Shambolic

[#1]

Rant begins.
My attempt to save some money by moving from FTTC back to ADSL has so far resulted in nothing less than a shambolic series of failures.  I am not interested in whether PlusNet or ‘their suppliers’ are to blame – my contract is with PlusNet, so I’m afraid they have to take the flak.
I rang the COT on 28th August to see if they could offer me a reasonable deal that would save me some money, and if they couldn’t, to request a MAC.  They offered me a reasonable deal on an ADSL connection with a 12 month contract, so I paid my line rental save for the next 12 months, and agreed to move onto ADSL.  I was told this would complete on my billing date – 6th September.  A ticket appeared on my account later that day, telling me the order would complete on the 4th September – fair enough, I thought. At least that way I would have a couple of days before the weekend to sort out any problems.
I phone customer services on 3rd September, to see if I could find out what time the changeover was likely to happen the following day.  I was told it wasn’t happening until Friday 6th…  I later discovered a closed question in the depths of my account from 1st September saying the order had been updated to complete by midnight on the 7th.  Nobody had bothered passing that on to me.
At midday on 6th, my FTTC connection died, and I dug out the new router PlusNet had sent me and plugged it in – only to find that there was no sign of life from it.  I dug out the old adsl router I had from pre-FTTC PlusNet days, and following the instructions from a customer service agent, attempted to connect up…  I had a solid green ‘broadband’ light, but the ‘internet’ light alternated between red, green and off.  Performing the router’s ‘connectivity check’ confirmed there was dsl on the line, but ‘no ATM activity’ and a cross by PPP, with the message ‘No ATM activity detected on your DSL line’.
I then entered into a series of long calls to customer support – each involving a wait of around 30 minutes to speak to anyone.  I was pushed back and forth between faults and provisioning. I was told the work had been completed and it just needed plusnet to update my account, then that it was BT’s systems that needed updating, and that provisioning would ‘sort that for you now’ – needless to say, the person in provisioning thought different. On one occasion, speaking to a technical bod in faults, I mentioned that my router was reporting the connection as ‘G.992.1 annex A’ rather than the ADSL 2+ I was expecting. He told me he didn’t know what G.992.1 was…  Finally, I was assured the work had been done, and it was just a matter of waiting until the systems updated, which would happen by midnight.
Midnight came, and nothing was different.  I rang again. Apparently PlusNet had just had a message from ‘their suppliers’ that there was a delay with the engineering work, and that it would be reviewed on 11th September…  I was told that if I wanted to know more, I would have to ring the provisioning team in the morning.  I did that.  And it seems the provisioning team don’t know any more, because they haven’t been told what the problem is by ‘their suppliers’…  But not to worry, my ticket would be escalated to the specialist team who deal with ‘the suppliers’.  But as ‘the suppliers’ might not be working over the weekend, I probably won’t hear any more until Monday!
Clearly, my first priority is that I would like this resolved sooner rather than later – so far I have spent one month’s worth of the savings this was meant to achieve on mobile internet access so I can get my dissertation finished by Monday.  
However, I would also like someone at PlusNet to take responsibility for this and give me an explanation of (1) What the problem is, (2) Why it wasn’t possible to reinstate my FTTC connection until my ADSL connection could go ahead, (3)What action PlusNet plan to take (maybe with their mysterious suppliers) to prevent issues such as this  (for I am sure I am not the only one…) happening again – because without reassurance that these issues are being dealt with, I will be looking to leave PlusNet as soon as possible.
Rant ends.
No doubt I will now have to wait until Monday in the hope this is picked up by one of the Digital Care people…

[#2]

Would it be possible for one of the plusnet people on the forum to pick this up and chase with your suppliers, please?
I didn't hear from anyone this morning as promised, and when I rang to find out what is going on I was told contradictory information about 1, work needing to be done at the exchange, 2. work needing to be done at the fibre cabinet, 3. that after I had been disconnected someone found out that my slot at the exchange had been taken by someone else, and 4. presumably in a frantic attempt to pacify me, that I should connect up my adsl router because I should still be able to connect to the internet with that even if my line is still on fibre...
I live in the vain hope that there is still someone at plusnet who speaks the truth, doesn't spout nonsense, and who is prepared to give your suppliers a rather large push...

[#3]

Hi alanj,
Really sorry to hear about the problems you've experienced there, I'd have hoped for you to have a much more hassle free experience with a better level of communication.

Quote

I later discovered a closed question in the depths of my account from 1st September saying the order had been updated to complete by midnight on the 7th.  Nobody had bothered passing that on to me.

Sorry for any confusion but each time a broadband order is progressed one of those tickets will be automatically generated stating a date of up to 24 hours after the originally quoted date of the order.

Quote

(1) What the problem is,

There's a delay in the engineering work, As we became aware of this on a weekend we've not been able to gather the specific details until now, I apologise if that's appeared as if we're withholding information or haven't communicated this well.

Quote

(2) Why it wasn’t possible to reinstate my FTTC connection until my ADSL connection could go ahead

As that service has been removed it would have to be reinstated by a new and separate order for FTTC provision which we wouldn't be able to request whilst the order to downgrade the service is still oustanding.

Quote

(3)What action PlusNet plan to take (maybe with their mysterious suppliers) to prevent issues such as this  (for I am sure I am not the only one…) happening again

None I'm afraid, unfortunately delays due to issues like the one I've mentioned can and do happen, I'm sorry that we've not been able to give you the precise reason until now, this was due to be chased further by our provisioning team for more information, I've simply intervened to try and get that done a little sooner for you.
I'm really sorry for the unforeseen issue with this downgrade

I've just been preparing this response for the past few minutes, then noticed you replied in the interim. Leave this with me as I'm still in contact with our suppliers trying to find out the exact reason for the delay.

[#4]

Thanks, Adam. I appreciate you chasing this.
I must admit I was amused to find a comment has been added to my ticket saying "we are not looking into this with our suppliers..."  I assume it should have said "now" rather than "not",  but... 

[#5]

No problem,

Quote

"we are not looking into this with our suppliers..."

Sorry, yes that sounds like a VERY unfortunate typo!
The order didn't complete due to engineer resourcing issues. I'm very disappointed regarding the lack of communication regarding this but as you say that's something that's between us and our suppliers, I'm just very sorry that's left you without a connection for now as a result.
This is was due to be reviewed by our suppliers on the 11th which didn't sit well with me so I've made it very clear that we need your order completing and your service re provided  before the end of today.
Adam