topic Re: Complete and utter madness in Plusnet Feedback

Complete and utter madness

jelv — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 17:14:00 GMT

Looking round the forums there as many if not more posts than ever where Plusnet support are not responding in a timely manner. It's pretty obvious that as so many of support staff are still very green a lot of mistakes are being made and CSC and the faults department are not coping with the volumes.
In the meantime marketing are still rolling out campaigns to continue the dramatic growth in user numbers. I don't ever recall seeing so many complaints from new users about delays getting their lines activated and not getting any answers until they post on these forums. The result is more and more users who are unhappy with Plusnet before they've been activated and I certainly cannot remember seeing any significant numbers of people seeking to move on before they've been activated.
If senior management in Plusnet had any sense they'd be cooling off the campaigns until CSC and faults were in a position to cope. As it is Plusnet is in danger of getting a bad reputation and that will take a long time to clear.
As the topic title says: Complete and utter madness

Re: Complete and utter madness

pierre_pierre — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 17:49:30 GMT

Yup - got it in one post

Re: Complete and utter madness

Anonymous — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 18:50:34 GMT

I raised tickets on two separate accounts (on Wednesday lunchtime) - for a simple admin issue regarding emails, that should take no more than 5 minutes to process.
Considering that the "Customer Support Stats" says -

Quote

After 49 hours I have had a ticket update on one account saying "moving to correct pool", and the other account has yet to have any response.
I guess now that it is Friday night, that I won't see any progress until at least Monday, which will be a minimum of 4 DAYS instead of 4 HOURS ticket closure time !

Re: Complete and utter madness

pierre_pierre — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 19:41:53 GMT

oh and they are still trying to get more

Re: Complete and utter madness

Tom2notwireless — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 23:05:15 GMT

Is it worth actually posting a direct message to PlusNet support member directly? only I have tried this recently and in once case it has been nearly a week now and another getting on for 3 days. The reason for the more direct approach was I did not want to take up forum time with a simple request for advice/help.
I don't think I shall bother in future PlusNet support is not as good as it used to be, especially via the phone, sounds to me like a call centre outside the UK, they go through the standard banter which at times is like an automaton. I shall probably be off to Virgin Media cable service soon anyway the way things are going, faster and more value for money for what I want.

Re: Complete and utter madness

Anonymous — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 23:28:37 GMT

I have been with Force9 (Plusnet) for eleven years, and the ticket system has ALWAYS been many days between responses, and usually frustrating as the answers are often 'stock' replies that rarely have any relevance to the question that has been raised.
I have found phone support to be equally frustrating, as it seems impossible to talk to somebody who either understands your problem, or they seem incapable of doing anything to help. Generally all that happens is the phone person writes a brief description of the conversation - but somehow missing the point of the conversation - in a ticket on your account.
[quote=Tommy262]Is it worth actually posting a direct message to PlusNet support member directly?
If you know that a specific support person can actually solve your problem, or if they have previously been involved, then possibly a PM might help.
[quote=Tommy262]I did not want to take up forum time with a simple request for advice/help
You will get the fastest response for "simple requests for advice/help" by asking the Forum. You will generally get help very quickly, and if you need Plusnet support to get involved then either they will pick up that you have been following the forum members advice, or somebody here will suggest who to talk to.

Re: Complete and utter madness

carrot63 — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 23:38:49 GMT

It doesn't help that the "processes" supposed to streamline things seem to have been designed by a Communist apparatchik determined that nobody should be able to think or act on any sort of initiative or common sense. Daring to add a response to your ticket only guarantees it'll be 3 days before it's touched again.
My current fault took 76 hours to be "moved to the correct pool", and a full seven days till the first remotely meaningful action was taken. Since then I've had one agent lie about calling me, no one ever reads remarks on the tickets, and there's the endless litany of do-whatever-it-says-on-the-script irrespective of any apparent rhyme or reason. Nice staff, worthless system that makes idiots of everybody, including the customers..
I really don't mind Plusnet till something goes wrong, at which point its like nails on a blackboard.

Re: Complete and utter madness

Tom2notwireless — Sat, 02 Oct 2010 00:16:12 GMT

The thing is that it would be helpful if a support member who is sent a PM that at least acknowledge your message, be they able or not to deal with it at the time or pass on your comments/request to a more qualified staff member, not to just leave me hanging up in the air waiting for a reply that never comes I saw support staff who on the forum answered another persons request for advice etc, now I posted to them thinking ah! they appear to know something that also relates to a problem I have perhaps they could assist me, hence a PM to that support member. Ok you can actually post on the forum but in the past I have got some helpful advice via direct PM to support member, but it does not exactly inspire you with confidence when you get no reply at all.
And they want US to spread the word about PN Hmmm me thinks not

Re: Complete and utter madness

Anonymous — Sat, 02 Oct 2010 00:16:39 GMT

@carrot63, that is a great description !
the problem is that the ticketing system has always been that way, and complained bitterly about - for just as long !
Occasionally somebody will put their head above the parapet and claim that there are new people being trained, or there are more staff than ever, blah blah blah,
BUT IT NEVER GETS ANY BETTER !

Re: Complete and utter madness

Anonymous — Sat, 02 Oct 2010 00:24:49 GMT

The other aspect that makes no sense, is that bearing in mind that the majority of Plusnet's customers are residential (rather than business customers), I don't know about you, but to have customer support that only operates during business hours, and then NOTHING (of any use) over the weekend (or during the night) - when most home customers are likely to have the time to diagnose broadband problems - is plain ridiculous !.

Re: Complete and utter madness

Anonymous — Sat, 02 Oct 2010 00:31:50 GMT

[quote=jelv]Plusnet is in danger of getting a bad reputation
As if the ACS:Law shambles wasn't enough !

Re: Complete and utter madness

carrot63 — Sat, 02 Oct 2010 05:27:08 GMT

Quote from: purleigh
...and then NOTHING (of any use) over the weekend (or during the night) - when most home customers are likely to have the time to diagnose broadband problems - is plain ridiculous !.

There's the intermittent fault - always the hardest to crack, but PN don't make it easy for themselves, even when opportunity knocks, as in the case of a fault that happens at particular hours as my current one does. It doesn't matter how many times I say " test at XYZ time or you wont see the fault", they test at ABC time and proudly proclaim the fault fixed as, surprise(!), they see nothing wrong. Faults should be assigned to one individual (and indeed sometimes are) who sticks with it like glue (usually not) and gets permission from the OberLeutnant to use some nouse (not ever ever). The forum crew, can and do do this; no once else seems capable/willing/permitted to do so.
To be perfectly fair, a BT engineer told me they have the same problems; his home modem was broken, so he phoned up to get another. To pre-empt script-waffle, he told them he was a BT engineer who did this 6 days a week... blah blah... could they send him a new modem. "can I just ask you to plug into the master socket... can you try... what kind of OS...". It took him half an hour of begging and despair to get the modem.
So we are all, inevitably forced to post on the forum to get a result in the end because, unless the fault fixes itself (they do if you wait long enough!), it's the only way to get things moving. Nails. Blackboard. Sadly, not everyone knows this, or wishes to do it, and those I suspect are the ones who quietly get a MAC and go elsewhere.

Re: Complete and utter madness

TicnTac — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 19:56:33 GMT

What you are all forgetting is apart from a few friendly faces who care about their job and how they do their job, and how they support customers, Plusnet (BT) don't care one little bit about new customers having sign up issues, they don't care if faults go on for months on end, they don't care if all the loyal oldies leave and go else where, they really don't give a damn.
They want to see that the higher percentage of customers work, which above the average they do, they want a high turn over of new customers, and they get that despite the odd false start and a few complaints here and there, but really, the small fry of issues that appear in this forum, and the thousands that we don't get to hear in these forums, they don't care, never will. It is a simple fact, that as long as they have a few pretty awards, and can still attract customers, nothing will ever change that unless you get a few hundred thousand customers joining in for something, that will never ever happen.
So, where there are a few support agents who appear to care, and pretty much do their job better than the average, and perhaps go above and beyond their pay packet suggests, you have to remember that the higher up the chain you go, they don't care about them either, It's all about money, profit and margins, nothing else, no little tiny customer fault is ever going to change that.
So yes, we will probably see more people in the forums with faults, complaints, new customers having real issues, and it will probably only increase, but no one is ever going to care about that.
There is only one person who can comment on the above to suggest otherwise, but he's BT and the new CEO of Plusnet, and I think deep down we all know, that some if not all of the above is pretty true not just for Plusnet, but for most companies out there.
Hey ho!

Re: Complete and utter madness

Strat — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 22:31:43 GMT

Plusnet will reply to this thread in: 4 hours 40 minutes and 4 seconds

Re: Complete and utter madness

reserved — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 08:37:29 GMT

Oh no they won't

Re: Complete and utter madness

Strat — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 08:39:36 GMT

It was worth a try

Re: Complete and utter madness

Mand — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 09:52:15 GMT

Expecting responses at half 3 in the morning? You guys are demanding
We're constantly working on our processes to make things better, and responding to feedback returned by customers after dealing with support. Yes, we have uniform approaches for some things (such as faults), however deviation from this is possible, and encouraged if it means customer issues get fixed quicker.

Re: Complete and utter madness

mikko — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 13:08:14 GMT

Quote from TicnTac:

Quote
There is only one person who can comment on the above to suggest otherwise, but he's BT and the new CEO of Plusnet

Talking of CEOs, I may have missed it but I havent seen any posts from Jamie Ford. At least Anthony Vollmer used to post now and then. I'd like to see Jamie's comments on some things such as the ACS:law fiasco, the dive in Plusnet's CS performance (probably get platitudes on that one though), etc.

Re: Complete and utter madness

avatastic — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 13:30:16 GMT

Quote from: Mand
Expecting responses at half 3 in the morning? You guys are demanding

Well when some people are on nights and 3.30 in the morning is a sensible time for them to be up and active, yes. I'd expect someone to be able to resolve problems at that time.
I get the feeling from the forum posts I've seen that replacing the out of hours support staff would be better if replaced with answer phones which CSC/Faults picked up in the morning.
PN with its great 24/7 support*
Cheers,
A.
* Outside 5.30pm and 9am (Mon-Fri) support queries more complex than "how do I spell 'google'" may be deferred until a later time.

Re: Complete and utter madness

TicnTac — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 18:58:15 GMT

Quote
* Outside 5.30pm and 9am (Mon-Fri) support queries more complex than "how do I spell 'google'" may be deferred until a later time.

.........made me chuckle