It isn't just Plusnet customers who are being let down by Openreach

[#1]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2013/apr/28/openreach-customers-unconnected-angry?

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Letters about the unreliability and inscrutability of Openreach, the division of BT which, in theory, provides access to the national phone network, has unleashed a torrent of woe from readers stranded, often for months, without phones. The complaints have a common thread: Openreach is unanswerable to the customers it lets down because grievances must be channelled through their own service provider, some of whom seem equally unable to communicate with the company they rely on to install new lines.

[#2]

And that is exactly why people are, justifiably, being so hard on PlusNet in such (hopefully rare) situations. It's the only avenue they have and PN need to take it very seriously.
"award winning service" has to be earned every minute of every hour of every day. 

[#3]

Good spot Jim. It's not the ONLY avenue HP. That article concludes by saying

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Although customers' contracts are with their own service provider rather than Openreach, it's worth complaining to Ofcom if Openreach irks you. While unable to intervene on an individual basis, it will add it to the growing tally. For mediation when you reach deadlock, turn to the telecommunications ombudsman.

Complaining to OFCOM is something I have urged people to do on numerous occasions.
The "deadlock" bit is something that WILL affect Plusnet, which is why they need to, as you say HP,  "take it very seriously" which I'm afraid I've got the impression they aren't.

[#4]

@AO, you're right about OFCOM but most people see that as a waste of time as they know it won't make any difference to their current problem.
OFCOM need to be proactive in some way, rather than the passive ineffective pudding they are seen as, but seem to be powerless and uninterested.

[#5]

You are right that OFCOM need to be proactive, the problem is they won't be until they get a hell of a lot more complaints. They aren't powerless but they seem to want a quiet life and that part of OFCOM is nothing more than a gross waste of taxpayers money - a Quango that should be got rid of and replaced with an organisation that is answerable to the End Users.

[#6]

The only way things will change is if Plusnet always pay customers the full compensation to users for missed appointments etc and then claim it back from OpenReach. Only when the bean counters see the affect the their poor performance is it likely to change.

[#7]

As I've said before I wonder how much revenue Plusnet have lost through lost customers as a result of Openreach failings.

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Ofcom...is planning to introduce new rules such as payouts for customers who suffer delays.

Would that be in the current decade.....I'm not holding my breath.

[#8]

There was an interesting article I read about how to diagnose speed faults
http://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2012/12/when-slow-speeds-become-a-fault-on-bts-fttc-superfast-b...
There are some rules and get out clause I certainly wasnt aware of but would say PN staff on this forum seem to suggest raising faults well before some of these limits are breached which is great
As mentioned elsewhere it matters not that PN aren't compensated by BTw etc as your contract is with PN and having to take a 2nd day off work due to OR engineer turning up is claimable for total loss of earnings etc. I feel some sympathy for PN as that would amount to a fair chunk of an 18month contract revenue even to cover one day for some you breadwinners LOL and I the markup isn't that much given being I was an existing customer so only got charged £25 activation and OR charge something daft like £92+vat for the install hence the 18month min term to tray and at offset it?
I have to say though that I find Ofcom toothless and really doubt anything will come of it

[#9]

Quote from: njay

I feel some sympathy for PN

Well I don't, because, as has already been said, the consequential costs of failure need to be born by those responsible.
In many cases this appears to be another (but unanswerable) part of BT (e.g. Openreach) which, remember, is all part of the same group as PlusNet.
PlusNet "ought" to be pressing "their suppliers" hard to "do right" (now where have I heard that before?) by their customers but clearly aren't doing enough.
I wonder if there's any corporate pressure on senior management to not "rock the boat" as it could set a precedent on compensation that all other ISP's would use resulting in significant costs to BT.
Though if they actually sorted out the issues, it wouldn't.................... (a stitch in time and all that)  

[#10]

with problems witht he roll out of fibre they should not be tieing people into 12 month contracts.
it leaves a very bad taste and when my contract is up i will be looking elsewhere.

[#11]

So you have a problem with the service and support now you are actually connected?

[#12]

Tne way I see its where the issue is not meeting original estimate etc then its better to stick with the ISP. After although they (BTw) should not do it there is at least one case on here where the estimate provided by Btw has reduced AFTER start of contract. Sticking with the current supplier means that you can at least fight seek redress on the basis of your estimate (and in the case of here it says accurate to +/-1Mbs). If you leave and go elsewhere the estimate will still be supplied by BTw and will be the revised (lower) one.
What I fail to understand is that the estimate are based on characteristics of lines on your cabinet and have already supposedly taken into account the degradation as more FTTC users come on board. In which case I would expect them to be the minimum you should get and in most cases are actual speed is much higher if you happen to be the 1st FTTC user nn your cabinet? If it doesn;'t hit the estimate and aren't on a heavily used cabinet wrt fibre then its only going to go down even further?
I guess the only point is coming back to that +/1Mbit accuracy as BTw don't give anywhere near that level of guarantee?
Finally, seeing as Btw have reduced estimates why can't they also increse them once FTTC have gone in and the service is consistently better. I doubt that will happen especially within the 1st 90days seeing as that also increases the minumum speed based for the 25% reduction get out of contract rule ax well as the upload rate needing to consistantly be higher than 22.5% of the download estimate to not trigger a fault scenario. i.e. its not in BTw's interest to raise estimates only lower them