topic Re: Lost the records - lost the plot- losing the customer in Plusnet Feedback

Lost the records - lost the plot- losing the customer

Bern — Wed, 25 Sep 2019 18:05:32 GMT

I joined Plusnet on 1 April 2016, I was connected to fibre for broadband shortly after that. (I'm a little unclear with the next bit, it was some time ago and I don't have the paperwork anymore, I thought Plusnet would.) However, I believe it was because the distance to the box from exchange, and then copper distance to my house was too far to supply a speed that was the usual minimum fibre speed, so my account details with Plusnet don't appear to show that I had a fibre connection. Prior to getting fibre the ADSL copper gives the rural village where I live speeds of between 0 and 0.5 Mbps, but usually nearer the zero, and too slow to synch. Therefore, I know that the speed tests showing speeds of 20Mbps since 2016 until 13 Sep 2019 mean that Plusnet were continuing to provide me with fibre broadband.

On 13 September, my assumption is, an Openreach engineer moved my connection to ADSL, (whether by accident, or direction of Plusnet I don't know, I'd like to think that as Plusnet didn't mention it first that it was the prior) and we have struggled to have broadband or wifi since then. Customer support have run some checks and said that there was a fault on the line and sent engineers out. Both engineers were surprised to be sent to the village for an ADSL issue, they don't get those often, as nobody has ADSL in the village, because the speeds are "between 0 and 0.5 Mbps, but usually nearer the zero."

The technical support desk solution, to a customer that had been with Plusnet for so many years? You need to upgrade and sign a new 24-month contract, that is higher than you were paying, that will take more than a week to fulfill, and is higher priced and longer term than other competitors on the market in your are. As I am working overseas, and rely on the internet to chat to family at home, I took the option. I have a date for fibre to be reconnected. I now also have a date for Sky to take over the contract, and a date in my head, within the cooling off period when I will cancel the Plusnet contract and leave.

Oh, and the phone line also went wrong two days ago. It no longer receives or makes calls, another engineer is due out soon, when one of my family members can take more time off work to be home. So, I am currently paying for an internet that doesn't work, a phone that doesn't work, and I've been more or less accused by tech analysts that I am lying when I say that I was on fibre, because and I quote, "I have reviewed your account and as far back our records go that I can access, it shows that we have only ever charged you for ADSL broadband."

That was a cut and paste from the open question, I am a Yorkshireman, and I know we sometimes get accused of talking funny, but "as far back our records go that I can access." Please, if you are going to inform your customers that they are not correct on something, that their complaint has not been upheld, and they deserve to sign a new two-year contract, then at least have the decency to check what you are writing is English. It at least makes the complainant feel that it was a competent employee who was taking them seriously, and not a new apprentice, who doesn't understand how to us spell check and grammar check, never mind progressing to deal with customers.

The response also suggested an early termination fee. I was later told by a more informed analyst, who checked their facts, that this was not the case. She said that because I am still within the cooling off period, and the fibre will be connected within 14 days, I still have time to leave the contract without additional fees.

Yours

Bern

Re: Lost the records - lost the plot- losing the customer

OllieC — Wed, 25 Sep 2019 20:52:40 GMT

Hi Bern,

I'm really sorry to hear about your experience.

Please feel free to PM your account username and we'll get back to you accordingly.

Kind regards

Re: Lost the records - lost the plot- losing the customer

Townman — Thu, 26 Sep 2019 09:19:53 GMT

I've been more or less accused by tech analysts that I am lying when I say that I was on fibre, because and I quote,"I have reviewed your account and as far back our records go that I can access, it shows that we have only ever charged you for ADSL broadband."

Therein I suspect is the issue - the provisioning system and the billing system say different things!

@JonoH

Re: Lost the records - lost the plot- losing the customer

MasterOfReality — Thu, 26 Sep 2019 13:19:40 GMT

Hi @Bern

I can see you have replied to the ongoing ticket thread outlining your position at the moment (which is much appreciated by the way).

I've just tried to call you in order to have a general discussion about the situation we find ourselves in here, regrettably there was no answer.

Would there be a better time for one of the Community agents to get in touch with you about this?

Thanks,

MoR

Re: Lost the records - lost the plot- losing the customer

Bern — Thu, 26 Sep 2019 13:23:30 GMT

No there will be no reply as the phone line is down, awaiting an engineer. That and the fact that I am working overseas, and so don't have my usual mobile number available either at the moment, due to location. e-mail and chat, or skype are what i am currently working from.

Re: Lost the records - lost the plot- losing the customer

MasterOfReality — Thu, 26 Sep 2019 15:22:38 GMT

@Bern - I see, that could make things a bit tricky.

Without me giving anything account specific away...

As I said, I've read you most recent reply - I have no "excuse" nor rebuttal which would alter things as they currently stand, and I completely understand why you have come to the conclusion which you outlined.

Updates will be provided from our prov team accordingly, and we can discuss your final position once the account is in order - if that would suit you?

Kind Regards,

MoR

Re: Lost the records - lost the plot- losing the customer

Bern — Thu, 26 Sep 2019 19:28:56 GMT

I can't see that there is much else that I can do, but wait for updates. At least the phone appears to be working at home again. There were some issues in the call I just made to home, but I'm hoping that was down to local mobile data service issues affecting the skype at this end, rather than the landline at that end.

Bern

Re: Lost the records - lost the plot- losing the customer

MatthewWheeler — Fri, 27 Sep 2019 10:04:44 GMT

Thanks for getting in touch @Bern.

I've looked into this for you and updated your ticket with more details.

Let us know if there's anything more we can help with

Re: Lost the records - lost the plot- losing the customer

Bern — Fri, 27 Sep 2019 18:49:38 GMT

Hi,

Thanks for the update, I don't see the reply as giving too much personal information away, but I do take great umbridge at it, and feel that anybody perusing your forums for answers may wish to be aware of what you said, before deciding to take a contract out with you, or renewing one.

So your update said;

"From reviewing your account I can see that when you initially signed up to us March 2016 you signed up to our Unlimited Fibre product. However then April 2016, your account was changed to a standard broadband one despite you still having the fibre service and speeds"

Yes I did have the fibre access. However, it was not possible to achieve the actual advertised minimum fibre speeds, and at the time, if I remember corrrectly this is why, your company said they would not charge me full fibre costs. This was beccause standard Broadband was also not a feasible alternative, most of the time speeds are zero, occassionally they get up to 0.5Mb, almost fast enough to load a web page, but not often. If you run a test on my line you may see this, although probably not, as you are more likely to see "router or line not synched", as you need more than zero MB to synch it.

Back to your update;

"As a result, our Revenue Assurance team who monitor for discrepancies like these noticed it and changed your speeds back to standard broadband as this is what you were paying for."

Ok so I can see the logic in this, he's getting something he's not entitled to, he should be stopped! However, I understand there is a change in your billing system recently, that may be where the issue lies, but the Revenue Assurance team don't know why I was connected as I was. They didn't have the courtesy to talk to me in advance, to say, i'm sorry mate, but there has been a technical error in your favour for the last 29 months and although we don't know how it happened, we are now going to remove your service. They could have given me a chance to explain, a chance to upgrade at that time with no loss of service, just a few options in the world of customer care/customer service/building customer loyalty. I have been a loyal customer, even though contract period has long expired I was still with Plusnet, not searching the deal with USwitch or other comparison charts. But no switched to "braodband", but basically for the area I am in this meant I was totally cut off from the internet, and still am. We haven't had any real access to the internet, since that change was made. So I've paid for broadband, not a lot less than what the new contract was going to be, and received nothing.

Phone faults have added to the fact that we haven't even had landline for some of this period either. And before anybody mentions well everybody has mobiles, one of the reasons we needed good internet was so we could do calls over wifi as the mobile coverage didn't reach our house either. What adds to irk me further in what you have just said is that you are the first person in 2 weeks that has even mentioned Revenue Assurance, or why the change happened. Are they some hidden force, who don't need to update the technical guys who sit in the call centres and deal with the angry customers, who don't understand what just happened? If there had been some notes somewhere, perhaps you could have saved the hours I've lost on Skype calls from overseas, the two wasted engineer visits that my family had to take time off to be at home for, and that as I am told regulalry, if the fault appears to be because of a fault inside my house, or with my equipment I will be charged £65, thank goodness it wasn't my fault, or was it? I'm not sure anymore whose fault all this mess is.

I can confirm that we won't backdate any charges due to the mistake being on our side (i hope not as it was something that you offered at the time and I accepted.)

....I understand that you want to leave us (too right I do, as soon as possible after this fiasco) after the fibre upgrade completes but before your cooling-off period expires. You can do this but as per the conversation you had when you arranged the deal "If you cancel within 14 days you will have to pay for the services you have used and any installation, connection or activation charges that may apply (including those charges that were discounted or advertised as free at the time we accepted your order)". As it stands this means you would be charged the £25 Fibre activation fee if you were to do this. - Perhaps my blood was boiling and I missed the fact that there was to be a £25 Fibre activation fee charge when I stupidly agreed to take on a new 24 month contract. This would be why I checked and double checked with the cancellation team and then back to the technical team.

Me: as the activation date is outside of the cooling off period where does this leave me now

(Cancellations person name removed): at 19:15, Sep 24: it would just mean we will request a pro rata charge for the few days you are with us.

Cancellations at 19:15, Sep 24:are you happy for me to cancel the fibre order?

Me: at 19:17, Sep 24:i'm not happy, but feel i have no other choice, besides as i said earlier I thought that I had already cancelled it on Sunday, ....

Me at 19:19, Sep 24: if i didn't cancel the order until 3 october, would i have incurred installation fees then?

Cancellations at 19:23, Sep 24:in order to check that it would be the tech team

Still Cancellations, (some repetition removed) at 19:35, Sep 24:ok, I have read through the notes and I cannot confirm whether we would or not charge for the engineer going out

Cancellations at 19:35, Sep 24: best to check with tech

Cancellations at 19:36, Sep 24: but if you cancel before the 4/10/19 then your within your cooling off period and you wont incure termination fee

Cancellations at 19:37, Sep 24:would you like me to transfer you to the tech team to check the engineer appointment

Tech Person at 19:43, Sep 24: I can confirm that you should not receive any engineer fee's as the fault is external

Me at 19:44, Sep 24: but it isn't a fault that they are coming to sort out, they are coming to do an "initial" connect to fibre

Tech: at 19:44, Sep 24:I understand no you should not incur any charges

I don't know what else I could have done to confirm, apart from come onto here to find somebody who appears to have access to different notes and rules, as now you are saying that I do have to pay a fee to leave,

I miss Old Plusnet, who did us Proud...Not sure what the new generation two years later are doing to us, but I've lost all pride in being a customer to a good old Yorkshire company.

Shame

Bern

Re: Lost the records - lost the plot- losing the customer

smiffy1 — Sat, 28 Sep 2019 08:34:00 GMT

It does not make very good reading Plusnet did NOT do you proud at all

Re: Lost the records - lost the plot- losing the customer

SammyM — Sat, 28 Sep 2019 08:45:10 GMT

Hello @Bern,

Upon reading the information you have provided I can confirm that as long as we receive a leaving request from you new provider within your cooling off period, we can ensure an termination costs for the contract are waived or refunded.

The only charge you will pay would be the services you have used until you switch to your new provider. We are deeply sorry for the experience you have had with us and would can monitor your account to ensure no further issues arise while you transfer your service.

Re: Lost the records - lost the plot- losing the customer

Bern — Wed, 02 Oct 2019 14:25:01 GMT

You couldn't make this up could you?

Latest update, after I got in touch yesterday to see why work that was originally planned for 1 October hadn't been completed, I was told that it would be completed on 2 October. Then when I spoke with Sky to confirm that the new order was still in place and progressing, they told me that they couldn't complete my new order as there was work planned on my line for 5 October.

Checking with Plusnet, it turns out that Openreach couldn't complete the request yesterday and had re-booked for 5 October, no mention of completing on 2 October, as per yesterday's tech update.

So I've cancelled my order with Plusnet, work being completed on 5 October, just happens to be outside the cool off date to cancel with Plusnet, plus we are just delaying the price cut as I change providers. Therefore, I think I'm out now, let's see how good the next guys are.

I would update the open question regarding this issue, but it appears to have been removed from my list of questions, and 4 new ones to show that I'm leaving have been opened in its place.

Re: Lost the records - lost the plot- losing the customer

Dumbledore — Wed, 02 Oct 2019 17:56:02 GMT

Hello @Bern I do apologise for the poor experience and you are looking to now leave us.

I can see you have been in touch regarding this matter, the ticket on your account can be viewed by Clicking Here

If you do need any assistance from us, please let us know, we will be happy to help.

Many thanks.

Re: Lost the records - lost the plot- losing the customer

Bern — Mon, 07 Oct 2019 05:04:35 GMT

Well after nearly a month of no real internet services, I can finally confirm, thanks to Plusnet and Sky e-mails that the change will now happen. (I really hope I'm not counting chickens, an earlier e-mail had said the changeover would be today!) Unfortunately it will still take another two weeks to happen, meaning that I will continue paying you for virtually no internet for the next two weeks, as we wait for Openreach to make the change. I suppose we should be grateful the speed does occasionally reach the dizzy heights of 0.15Mbps so that I can talk to people at home now and then.

Hopefully 21-22 October will be the end of this nightmare that your "Revenue Assurance" team have put me and my family through.

Re: Lost the records - lost the plot- losing the customer

TheMightyAJ — Mon, 07 Oct 2019 12:17:21 GMT

Hi @Bern,

I'm sorry to hear of the issues you've experienced and that you're switching providers. If there is anything that we may be able to assist with during the cancellation process then please don't hesitate to reach out to us via the forums and we'll be happy to take a look into this with you.