topic Re: Extremely rude customer service agent - awful service in Plusnet Feedback

Extremely rude customer service agent - awful service

Lysen — Sat, 28 Nov 2020 11:12:32 GMT

Been with PlusNet for ~7 months now. Utterly disgraceful customer service. What i say on the phone or write in support tickets is ignored (e.g., the details of my exact issue), and anything they say over the phone or in support tickets is either a false promise ("we'll get back to you in 72 hours" = we'll close the ticket in 7 days without responding to you, or "we'll send an engineer out" = we'll close the ticket in 7 days without sending an engineer out) or an outright lie ("your service is fine, your minimum speed is being met, any dropouts aren't part of your contract").

Today's agent, [CSA Removed] (CSC Analyst), treated both my partner and myself with contempt throughout the phone call. Firstly -- as has happened regularly with PN -- after almost a month of a ticket being opened, with promises to respond within timeframes, yet 0 responses to my messages, this agent decided to run a line test without informing us beforehand, admitting on the phone he knew full well it would disconnect our line. This cost my partner hours of work, as like many of us, she is working from home.

Concluding the test, he phoned up, and with disgraceful demeanor, stated there was no issue with our line, and that there would be a charge for an engineer visit. He continually ignored our reasoning that it is an intermittent fault, and simply spoke over us on numerous occasions -- often raising his voice, and speaking patronisingly -- reiterating that we had to agree to an engineer visit.

I do not appreciate being spoken to in this manner, nor the countless lies spouted by the agent -- such as the fact that using a VPN meant our service would disconnect. What kind of absurd reasoning is this?

He constantly refused to escalate our complaint, as has happened countless times with PN. He eventually hanged up, and closed our support ticket without acknowledging an issue.

This is utterly appalling. Where exactly do i progress my complaint to? Do PN even have a complaints procedure? Because i have raised numerous complaints, and have got absolutely nowhere -- nothing is even acknowledged on PN's end.

Is the next step Ofcom?

Moderator's note by Dick (Strat): CSA name(s) removed (to an area staff can see) as per Forum rules.

Re: Extremely rude customer service agent - awful service

RichardB — Sat, 28 Nov 2020 09:14:24 GMT

Hi Lysen
The info on how to raise a complaint at:
https://www.plus.net/help/legal/complaints-code-of-practice/
Regards
Richard

Re: Extremely rude customer service agent - awful service

adamwalker — Sat, 28 Nov 2020 11:37:07 GMT

Hello Lysen,

I'm so sorry to see this and want to apologise for any distress caused. I've marked a complaint on your account and we'll look into how the call was conducted as it sounds like some feedback and training needs ought to be addressed.

I've had a look into the issue at hand and it is definitely something we can help with so I've reopened the fault ticket and have sent a response which you can access here: https://www.plus.net/wizard/?p=view_question&id=207828300

Re: Extremely rude customer service agent - awful service

allrounder55 — Sat, 05 Dec 2020 11:59:28 GMT

Hello, you just need to leave like i did, this company has deteriorated to the stage, where nothing will get resolved, its obvious there struggling. I myself did receive a phone call from PN and to be fair they even agreed my complaint had not followed the correct procedure, my issues had been ongoing for approx 2 months, so ive now left, im glad i have as now, as i have a better more reliable service, you may end up with a termination fee if you do leave, but luckily mine wasn't much left to pay, i couldn't carry on as i was. as i use the internet for my line of work and on a number of occassions it had disconnected whilst dealing with a customer. Luckily it didn't disconnect whilst carrying out a bank transfer or debit card transfer, but i cannot gamble on an unstable connection. For 12 months my Plusnet fast broadband was fine no real issues its only since covid 19 went mainstream and the public put a lot more demand on the internet it seemed to affect my service i had random disconnects up to as many as 10 times a day unstable connection speeds dropping to as little as 0.23meg not even 1 meg it was that bad it wouldnt even load up certain webpages, i rang support who said they couldnt see an issue with my line, maybe it was the router? and so it went on and on to the stage id had enough good luck with it anyway cheers.

Re: Extremely rude customer service agent - awful service

Lysen — Thu, 10 Dec 2020 19:59:38 GMT

Well, after two weeks, an engineer appointment was finally due today, which (as before) never materialised. I can't say i'm particularly surprised, as the last post in this thread demonstrates this isn't an issue for me, as some kind of unlucky customer; this is an issue with PlusNet.

I appreciate the quick responses in this thread, and for responding to my support ticket, but evidently PN has systemic issues.

At this point, this is a farce. This would have been PN's opportunity to demonstrate some level of customer service, and to resolve the issue. Instead...

Re: Extremely rude customer service agent - awful service

MasterOfReality — Fri, 11 Dec 2020 09:45:51 GMT

Hi @Lysen

I'm so sorry that this has happened.

I've looked into this and provided an update on the same ticket that Adam linked above.

Please accept my apologies for the time this issue is taking to resolve.

All the best.

Re: Extremely rude customer service agent - awful service

Lysen — Sun, 27 Dec 2020 18:49:26 GMT

Another 2 weeks on, and yet again, no response and no resolution.

Thanks to the forum staff for their help, but once this leaves the forums, it enters the twilight zone and goes nowhere.

Can i ask for a list of available engineer appointment times over the holidays, and details on where things are with our complaint? I'd then like to request an appointment through the forums here, and then ask that we be contacted in the event of the engineer not arriving on the chosen date.

It's beyond belief that we're still running around in circles this many months on...

Re: Extremely rude customer service agent - awful service

MasterOfReality — Mon, 28 Dec 2020 09:26:11 GMT

Hi @Lysen

Please accept my apologies for the time it has taken to reply and for the issue which you are experiencing.

I'm afraid that it is not possible to book engineer visits over the Forum, this is due to the account fault ticket not being linked with the Forum thread you have created.

I have run some further tests on your line and have detected a external fault on the phone line side that more than likely will be the thing causing the issues you are experiencing. there may well still be a broadband related fault as well, however we need to get the WLR3 side of things sorted first as that always takes priority due.

I have raised the fault up with our suppliers who have requested an appointment be made with yourself to resolve this.

I have updated the open fault ticket on your account and followed this up with an email. Please read the ticket/email reply to me accordingly.

Kind Regards

Re: Extremely rude customer service agent - awful service

Lysen — Fri, 08 Jan 2021 19:16:45 GMT

Aaaand we're still at square one, despite assurances this would be handled personally.
PlusNet: we'll take your money and run.

Re: Extremely rude customer service agent - awful service

Lysen — Fri, 08 Jan 2021 19:35:56 GMT

Oh, ok, another line test not long after posting. Had a feeling that's what caused the sudden, long drop out. At least it wasn't done while in the middle of important work like last time (resulting in massive loss, and wasting hours of work, with the support agent claiming yes he knew it would mess with the line, but no he also knew it wouldn't affect the line, and that despite he knew it simultaneously would and would not cause a disconnect, thay there was no need to let us know before hand).

What exactly is the procedure for handling support tickets? In most formsof CS, 24hrs is the longest delay before at the very least responding to say "yes, we're working on it".
Weeks go by with PN without a peep...

Re: Extremely rude customer service agent - awful service

Gandalf — Fri, 08 Jan 2021 19:45:38 GMT

Thanks for getting back to us @Lysen I'm really sorry for the delay.

I've booked an engineer visit and updated ticket 208818511 with the appointment details and this is confirmed in the supplier systems. We'll follow things up with you as soon as we can after in the hope that's your broadband's fixed then.

(The drop you've had was as a result of the test I've just ran so I could book the engineer with our suppliers. Apologies again for the long delay in picking up the ticket, I've passed feedback on regarding that)

Re: Extremely rude customer service agent - awful service

cOmp — Tue, 12 Jan 2021 14:00:58 GMT

I feel for you Lysen, you can escatale to ofcom but will be required to give Plusnet sufficient time to address your issues. You can ask them to confirm that the issue has come to a deadlock once you have confirmation of deadlock ofcom will take your case up and you maybe able to leave FOC.

Sorry is an expression of regret and in the world it doesn't fix the underlying issues so just pull your socks up and fix the negitive attitude you have towards your customers and accept responsibility.

Have you even got any staff on trustpilot? You are rated 1/5 this sums up how this company had taken a massive nose dive over the years.

Re: Extremely rude customer service agent - awful service

Thrall — Tue, 12 Jan 2021 16:47:57 GMT

@cOmp Ofcom don’t deal with individual complaints.

Complaints process: https://www.plus.net/help/legal/complaints-code-of-practice/

Re: Extremely rude customer service agent - awful service

cOmp — Tue, 12 Jan 2021 17:12:17 GMT

They may don't get involved directly but will advice on what you should expect from an ISP and how to proceed further. The ombudsman will directly deal with the issues but again they will ask that you give the ISP time to resolve the issues. I no longer work in retail/services where we were regulated very heavily which still is, and the standards had to be very high. If I recall from my days in retail/services, 28 days is the limit unless the complainant agrees with the company to extend this can also be extended if their is a 3rd party involved example Openreach etc.

Didn't Plusnet get fined over half a million for bad customer services and inaccurate billing?

You'd think they'd learn from their mistakes.

Re: Extremely rude customer service agent - awful service

Lysen — Tue, 02 Feb 2021 21:38:42 GMT

And finally, freedom from Plusnet has arrived, though of course not without issue.

Changed supplier the other week. Called today to make sure our time with PN was at an end.

Utterly rude, aggressive and arrogant customer service agent kept talking over me and condescendingly telling me that we couldn't cancel now, and that we'd have to remain with PN until the 9th (when our new ISP takes over). He specifically said that if we cancelled, our new supplier would cancel our contract, and we would have to re-apply for a new contract with them, causing further delays. And best of all, we would have to pay £60 for an engineer to connect the line.

I said that didn't sound right, as there are plenty of cases when a person with no current provider (new customers, new premises etc.) signs up. He interrupted and said he had 10 years of experience that says otherwise.

What an absolute joke. Aggressive attempts to squeeze a couple more pennies out.

Thankfully, the last agent i spoke to was professional, and due to rude CSA getting the details of the "early cancellation policy" wrong, we were able to escape PN without additional fees.

This forum, and this thread, should serve as a reminder for anyone considering joining PlusNet. I've never experienced such disgusting customer service, from an ISP or from any other business.

Basic. Training. That's what's lacking.

Re: Extremely rude customer service agent - awful service

Thrall — Tue, 02 Feb 2021 22:44:21 GMT

@Lysen If you’ve asked for your services to be cancelled before your new provider takes over your line then the odds are they won’t be able to take over your line without any downtime because a cancellation request will put a cease on the line.

Re: Extremely rude customer service agent - awful service

Lysen — Tue, 02 Feb 2021 23:22:47 GMT

Downtime's not the problem. Paying further £ to PN, on principle, would have been the problem. It's only a week, anyway.

Being told abject lies -- that our new contract with another ISP would be terminated and incur additional charges -- is the problem.

Being consistently lied to by Plusnet is the problem.

Re: Extremely rude customer service agent - awful service

Thrall — Tue, 02 Feb 2021 23:32:36 GMT

If your line gets ceased then the new provider’s transfer order will fail and they’ll have to replace the order which will lead to a delayed activation

Re: Extremely rude customer service agent - awful service

Thrall — Tue, 02 Feb 2021 23:43:41 GMT

Also if that happens there are wholesale charges to reactivate a stopped line especially if the line’s going from BT to MPF or vice versa, which your new provider may or may not pass on to you.

I believe Plusnet charge £49.99 to reactivate a stopped MPF line to BT which may be what the agent was referring to as an example.

Re: Extremely rude customer service agent - awful service

Townman — Thu, 04 Feb 2021 13:40:16 GMT

@Lysen wrote:

Being told abject lies -- that our new contract with another ISP would be terminated and incur additional charges -- is the problem.

Being consistently lied to by Plusnet is the problem.

You really do need to get your facts right before making claims such as this. What Plusnet told you is the truth.

When you want to transfer suppliers, you MUST leave the WHOLE PROCESS to the gaining supplier. If you tell your existing supplier (whoever they are) to CANCEL the service, the following WILL happen...

They will place a service termination order on your line with BT Wholesale and BT Openreach because that is how the industry is regulated by Ofcom
BT Wholesale / BT Openreach will cancel all other provider's orders on that line, because a current owner's termination order takes precedence
You will become liable for any early termination charges because you broke the contract early (note that the ETCs advised at the time of the request to cancel might not be the same as those payable at the end of the termination notice period)
On termination date, BT Openreach will cease the line
You could lose the current phone number
You then need to get a new ISP to initiate service (replace the cancelled orders) - that will take the Ofcom regulated lead-time to supply
You could find in the interim that BT Openreach has reused the circuit to your home and if on FTTC the fibre port in your local cabinet ... which will give rise to even more delays in being reconnected