete waste of time.

orbrey — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 12:37:05 GMT

Hi purleigh,

Quote
The ping-pong needs to go back and forth say five times each way before escalating - which you appear to agree is desirable.

I wouldn't say that this was desirable. Ideally we'd like to get the issue resolved on the first touch of the ticket, whoever picks it up - and that's what we're aiming for. The focus at the moment is on one contact resolution, and as James posted above, on getting the response times down to at least 4 hours. If there's anything more urgent than that then calling in would definitely be the best bet.
If people were waiting 24 or 48 hours to have their ticket escalated, just to get the answer they wanted in the first place, I suspect we'd see a lot more posts on here from people not prepared to wait for that.

Re: Ticket system is a complete waste of time.

shutter — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 13:42:17 GMT

Quote from: Jameseh
Personally I don't agree.
...........................................
.....................................
We'll continue recruiting until we get to a point where calls and tickets are being responded to in a timely manner.

As a matter of interest..... Mand, Chris, and others, have responded to my "get more staff to answer phones...." http://community.plus.net/forum/index.php/topic,80676.0.html
(well worth a read, if you have missed it)
which was originally posted on the 7th of November 2009.... Stating that they are recruiting and training more staff.... (repeated answer to many queries)
Can you tell me (and the rest of the people on the forum) How many new staff have been recruited, trained, and retained, (increasing the number of staff
already available) since 7th November 2009.

Re: Ticket system is a complete waste of time.

James — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 13:51:30 GMT

Sorry Shutter, we don't generally reveal our actual headcount numbers.
It is however, a considerable increase.

Re: Ticket system is a complete waste of time.

shutter — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 13:55:24 GMT

That answer does not inspire confidence.....
, we must assume that if only 1 person has been recruited, and retained. then that would count as " a considerable increase " ............................compared to none at all....