topic Re: Are Plusnet cancelling my account because I've complained to CISAS? in Plusnet Feedback

Are Plusnet cancelling my account because I've complained to CISAS?

onlyme2014 — Mon, 29 Jun 2015 09:14:00 GMT

Hello Plusnet,
I've given you over a year to resolve my issues- you still have not.
You have been given information from an engineer confirming there are hardware issues external to my house- despite this you persist in telling me I have "wifi issues".
Now you lie and tell me I have an outstanding balance - there is no outstanding bill on my account - and you cut my services. Within one week you send me a letter informing me that "as a result of the outstanding balance your account has been de-activated".
I'm sure this cannot be related to the complaint I logged with CISAS, surely?
As I have said- I will pay this erroneous bill, under duress, if it existed. It does not exist and I cannot pay a bill that does not exist- there is no outstanding bill showing on my online account even though I have asked you twice to create such a bill and I will immediately pay.
I will be keeping a close eye on my credit file and should any information be recorded by yourselves related to an erroneous bill I will take further action.
It has been suggested to me that you just want to cancel my services with you rather than complete the necessary work on your own hardware, surely not.
I write this as a warning to others who may be currently dealing with Plusnet.

Re: Are Plusnet cancelling my account because I've complained to CISAS?

Strat — Mon, 29 Jun 2015 09:21:36 GMT

Mod Note
Duplicate post removed.

Re: Are Plusnet cancelling my account because I've complained to CISAS?

hapless — Mon, 29 Jun 2015 09:53:40 GMT

Hi only,
have you thought of posting this elsewhere?
I was in the same position with another isp several years ago, they wouldn't release the service on my line even though I had cancelled and paid over and above fees!!
I was in the fortunate position that I had 2 lines, so just ordered on the other line.
It wasn't until I posted on a popular broadband forum that the marker was eventually removed from that line - nearly a year down the road.
I too had complained to CISAS about lack of bills (surprisingly!) - wonder if that is CISAS's recommendation to isp's is to bin the client, to save them dealing with propblems?

Re: Are Plusnet cancelling my account because I've complained to CISAS?

HPsauce — Mon, 29 Jun 2015 10:08:19 GMT

Quote from: hapless
have you thought of posting this elsewhere?

This is actually a pretty good place to start as it's very rare (*unheard of) for PN staff to not respond, after (normally) properly investigating the situation.
Plenty of people active around the broadband arena watch this as well.
I can't imagine any account issues are a response to CISAS as that would be spotted and commented on PDQ and it's also not really the "PlusNet way".

Re: Are Plusnet cancelling my account because I've complained to CISAS?

hapless — Mon, 29 Jun 2015 10:30:35 GMT

Looking at other forums, and my own ongoing experience, I would kindly suggest that the "PlusNet way" is probably a large part of the problem?

Re: Are Plusnet cancelling my account because I've complained to CISAS?

onlyme2014 — Mon, 29 Jun 2015 11:02:38 GMT

I have been dealing with a link:csa removed - who has been phenomenally poor. They are preventing my disabled son from accessing his education - for no reason whatsoever - and are not responding to me at all.
adie:red removed csa name removed.

Re: Are Plusnet cancelling my account because I've complained to CISAS?

onlyme2014 — Tue, 30 Jun 2015 09:10:43 GMT

For the first time Plusnet actually called me yesterday.
[mremoved] first sentence? "I assume you're calling to clear the outstanding bill." Yes, we've had over a year of bad services and that's exactly why I'm calling.
When asked to explain why he'd written the bill off as a "goodwill gesture" and then restricted my services when it wasn't paid - he couldn't.
But, and you couldn't make this up, he then went on to say that "as a goodwill gesture" he was willing to halve my bill!
I had to ask him to call me back as my phone line was so poor I couldn't hear him.
Their resolution to my poor broadband is to restrict my line speed to 1-2mb as "that's the only way we can provide a consistent service"- people might like to bear that in mind when they're choosing a supplier.
They have actually gone ahead and done this - despite my emailing them questions as to why this is the only solution and asking for answers before they went ahead - so as I hope you'll all see, it's a farce.
dick:csa

Re: Are Plusnet cancelling my account because I've complained to CISAS?

Townman — Tue, 30 Jun 2015 09:22:43 GMT

Not sure what help your are looking for here and until the last post, the thread does not discuss material facts related to your poor service.
If the phone line was so poor that you requested PlusNET to call back, that in it self is indicative of why you have such a slow broadband and restricting speed to attain stability is the only practical solution until the phone line issue is resolved.
Who provides your phone service? Is it PlusNET? If yes then resolving the noisy phone line would be their responsibility. If no, then your other provider must address the voice line noise problem BEFORE there is any chance of improving your broadband experience. That will apply to any alternative ISP you might consider as an alternative to PlusNET.
Personally that is why I would never contemplate using seperate providers for voice and broadband.

Re: Are Plusnet cancelling my account because I've complained to CISAS?

onlyme2014 — Tue, 30 Jun 2015 09:32:36 GMT

Hello Townman, Plusnet provide both my phone and broadband. Not sure why you might have thought otherwise.
My issue is that for one year they persisted in telling me to "change my wifi channel" and refused to investigate my issues. They've been informed of issues external to my property and rather than resolve those they cap my speed.
Only Plusnet appear to have issues understanding the problems.

Re: Are Plusnet cancelling my account because I've complained to CISAS?

Gel — Tue, 30 Jun 2015 09:57:31 GMT

WiFi issues?
Surely these could be ruled out if you confirm there is no issue when using ethernet cable connection; assuming laptop/ tablet device has ethernet port.
To rule out router, have you a colleagues one you could temporarily borrow, to see if that improves things?
If their broadband line check shows fault on the broadband circuit, they obviously need to deploy good old BTOR.

Re: Are Plusnet cancelling my account because I've complained to CISAS?

Oldjim — Tue, 30 Jun 2015 09:59:00 GMT

Given the reported noise on the line did you report a voice fault as that can have nothing to do with the wifi

Re: Are Plusnet cancelling my account because I've complained to CISAS?

AndyH — Tue, 30 Jun 2015 10:03:31 GMT

The picture here is quite muddled as to exactly what has happened/not happened. It really needs some input from Plusnet.

Re: Are Plusnet cancelling my account because I've complained to CISAS?

Townman — Tue, 30 Jun 2015 10:08:23 GMT

Well that is strange in the extreme. Though wifi can be an issue, is has no relationship to the issues associated with a noisy line.
If you want help to poke this issue, there are a good number of us around here who can help you to help yourself.
The quiet line test - dial 17070 option 2 using a corded phone in the master socket - repeated at regular intervals is a good means of profiting the noise problem. Intermitant noise is a real pain to fix, but fixed it must be to attain good internet performance. Note the actual use of the line (particularly inbound calls) can 'clear' some marginal issues for a while, due to the ring voltage / current 'fixing' marginal damp joints. At one time, I had to resort to phoning my own line to fix the ADSL synch... until I understood the cause and effect and asked for the voice line to be fixed.
Has a voice fault ever been reported and investigated on your line? You can use the phone fault link below to do that.
Looking at the speed issues thread linked to below and posting the information requested there will help to show the extent of the problem / performance against the potential for your linpe's length (attenuation). There are a number of things within your home which could contribute to your slow speeds, but if you want to walk the path of enlightenment, let's do the basics first.
Kevin

Re: Are Plusnet cancelling my account because I've complained to CISAS?

onlyme2014 — Tue, 30 Jun 2015 10:11:21 GMT

Hello,
I would have replied sooner but my broadband was down.... It usually goes once every hour so bear with me.
In the last 15 months we have swapped out routers, phones to no avail. Problems remain. My husband's an IT bod - I am an ex-IT bod - so we have lots of different desktops, laptops and so on...all display same issues when connected to Plusnet. Not so when connected to bt wifi with fon. Wired and wireless.
I reported the phone fault- Plusnet are fully aware of the problems. They refused to investigate for a year, then told me it was all internal. It took an email to the CEO to get them to engage with me; then a complaint to CISAS to get them to actively investigate and not rely on "change your wifi channel".

Re: Are Plusnet cancelling my account because I've complained to CISAS?

onlyme2014 — Tue, 30 Jun 2015 10:12:37 GMT

Thanks Townman, I will look through those links.

Re: Are Plusnet cancelling my account because I've complained to CISAS?

Townman — Tue, 30 Jun 2015 10:36:21 GMT

Quote from: onlyme2014
Plusnet provide both my phone and broadband. Not sure why you might have thought otherwise.

Quote from: onlyme2014
Not so when connected to bt wifi with fon. Wired and wireless.

So with good IT skills in the household, there's no room for the user not knowing which way is up here!
In respect of seperate service providers, the reason I thought otherwise is that based on the few hints you have given (no slight intended) about the problem it seems blindingly obvious that there could be a line fault. If your phone line were provided by a different supplier you would not be the first around here to be caught with the frustration of the voice provide saying I hear no fault it must be broadband and your broadband supplier saying I see no fault it must be voice.
Given that PlusNet supply bith one hopes that both have been investigated.
When you say all is OK on FON I assume that is hopping on some nearby BT hub? As you say wired and wireless does that mean you have physical access to the BT hub?
When you refer to slow speeds, is that synch speed (which is what I dangerously presumed) or do you mean data speed tests? If speed tests bits or bytes per second?
How many BTOR engineer visits have you had?
Have you looked at using any of the wifi monitoring tools - such as inSIDDer (V3 the free one is still around) or Acrylic WiFi though tha needs .net 4.5.
Unless you have the Plusnet 2794n router detailed monitoring using RouterStats full 24x7 can prove highly informative about your line's behaviour. See the two RS links below. If you need / want help, just ask - your own detailed profile on the issue just might point to the right solution.
@CRT,
Clearly there is a long history here. Is there evidence (VR plot, CLT, error history) which points away from a line fault to the cited wifi issue?
Kevin

Re: Are Plusnet cancelling my account because I've complained to CISAS?

HPsauce — Tue, 30 Jun 2015 12:24:39 GMT

Quote from: onlyme2014
Their resolution to my poor broadband is to restrict my line speed to 1-2mb as "that's the only way we can provide a consistent service"- people might like to bear that in mind when they're choosing a supplier.

Following on from the comments above, this very much suggests a problem with the line, or external interference, and that there is no clear way to resolve it.
The same issues would apply to any ISP using the same wires, your only short-term option (if available) would be FTTC or cable.
Again, as noted above, some detailed stats/logs from the router would be instructive.

Quote from: AndyH
It really needs some input from Plusnet.

Couldn't agree more.

Re: Are Plusnet cancelling my account because I've complained to CISAS?

MatthewWheeler — Tue, 30 Jun 2015 16:12:35 GMT

Radius graph here

Stat's attached

Re: Are Plusnet cancelling my account because I've complained to CISAS?

HPsauce — Tue, 30 Jun 2015 16:36:07 GMT

Thanks for that data. Somewhat slower than might "normally" be expected for a line of that length, but not massively so.
Matthew, any analysis from investigations by anyone in BT/PN, or is it just an automatic system response to a not-so-good line with a noticeable number of disconnections?
Downstream SNR of 7dB doesn't seem so bad.....
Might be a dumb question, but why is upstream 440K?

Re: Are Plusnet cancelling my account because I've complained to CISAS?

Townman — Tue, 30 Jun 2015 16:49:45 GMT

Matthew,
Thank you for the internal reports - would have welcomed some input from yourselves, so I'll just have to ask some questions which might give insight for OM (onlyme2014).
@OM - The VR shows several dropped PPP sessions every day and recently no PPP connection for 4 days. Does this match your experience? During the recent 4 days of no PPP connection, were you using the Fon service you mentioned? Do the PPP session drops indicated on the VR plot match you recollection of phone calls - either in or out?
@CRT,
The synch speed is a bit low for the attenuation, irrespective of it being CN20 or CN21 - would guessing the former be correct?
Are the zero BTBR and MTBE counts being zero suspicious?
What does ILQ = B signify? Aren't these usually Red, Green or Amber?
Can we be sure that the VR plots also represent resynchs? (Important to the next question). What is the target SNRM please - 6dB or 9dB?

@OM - Did you reboot the router this morning around 8am? One has to conclude that the SNRM at 17:12 has changed from the target, at best from the resynch at 8am, at worse from that at circa 13:15. The SNRM varying from its target on a wonderful summer's day as today (it ought to be rock steady) does I suggest point to signal interference either due to the state of the voice circuit or (sorry AO) REIN.
Instigating RouterStats monitoring can only help point to the problem. If we work on the premise that PlusNet is wrong over this being a WiFi issue, then the problem has to be on the line - which will move with you if you change ISP... and you might have the same challenge in convincing a different ISP that this is the case.
If I assume that PlusNet have indeed had BTOR crawling over the line, then something not obvious here is wrong here. Stats and self help might identify what is going wrong, given multiple routers (with the implication of different wifi channels already being tried) has not resolved the issue.
[HPSauce types faster...]
Kevin