No broadband due to negligence from plusnet

[#1]

Hi,

I am a plus net customer since 2014.

On the 14th Apr, I got an email from plusnet which stated
Account username: lopesbruno, Phone number affected: XX
We're sorry to hear you're moving your landline service. Another service provider has told us that you're moving your phone service to them. Your phone service will transfer automatically on 1st May 2019 and will result in the cancellation of your phone contract.

This was cancelled on the 17th April
Account username: [Removed]
Thanks for deciding to stay with Plusnet. Your request to move your Home Phone product away has now been cancelled. This email confirms that your transfer has been stopped and that your Home Phone product won't be changed. You don't need to do anything and you will continue to be billed for your service as usual. My conversation with other plusnet representatives confirmed that the transfer of my line to another provider has been cancelled.

Now on the 18th suddenly in the morning my broadband stops working. I called the customer care and they told me that the fault has now been raised with our suppliers for further investigation. They have advised the estimated time for response is 20/06/19 23:59:59. Please note this is only an estimate and the fault could be resolved before this date, however we will continue to monitor for updates from them and if we are able to provide an update sooner than this we will do so.

 On the 21st June: I got a response orders we placed yesterday were cancelled by talk talk. I was told to contact talk talk and tell them my situation which I think plusnet should have done but I still contacted talk talk and they said they have not slammed the line.

On the 24th June: An order was placed by my colleague James on 21/06/19 and these are committed and are due to complete on 09/07/19. Unfortunately, we are not able to bring these dates forward.
I understand that you were not advised of the order placed by TalkTalk and you were advised we could get your services up and running by 28/06/19 which I would like to apologise for.

On 24th June: I was told another order has been place in another attempt to bring back the telephone line from TalkTalk. The reason why the previous order had cancelled was due to TalkTalk not releasing the line. The reference for the new order was OR0000010782558. I was again told to contact TalkTalk and make them aware of the situation and incorrectly taking over our line. I did that again to which talktalk replied, we have not taken the line.

On 27th June:  I got a response: We have now raised what's called an 'Urgent Service Restoration Request' to Openreach in an attempt to get you re-connected quicker than the standard lead times. We're just waiting for Openreach to speak to TalkTalk and then they'll come back to us and let us know how quickly we can get you re-connected. 

On 28th June: Then again response from plus net was: Unfortunately, our request for Urgent Service Restoration has been unsuccessful in this case, so in order to try and get you reconnected as soon as we can, we've placed an order to install a new line. Although this may require an engineer to attend your property to fit the line, this avoids any interaction with Talk-Talk, and this means that there's no chance of our order being rejected again. 

On 2nd July: My phone number was replaced with another phone number. I had previously informed that I would like to have my original/old phone number.

On 10th July: The order was completed, and internet started working.

My response: Plusnet has aplologised and offered 1 months compensation which I have rejected for the following reasons:

1. Unfortunately an apology is not enough in this case, it is clear that there is a major issue from plusnet’s side that this problem was not discovered and talktalk should have not got any opportunity to slam the line as plusnet knows that I am using this line.
2. I was told that the service would be up and running by 28th June 2019 and this didn’t happen.
3. My old phone number was lost because of the carelessness of Plusnet which allowed for line to be slammed by talk talk.
4. 21 days me and my family were without internet and it led to a lot of disruptions both nationally and internationally, whether it be arranging meetings with scientific collaborators or keeping in touch with family and friends.

My new contract has started from May 2019. According to Ofcom, Plusnet has signed for New Voluntary Codes of Practice on Broadband Speed (from 1 March 2019) but not for Voluntary code of practice for automatic compensation which compensates for

1. Delayed repair following loss for service (£8 per day)
2. Missed appointments (£25 per day)
3. Delays with the start of new service (£5 per day)

Technically Plusnet has breached the New Voluntary Codes of Practice on Broadband Speed in my case which provides:

• Improved relevancy of speed estimates by reflecting peak time speeds
• Providing a minimum guaranteed download speed at the point of sale
• Improving the process of the right to exit
• Widening the scope of the codes to cover all technologies

What should I do? Please if anyone could guide me I will be very grateful. They are offering me 40 at the moment. I am happy to move ahead to court if I have a strong case.

Bruno

Moderator's note by Mike (Mav): Personal information removed from a public forum (to an area that staff can see).

[#2]

Hi there, thanks for reaching out to us via our community forums.

I'm sorry for the issues you've had with another provider slamming your line and how we've handled the process.

I can see the transfer request was stopped on the 17th April, but unfortunately we received another transfer request on 4th June completing on the 18th June, it doesn't look like we emailed you in advance about that.

It's likely the fault we detected on the 18th was due to an engineer going out to the exchange to move your line off the BT kit we use to the TalkTalk equipment but ultimately the fault didn't progress due to the line being ceased that day. (An engineer went out on the 19th and reported back the line was ceased so they closed the job).

On the 20th we placed an order to takeover your line and this was cancelled by the now current provider of the line. It's possible that they've now got that line physically connected to their customers address so cancelled the takeover as invalid.

We placed the order again on the 21st and this was cancelled on the 24th for the same reasons as above. We placed the order yet again on the 24th and this was cancelled once more on the 25th.

I'm sorry to see the urgent service restoration request was unsuccessful, I'm going to be looking into this a little further internally as to the reasons why our suppliers rejected that.

Very shortly after that we placed an order to connect a spare line to your address, getting the order expedited for the soonest possible completion date(Based upon engineer availability) and this completed on the 2nd July. 

I suspect in order to do that as quickly as possible we had to provide a new number, while looking into this and typing this up I've placed an order to renumber your line back to the number you had which should go through tomorrow.

While I can see several advisers tried their best to get this resolved, the experience you've had I agree hasn't been great at all and I'll be passing feedback on to the appropriate teams internally as we likely could've avoided this had we notified you on the 4th June that another provider had placed an order to takeover your line.

Regarding your request for compensation, while we're committed to signing up to the OFCOM Automatic Compensation Scheme, as you know we've not yet signed up so I'm afraid we're not obligated to provide that level of compensation.

The points you've made about the new code of practice on broadband speed, it looks like the adviser who recontracted you hadn't followed the documented process on this occasion so I'm going to be including that in the feedback I'm sending.

I've added my reply and a link to your thread onto your support ticket 191372925. As part of our Customer Advocates department I've also moved the ticket it into my workflow to take ownership of moving forward. 

If you can update the ticket with what you'd be looking for to resolve your complaint I'd be happy to take this away and see if it's achievable or come back to you with a counter offer.

I'm about to leave the office now, so I'll pick up any replies tomorrow.

Thanks again,

Anoush