Sold a broadband package that`s unusable and is more expensive than fibre!

[#1]

Hi. I have been trying to get through to anyone at plusnet regarding my awful broadband, but as usual chat is unavailable and there is a half hour wait or more on phone, so thought I`d vent my spleen here.

Moved house to a new address that did not have a landline connected. Contacted Plusnet to see if they could supply me with the necessary line and associated broadband package. The woman I chatted too said they could, but the adsl package would be more expensive than advertised and the download speed might not give me the up to the 17mbps as I was in a semi rural area with an LLU exchange or something, and the speed could possibly get down to as low as 3.5mbps.

As I`m not an telecom engineer, and was not offered any other deal or package I assumed I couldn't get fibre or any better deal and this was all I could get. I accepted this and proceeded with the order, which costs me £18.99 line rental and £17.49 for the broadband, total £36.48.

I waited for 7 weeks for my new phone line to be installed, and this entailed hours of chat and masses of mail messages just to get sorted out. Then it took a further week for my broadband to go live, which wouldn`t originally work as the sign in detail in the router setting was wrong.

The broadband is useless, web pages take an age to load, or most of the time wont load due to taking to long to connect, trying to open more than one site at a time is just never going to happen, its like I have gone back to dial up!

Spoke to some tech guy who went through the usual things, connect using ethernet, use the master socket etc. Speed test showed a max, and I mean a brief maximum of 1.0 mbps download and 0.5 upload.

Oh and it turns out now that my guaranteed minimum is only 1.5 mbps, so even slower than I was originally led to believe I would be getting at worse. But hey I`m not even getting that.

Anyway I would be more than happy to upgrade, but what is really gauling me is that fibre has actually always been available where I live and that I could actually get it for less than I`m paying now!

I just went on the plusnet site, put in my neighbours address and low and behold it would only cost £32.49 a month, and that`s on a 12 month contract for a new customer.

But now because I took out the crappy package which I thought was all I could get I`m not a new customer am I, and if I want to upgrade now it will cost me more, which isn`t the major issue but It also appears that I would now have to sign up for a minimum 18 month contract!

So I`m currently paying a fortune for a service that`s not as advertised, is mind numbingly and intolerably slow and the only way out is to pay even more money and have to take out a longer contract, or simply carry on getting ripped off for the next 11 months of my 12 month contract and then go somewhere else.

Not ideal in any way, and I can`t even get through to discuss it with anyone, I`m really disappointed with this whole scenario.

[#2]

HI @martin404

I'm extremely sorry for the experience you have had regarding your order and post sign up support.

I have taken a look into this situation for you and the first thing I check was if there were any issues preventing you from gaining your full speed capacity. 

I ran a line test and identified an issue know as "Battery Contact" on your line itself, this generally means that part of the external cable feeding your premise is being disturbed by a power source and affecting your service. 

I have raised this issue with our supplier who will investigate further - there is now an open fault ticket on your account which you can view by clicking here. 

I'm very sorry you were not given the option of having an FTTC service rather than ADSL. 

Looking at our suppliers DSL Checker, i can see that (capacity depending) you should be able to get fibre speeds;

Featured Products	Downstream Line Rate(Mbps)		Upstream Line Rate(Mbps)		Downstream Handback Threshold(Mbps)	WBC FTTC Availability Date	WBC SOGEA Availability Date	Left in Jumper
	High	Low	High	Low
VDSL Range A (Clean)	80	74	20	19	67	Available	--	--
VDSL Range B (Impacted)	80	70.5	20	19	56.9	Available	--	--

In roder to discuss what can be done regarding this, i would highly advise talking to our Customer Options Team on 

0800 013 2632 or 0330 123 9197 (Both free from a Plusnet Landline)

Opening Times:
08:00 - 20:00 Monday to Friday
09:00 - 19:00 Saturday
09:00 - 18:00 Sundays

at the time of writing this message, there is no wait time for this department. 

I hope this helps in some way or other. 

Kind Regards, 

Alisdair 

[#3]

Hi Alisdair

Thank you for your fast response. And thank you for spotting there is some fault on the line and raising the issue.

I hope that at least I can get something fixed, and get a semblance of reasonable connectivity as presently it would be quicker to Etch-a-Sketch web pages   

Thanks again Martin

[#4]

Hi Martin.

I've checked the fault and I can see it should be looked into early next week.

Fingers crossed it's fixed soon. Let us know how it goes.

[#5]

Well apparently Openreach fixed a problem with the line, but it has made no difference to my broadband which is still beyond terribly slow, and yes have given it several days, restarted the router ect. ect but to no avail.

I`m pretty much giving Plusnet £36+ for the privilege of having a useless white box with green lights on it.

I am now forced to use my phone (not a Plusnet sim) as a hotspot,  which again is`nt the fastest thing, but at least I can then use the internet without wanting to throw my PC out of the window, but obviously I`m now paying two lots of bills just to have very slow internet!

It`s like going to an expensive restaurant, paying for a meal and when it eventually arrives its uncooked and awful, and when you complain the maitre de says that you can go and buy some more produce and cook the meal yourself.......but you still have to pay for the original meal you ordered.

So I was sold a dreadful package, (guarantee of a whole mind-blowing 1.5mb download speed) which is nearly £10 more expensive than the 76mb unlimited fibre package I actually could have had. Had to wait 2 months for it to be connected, and it has not worked properly since day 1.

I pay for my partners sim, which is Plusnet, no problems, exactly as ordered, good value and does what is says on the tin.

Which is why I chose Plusnet for my broadband, I am woefully regretting that decision. 

[#6]

@martin404 Sorry to hear that.

I've tested your line today and I can see that there was a stuck profile on your line which was restricting your download speeds. This has now been removed and you should now be getting speeds of around 6mbps.

If you do not see any immediate improvement please reboot your router in the first instance

[#7]

Hi Matthew,

Thanks for your help, the broadband download speed has now gone up to nearly 6mbps, though the upload is 0.3mbps.

But at least I can use the internet for basic surfing now, so that`s a massive bonus.

I`m still miffed that I was not informed I could have had fibre broadband, so I could have actually used my firestick or streamed video`s etc. I would have gladly payed the extra less money!!!!

And I`m also miffed that I have to pay more for my basic broadband because I was told it was due to the area. When all of my neighbors just payed the standard rate as was advertised on their respected providers web sites (none of those I have chatted to are on Plusnet though)

I do feel I have been somewhat stitched up for a bad package at the highest possible price. I was hoping I would have been happy with the service, but I`m now just waiting for the 10 months left of my contract to be up..

I must though thank Matthew and the other guys on the forum who have been helpful and rapid in their resolutions, it`s just a shame about everything else.