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Is nine days acceptable to be without landline and broadband?

audiomaster
Newbie
Posts: 3
Registered: ‎12-10-2013

Is nine days acceptable to be without landline and broadband?

My plusnet line stopped working on Wednesday 9th. No fibre broadband, no dial tone or incoming calls. Dead. I phoned on the 10th and was told that an OpenReach engineer wouldn't be able to visit until Friday 18th. I work from home and my work relies on having a fast connection to upload and download large files from clients. People calling my landline number don't even get a ringing tone. I'm paying a fortune in mobile data. This is on top of the inconvenience of not being able to do the usual surfing, watching online TV etc etc. Obviously I am not happy. In my world fibre/phone is an essential utility. In the meantime I am being billed for all of this whilst its costing me extra money/inconvenience to work around it. I appreciate that plusnet are not wholly at fault here but that still doesn't stop my frustrations and their lack of ability to help out my situation.
7 REPLIES 7
itsme
Grafter
Posts: 5,924
Thanks: 3
Registered: ‎07-04-2007

Re: Is nine days acceptable to be without landline and broadband?

Business lines come with a Service Level Agreement, is yours a business line?
audiomaster
Newbie
Posts: 3
Registered: ‎12-10-2013

Re: Is nine days acceptable to be without landline and broadband?

No. The fact that I work from home adds to my frustrations but is largely irrelevant. My question still stands though. Is 9/10 days acceptable to be without fibre broadband and a landline? I'm paying £35 a month for this service. I expect better. Both from Plusnet and from BT Openreach.
cazchad1970
Dabbler
Posts: 14
Thanks: 1
Registered: ‎10-10-2013

Re: Is nine days acceptable to be without landline and broadband?

I'm in the same situation plus I'm disabled living in a village,woke up to a power cut this morning too for 7 hours!! The silence wasn't golden come on plusnet you've never been this bad before  Sad
We need some answers please
x47c
Grafter
Posts: 881
Thanks: 3
Registered: ‎14-08-2009

Re: Is nine days acceptable to be without landline and broadband?

Poster 'itsme' question was indeed highly relevant.
Business lines have service level agreements attached to them.
Domestic/retail broadband lines do not, so there is no obligation to repair within a fixed timescale
That is why business lines are more expensive than domestic/retail lines: -they get priority.
So for a domestic/retail line I'm afraid the legal answer to the question is yes it is OK.
In the event of a fault BTOR will do their best to mend it.
The simple faults get mended quickly, the difficult ones where digging for example is required will take (a lot) longer.
At times BTOR will be overwhelmed with umpteen multiple faults all at once so the response times to even simple faults will get longer
(and they are doing the businesss ones first!)
The solution - pay for a business line which you should be doing anyway - and if BB at home is really really vital pay for a backup system in place like a 3G dongle with auto-switchover facilities in the router which automatically swaps the BB connection over to the 3G in the event of a line failure.
As ever it depends on how vital BB is and how much you are prepared to pay to keep the connection useable.

PS
Most ISP's T&C's forbid business use on a domestic/retail BB connection service so if I was you I'd keep rather quiet.
audiomaster
Newbie
Posts: 3
Registered: ‎12-10-2013

Re: Is nine days acceptable to be without landline and broadband?

I understand the differences between personal and business accounts. I agree with everything you have said. As I said in my previous post, the fact that I do some work from home is irrelevant. As a personal customer I feel that 10 days for someone to take a look at the problem is unacceptable. Even if its fixed on the day then thats 11 days without broadband or a landline that can't make or receive calls. I don't think this is acceptable. I understand that the Ts and Cs state that this is tough luck but if no one complained then nothing would be done about it.
jelv
Seasoned Hero
Posts: 26,785
Thanks: 971
Fixes: 10
Registered: ‎10-04-2007

Re: Is nine days acceptable to be without landline and broadband?

If your phone was with BT you'd be getting a free diversion of incoming calls to a mobile!
jelv (a.k.a Spoon Whittler)
   Why I have left Plusnet (warning: long post!)   
Broadband: Andrews & Arnold Home::1 (FTTC 80/20)
Line rental: Pulse 8 Home Line Rental (£14.40/month)
Mobile: iD mobile (£4/month)
orbrey
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Posts: 10,540
Registered: ‎18-07-2007

Re: Is nine days acceptable to be without landline and broadband?

Hi there,
It looks like you raised the fault to us on the 10th, we escalated it and booked you the first available engineer appointment on the same day? I'm sorry if the appointment was not ideal, unfortunately that's not something we have any control over.