topic No broadband/internet for a week...... in Plusnet Feedback

No broadband/internet for a week......

stephanies — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 16:25:06 GMT

Broadband signal failed 7am Monday- earliest "engineer" appointment is SATURDAY what???!!! Are Plusnet so unimportant a client of BT that they have no clout at all?
After 12 years of loyalty to F9 this is the best they can do?!
This is 2013- If my car breaks down or my boiler packs up it is fixed the next day- but Broadband a week????
I work from home- I need broadband for my livlihood- plusnet DO NOT CARE

Re: No broadband/internet for a week......

adamwalker — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 16:29:51 GMT

Sorry to hear about the unfortunately fault.
The reality here is that the lead time on engineer bookings is based on availability in each are, hence Saturday in your case.
To be honest Saturday appointments are far less commonplace too.
We understand your frustration and we'll make sure you are credited for the loss of service you're experiencing.

Re: No broadband/internet for a week......

WWWombat — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 23:18:55 GMT

@stephanies
Unfortunately Openreach was set up with the explicit requirement (from Ofcom) that it didn't favour any customer over another - deliberately to prevent it from putting BT customers first, and leaving everyone else at the back of the queue. That unfortunately means that everyone gets put into a queue for engineers in their area, and dealt with in order - whether their ISP is BT, Plusnet, Sky, TalkTalk or whoever. Zero favouritism.
The real problem is that Openreach don't have enough engineers to process the queues fast enough, hence the delays to everyone. Bad weather also plays its part.
The only way to get priority is for you to be a business customer, with a different product set (that is, a business customer of any ISP, using business products from Openreach). You'll still be seen in order, with no favouritism, but at least you'll be sitting in the business queue, which means you should get seen quicker than the residential queue. Of course, you will pay more for this privilege (the extra money paying for the faster response times), which is why most residential customers don't bother. It is an aspect of "working from home" that most people don't bother to upgrade either - but they leave themselves at risk.
As you've discovered, taking the risk is one thing - but living with the consequences is not so nice.
Have you considered a backup plan? Perhaps a pay-as-you-go mobile broadband dongle or MiFi device?