Unauthorthorised A/C Changes ... allegedly and all that
Hmmmmm, I see that PN support or whatever has seemingly gone all t*ts up and/or someone has decided to make an unrequested and therefore unauthorised change to my A/C once again. I have several emails this morning allegedly from PN support telling me that "My BB Product Change is now complete" as well as emails quoting Ticket Reference Numbers raised on my A/C and so on e.g. 29314429
Just what the h*ll is going on here because the ONLY change that is ever likely to be requested from me involves the provison of a MAC and in fact I have SPECIFICALLY informed PN more than once in the past that I DO NOT want my line "upgrading" to a MAX line and/or any alternative/current product offering despite their fairly regular insistence in the past in trying to change my A/C and/or connection. Add to this all the issues recently with DNS and an almost complete lack of data transfer being apparent on some/most services immediately midnight comes around and that MAC request is going to be coming in a d@mn sight sooner than even I was expecting it to !!!
My post-midnight service has almost always been VERY poor or VERY unreliable and unpredictable at best but it's way more than a joke at the moment. I just happened to be browsing youtube yesterday evening and the moment the clock hit midnight ... absolutely nothing. Virtually all data stopped completely or there was a several 10's seconds or even a minute or so delay at best before anything at all happened. Completely unusable as transfers stalled part way through even if they actually started. Coincidence and a youtube problem ? I think not. By no means the first time it has happened and ftp was also affected. Even email was a bit stranger than usual with timeouts and no responses etc. and many random webpages required several refreshes to load fully I've had these kind of problems for donkey's years on and off and the common denominator is PN (or the exchange) rather than external sites or my network. However, my money is always on PN. because just about every every time I've ever mentioned it, there were no reported problems at the exchange and the problem mysteriously goes away a day or so later no matter how long the current issue had been apparent !! This was NOT apparently a DNS issue although that wasn't helping and nor was it a line/router problem either because some stuff was working just fine. Connections were generally being made in a reasonable time but no data was being transferred and/or so many packets were being lost that it was simply never going to work satisfactorily no matter what. Gateway was (as it almost always is) pte-ag2. I have always found that any gateway at Telehouse North gives my significant problems on a quite regular basis so I always hop around if/when necessary to try and get Telehouse East and pte-ag2 in particular because history tells me that results in a minimum of problems being experienced. Having said that, I do appear to have been force disconnected early this morning so I'm on some other gateway at the mo.
Anyways, back to the mysterious emails. Typical email below - looks genuine(ish) to me but I simply can't be bothered to check it all out properly TBH
Incidentally, the monthly subscription is not consistent in the various emails either, different amounts are quoted in different emails.
Soooooo, answers on a postcard and all that please ... Are the various emails that I have fake, stupidity, reality or another security stylee issue at PN towers ? And is the DNS and (non-DNS related) post-midnight data transfer issues that I've reported and provided evidence of no end of times over the years ever likely to get resolved once and for all ?
Just what the h*ll is going on here because the ONLY change that is ever likely to be requested from me involves the provison of a MAC and in fact I have SPECIFICALLY informed PN more than once in the past that I DO NOT want my line "upgrading" to a MAX line and/or any alternative/current product offering despite their fairly regular insistence in the past in trying to change my A/C and/or connection. Add to this all the issues recently with DNS and an almost complete lack of data transfer being apparent on some/most services immediately midnight comes around and that MAC request is going to be coming in a d@mn sight sooner than even I was expecting it to !!!
My post-midnight service has almost always been VERY poor or VERY unreliable and unpredictable at best but it's way more than a joke at the moment. I just happened to be browsing youtube yesterday evening and the moment the clock hit midnight ... absolutely nothing. Virtually all data stopped completely or there was a several 10's seconds or even a minute or so delay at best before anything at all happened. Completely unusable as transfers stalled part way through even if they actually started. Coincidence and a youtube problem ? I think not. By no means the first time it has happened and ftp was also affected. Even email was a bit stranger than usual with timeouts and no responses etc. and many random webpages required several refreshes to load fully I've had these kind of problems for donkey's years on and off and the common denominator is PN (or the exchange) rather than external sites or my network. However, my money is always on PN. because just about every every time I've ever mentioned it, there were no reported problems at the exchange and the problem mysteriously goes away a day or so later no matter how long the current issue had been apparent !! This was NOT apparently a DNS issue although that wasn't helping and nor was it a line/router problem either because some stuff was working just fine. Connections were generally being made in a reasonable time but no data was being transferred and/or so many packets were being lost that it was simply never going to work satisfactorily no matter what. Gateway was (as it almost always is) pte-ag2. I have always found that any gateway at Telehouse North gives my significant problems on a quite regular basis so I always hop around if/when necessary to try and get Telehouse East and pte-ag2 in particular because history tells me that results in a minimum of problems being experienced. Having said that, I do appear to have been force disconnected early this morning so I'm on some other gateway at the mo.
Anyways, back to the mysterious emails. Typical email below - looks genuine(ish) to me but I simply can't be bothered to check it all out properly TBH
Quote Received: from spooler by mail.My_PN_Account.plus.com (Mercury/32 v4.62); 8 Jul 2009 04:47:40 +0100
X-Envelope-To: mbtwpn
Return-path: <www-data@fhw-workplace05.servers.plus.net>
Envelope-to: postmaster@My_PN_Account.plus.com
Delivery-date: Wed, 08 Jul 2009 04:46:57 +0100
Received: from [212.159.8.109] (helo=pih-relay08.plus.net)
by pih-inmx21.plus.net with esmtp (PlusNet MXCore v2.00) id 1MOO7U-0006ec-SY ; Wed, 08 Jul 2009 04:46:56 +0100
Received: from [212.159.15.11] (helo=pih-workplace05.plus.net)
by pih-relay08.plus.net with esmtp (Exim) id 1MOO7U-0000wG-Ou; Wed, 08 Jul 2009 04:46:56 +0100
Received: from www-data by pih-workplace05.plus.net with local (Exim 4.63)
(envelope-from <www-data@fhw-workplace05.plus.net>)
id 1MOO7U-0004kH-M7; Wed, 08 Jul 2009 04:46:56 +0100
To: My_Name@My_Pn_Account.plus.com,postmaster@My_Pn_Account.plus.com
From: "PlusNet Support" <support@plus.net>
X-Mailer: PlusNet-System-Email-Handler
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="fw-body-0ffe7360978788dcccae54c9f59e8f6c"
Message-Id: <E1MOO7U-0004kH-M7@pih-workplace05.plus.net>
Date: Wed, 08 Jul 2009 04:46:56 +0100
X-Plusnet-Relay: 3c0d6f45d5ed2861e0965fcb40a334ee
X-PN-Virus-Filtered: by PlusNet MXCore (v5.00)
Subject: Your broadband product change is now complete
X-Agent-Received: from Mercury POP (PN/My_Pn_Account) (pop.My_Pn_Account.plus.com); Wed, 08 Jul 2009 09:41:13 +0100
X-Agent-Junk-Probability: 0
Dear Mr My_Surname,
Your product change is now complete, here are the details:
Your PlusNet account details
------------------------------
Broadband Product: PlusNet Broadband Plus up to 8Mb (Monthly Contract, No Modem)
Monthly Subscription: ñ4.67
Estimated speed: 8 Mbps
This is an estimate of the line speed you'll get.
Read about why your actual speed might vary from this estimate -
http://www.plus.net/support/broadband/speed_guide/high-speed.shtml
Username: My_Pn_Account
Use this username to log in to our web site.
Broadband Username: My_Pn_Account@plusdsl.net
Enter this username into your modem or router to connect to broadband.
Email Address: My_Name@My_Pn_Account.plus.com
This is your PlusNet email address.
What's my password?
-------------------
The password for all of the above is the one you chose when you were signing up to PlusNet.
Need Help?
----------
If you can connect to the Internet and you have a question about your service or you are experiencing problems, you may find the answers you need in the support section of our web site.
Go to the support pages
https://www.plus.net/support/
You can call our Support Team 24 hours a day, all year round on 0845 1400200 (lo-call rates apply).
The Help Assistant
The Help Assistant quickly directs you to the information you need, or lets you raise a question directly to our Support Team.
If you're having trouble finding what you need from our support pages, then the Help Assistant is for you.
To use the Help Assistant go to https://help.plus.net
Kind regards,
PlusNet Customer Support
http://www.plus.net/
Email ref: E0009
--
PlusNet plc
Registered Office: Internet House, 2 Tenter Street, Sheffield, S1 4BY
Registered in England no: 3279013
Incidentally, the monthly subscription is not consistent in the various emails either, different amounts are quoted in different emails.
Soooooo, answers on a postcard and all that please ... Are the various emails that I have fake, stupidity, reality or another security stylee issue at PN towers ? And is the DNS and (non-DNS related) post-midnight data transfer issues that I've reported and provided evidence of no end of times over the years ever likely to get resolved once and for all ?
Ah ok, thanks for the quick response James. C*ckups do sometimes happen, ooops and all that 
Does it also perhaps explain the problems starting just after midnight and the forced disconnect at stupid o'clock this morning as well ... or is that something else that may need to be addressed if anything similar happens again at midnight tonight ?
Somewhat concerning that someone could 'accidentally' go into my A/C record and 'accidentally' make what could well have been significant and very problematic changes without any authority mind you
Does it also perhaps explain the problems starting just after midnight and the forced disconnect at stupid o'clock this morning as well ... or is that something else that may need to be addressed if anything similar happens again at midnight tonight ?Somewhat concerning that someone could 'accidentally' go into my A/C record and 'accidentally' make what could well have been significant and very problematic changes without any authority mind you
Oh dear ... it would very much appear that this problem was not quite sorted out fully as was stated earlier. It now looks kinda like this unauthorised change to my A/C has caused issues that were NOT resolved by simply reversing whatever the alleged mistake may have been 
It has just become apparent that my *VERY* long-standing and REGULARLY used fax2email number in particular has been deleted from my A/C as of, presumably, when this unauthorised A/C change happened. This clearly means that any faxes sent to my published fax number (and that I should have received almost immediately) since around 8th July have been received by PN and then either lost or possibly even delivered directly to another customer if the number has already been reissued. The service was working normally on 1st July according to my records, that being the last date that a fax was definitely received via email. Not very happy to say the least.
I think a full and detailed explanation is necessary here - surely you can't just 'accidentally' login to someone's A/C and then 'accidentally' make fundamental and service affecting changes to that A/C without any authority or without realising that something isn't quite right either for that matter. How exactly did all this happen ?
I fully understand and accept that mistakes sometimes do happen and all that but any such mistakes obviously need to be rectified appropriately and fully of course when discovered. They should not result in a customer's service being changed without their knowledge in the first place and they should certainly never result in aspects of a customer's service being quietly withdrawn/disabled completely as now appears to be the case !!! I do hope there's no other hidden tweaks and/or other nasty surprises still waiting to be found.
Needless to say, it is 100% essentially that my original fax2email number is restored to my A/C and that normal service is resumed ASAP. This issue has only just come to light because I have apparently not received several important faxes that have been sent to me recently. I raised a ticket Saturday AM to suggest that there may be another fax2email problem and mails might be being queued somewhere as I wasn't receiving them but the response I eventually received tonight was "you haven't got an e-mail address configured" Of course what that actually means is that the service has been deactivated. Taking an alternative number is absolutely NOT an acceptable option here and nor is PN effectively sending my private communications to another customer due to their mistake in somehow disabling the service in the first place and then subsequently reissuing the number to someone else at some point in time thereafter.
Ticket 29553171 was raised around 1030 Saturday 1st August, was finally responded to 2315 Sunday 2nd August and I've just replied to it now with all the relevant details. Can someone PLEASE make sure that 'right' thing happens here and my long-standing and published number is restored to my A/C rather than me eventually getting a standard reply saying I have to take out a new number or whatever.
It has just become apparent that my *VERY* long-standing and REGULARLY used fax2email number in particular has been deleted from my A/C as of, presumably, when this unauthorised A/C change happened. This clearly means that any faxes sent to my published fax number (and that I should have received almost immediately) since around 8th July have been received by PN and then either lost or possibly even delivered directly to another customer if the number has already been reissued. The service was working normally on 1st July according to my records, that being the last date that a fax was definitely received via email. Not very happy to say the least.
I think a full and detailed explanation is necessary here - surely you can't just 'accidentally' login to someone's A/C and then 'accidentally' make fundamental and service affecting changes to that A/C without any authority or without realising that something isn't quite right either for that matter. How exactly did all this happen ?
I fully understand and accept that mistakes sometimes do happen and all that but any such mistakes obviously need to be rectified appropriately and fully of course when discovered. They should not result in a customer's service being changed without their knowledge in the first place and they should certainly never result in aspects of a customer's service being quietly withdrawn/disabled completely as now appears to be the case !!! I do hope there's no other hidden tweaks and/or other nasty surprises still waiting to be found.
Needless to say, it is 100% essentially that my original fax2email number is restored to my A/C and that normal service is resumed ASAP. This issue has only just come to light because I have apparently not received several important faxes that have been sent to me recently. I raised a ticket Saturday AM to suggest that there may be another fax2email problem and mails might be being queued somewhere as I wasn't receiving them but the response I eventually received tonight was "you haven't got an e-mail address configured" Of course what that actually means is that the service has been deactivated. Taking an alternative number is absolutely NOT an acceptable option here and nor is PN effectively sending my private communications to another customer due to their mistake in somehow disabling the service in the first place and then subsequently reissuing the number to someone else at some point in time thereafter.
Ticket 29553171 was raised around 1030 Saturday 1st August, was finally responded to 2315 Sunday 2nd August and I've just replied to it now with all the relevant details. Can someone PLEASE make sure that 'right' thing happens here and my long-standing and published number is restored to my A/C rather than me eventually getting a standard reply saying I have to take out a new number or whatever.
