topic Re: Thinking I've made a mistake joing plusnet in Plusnet Feedback

Thinking I've made a mistake joing plusnet

misterG — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 13:37:08 GMT

Another tale of woe here, wish I'd read this forum before being taken in by the "Easy to switch- We’ve made switching to Plusnet a doddle. Find out how easy it is to start getting good honest broadband."
Switching from talktalk ADSL (non-fibre) to plusnet fibre, ordered nearly 4 weeks ago, 3 week wait for engineer to do the install, not great, but could live with that, date set for 1-6pm Feb 11th - all fine. Morning of the 11th, phone and internet severred by the time I was up at around 07:15- bit suprised - as engineer not due until the afternoon and the promise of a "short outage" "minimal disruption", not a great start to half term with two kids but we perservered.
Engineer calls at 2pm, saying just getting to the exchange / cabinet and should be round in half an hour to 45 minutes. He then called back after about half an hour to say there was a backlog on the exchange/junction box and unable to complete the order. PSTN bit fixed at around 4pm the next day so at least I'm getting a phone line for my money..
Over weds thurs and today, various calls to plusnet - liasing with BT, first fibre install not being expedited, date set of 25th Feb, I call up and promised it would be expedited after my existing order was cancelled, then re-ordered, then confirmed. Chased up this morning and now told that it won't be expedited as it was a BT Wholesale issue not BT Openreach - or vice-versa (lost the will to live tbh).
SO now looking at another 10 days - maybe more who knows, without internet access, no working from home, no school projects able to be progressed, no access to emails, skype etc and with mobile internet tethering allowance used up, it has not been a rosey start and left feeling that at least if my account with talk talk had not been disabled by plusnet, I'd be in a much better position than I am now.

Re: Thinking I've made a mistake joing plusnet

adamwalker — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 17:18:19 GMT

I'm really sorry to hear about these issues,
I've checked your account to make sure this is in hand and can see one of my colleagues on the provisioning team is handling the request for a new order.
I'm sorry again to see that the due date means a further wait but I will check to see if there's anything we can do to bring that forward.
Adam

Re: Thinking I've made a mistake joing plusnet

NedLudd — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 17:38:40 GMT

It has to be said that there has been such a massive uptake for fibre that BT OR (the sole installer) has been overwhelmed. They also seem to have seriously under-estimated the uptake and not trained enough people to meet the demand.
Plusnet are like all the other ISP's offering fibre, they are subject to BT OR's installers whims and ways. Some of the reasons for failure given and posted on here beggar belief!

Re: Thinking I've made a mistake joing plusnet

misterG — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 12:35:42 GMT

Adam - many thanks for looking into it, I appreciate that my comments probalby come across as a bit of a whinge, I know the issues lie at the hands of BT / Openreach.
...But my immediate situation could be a whole lot better if Plusnet had not indicated that they had taken over my service from Talktalk until the installer had arrived at the cabinet.
Just got to hope that the installer turns up as promised on the monday (and I don't get lynched by my family in the meantime) and we can put it behind us.

Re: Thinking I've made a mistake joing plusnet

misterG — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 09:26:37 GMT

" Easy to switch - We’ve made switching to Plusnet a doddle. Find out how easy it is to start getting good honest broadband."
So the big day cometh again, 2weeks after the last failure, again my wife takes a half day off from work only to have a phonecall from the BT Openreach non-installer at about mid-day to say theres not enough links in the cabinet and he couldn't complete the install. Fantastic - a pretty simple check beforehand I would have thought, but apparently beyond the abilities of Openreach. So another 2 weeks maybe without internet, who knows??? I'm not getting any updates from Plusnet, without me having to chase and left thinking it could be months to resolve. This would not happen with a water or gas or electricity supplier and I can't believe there is no SLA between Openreach and Plusnet for this kind of work, I paid my direct debit over 6 weeks ago now and still have no service.

Re: Thinking I've made a mistake joing plusnet

orbrey — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 13:47:20 GMT

Hi there,
Really sorry about the continuing delay, I assure you we're chasing our suppliers over this. I've just nudged our provisioning team for you, they should get you an update soon.

Re: Thinking I've made a mistake joing plusnet

Rich — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 08:49:22 GMT

Quote from: misterG
This would not happen with a water or gas or electricity supplier and I can't believe there is no SLA between Openreach and Plusnet for this kind of work, I paid my direct debit over 6 weeks ago now and still have no service.

Difference being that water/gas/electricity switch doesn't need any hardware changes - this type of problem always seems to be when moving from LLU to BT line with associated cabinet/exchange changes.

Re: Thinking I've made a mistake joing plusnet

misterG — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 15:35:01 GMT

"Difference being that water/gas/electricity switch doesn't need any hardware changes - this type of problem always seems to be when moving from LLU to BT line with associated cabinet/exchange changes"
But I'd have thought there'd be a set procedure(s) for going from LLU to fibre, it should not have come as a shock to anyone. I am getting pretty disgusted with this "service, told theres another problem at the cabinet and try back in 48 hours before another appointment can be made, so that'll be 4 weeks without internet - and the icing on the cake??? Receieved this in an email from plusnet this morning ...
It pays to recommend Plusnet
Now that you've had your new Internet service for nearly a month, we thought you might be interested to learn how you can get it for free!
We give customers the chance to reduce their subscription by recommending Plusnet to others.
Arrrrghhhhhhh!

Re: Thinking I've made a mistake joing plusnet

adamwalker — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 10:53:02 GMT

I'm sorry this hasn't been resolved yet. There is indeed a set procedure for such a move and I'm afraid there is an issue with the cabinet. I'm sorry that you've been unlucky and have been affected by this.
Just to clarify at present we're expecting something called a "tentative appointment" to be offered within the next 24 hours. When it has we can then progress your order and arrange for the completion of the work to be expedited.
I've just checked your order and that hasn't happened yet so I'll do my best to check that again later this afternoon.
Adam
EDIT: Just a quick update to show I've not forgotten about you. I can see that you've spoken to a member of our provisioning team who is looking into this and will call you back when they have.

Re: Thinking I've made a mistake joing plusnet

misterG — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 12:24:28 GMT

Hi Adam - thanks for your response - I really do appreciate the plusnet staff at the coal face.
Are you able to confirm that although I placed my order on the 18th January - the 28th March is the earliest that I might even get a date for an appointment - which has been typically 2-3 weeks according to the last two failed attempts - so lets call it 11-18 April at the earliest I would get an internet service in my house, despite promises of escalations and expedites etc? 3 Months give or take, and about 2 of those months without any internet access at all - just to clarify I'm not making any mistakes here.
I've also been told that there is no way to have two requests, so if I say sod it, I'll have ADSL thanks, that's another 7 days without internet and I lose all the escallations and history of an unfulfilled fibre order, effectively having to start again. And then undoubtedly have to spend more time on the phone haggling over all the money I paid up front for the service I never received, and the direct debit for the money I was charged for my monthly internet that I very obviously still do not have???
I just want to check this is the case before I decide what my next step is - I can't afford another half an hour on hold / being passed to the provisioning team to speak with someone, so would appreciate if you can get back to me asap.
Also - can you let me know, if I decide to stay, what ADSL products at what prices are available to me, the plusnet product checker reckons I already have internet being provided to me and the only option is the fibre essentials...
Very many thanks.

Re: Thinking I've made a mistake joing plusnet

adamwalker — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 14:28:06 GMT

Hi there,
Having looked into this 28/3 is the very soonest date available I'm afraid, I can't see anything that would lead me to believe it would be delayed beyond that though.
You are right about the one-way nature of the ordering process I'm afraid. Our suppliers can't process an order for ADSL and fibre simultaneously I'm afraid.
With regards to the cost for ADSL if you did decide to do that, you'd be looking at £5.99 for Essentials (10gb allowance) or £9.99 for unlimited.
Adam

Re: Thinking I've made a mistake joing plusnet

misterG — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 16:11:36 GMT

Thanks again Adam,
When you say you can't see it going beyond the 28th March - what makes you say that please? I've been waiting 3 and a half weeks for ~~Openreach~~ your supplier to install extra capacity at my cabinet (extra cable from exchange to cabinet?), with quite a few - "it's a priority, call back in 48 hours", or "next week", or in this case "2 weeks". Why are you confident it can be done?
Many thanks for the ADSL pricing.

Re: Thinking I've made a mistake joing plusnet

adamwalker — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 16:32:39 GMT

Sorry if I've misunderstood what's been noted. I might have wrongly assumed that "the earliest this will be progressed is.." meant the completion of the order.
If further work is needed we'd be in a better position to understand how much longer it should take for the work to be done on or just after the 28th.

Re: Thinking I've made a mistake joing plusnet

misterG — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 17:09:53 GMT

Ok that's what I thought - I'm in no better situation in 2 weeks am I? - No one can guarantee when this extra capacity may be available, if ever. I assume that as my contract with plusnet has been broken from the plusnet side, I'll be offered a refund of all my money paid and be able to transfer to an ADSL supplier of my chosing?

Re: Thinking I've made a mistake joing plusnet

lorddepravus — Wed, 08 May 2013 14:39:35 GMT

I’ve had a similar experience. An engineer came round to “install” my broadband yesterday. The installation seemed to go smoothly and the broadband worked fine. The only problem was my phone line went dead. The engineer said “Oh, it will come back in about an hour” which I knew was a lie. So 3 hours later I phoned Plusnet, who ran some “tests” and basically told me the problem was with my current supplier (BT) and I needed to contact them, even though it was the engineer Plusnet sent who broke it.
While I was on the phone to Plusnet, I asked if I could be set up with a fixed IP address (I need it for home-working purposes) and they set this up immediately. Great. Then my broadband died. So I phoned them back and was basically told it was the same issue with the phone line that caused the broadband to go down (which I suspect is a lie given that it worked while the phone was out and only broke after they upgraded me to a static IP).
So to try and resolve the issue, I phoned BT and having spent literally hours working through the automated multiple choice quiz that cuts people off for no reason, I eventually got through to an unintelligible Indian woman who said they would investigate the fault by the 13th of May (6 days away) and if it wasn’t a problem with their equipment, I would be charged £100!
So here I am, having switched to what I thought was supposed to be a reputable company and have been left with no phone line and no broadband for a week and the possibility of paying £100 to get it fixed. Am I to expect a refund? Not the best start!

Re: Thinking I've made a mistake joing plusnet

Capvermell — Thu, 09 May 2013 06:30:36 GMT

Quote from: lorddepravus
So here I am, having switched to what I thought was supposed to be a reputable company and have been left with no phone line and no broadband for a week and the possibility of paying £100 to get it fixed. Am I to expect a refund? Not the best start!

I am extremely sorry I have only just seen this thread as what happened to the OP in terms of being cut off from the internet for months seemed quite unbelievable. I find it absolutely staggering that in this situation Plusnet and/or BT Openreach and BT Wholesale (the difference between the latter two is always very hard indeed for the customer to figure out never mind that BT Group in any case also owns Plusnet) cannot immediately by same day courier send the afflicted person a 3G USB dongle (and/or 3G wireless router and embedded SIM card to serve several laptops in one household) with the right to use the internet to the same monthly capacity limit as their contracted fixed line Plusnet service. Obviously such a mobile connection will not be as fast as the fibre connection by a long way but at least providing it immediately up to the same capacity and until the fixed line broadband connection is restored would have amounted to some reasonable attempt to put the OP back in nearly the position they should have been and to minimise their losses. Even if Plusnet can't provide such a facility themselves then they should be prepared to pay the full cost of someone going out and buying a 3G or 4G dongle and the required amount of broadband service for the period during which they have no fixed line broadband service.
Coming back to the more recent poster experiencing the same problems as the OP I will only say that I believe the OP would have had this issue addressed far, far more quickly and also caused some serious backside to be kicked within BT Openreach/Wholesale (given that almost all of these mess ups are usually caused by temporary BT subcontractors taken on to try and meet the huge demand for fibre but without anything like the same experience or training as a proper BT engineer) if they had been aware of the website known as www.ceoemail.com and had they made use of the email addresses listed on that website for the CEO of Plusnet (Jamie Ford) and the CEO of BT Group (Ian Livingston) and the CEO of BT Openreach (Olivia Garfield).
My advice to the more recent poster is to avoid also being without a broadband service for two months or so like the OP by making use of the aforementioned email addresses on the www.ceoemail.com website at the earliest opportunity. There is no reason any problem like this can't usually be sorted out in one to two days maximum but unfortunately due to the current backlog of fibre orders BT Openreach and Wholesale currently seems to have adopted what I can only call an old style British Rail type mentality to customer service where the customer is told they will just have to wait and grin and bear it no matter how unreasonably they may already have been treated and no matter how long that wait might be.
Reading of the two above horror stories it seems that I should count myself very fortunate that at my relative's house (where I was in charge of the project to upgrade from copper to fibre broadband) the inadequately trained temporary BT subcontractor only cut off ring tone to two of the four extensions during his visit to fit the filtered master faceplate for the new fibre connection rather than managing to leave my relative with no broadband service at all for weeks on. It would of course also be nice if these temporary subcontractors could pursue normal business courtesies such as ringing up on the day of install to indicate roughly when they are likely to arrive and/or phoning the customer to warn them before they make changes in the cabinet that will cut off the old copper broadband service immediately prior to the visit to the customer's home. It would also be nice if Plusnet did not actively and cynically mislead its customers by telling them that if any of their extension wiring connections in the master socket are damage during the filtered master face plate install that this is not the responsobility of Plusnet and its subcontractor (BT Openreach) to put right.

Re: Thinking I've made a mistake joing plusnet

chrispurvey — Thu, 09 May 2013 09:08:03 GMT

Hi lorddepravus,
Sorry to hear of your story, I've taken a look over your account and connection. I'm unable to say what caused your phone line to stop working, but the fact that your phone line is still with your current provider we unfortunately cannot look further into that until it's with us.
I've taken a look at your broadband connection and notice that it's currently showing an active connection, has anything changed from your side?
Chris

Re: Thinking I've made a mistake joing plusnet

lorddepravus — Fri, 10 May 2013 08:14:55 GMT

Thanks Chris,
The broadband is now up and running (and quick!). Still no phone line. I assume the engineer wired the line up to the toaster or something... I'm waiting on BT.
Cheers

Re: Thinking I've made a mistake joing plusnet

chrispurvey — Fri, 10 May 2013 08:56:43 GMT

I'm glad to hear that your broadband is working, let me know how you go with your phone line. I would envisage that this is resolved prior to us taking over the phoneline. Keep me updated either way.

Re: Thinking I've made a mistake joing plusnet

Capvermell — Fri, 10 May 2013 11:22:05 GMT

Quote from: chrispurvey
I would envisage that this is resolved prior to us taking over the phoneline.

Chris,
Why do you envisage that exactly? The date of transfer of phone line from BT to Plusnet will already have been set at the time of customer order and cannot now be changed. Also the change of responsibility for the phone line is purely a billing matter just like with changing gas or electricity supplier. Actual physical supply of the phone will continue to remain the responsibility of BT Openreach both beforehand and afterwards. It is just that the customer channel for accessing repair or maintenance work by BT Openreach will switch from BT Retail to Plusnet.
Frequently where the original install engineer has made a hash of the install and that installer is a temporary subcontractor BT Openreach then tries to make sure the repair job is done by one of their own permanent engineers as they know they are far more likely to get things right. However as BT Openreach has many fewer permanent employees than it has temporary subcontractors handling the current peak in FTTC installs the wait for a BT engineer can often be 10 days or more and this can often takes things beyond the transfer date of the phone line to Plusnet.
The good news however is that where BT Retail has arranged for an engineer to come out and fix a phone line fault created during the engineer home visit to install the filtered master faceplate that this appointment is then honoured by Openreach even if the phone line has transferred from BT Retail to Plusnet in the interim. This is exactly what happened on my relative's phone line where BT Retail said they could not send an engineer to fix the disconnected ring tone to two extensions from the master socket for 11 days and I then realised (after a day or two) that this was the day after the phone line moved from BT to Plusnet. I therefore had little faith that BT Openreach would honour the appointment fearing that all records would be lost when the phone line rental moved from BT Retail to Plusnet but sure enough BT Openreach did turn up on the original agreed date and put right all the extension wiring problems. The engineer said he was aware that phone operators such as Plusnet were wrongly telling customers that BT was not ever responsible for the extension wiring but where extensions connected inside the BT area of the master socket originally were cut off in the filtered faceplate install this was still BT's responsibility to fix.
Also it is a fact that even though BT are not technically legally responsible for wired extensions after the one year guarantee period following their installation that because of the nature of the filtered faceplate work Openreach engineers are also ending up going to extension sockets in the customer home to test line and bell tone there and where there is a fault often opening the extension sockets to do further electrical connectivity tests. This means that in reality that Openreach becomes responsible for anything that was working on a customer's wired home phone extension that was working before their visit but that no longer works after it. Unfortunately Plusnet staff do not seem to be being correctly trained that this is the case and are therefore potentially leaving the customer with a broken phone line system caused by the BT Opereach engineer.