topic Re: PN longest wait time of any ISP - according to a new study in Plusnet Feedback

PN longest wait time of any ISP - according to a new study

ITWorks — Thu, 04 Jun 2015 08:39:06 GMT

PN are the slowest ISP in the country for answering the phone , according to a new study .

Quote from: http
A new study has phoned some of the United Kingdom’s biggest and smallest broadband ISPs in order to work out how quick their call answer times were. The results reveal that the big boys (e.g. PlusNet and KC [Hull only] etc.) are among the slowest, while smaller providers tend to be the fastest (e.g. Exa Networks and B4RN etc.).

The result are truly shocking , PN is an average of 988.57 secs (16 mins 47 secs ),they are 607 secs (10 mins 12 secs) slower than the second longest company to answer the phone KC.
What do PN have to say ?
If these result are correct, it just shows whatever PN are doing to bring the times down, is clearly not working
Regards
Mike

Quote from: http
Average Call Waiting Times for UK Internet Providers (seconds)
Exa Networks – 9.83
B4RN – 10
FastNet – 17.16
Daisy – 17.66
Timico – 26.66
Gigaclear – 32.5
Andrews and Arnold (AAISP) – 36.66
Easynet – 39.16
Fidonet – 43
Claranet Soho – 58.66
Gamma – 65.66
Zen Internet – 73.33
Gradwell – 89.66
TalkTalk – 95.75
Hyperoptic – 103.16
Manx Telecom – 123.83
Virgin Media – 142
BT – 170.85
JT – 186.33
Eclipse Internet – 261
Fuel Broadband – 273
Sky Broadband – 330.75
KC – 381.16
Plusnet – 988.57

Re: PN longest wait time of any ISP - according to a new study

alext05 — Thu, 04 Jun 2015 09:00:36 GMT

OM...G!

Re: PN longest wait time of any ISP - according to a new study

MisterW — Thu, 04 Jun 2015 09:05:37 GMT

That really is appauling!. The much heralded second support centre just doesn't seem to have made any difference whatsoever

Re: PN longest wait time of any ISP - according to a new study

Strat — Thu, 04 Jun 2015 09:06:41 GMT

No doubt closely related to growth in customer numbers.
The 'cash-back issue' won't have helped either.

Re: PN longest wait time of any ISP - according to a new study

w23 — Thu, 04 Jun 2015 09:12:36 GMT

I had a MUCH, MUCH longer wait for VUE cinemas helpline and that was on a 0844 (several pence per minute) rate.
Not excusing Plusnet at all for this, it is definitely a weak point of (IMO) an otherwise excellent (especially value for money) ISP.
Not a solution to Plusnet's performance as such but WeQ4U can certainly help.

Re: PN longest wait time of any ISP - according to a new study

Townman — Thu, 04 Jun 2015 10:03:07 GMT

This is really sad news.
May be reinstating the ticket system might help reduce the phone line wait times?
And no please do not suggest that CHAT is an suitable alternative. I'm trying to sort out an email problem for one of my referrals who is presently over seas. A ticket would have sufficed, instead I'm presently in a chat session...
29 minutes waiting for the session with an agent to initiate.
Told them the problem and they said sorry, transferring to tech team and I'm now again waiting a pick-up - and additional 5 minutes and still waiting.

PlusNet, you really do need more bums on seats and management fixing issues instead of creating them. You need fresh leadership!
Kevin

PS: Took 6 minutes to get through to tech support to be told...

Quote
unfortunately our systems are currently down to check the email mailbox, however if you wish to pop back on chat within an hour, we can look into this for you. I do apologise for the inconvenience that this has caused.

Looks like something is in melt down!
Edit 2: And when it came to try to give feed back I got...

Quote
Chat key cookie does not match visitor chat key

I suppose that might be down to me returning to the chat window at 13:40 some while after the session was closed by the agent at 11:15 some 7+ minutes after the last message from the agent (above).

Re: PN longest wait time of any ISP - according to a new study

Gel — Thu, 04 Jun 2015 11:00:05 GMT

Shame it doesn't list one of PlusNet's white label offers, specifically WAITROSE/ JOHN LEWIS
which I'm sure is miles better...but at a £cost£

Re: PN longest wait time of any ISP - according to a new study

w23 — Thu, 04 Jun 2015 11:10:19 GMT

Quote from: Strat
No doubt closely related to growth in customer numbers.
The 'cash-back issue' won't have helped either.

Maybe Plusnet should be offering some kind of 'cashback' incentive to their call centre employees if they achieve waiting time reduction targets across phone, chat and ticket systems.

Re: PN longest wait time of any ISP - according to a new study

Oldjim — Thu, 04 Jun 2015 12:36:49 GMT

this is the worst part of the report

Quote
Our longest call answer times from all types of providers come from PlusNet. When we call and ISP we “max out” at 15 minutes. In other words we aren’t prepared to wait longer than 15 minutes for someone to answer the phone. Calls to Plusnet are maxed out more often than to any other ISP.

http://broadbandrating.com/news/call-answer-times/

Re: PN longest wait time of any ISP - according to a new study

ITWorks — Fri, 05 Jun 2015 08:50:57 GMT

Seem like PN do not wish to comment ??, i think it would be helpful if PN could say what is been done to address this , to stop them been the longest ISP in the country to answer the phone.
This does not go hand in hand with "We'll do you proud"
Regards
Mike

Re: PN longest wait time of any ISP - according to a new study

Chris — Fri, 05 Jun 2015 10:27:54 GMT

Thanks for posting the links to this.
The survey has been flagged up internally and we agree that long waiting times are not good enough, we have seen improvements over the last few weeks and hope to continue making improvements. There's nothing more I can really add at the moment though.

Re: PN longest wait time of any ISP - according to a new study

Anonymous — Fri, 05 Jun 2015 10:41:08 GMT

I know I can come across as a grumpy old git (or can when on the phone to support), but to me PN are the best ISP I've dealt with. OK, some things take time but if the additional time means its done right then we all benefit.
However I do suspect that PN are victims of their own success, and throwing staff at it isn't really the answer. Unless the staff they use are familiar with the systems within PN new staff could end up doing more harm than good. Moving staff from Dept. A to Dept B. may simply move the problem elsewhere.
If it's new bodies then these have to be trained, which of course takes real working time from existing staff and simply adds to the congestion, in the short term meaning the solution takes even longer!

Re: PN longest wait time of any ISP - according to a new study

rongtw — Fri, 05 Jun 2015 11:19:36 GMT

Agree Mook
But PN did say when they open the new call center things would get better ,,, still awaiting any difference

Re: PN longest wait time of any ISP - according to a new study

alext05 — Mon, 08 Jun 2015 12:25:23 GMT

Haven't seen a Plusnet rep replying to a forum thread today. Are they on strike or prioritising phones now?

Re: PN longest wait time of any ISP - according to a new study

Strat — Mon, 08 Jun 2015 12:33:59 GMT

There are at least 3 watching

Re: PN longest wait time of any ISP - according to a new study

Anonymous — Mon, 08 Jun 2015 12:53:32 GMT

Quote from: rongtw
But PN did say when they open the new call center things would get better ,,, still awaiting any difference

Yes, this is true, I'm sure it even said it in the welcome message at one point. But to be brutally honest from my experiences I would say it has got worse, but I don;t suspect for one minute PN are sitting on their hands.
So with a bit of luck and some time it will all get evened out.

Re: PN longest wait time of any ISP - according to a new study

alext05 — Mon, 08 Jun 2015 13:07:50 GMT

Quote from: Strat
There are at least 3 watching

Watching the world go by? Bird watching?

Re: PN longest wait time of any ISP - according to a new study

jelv — Mon, 08 Jun 2015 13:59:27 GMT

http://community.plus.net/forum/index.php/topic,122115.0.html
Nearly a year and a half on and what has changed?

Re: PN longest wait time of any ISP - according to a new study

Anotherone — Mon, 08 Jun 2015 14:23:09 GMT

Just now
Current calls waiting Longest call waiting now Average answer time today
16.56 Currently unavailable 4 minutes and 35 seconds

Re: PN longest wait time of any ISP - according to a new study

Anonymous — Mon, 08 Jun 2015 14:31:18 GMT

Well I think PN could help themselves by making that information a bit more prominent on the web site and advertising the fact that it's there. People will then tend to wait till the answer time is low before calling thus reducing the waiting call queue and answer times. But it is interesting why the longest wait isn't available.