topic Re: Painfully slow speed, erratic connection, virutally no help :-( in Plusnet Feedback

Painfully slow speed, erratic connection, virutally no help :-(

jonnyg — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 19:02:38 GMT

This really saddens me. I have been a force9/plusnet customer for many many year, off the top of my head about 10 years. It always used to be a first class service up until about 2 years ago and then things started to get problematic. So far in 2009 I have experience almost constant problems with connection dropping constantly and speed issues going down to almost zero. Support always tells me it is my equipment...then they finally (after 5 weeks) did some testing at the BT exchange and found a fault and low and behold the speed came back to where it should be. Now over the past couple of weeks it's all happening again, and as usual nobody comes back to me, or when they do it is just to tell me that it is being looked at. Currently I am experiencing a download speed of 198 kbs and I am paying a premium rate of £22 ish a month for this.
As you can see from the screenshot of today, this really is unacceptable. I am at the stage now where I am considering moving away from plusnet and going to O2. Not something that I want to do as I have a long history with plusnet and also my fixed IP address is important to me, but if this problem is not resolved within the next 3 days then I am moving....interestingly nobody at support seems to be concerned about this. If it were my business I would be moving heaven and hell to ensure that I didn't lose any customers....amazing, truly amazing.

Re: Painfully slow speed, erratic connection, virutally no help :-(

glloyd — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 00:42:13 GMT

Join the club, getting PlusNet to pull their finger out to chase faults is like trying to get blood out of a stone. All you get is "It's being looked at" and the next update is x days time and then you don't get an update. I'm sad to say it looks like we are going back to the bad days again with a useless CSC.

Re: Painfully slow speed, erratic connection, virutally no help :-(

Mand — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 15:29:23 GMT

jonnyg,
What are your current synchronisation stats? You can get these from your router control panel. It looks like you have/had an intermittent sync problem, but have currently been connected for over 18 hours (which is the longest connection in a while).

Re: Painfully slow speed, erratic connection, virutally no help :-(

pies — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 15:45:15 GMT

This sounds all to familiar

Re: Painfully slow speed, erratic connection, virutally no help :-(

jonnyg — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 18:36:25 GMT

I really can't be bothered with this anymore. I've been with force9/plus net for about 10 years and this last year 2009 has been an absolute nightmare. Poor connection continuously all year with no help at all other than keep asking me to keep doing test that I have done a 1,000 times before.
This is absolutely the final straw. I applied for my MAC key today.....so 4 or 5 days from now I'm gone to a better place

Re: Painfully slow speed, erratic connection, virutally no help :-(

sheepherd — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 20:38:51 GMT

Jonnyg
At least you got one. I have been trying all day and all I get is a message telling me they are exceptinally busy. If only that 4-5 days started from when you try to get through instead of when you succeed. I suppose if we could do it via email the leavers might overwhelm the system.

Re: Painfully slow speed, erratic connection, virutally no help :-(

Mand — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 16:34:34 GMT

I'm sorry that you feel we aren't helping, unfortunately in order to get a fault investigated we do need certain information from you.
If the problem is line or exchange specific it's also likely to continue if you move to another ISP.

Re: Painfully slow speed, erratic connection, virutally no help :-(

jonnyg — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 20:35:38 GMT

I'm will to take the chance on another isp, mostly because of the really rubbish connection speed and service I have endured ALL YEAR this year. The last big problem was back in may when it took you 2 months to sort it out. Constantly telling me it was my equipment that was at fault and then you suddenly discovered it was your problem all along..and not apology or compensation. So quite simply I'm not putting up with this anymore.
What I really don't understand is that I raise a ticket, you ask me to perform your tests, which I do. You then ask me to perform the same test again and again in different threads and you never actually fix the problem. It never used to be like this at plusnet, it is only this year so I assume something drastic happend with a change of manager or similar and the new manager probably doesn't have a clue as to how to manage a support desk or manage staff. If he did, then there wouldn't be so many people complaining about the poor level of service.
Anyway, I'm done here now. Just waiting for the MAC key to arrive.

Re: Painfully slow speed, erratic connection, virutally no help :-(

jonnyg — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 21:20:20 GMT

MAC key is here and I have just signed up with another provider, so at long last I can get back to some sense of normality. Such a shame it has come to this as I have been a customer for 10 years now, but just can't take this non-service any longer.

Re: Painfully slow speed, erratic connection, virutally no help :-(

jelv — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 10:29:36 GMT

Good luck (I think you've going to need it!)

Re: Painfully slow speed, erratic connection, virutally no help :-(

jonnyg — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 09:51:54 GMT

I find this highly amusing. After months of slow speed and in particular the past month of 192kbs download, just another few days and my connection is being migrated to a new supplier.
Surprise surprise, after all this time of plusnet telling me it is my equipment (even though I have performed tests which prove it is not) the speed this morning has suddenly shot up to 3500kbs.
Which makes me think that somewhere along the line someone has been throttling back my connection, but of course pn will never own up to that or the cause of the problem either. It just really amazes me that pn have insisted all the way along that it is not "their" problem, but now suddenly with no changes overnight (other than it is snowing) the speed jumps from 192kbs to 3500kbs.
so as you can see, the speed issue will not be travelling with me when I move ISP as the problem is obviously PlusNet and nowhere else !

Re: Painfully slow speed, erratic connection, virutally no help :-(

Strat — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 10:07:18 GMT

http://usertools.plus.net/status/archive/1260999213.htm
Please note the reference to BT....not Plusnet.

Re: Painfully slow speed, erratic connection, virutally no help :-(

jonnyg — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 11:11:47 GMT

Yes I have seen that. However, that doesn't explain why I have been experiencing slow speeds for the most part of this year and it certainly doesn't explain why the help desk keep telling me it is my equipment that is at fault....especially when I have proved (by testing new equipment) that it is not!
dick:quote

Re: Painfully slow speed, erratic connection, virutally no help :-(

grinder2 — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 11:24:48 GMT

Since I joined few months ago from Onetel who I had no problems with had nothing but erratic speeds very low speed below 1meg and after test after test no better, in all the years I have had broadband with other companies never once had to do a test because never had problem.
It seems to be a Plusnet thing and I am sick of constantly being asked to check this that and the other when the only thing thats changed is my provider what a shower they are I will be moving once my year is up.

Re: Painfully slow speed, erratic connection, virutally no help :-(

Anotherone — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 00:01:57 GMT

grinder2, can you please post your exchange name?