topic Re: Not so award winning service in Plusnet Feedback

Not so award winning service

Venutius — Tue, 27 Jan 2015 15:42:04 GMT

One of reasons I am switching to PlusNet is their award winning customer service. I had reason to use it today, this before I am even connected. I placed an order to switch to PlusNet and was informed that an engineer would arrive on the 23rd January. He never arrived. I phoned customer service and an automated message told me that the connection hadn't be activated and hung up on me. Today I get a text from an unknown number telling me that my connection had been refused and asking me to confirm my details. I phone customer services again and got the same automated message but this time it didn't hang up but broadcast some awful music for some time until an operator finally answered. The operator and an accent and he talked fast making it difficult to understand. He seemed to assume that despite switching from Tesco that I would have an existing PlusNet telephone line, why?
When I pointed out that my phone line was with Tesco he asked if I wanted to keep my existing number (I had received an email from PlusNet previously informing me I couldn't keep my number). He then said it wouldn't take him long to fix it and that was the last I heard from him, no "Goodbye". No, "Is there anything else I can help you with". I hung on to the phone for five minutes until I realised that he had hung up.
My suggestions are as follows:
1. Instruct your operators to speak slower. People up in years tend to have difficulty in understanding accents they are not very familiar with.
2. If you're going to play music use calming tracks not upbeat or heavy metal it helps keep the blood pressure down.
3. Do your research and get your story accurate, giving customers different messages is confusing especially those of us up in years
4. If there is a change of plan inform the customer immediately, I waited in all afternoon for the telephone man.
5. Close the call with the customer. Politely would be nice but at least indicate that you have ended the call.

Re: Not so award winning service

MattyC — Wed, 28 Jan 2015 10:06:48 GMT

Hi Venutius,
This is all very valid feedback, so thanks a lot for providing it to me.
Theoretically,

Quote
1. Instruct your operators to speak slower. People up in years tend to have difficulty in understanding accents they are not very familiar with.
3. Do your research and get your story accurate, giving customers different messages is confusing especially those of us up in years.
5. Close the call with the customer. Politely would be nice but at least indicate that you have ended the call.

I think I can attribute these three to the agent that you spoke with, so I'll make sure that I get this fed back.
I'm sorry to hear that you had to wait in. I'll pass your account over to our provisioning guys to get you up and running ASAP.
Matty

Re: Not so award winning service

Venutius — Thu, 29 Jan 2015 17:33:33 GMT

Thanks for your help Mattie, unfortunately it seem to be in vain. I used your Order Tracker webpage today to find out I have no order. I clicked the link on the page for chat only to be told I was talking to the webpage team. They did transfer me to the customer service team but surely if you are the Order Tracker facility then links to online chat should take you to the right team. The customer service team told me they didn't know what was wrong and that they would pass it on to the orders team. I tried phoning but the wait is interminable. If this is award winning customer service I would hate to think how the rest of industry perform.

Re: Not so award winning service

Chris — Fri, 30 Jan 2015 10:38:28 GMT

Hi there,
I've just had a look at your account to see what's going on. Could you reply to the open ticket on your account and let us know the address and phone number so we can check we have the correct details. I ask as the original order failed as there is no phone line showing at the property.
You can update the ticket with this info at contactus.plus.net

Re: Not so award winning service

Venutius — Fri, 30 Jan 2015 14:11:46 GMT

Thank you Chris,
I will reply and confirm my details again. I had confirmed my details once before to a previous question asking for details. I am beginning to question whether or not your company actually wants my business

Re: Not so award winning service

Chris — Fri, 30 Jan 2015 14:17:06 GMT

Thanks, sorry about the confusion but I was going from the tickets on the account. One of my colleagues is sorting the orders out asap.

Re: Not so award winning service

Venutius — Wed, 25 Feb 2015 17:49:36 GMT

My broadband has been up and running for a week now, a few teething problems but nothing major. My telephone service is another matter. When the BT Engineer called to install the fibre he told us he did not know of our new telephone number but that the number he had been given was our original telephone number. He rang that number and it worked fine. Great we thought, we are keeping our old number. The next day our friends told us that they could call us on our landline number. PlusNet had changed our number and hadn't got the decency to tell us. Its called the FOFO protocol I believe. Also I had paid for caller ID. That's not working. I went on the PlusNet site and tried to use their "Telephone Panel". That informs me that my phone isn't set up yet. I suffer from chronic medical conditions and it is essential that my GP and specialist can reach me on my telephone. Thank you PlusNet for cutting that line of communication. Are you trying to see if you can make the most mistakes whilst activating a new customer account. If so please stop. I would like to receive some of your "Award Winning" service, now would be a good time.

Re: Not so award winning service

plusnettony — Wed, 25 Feb 2015 18:17:50 GMT

I am sorry to see that you've experienced these problems. Could you please raise it officially on your account (help.plus.net) and so we can look into the issues for you. Thanks.

Re: Not so award winning service

Venutius — Wed, 25 Feb 2015 19:27:58 GMT

On top of everything else I find that you PlusNet Assist program is not compatible with Internet Explorer 11. This browser was released in October 2013, how long do you need to update your software. All my nightmares about my dealing with BT are coming back to haunt me.
I think your service is absolutely awful. I will change as soon as my contract is finished

Re: Not so award winning service

Anotherone — Wed, 25 Feb 2015 20:18:38 GMT

The "service" is generally quite good, it's the provisioning that still seems to be a big issue in some circumstances and this appears to be a combination of Openreach foul-ups coupled with an apparent inability of Plusnet Provisioning staff to spot the cases where there is a foul up occurring.

Re: Not so award winning service

paulwalker6789 — Mon, 02 Mar 2015 15:08:11 GMT

Sorry, just had to post a reply to the last message. PN customer service is, I am afraid, rubbish. They seem to equate good cusstomer service with merely having a call centre which is UK based. Where their various awards come from i have no idea.

Re: Not so award winning service

jelv — Mon, 02 Mar 2015 16:29:18 GMT

Quote from: Venutius
On top of everything else I find that you PlusNet Assist program is not compatible with Internet Explorer 11. This browser was released in October 2013, how long do you need to update your software.

You've had a lucky escape - if it was compatible you might have been tempted to use it! Most of the experienced users on here wouldn't touch Plusnet Assist with a barge pole, there's absolutely nothing it does that cannot be done directly if you are pointed in the correct direction (post on here what you need to do and someone is sure to help).

Re: Not so award winning service

Townman — Mon, 02 Mar 2015 18:45:27 GMT

Quote from: paulwalker6789
PN customer service is, I am afraid, rubbish. They seem to equate good cusstomer service with merely having a call centre which is UK based. Where their various awards come from i have no idea.

Hi Paul,
Good to see you back in the forums... back in April last year, in a long feedback post (your last prior to this one), you said...

Quote from: paulwalker6789
4. I am still with PN despite all of the above. They are providing what I want, and I am doubtful that any other provider would be better... Also their complaints handling team were unfailingly polite, rang when they said they would, and in at least one instance tried their best to help. There are companies out there who would simply have told me to take my business elsewhere. I can be very difficult, and unbelievably persistent.
5. To summarise I do actually think that PN deliver a good service at not a great price, believe it or not.

Have you encountered specific issues since then which have given you cause for concern... if you did, was there a reason you did not seek assistance again from the forums?
Kevin

Re: Not so award winning service

RollandButter — Wed, 04 Mar 2015 13:54:32 GMT

Quote from: paulwalker6789
Sorry, just had to post a reply to the last message. PN customer service is, I am afraid, rubbish. They seem to equate good cusstomer service with merely having a call centre which is UK based. Where their various awards come from i have no idea.

Haha! A man with my way of thinking 😄 I would hazard a guess that any rewards for customer service came from a 'jamboree bag' (I hope you are old enough to remember them)

Re: Not so award winning service

Chris — Wed, 04 Mar 2015 17:00:52 GMT

@RollandButter
Sorry for the problems you've had so far, it looks like we may need to get an engineer booked to investigate this further. Can you reply to the fault ticket with your availability and we'll get this booked asap.

Re: Not so award winning service

oooBEXooo — Wed, 04 Mar 2015 18:50:09 GMT

Id love to know where Plusnet get all these awards from. Award winning customer service. You`re better off sending it back to India and leaving it there. You cant fix anything, it aint your network its BT. Do you have any idea of what percentage the customer services department actually get a problem solved first time. I rang up with a faulty line and 3 weeks later im leaving. I still have the same problem I orginally rang up with.

Re: Not so award winning service

Venutius — Tue, 10 Mar 2015 11:26:46 GMT

Hooray. PlusNet have finally got it right. Well almost. My telephone is now active and I have my old phone number back. They have said they will provide a discount for the late activation. The broadband is good speeds of up 37 Mbps.
So I'm relieved it is all working, could really have done without all the hassle though.
The music on the support line is still annoying. PlusNet's MD should be forced to listen to it for 20 minutes on a standard telephone handset and then be monitored for blood pressure and aggression levels.

Re: Not so award winning service

JohnJ-B — Tue, 10 Mar 2015 11:40:12 GMT

Extremely good news!!
When PN finally get it right, they do a good job! It is just unfortunate that, on occasions, things can get pear-shaped!

Re: Not so award winning service

plusnettony — Tue, 10 Mar 2015 18:12:12 GMT

I'm sorry you have had problems but pleased it's working now.
With music, we can't please everyone all the time, but I know this issue has been raised to our network team (they look after the phone system).

Re: Not so award winning service

Venutius — Wed, 11 Mar 2015 13:30:44 GMT

Ah *****! False alarm. Despite PlusNet sending two copies of the same email confirming that my phone was now up and running with my old phone number, it's not. The caller ID which I pay for is still not operational and when I try and ring my old number I get "number unobtainable". When I use PlusNet's Telephone Panel it lists the new number (which I had to find out myself), if they are going to change your number you would think they would at least inform you of your new number. Perhaps they think its funny. I just think the whole episode is grossly unprofessional. I've worked in the field of telephones and computers as an engineer since the late 60's and this series of cockups would not have been allowed to go on for this length of time. Have I offended PlusNet in a previous life or do they just pick some sucker at random to wind up and annoy. If the latter then at least they are leaving some other poor customer alone.
I tried to the Broadband Panel but that doesn't recognise my email address, I tried setting up SJPhone but that wants a SIP password, no idea what that is, another piece of information PlusNet fails to communicate. The land of happy amateurs is alive and well it seems.

I'm determined to get to the bottom of this debacle. Will keep you posted with anything I find.