How do you get service?

[#1]

Quote from: Gimpy

It is coming up to 12am. Dave says that everybody should be receiving reduced speeds between 12am and 2am. I will post my speed after 12 and I would really like it if other people could post their usenet speeds as well.

No, I said when it's busy everyone will see some kind of reduction in speed but if you are on peak time management you'll see more of a slowdown than someone not on peak time management.

Quote from: Gimpy

Dave says that peak times aren't what most people think they are, and it really means when the network is busy

Not quite, peak time is 4pm to midnight, but what speeds you see are also determined by how busy the network is and the network is busy during Premier's off peak hours as well as its peak hours.

[#2]

You understand what you just said?
"If you are on peak time management you'll see more of a slowdown than someone not on peak time management... peak time is 4pm to midnight..."
My speed before midnight was less than 22KB/s at midnight it shot up to about 36KB/s.
If people report speeds of anything above 80KB/s then I can't see how anybody can say that the peak-time management applied to the off-peak account I am using is in any way fair

[#3]

Just gone on usenet to perform a quick test, downloading at ~700KB/s at 12.24am.
Hope that helps.

[#4]

Aah forget about the complaint. I'm switching isp and I'm so glad that yet again Plusnet has forced me to look elsewhere (last time I couldn't find better, this time I've found better AND cheaper!)

[#5]

Quote from: Gimpy

Aah forget about the complaint. I'm switching isp and I'm so glad that yet again Plusnet has forced me to look elsewhere (last time I couldn't find better, this time I've found better AND cheaper!)

Sorry you feel it's come to this
The solution to me is pretty simple though, to prevent any additional levels of management or prioritisation being applied to your account simply don't exceed the peak time allowances. Looking at your usage history suggests that it wouldn't be all that difficult for you to do this. Failing that you could move to BBYW? You're traffic would be in a slightly higher priority but it would involve paying for more of the bandwidth you're using.
There's a useful comparison table here.
Not sure if it's been linked to already but all the info on the legacy Premier package is here. In particular the following:

Quote

*Even though there are no individual restrictions, the speeds you receive are still affected by traffic prioritisation and the activities of every other customer who is sharing the network. We constantly adjust these restrictions to match current network traffic levels. This gives Broadband Premier customers the chance to gain higher speeds when the network is less busy.

That bit applies to the off-peak speeds being discussed.
Out of interest, have you any objections in sharing the name of the ISP you're moving to? I'm quite curious to know what package they offer that's cheaper than ours yet accommodates your usage.

[#6]

Quote

No, I said when it's busy everyone will see some kind of reduction in speed but if you are on peak time management you'll see more of a slowdown than someone not on peak time management.

Are you sure that's right, I would have expected general network capacity prioritisation to have been unaffected by specific account restrictions, just by the account type, i.e. Business vs Residential.
If it is right some of what Gimpy has been saying has merit and the e-mail should definitely be re-worded.

[#7]

Yep, that's a given.  I'm going to have a word with Dave when he gets in and look at making some minor changes to both the email and the webpage to make it clearer.

[#8]

I've been with Plusnet at least 7 years. I really can't believe I've stuck it out so long considering how I've been treated over the years.
I started on dial-up and there was no company close to it for options, price or service. Then I moved house and got BB. At one point I was paying £39.99 for my service.
Then one day I realised that what I was paying for had gone down in price and was only £21.99. Apparently I was paying to be at the front of the regrade queue for 8Mb.
I never received any sort of notification that my product had gone down in price and that I was paying extra for something that I would never receive.
I stopped paying for the place in the queue, never received anything off Plusnet - no refund or even an apology.
When 8Mb came out here, months after the rest of the country, I upgrade in less than a week and it didn't cost me a penny more.
Basically I had money stolen from me. The ASA agreed with me that Plusnet was in the wrong, the advertising was misleading, the pricing didn't make sense and was unfair - but Plusnet hadn't advertised outside of the site so there was nothing they could do about it.
I've had many other complaints that I've just had to live with, it takes a day to get a ticket responded to, it never makes sense. After a few days most people probably give up.
I requested my MAC key last night. Average response time, at the time, was just over 3 hours. It's not been responded to and yet, here we have a Plusnet person trying to talk me into changing product rather than sorting out my request.
I can't believe I've stuck it out so long, I doubt anybody reading this can.
Everything about Plusnet is dodgy from the advertising of 20GB limits that will never be reached, emails that clearly say one thing but interpreted by Plusnet employees as something else, terms and conditions that say on them this is for new customers but it apparently applies to me, even your quote "*Even though there are no individual restrictions, the speeds you receive are still affected by traffic prioritisation and the activities of every other customer who is sharing the network. We constantly adjust these restrictions to match current network traffic levels. This gives Broadband Premier customers the chance to gain higher speeds when the network is less busy." It applies to off-peak speeds but what I read (because it says it) is that the table shows the minimum a Premier user should get and more when the network is less busy.
I wasn't going to say what isp I'm switching to because I don't want to help Plusnet to 'improve' in any way. But you will find out once the switch happens. So I might as well say.
ADSL24 offer 30GB peak and 300GB off-peak (the peak is longer than I'm used to (without being restricted) 10pm-8am), email, usenet (>40,000 groups), webspace (200MB with everything Plusnet has), no port blocking or speed restrictions and the cost is £19.99 www.adsl24.co.uk

[#9]

The bottom of the e-mail should also have something along these lines.
Your overal priority on our network has been reduced, this means you will see bigger slowdowns than most during the busier times. This is unrelated to the off-peak, on-peak times.

[#10]

I think it's obviously fair to say that Plusnet do not meet your requirements, so good luck with your new ISP.
Barry

[#11]

I am glad that finally somebody has seen that the information given to me is misleading. If I had been given warning that the restrictions would be so heavy then I wouldn't have gone over the 13GB.
The changes, if they come, are too late for me. Even though a Plusnet employee agrees that the email needs rewording, because it is misleading, I could never even hope that Plusnet would apologise never mind relax the restriction imposed for this billing period.
6 days of arguing is enough for me, I'm off as soon as I get the MAC key.

[#12]

Quote from: Gimpy

I could never even hope that Plusnet would apologise never mind relax the restriction imposed for this billing period.

Personally, I don't see why they should "relax the restriction".  You are approaching the usage limitations on your account, and the traffic management prioritisation is working correctly.  To relax the restriction, you should upgrade to a more suitable account type.
Anyhow, a moot point really.  Good luck with adsl24!
Barry

[#13]

zubel - I pay for 20GB per month peak usage, it isn't possible to get to 20GB. If Plusnet don't want or haven't planned for people to want to use their allowance it shouldn't be advertised.
The fact that James has agreed that I was mislead shows that Plusnet was in the wrong. Why should a consumer be punished for a mistake in Plusnet's information to the customer?
And, how do you decide what is a more suitable account type? If you read the details of my account type (ignoring what is now known through this thread) I can't see why it isn't suitable for the heaviest of users.
Anyway, thanks for the well wishes, judging by a complete lack of complaints (thinkbroadband and dslzone) about adsl24 I think I should be quite happy there.

[#14]

Quote

I pay for 20GB per month peak usage, it isn't possible to get to 20GB.

I can happily say that with evidence that this is not true.
We've made some changes in the way that we manage traffic for those on level management and that was months back.  We just need to fine tune the emails to give a better understanding as to what should be expected.
You manage to download considerable more than the majority of our userbase, but clearly the service we provide is not what you are looking for, so I hope that you find that your new ISP is able to provide you with the type of service that you are looking for.
We simply just cannot cater for everyone.

[#15]

Quote from: Gimpy

Anyway, thanks for the well wishes, judging by a complete lack of complaints (thinkbroadband and dslzone) about adsl24 I think I should be quite happy there.

A quick look at their forum suggests that they arent that busy so maybe you will get what you are looking for, although I noticed there are folks complaining that the 'news servers are down again'.
Anyway, good luck and let us know how you get on!