topic Re: impossible to speak to someone from customer service in Plusnet Feedback

impossible to speak to someone from customer service

wurstturm — Thu, 13 Aug 2020 10:05:30 GMT

Hello, so I have a slightly more difficult query so I need to speak to someone.

No problem, you'd think, as they have a chat - one of the reasons I chose Plusnet. Turns out the chat has been discontinued, they tell you to go on twitter, which I don't have an account with and have never used, but for the sake of it joined only now, turns out you cannot message them there, and their facebook account doesn't seem to be manned, either.

Phone line is dreadful and whenever you call they tell you "due to the high volume of calls" they're unable to connect you to customer services.

So, basically, it is not possible to contact customer services. Great! I have been recommending Plusnet so far, but I guess that will change now.

Any advice?

Re: impossible to speak to someone from customer service

Townman — Thu, 13 Aug 2020 11:41:26 GMT

Hi @wurstturm ,

A warm welcome to the forums. Yes at present making direct contact with support is a challenge. Now you've got that off your chest, what is the issue you want help with? Many issues can be answered by other community members, thereby negating the need to get time from the staff not impacted by CV-19 measures, who are still working.

As for issues not being answered on twitface - that is where the bulk of Plusnet's social support team has been diverted to.

Re: impossible to speak to someone from customer service

wurstturm — Thu, 13 Aug 2020 12:18:38 GMT

Hi Townman,

sure, I can see if you can answer my question: I have broadband with Plusnet until next Jan, need to move out where I am now by the end of the month, but won't be moving into the new place until the end of November, and I will spend the time in between abroad.

So my question is whether the "moving" which usually takes about 4 weeks can be extended to 3 months, with those three months just added on at the end of my contract.

Now, curious to see if this can be answered by "people in the forum". Thank you for your help!

Re: impossible to speak to someone from customer service

jab1 — Thu, 13 Aug 2020 12:49:12 GMT

I think 'a person on the forum' can give you a fairly definitive answer to that: If, for whatever reason you cancel your contract, you will have to pay cancellation charges, you cannot put an account 'on hold' as you are suggesting.

Re: impossible to speak to someone from customer service

Townman — Thu, 13 Aug 2020 13:15:53 GMT

You are in effect seeking a suspension of billing with the account not connected to a phone line during the suspension. I suspect that as @jab1 has indicated you are going to need to cancel the contract, accept ETCs and establish a new service when you return to the UK. If that is how things pan out and you want to retain your existing account for email purposes, do make that clearly understood if you come to need to terminate the service.

I am 98% certain that a contract cannot exist where there is no associated land-line. You are though correct that on this one, a definitive answer is required from a staff member ... but now that you've shared the query, a quick answer should be available and that answer will be available to help anyone else who asks a similar question.

How long is there left to run on the contract? Will you have immediate access to the property on leaving your existing residence? If yes, it might be cheaper to move the service to that property and accept you will pay for 3 months of non-use.

@Gandalf - I rather recall us having discussed this before - can you please confirm that the above is correct and that the new billing system works in this area the way I recall the old one did? Thank you.

Re: impossible to speak to someone from customer service

wurstturm — Thu, 13 Aug 2020 15:54:37 GMT

Well it is possible to move house and take the contract over to that place, I know that much. I'm not intending to "cancel" the contract. Worst case scenario is that I have to lose the 3 months.

And if the customer service is as elusive as this suggests, I definitely won't consider extending my contract beyond January.

Personally, I think Plusnet should just provide a chat option, as I believe they used to have, and a phone line with a sufficient number of people to answer your call, in short they should employ people to deal with customer requests that cannot be answered in the FAQ, but if you guys are happy to work for them for free, that's obviously great for them.

Thank you for your help anyway. I will continue in my quest to speak to someone from customer service.

Re: impossible to speak to someone from customer service

Townman — Thu, 13 Aug 2020 16:54:12 GMT

We do not work for Plusnet for free, we offer our time and experience to help other fellow customers. That is the essence of a community based forum. Not every enquiry needs the resources of staff.

The demise of the CHAT service is far from ideal and the superusers have been vocal about that, but it was deemed that the CHAT service was not delivering. Subsequent to its demise, COVID-19 was visited upon on us all.

It is understood that you would prefer not to cancel the contract, however an 'active' account cannot exist without there being a delivered service (Ofcom rules state that you may not be billed for something you are not receiving). We need a staffer to affirm this. I will post a SU escalation for you.

Superuser escalation

This topic has been escalated by one of the Superusers; please allow time for Plusnet to respond before commenting further.

Escalation does not imply progressing this matter will be given priority, nor that a different outcome will result.

Reason for escalation: Review community response

Re: impossible to speak to someone from customer service

Uncle_Tupelo — Thu, 13 Aug 2020 21:18:17 GMT

My experience (bad) is very similar to that of the OP. Suspect our Plusnet modem failed two nights ago. There appeared to be a blue flash in the corner of the room where the modem sits and when we checked, the light was orange and the BB light flashing red. Tried all the guidance but lights remained the same. Changed cables and microfilter, still no joy. We have a dialling tone, so I was fairly sure it was the modem, but not certain.

Tried to contact customer service via chat (not available), by phone (not taking calls) and messaged on both Twitter and Facebook. I explained I was a key worker, working from home and reliant on internet. Two days later and zero response. I've spent the last two days using up my month's data allowance on my mobile tethering for work and have now managed to borrow a modem from a colleague which has got me back up and running. But I am seriously unimpressed by this customer service experience. So much so that after over 15 (!) years with Plusnet, this is likely to be my last.

I've now managed to raise a ticket - we'll see if that gets any response.

Re: impossible to speak to someone from customer service

Townman — Sat, 15 Aug 2020 14:38:13 GMT

@wursttrum

I’ve had an acknowledgement of the escalation - some “wriggle room” details are being clarified, a clarified answer will not be available until next week. Will you know the new address before you leave the existing one and what’s the maximum deferment window you would want? If there is to be any wriggle room here, there MUST be an order in place for service provision at the new address BEFORE you leave the old one.

Re: impossible to speak to someone from customer service

wurstturm — Mon, 17 Aug 2020 15:36:27 GMT

Thank you, Townman!

I do have the new address. One question I'm not sure about: They say it normally takes 4 weeks to move the account to a new place, so I wonder if that means you will have service at the old place for another, say, 29 days, and on day 30 you have it in your new place - or if there will be, as I assumed, a pause in between where you won't have any service?

In the former case, I could see how my request could be problematic, not so much in the second. Ideally I'd like 3 months, but anything would be better than nothing.

And, as I said, I would be happy to extend my contract by the number of months that I missed, if that kind of arrangement was possible, but I would rather miss a few months than start a whole new contract, given the current situation with customer service having become "customer service".

Re: impossible to speak to someone from customer service

Townman — Mon, 17 Aug 2020 18:19:33 GMT

Well that is a bit of a surprise!!

This should be possible, though 90 days (not quite 3 months) is a critical limit.

You might find that the COTS team can sort this for you (they have shorter wait times) - if there is any doubt ask that they refer to knowledge base article #2377.

Customer options

0800 013 2632 (from within the UK)
+44 330 123 9197 (from abroad)
8am - 8pm Monday to Friday
9am - 7pm Saturday
9am - 6pm Sunday

Good luck and enjoy your long trip aboard.