Plusnet no better than BT

[#1]

Waited one month for an engineer visit.  Wife waited in all morning, nobody called or came to the house.
Tried to phone Plusnet about 1145 to ask if anyone was coming, plus net kept saying it was booked, this was obvious and not the question I was asking.
Phoned plus net and asked someone to call me back to explain why nobody turned up.  Nobody called me back.
Today got a text message (installation has been delayed) we'll thank you, really helpful.  That would have been vaguely acceptable at 10 am yesterday but the day after I've informed you is embarrassing.
Called plusnet to explain how I thought communication such as this was unacceptable, explained that I no longer want to be a customer with plusnet.  They put me through to another department, where I have to give all my account details again and then they put the phone down.  After about 1 hr on hold in 2 days.

[#2]

Unfortunately Plusnet are reliant on BT Openreach for anything to do with the wiring / phone lines etc (as are a lot of other ISPs). They generally only find out that an engineer has missed a visit after the event - until the engineer reports back then they don't know if he is going to turn up.
Acceptable ? Certainly not
The lack of call backs are not acceptable either - can you post up when you called them and I'm sure one of the Digital Care Team will pick up on it on Monday (unless they are on the forums this weekend).

[#3]

Thanks Doms,  I persisted, called back waited on hold and got them to cancel my services.  They are refunding my payments.
That's all very well but I don't care who's fault it it is, I have no contract with BT openreach.  It's similar to my builder telling me, sorry that's the plasterers fault even though I pay the builder.  They are responsible for whoever they subcontract the work to, I'm not interested in their supply problems with other organisations that's for their business to engage with.
I'm disappointed though, guess I was expecting something that doesn't exist, I.e. a telecoms provider with a decent customer service.

[#4]

I think a better analogy would be your builder telling you that the sole supplier of plaster in the world has not delivered their supply.
Yes, you have the contract with PN, they then have to use BT Openreach as they are the only people allowed to touch "their" copper.
Frustrating for PN and other BT resellers but equally frustrating for customers who are let down by the no shows that so often seem to happen.
All I can suggest is that if you want to get away from the BT monopoly then consider Virgin Media if you are in a VM fibre/cabled area but that brings a whole different set of issues with customer support etc.

[#5]

If you don't want to have anyone using OpenReach your options are VERY limited as anyone who delivers broadband using your normal telephone line will be dependant on them. The principle option will be (as DomS suggested) Virgin media if your area is cabled. You can see what you have available by using http://www.samknows.com/broadband/broadband_checker - anything that says BT Wholesale or LLU (e.g. Sky or TalkTalk) will use OpenReach.

[#6]

Quote from: DomS

I think a better analogy would be your builder telling you that the sole supplier of plaster in the world has not delivered their supply.

...and indeed for the specialist hydraulic limes using in making up plaster for old buildings that is pretty well the case
The UK's suppliers get it from St Astier in France.
Apart from Virgin Media if available the only other option is satellite broadband or the very remote chance you live in an area targeted by an altnet putting in fully FTTP fibre to the home.  Satellite is very expensive and only used really in desperate deeply rural areas.

[#7]

Quote from: DomS

Frustrating for PN and other BT resellers but equally frustrating for customers who are let down by the no shows that so often seem to happen.

Double-frustrating, because the standard "EoI" working puts the job to the back of the queue again.
Isn't it time that Openreach had some SLA targets to minimise the number of missed appointments? Enforced by Ofcom, perhaps?
In fact, is that a question worthy of a poll: What inconviences you *more*: an extra day of outage, or an engineer no-show?

[#8]

@WWWombat with out a doubt it's the engineer no show simply becasue it can cost you money in lost wages in having to book the day off for them not to show so you then have to book another day off with lost wages I have had this happen with previous ISP's it's no laughing matter,
as for Ofcom maybe it might work if they imposed huge fines for every missed appointment, but what it really needs is a huge shake up and to allow other companies to run cabs, exchanges etc to take away from the BTO monopoly that has been going on for far to long now unless that happens nothing will change and we the users will suffer as we currently do.
   

[#9]

@Zapbranny - I'm really sorry that things haven't worked out for you and that we've not been the best at communicating in this instance. Generally we aren't aware that the installation has been delayed until after the engineers visit which, I appreciate isn't good and it certainly isn't good enough. A large amount of instances come through with engineers not having time to either complete work it has taken longer at another customers address which means that they haven't had time to pick up the next task.
What we would expect is for our suppliers to contact each customer they are missing the appointment [insert reason here] and re-appoint this with you. This is something we regularly push with our suppliers and will continue to do so.
I wish you the best of luck with your new ISP and hope there are no further delays.