topic Re: Dedicated number in Plusnet Feedback

Dedicated number

glloyd — Tue, 02 Dec 2014 13:35:19 GMT

Isn't it about time there is a dedicated phone number for phone faults. My son has just said he gave up after hanging on for an hour trying to report his phone was down. Bearing in mind you have to either ask someone else if you use their phone or phone from a mobile which if you are PAYG be damn expensive.

Re: Dedicated number

Oldjim — Tue, 02 Dec 2014 13:36:20 GMT

agree completely - the present system isn't fit for purpose

Re: Dedicated number

adamwalker — Tue, 02 Dec 2014 14:08:07 GMT

Thanks for the feedback.
I've raised this with our service improvement team who are currently looking at what we can do to improve the experience for customers with phone faults.

Re: Dedicated number

glloyd — Wed, 03 Dec 2014 10:51:27 GMT

Something needs to be done PDQ, he spent a total of two hours trying to get through, that is disgraceful. I had a similar experience when I was having problems with my phone.

Re: Dedicated number

friendinneed — Thu, 04 Dec 2014 10:13:19 GMT

Re: Dedicated number

Chris — Thu, 04 Dec 2014 11:27:30 GMT

We know the wait times are still higher than ideal, but they are much improved (Sunday aside). Waiting over an hour shouldn't be needed, but unfortunately it's likely that there was still a hangover in support from the big outage on Sunday.

Re: Dedicated number

Oldjim — Thu, 04 Dec 2014 12:35:17 GMT

That is rather missing the point
A longish wait isn't too much hassle if your phone line is working but it is a total disaster for those among us who have a PAYG mobile and/or lousy mobile reception (by the way - that includes me on both counts)

Re: Dedicated number

Chris — Thu, 04 Dec 2014 12:39:39 GMT

My point was that if the call queues aren't too long we shouldn't need a dedicated number to call on. As mentioned earlier by Adam, this suggestion has been fed back internally.

Re: Dedicated number

Oldjim — Thu, 04 Dec 2014 12:43:17 GMT

If I have to call on my mobile from the balcony in the freezing cold - 5 minutes is a long time and 15 minutes is completely unacceptable specially at 40p a minute
Why not include a text option

Re: Dedicated number

AndyH — Thu, 04 Dec 2014 12:46:49 GMT

Or a call back option.

Re: Dedicated number

Chris — Thu, 04 Dec 2014 12:48:23 GMT

All good suggestions.

Re: Dedicated number

friendinneed — Thu, 04 Dec 2014 13:06:56 GMT

Which will undoubtedly be ignored at a higher level

Re: Dedicated number

glloyd — Thu, 04 Dec 2014 14:40:49 GMT

The calls by my son and myself were not made on a Sunday. My neighbour had a fault oh his phone called BT and got an answer in seconds. it is unacceptable to have to maybe stand in a cold phone box, pay mobile phone charges or sit in your neighbours for long periods at any time.

Re: Dedicated number

Townman — Thu, 04 Dec 2014 16:41:33 GMT

Also BT Retail have an on-line report mechanism for phone faults. Whilst PN do have a BB fault reporting system on-line (albeit it can then take 72+ hours for the fault to be progressed) there is nothing similar for phone line faults. One is therefore CONFINED to spending a long time waiting on the all-together problem line.
Sorry, PlusNet need to be seen to be doing better at phone answering. This is the exact same discussion which was being had on the forums 12 months ago. It is but one of the many issues raised as a suggested priority for the new CEO last December. What real progress has been made? Yes there are more people in the CSC but has it made a real permanent difference to call waiting times? When will someone recognise that the route to reducing call waiting times lays in the elimination of the need for users to call - and not simply throwing more staff at the problem.
I know I am getting boring, but the fundamental route to reducing call waiting times is to get rid of the reasons people phone up...
Poor BTOR performance
Order delays
Poor ticket turn round times
Core systems (repeated) failure
Sorry to say this, but even the good guys (CRT) are struggling to keep up with the volume of customer contact. There needs to be a root and branch focus on the causal issues, rather than fixing the symptoms. Things need doing - not looking at.
Cheers,
Kevin

Re: Dedicated number

Oldjim — Thu, 04 Dec 2014 16:55:46 GMT

The equivalent for phone faults is https://www.plus.net/wizard/?p=wizard&page=22965&wizard_id=38 and I just got this
It may be a way round the problem but only if you have internet access
My impression for what it is worth is that BT started as a phone company which added broadband whereas Plusnet is a broadband supplier who added phone and just haven't thought it through

Re: Dedicated number

Townman — Thu, 04 Dec 2014 17:33:41 GMT

JIm,
You cunning old fox - that is brilliant! I know that you can report a phone fault by the standard ticket system, but recognise that route can be not-as-proficient-as-it-might-be due to the ticket turn-a-round times.
HOWEVER with the advent of the new (still in an extended trial) on-line chat, I found that after looking at the page (your link goes to) for about a minute or so the pop-up for the new chat service appears. This could well become a pragmatic and proficient route for people with phone faults to get more immediate attention without burning a hole in their mobile phone account. Could you have a chat with your PN contacts and see if they would support putting a sticky on the PHONE forum to that link with the suggestion that people "hang" on that page until the CHAT invite appears?
Cheers,
Kevin

Re: Dedicated number

AndyH — Thu, 04 Dec 2014 17:59:18 GMT

If you log in to the Member Portal and go to the Help & Support page, that link for the online chat appears on the left of the page (so you don't need to wait for the popup).