topic Re: Joint action against plusnet in Plusnet Feedback

Joint action against plusnet

usvsplusnet — Mon, 19 Oct 2015 13:14:05 GMT

We recently moved house and a month later we still have no Internet. We have decided to cancel our contract and go with another provider but now fully expect to receive a bill from plusnet. We believe they are in breach of contract as they did not provide the services promised and that we were within our rights to leave. If you are in a similar situation with plusnet and are feeling powerless as an individual please email us an account of your dispute and contact information at consumersagainstplusnet@gmail.com or tweet us at @usvsplusnet. We intend to put together a dossier of cases to present to the communications ombudsman as well as other consumer organisations (which etc) and will be seeking legal advice regarding further collective action. We do not have to stand for this and we do not have to allow them to harass us as individuals. Thanks.

Re: Joint action against plusnet

MattyC — Mon, 19 Oct 2015 13:29:40 GMT

Flooding the forums with the same message is only causing work for our moderators - fellow customers like yourself.
I'm investigating your case, and I'll update this thread shortly.
Matty

Re: Joint action against plusnet

usvsplusnet — Mon, 19 Oct 2015 13:33:34 GMT

We are simply trying to get this message out to as many individuals as possible. We do not feel as though we have been treated as an individual with a life to conduct or that our contract has been met on a company to individual level, hence the move towards collective action. Thanks.

Re: Joint action against plusnet

Oldjim — Mon, 19 Oct 2015 13:57:40 GMT

and 17 of your posts have been removed - why not just stop landing the moderators with more work and obey the Forum Rules

Re: Joint action against plusnet

usvsplusnet — Mon, 19 Oct 2015 14:03:17 GMT

Ah, I see. You'd like us to honour the contract we entered into when we joined the forum? Shame plusnet don't feel the same compulsion. We'll hold off, here.

Re: Joint action against plusnet

MattyC — Mon, 19 Oct 2015 14:26:45 GMT

Jim is also a customer like yourself. It's just that it causes work for others.
For a bit of background:
It seems that your service has never worked since the house move, however it has been signed off as complete by Openreach, meaning that the provision should be resolved and you have a working asset.
We could see that you had no sync, so we arranged for a broadband engineer to investigate. They advised that the issue was fixed, though this wasn't the case. It was at this point that it was believed that the line was crossed. A test today suggests that there is a loop fault. Typically, it's likely to be the internal equipment at the property that may be the issue. The next process would be to retest with all equipment unplugged. If it still tests the same then book a engineer to the property.
From what I can see on the ticket, you don't want to accept an engineer charge if the fault lies internally, and subsequently you have cancelled your account (which has left you with a cancellation fee).
Personally, I'd much prefer to investigate the issue, partly as it seems physical and you're likely to have the same issue elsewhere. And of course partly because we'd want to keep you as a customer.
I do have a colleague who has personal ownership on your ticket still, so let me know at your convenience if you're happy to cancel the cessation of your account, I'll get that actioned for you along with making sure we investigate the fault accordingly.
Finally, really sorry for the outage. We'll be refunding any service not received (at the moment it's being subsidised from your cancellation charge). Given that it's been a lengthy time to go without, we'd probably of some form offer goodwill for the inconvenience caused.
Matty

Re: Joint action against plusnet

usvsplusnet — Mon, 19 Oct 2015 17:33:43 GMT

We just received a call from a neighbour calling her own number as her phone line hasn't been working. She is at no.2 on our street - we are at no.129. She will be calling you tomorrow to try to get this resolved.
We have been without internet for a month. The engineer you sent messed up our phone line, as well as a neighbours. We waited in for five hours for them to arrive and then they spent a further two hours coming and going to "resolve the issue". We believe we have made a reasonable effort to allow you to meet the provision of service in the contract.
You are now suggesting we wait in a further five hours to allow another engineer to come and fix the problem. A problem you are suggesting is internal, although the phone call I just received suggests otherwise. This is not acceptable.
As individuals we are members of Which, as well as union members. We are therefore entitled to free legal advice, which we will be seeking if, once the contract is cancelled, we incur fees. You breached your contract. You did not provide us with the service and have left us in a worse position than when we started.
It would be right and we believe legally just for you to cancel the contract and waive all fees as well as refunding us for the provision of service we have already paid you, as this is your error. I suspect you will have to send out an engineer to fix our neighbours phone line regardless.
As stated above, this is not an issue we will merely be taking up as individuals. Plusnet are clearly in breach of contract on a systemic level and a dossier of complainants (many of whom are probably suffering great stress due to unfair cancellation fees) will also be part of our tactic to prove that you are failing to meet industry standards.
Thanks.

Re: Joint action against plusnet

usvsplusnet — Mon, 19 Oct 2015 18:04:37 GMT

Please note, the email address to contact is consumersagainstplusnet@gmail.com. Don't tackle this alone!

Re: Joint action against plusnet

minusnet555 — Mon, 19 Oct 2015 18:10:56 GMT

It's not just you, they also hide my price increase "email" which was never sent most likely because I've had issues from the off, so I (foolishly) told them I wanted to leave when I had it. They obviously are denying this (great customer service okay...). Then after I post all this on their forums my phone lines have gone dead, could be a coincidence but Ive never been one to believe in a coincidences.
3 days to get an engineer out is ridiculous, and thas if that even fix it then! I'll probably get a whole £1 refund for my inconvenience.
I'll gather everything I can and send it through, I will not be bullied!

Re: Joint action against plusnet

usvsplusnet — Mon, 19 Oct 2015 18:15:27 GMT

Great! If you send us a quick run down and then at a later date we can gather more detailed information. Being in contact/getting together a database of complaints is a really good start! Sorry you're going through similar issues!

Re: Joint action against plusnet

chenks76 — Mon, 19 Oct 2015 19:28:53 GMT

if plusnet have any sense they'll cut this doofus free to go annoy some other company.
clearly has delusions of grandeur.
personally i hope the fault is internal and they are made to grovel their way into some other ISP with a hefty time-wasting charge levied against them.
oh, and you stupid little gmail account, i hope it gets spammed to oblivion.
yes plusnet as far from perfect, but so are the customers.

Re: Joint action against plusnet

PeterLoftus — Mon, 19 Oct 2015 19:32:49 GMT

Re: Joint action against plusnet

Luzern — Mon, 19 Oct 2015 20:15:38 GMT

fully agree.

Re: Joint action against plusnet

usvsplusnet — Mon, 19 Oct 2015 20:21:47 GMT

Whilst it is really surprising that people with hundreds of posts on the plusnet forum are against collective consumer action, your opinions don't change the fact that plusnet do leave plenty of people (including my third party neighbour) high and dry. It isn't ok. It isn't anything to do with "grandeur" to challenge them or try to stand up for yourself.
We hope they "cut us free" too.

Re: Joint action against plusnet

chenks76 — Mon, 19 Oct 2015 20:24:42 GMT

it was an openreach engineer that cocked up the work at the cabinet, not plusnet
the same engineer that would have been out regardless of which ISP you had chosen.
but, of course, you knew that didn't you.
if you had any sense, which you don't, you "collective action" would be against openreach and ofcom.
but then, there wouldn't be any financial gain in it for you if you did that.

Re: Joint action against plusnet

usvsplusnet — Mon, 19 Oct 2015 20:31:51 GMT

Our contract is with plusnet, no-one else and we fail to see how asking for a refund of services not given and to be allowed to make alternative provision counts as "financial gain". We gain nothing, all we want is to end our relationship with plusnet - because they haven't provided a service - without being financially penalised. But you knew that, didn't you?

Re: Joint action against plusnet

minusnet555 — Tue, 20 Oct 2015 07:53:21 GMT

Quote from: chenks76
if plusnet have any sense they'll cut this doofus free to go annoy some other company.

I hope they do, all I want is to leave. I dont want any money from them, just want to be able to leave this terrible company as i should of been allowed had they not hidden my price increase!

Re: Joint action against plusnet

MattyC — Tue, 20 Oct 2015 08:25:01 GMT

At the risk of causing disagreement here, it seems like the intention is to act as a means of policing Plusnet like a governing body. There is already a company in place for this, and it's Ofcom. Ofcom collect complaints from customers and force collective action if necessary.
It is believed that there is a crossed line, and you attribute the blame to us as we are the ones that you have the contract with. That is fully understandable, and I agree with you. Which is why that I'll reiterate that I'd truly prefer getting your phone fault resolved, and getting you online in your property.
@Unhappy - I'll have a look at the other thread you have open shortly.
Matty

Re: Joint action against plusnet

usvsplusnet — Tue, 20 Oct 2015 09:01:34 GMT

Matty,
We want to leave.
I called your technical support team a number of times and each time I was left on hold for ages. I was also asked to do various tasks which were completely pointless because the fault was caused by your subcontractors.
I was completely polite and patient throughout, up until the point when after hours and hours your technical support said they suspected it was a crossed line. They said they needed to book a new engineer and began to read out the disclaimer about maybe having to charge us £50.
I said as the fault was caused by poor work done, that we wanted a fixed time to meet the engineer and that I didn't even believe the engineer needed access to our property. The technical support person said they agreed and could see my point of view, but if I didn't agree to the statement he couldn't send someone out.
I said it was up to them, and I thought they should send an engineer.
I then had exactly the same conversation a couple of days later at the end of which I said I would cancel my direct debit if the fault didn't get fixed.
I gave plenty of opportunity for plusnet to think about how they could provide good customer service, as supposedly you keep winning awards for.
So then after a further week having not cancelled by direct debit and you took another payment for the service you've never provided I then cancelled the direct debit, ordered a dongle off my mobile provider and contacted the phone coop who I hope that because of their ownership structure I will be able to engage with more effectively if they do indeed follow the same processes as you.
I'm pretty confident you're in breach of your contract, even if every other company behaves the same way, in which case it probably is an industry wide problem which I'll be exploring through Which and my union Unite.
All you need to think about though is that I've asked to cancel my contract with you and if you refund me any charges from the month or so of failed service then I won't persue the matter further. If you attempt to charge me cancellation fees as your colleague said you would yesterday then I will be making the strongest possible complaint in all relevant forums.
As for your loyal customers here who have chosen to call us names - seriously?

Re: Joint action against plusnet

MattyC — Tue, 20 Oct 2015 15:44:57 GMT

It looks like someone called in today to discuss the situation with the phone, but wasn't an authorised user on the account.
Feel free to PM her name over and I'll get her down as an authorised user in future.
Matty