topic Re: Very unhappy customer in Plusnet Feedback

Very unhappy customer

roblatus — Sun, 30 Nov 2014 20:06:07 GMT

I moved from Yorkshire to Wiltshire in July.
After much reading and checking out the internet i decided to give Plusnet a go. What could possibly be wrong with "proper Yorkshire Broadband" i thought. However i am now seriously regretting my decision.
I initially asked about having fibre and phone installed on or around the 16th of July.
Approximately 4-6 weeks later after several delays and various promises of a service actually starting, i did actually start to receive what i had entered in to a contract for 4-6 weeks earlier.
i was at this point in a rented property whilst i was waiting on a new build completion.
I have now completed on my new house and contacted Plusnet on the 24th to arrange for my service to be moved to my new property.
I was told that a BT engineer would need to carry out a survey and could expect a response in 72 hours. I was also told that Fibre was not available at me new address. I was not happy but agreed to an ADSL service in the hope that fibre would soon come to the area of the new property - Virgin media are already there. :-(. I was also told that an ADSL router would be in the post to me.
Anyway 72 hours came and went, i eventually got a text and email from plusnet on Friday 28th stating that the engineer required more time and information from their survey and they would respond by the 5th of December. Oh and i had not received a router and the ticket information said i wasn't getting one. lol
Now i am seriously fed up of hearing that it is all BT or Openreach who the blame lies with. All that says to me is that i really should have maybe gone directly to BT or someone like Virgin media.
With two children who both require the internet for their homework managing without it is s serious problem these days.
Now it seems to me that due to now being in an 18 month contract if i choose to leave i will be liable for some fees. Possibly £200-£300.
I find this unbelievable when i cannot even be told when or what sort of service i can expect at my new property.
I am aware the if a service cannot be supplied within a 3 month timescale then i can leave without penalty as per ofcom rules. But this doesn't really help myself or my children.
To make matters worse it turns out that Virgin could have me up and running within 2 weeks maximum as my neighbour has just elected to go with them.
Also when i enter my phone number (which is obviously a BT line) into BT's website and also enter my postcode for the new property it states that i can have Fibre. lol
Yet plusnet (or is it negnet) tell me i can't have Fibre at my new address.
To be honest the whole experience has been frustrating from the word go with Plusnet with delays and lack of information as to what service (if any) i will get and indeed when (if ever) i am likely to get it. But inspite of all this i am still liable for the remaining contract if i leave????.
The whole idea of entering into a contract is for TWO parties to live up to their commitments. Now i am happy to pay for something, as long as i actually get it within a reasonable amount of time, which is certainly not what appears to be happening with Plusnet.
I doubt anything will come from airing my grievances on here but i will certainly be making sure my work colleagues, friends and family are all aware of just how shoddy an operation Plusnet appears to be.

Re: Very unhappy customer

RobPN — Sun, 30 Nov 2014 23:18:18 GMT

Quote from: roblatus

Also when i enter my phone number (which is obviously a BT line) into BT's website and also enter my postcode for the new property it states that i can have Fibre. lol
Yet plusnet (or is it negnet) tell me i can't have Fibre at my new address.

That sounds to me like the BT checker is telling you that you can have FTTP rather than FTTC - if so count yourself very lucky!
In those circumstances the PlusNet checker will tell you you can't have fibre because it only checks for FTTC availability and not FTTP, the reason being that PN do not yet sell an official FTTP product. However, if indeed you can get FTTP, all is not lost as you can apply to join the PlusNet FTTP trial.
What does this checker say if you enter your phone number? i.e. FTTP or FTTC?
If you can get FTTP and want to go on the PN FTTP trial it's no use asking the normal telephone staff as they mostly don't know anything about it. You'll need to apply at http://trials.plus.net/.

Re: Very unhappy customer

roblatus — Mon, 01 Dec 2014 07:52:11 GMT

Thanks for the info RobPN
My phone number is currently for a rented property i am in, i am moving into my new property on Friday 5th Dec
Using the checker with my phone number says i can have 70meg fibre.
When i put just my postcode in it says Fibre is not available.
When i used the checker on the main BT page and put both postcode and phone number in it says i can have fibre???
Wouldn't be so bad if i could even find out if i will be able to get fibre at some point in the near future at the new property but when it takes 5 days + to get and answer everytime i have a query it doesn't help. Thats if Plusnet can even give an answer.
I contacted Plusnet regarding my house move as soon as the postcode of the property was available and registered. This was on the 24th Nov, i told them i was moving on the 5th thats two weeks.
Now the situation is that i won't even find out what the situation is regarding engineer survey until at least the 5th therefore leaving me with no service at all, never mind a fibre one.
Really is very poor. And if i want to leave i will have to pay a stupid amount of money. Seriously considering getting in touch with Ofcom and maybe BBC Watchdog about this, totally unacceptable.
FFS its the 21st century.

Re: Very unhappy customer

davidj66 — Mon, 01 Dec 2014 08:39:04 GMT

As far as I'm aware,all these online checkers default to the phone number as that the most accurate forecast -if you enter a phone number they ignore post code.This means that you are checking your current situation.
Is your new build a one off,or part of an estate? Its possible, that if its a one off, the builder hasn't connected anything up for telephone. Even possible if its part of an estate. The reason that BT Openreach are carrying out a survey MAY be that they have to cost up attaching the site to the nearest cable duct or pole. Could be that it'll turn out to be too costly to justify!
So your argument may end up being with the builder!!

Re: Very unhappy customer

davidj66 — Mon, 01 Dec 2014 08:44:20 GMT

Further thought....have you asked your soon to be new neighbour WHY he has gone with Virgin ? Might be because BT couldn't supply the property, either because of what I posted earlier or because all the available lines to your nearest Cabinet are fully utilised already.

Re: Very unhappy customer

Cruise85 — Mon, 01 Dec 2014 09:31:12 GMT

Hi roblatus
Let me first of all apologise for the trouble in regards to this, but please be assured that we are doing everything possible to get your services up and running as quickly as we can.
With the address being a new build property, it would appear that no ducting work has been carried out on the estate, and as such a surveyor has been required to assess where and when the cables can be run. They will be working with the builders and developers in regards to this.
From personal experience I can confirm that this can take a significant amount of time to resolve due to the several parties that are required for the work to be carried out.
I can however assure you that we will continue to everything we can to progress this as quickly as possible, however if you would like to discuss the possibility of cancelling the order, then please don't hesitate to DM me.

Re: Very unhappy customer

roblatus — Mon, 01 Dec 2014 21:40:00 GMT

When you say cancel my order, what does that mean precisely? Will i be paying for a service at a property i am no longer living at and a service that you cannot (in a given time frame) supply at my ew property?
What would my options be ?
Please feel free to message me privately if this cannot be discussed on an open thread.
dick:quote

Re: Very unhappy customer

jelv — Mon, 01 Dec 2014 23:05:10 GMT

Quite frankly, knowing that your rental was only temporary, entering in to a contract with Plusnet without first establishing the status of the telephone setup for your new house wasn't the smartest move. If Virgin cable is available and FTTC is not going to be available any time soon, going with Virgin is pretty much a no-brainer.

Re: Very unhappy customer

roblatus — Mon, 01 Dec 2014 23:19:58 GMT

For all of my life I have lived in East Yorkshire. In and around Hull. We have our own telecom company up there. Independent from BT. You can't even have a BT line or anyone else's line for that matter. People up there complain about this but I have told them they don't realise how good they have got it. 100meg fibre to the premises with no issues at all.
Come down south and use plusnet and it all goes wrong. Lol
Will certainly be much more careful in the future as to who gets my business.

Re: Very unhappy customer

PeterLoftus — Mon, 01 Dec 2014 23:39:20 GMT

As previous posters have alluded you can't IMHO blame Plusnet particularly report them to Ofgem as these systems are set up by Ofgem
Eventually Openreach do the installation and have a monopoly and always follow the same Byzantine arrangements!
How many new builds have you been involved with?

Re: Very unhappy customer

davidj66 — Tue, 02 Dec 2014 08:24:39 GMT

Sounds like the site developers have done a deal with Virgin - laid in coax but not BT telephone cabling -think that happened somewhere else recently?

Re: Very unhappy customer

jelv — Tue, 02 Dec 2014 08:33:29 GMT

Quote from: roblatus
Will certainly be much more careful in the future as to who gets my business.

The culprit in this case is OpenReach, not Plusnet, so you need to avoid anyone that delivers the service via normal telephone wires. That leaves you with very few choices. You can eliminate most of the normal ISPs who all provide a BT Wholesale service as do BT Retail and Plusnet along with all of the LLU providers. https://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange_search might help you identify possibilities - you are looking for options in the wireless and cable sections. If you post who you may change to we can confirm whether they are dependent upon OpenReach.

Re: Very unhappy customer

tijara33 — Tue, 02 Dec 2014 08:42:18 GMT

As PN are unable to provide you with a service you will be able to cancel your contract without incurring fees. The survey on your new house should have highlighted the fact that there was only limited telephone access for the property. Moan at your surveyor, not PN.

Re: Very unhappy customer

roblatus — Tue, 02 Dec 2014 09:48:44 GMT

I entered into a contract (rightly or wrongly) with Plusnet. I know that they use BT infrastructure but at the end of the day my contract is with Plusnet.
Now many of you may welll be happy with waiting 5 days+ for answers for queries but IMHO in the 21st century this is not how things should be done.
Having connection to the internet these days is as much as a requirement as gas or electric for many people. Yet if one of those utility comnpanies could not confirm what type/when/if you could have a service at your new property without lengthy delays it would be unacceptable.
As has been mentioned the fact that they can't supply a service (certainly in a reasonable lenght of time) should mean that i would not have to pay full cancellation fees.
This was not given to me as an option when i did in fact cancel my account yesterday.
I will therefore certainly be taking further action to at least have some of my fees re-imbursed. BBC watchdog will also be hearing about the whole shoddy situation of Plusnet (negnet) and BT.
Should no refund of fees be forthcoming then i am pretty certain Plusnet will actually lose more in business from the word of mouth of my experiences to colleagues, friends and family than they have made from me.
The fact that the Feeback area of this forum is dominated by bad experiences speaks volumes.

Re: Very unhappy customer

tijara33 — Tue, 02 Dec 2014 10:30:31 GMT

Watchdog will also ask you about your surveyor's report so please make sure that you have it to hand. Please let us know when you're going to appear.

Re: Very unhappy customer

Anotherone — Tue, 02 Dec 2014 10:39:42 GMT

And if you bother to read through most of the problems are due to Openreach. Plusnet can apply as much pressure as they like, it doesn't seem to make any difference to the poor management by Openreach.
If you really want to make a difference, then whilst Plusnet will do all they can, you need to complain to OFCOM about Openreach. But also you perhaps should be talking to the Developer of your house to find out why proper arrangements haven't been made with OpenReach.
Also I have to say that I feel you left it rather late in the day to make arrangements for installation in a new build property, surely after all this reading you did on the Internet before deciding to come to Plusnet, you must have seen that getting installation done on a new build can be one of the most problematic issues (whoever the ISP)!
Plusnet will do all they can, but to a degree their hands are tied by Openreach and your Developer.

Re: Very unhappy customer

roblatus — Tue, 02 Dec 2014 11:53:31 GMT

I could only inform Plusnet of my new address once the postcode for it was up and available on the Royal Mail Website. This was the information i was given by Plusnet themselves. Which i followed precisely.

Re: Very unhappy customer

Anotherone — Tue, 02 Dec 2014 12:01:13 GMT

Royal Mail can also be a pain in the proverbial in these situations. One never hears enough detail about these problems to see how many are down to the Developer not doing the right things, or whether it's all down to these large monopolies.

Re: Very unhappy customer

roblatus — Wed, 03 Dec 2014 11:01:52 GMT

It would seem as though everyone else is to blame here except for Plusnet themselves. lol
They are the ones you enter a contract with, they should inform customers and potential customers of the real life delays that they could experience when using Plusnet and thier partners i.e. openreach.
This would perhaps help with peoples expectations.
Raised a ticket yesterday regarding my cancellation fees, which as mentioned on here, it would seem i shouldn't be paying.
Still waiting a response.

Re: Very unhappy customer

jelv — Wed, 03 Dec 2014 12:12:40 GMT

Could you confirm whether when you entered the contract with Plusnet for the temporary accommodation you made it clear to Plusnet that this was the case, gave them details of the new build house you would be moving to and got confirmation from them that they would be able to provide broadband at that address.
It seems that if you did the obvious checks with them at that time, whoever advised you didn't warn you about the problems that nearly always occur with new builds. Specifically, did they tell you to confirm with the builder/agent that BT OpenReach would be laying cables to the estate when they found they couldn't find the address on the BTw database?