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Service - I think not and a warning to others

bugs4me
Grafter
Posts: 41
Registered: ‎21-06-2015

Service - I think not and a warning to others

My first post here and not a happy camper. Ordered phone and ADSL (with a MAC number) on the 19th June after I was assured prior to ordering that the transfer would be made simultaneously - there may be a couple of minutes of interruption to service when everything transfers on the 3rd July. On the 2nd July I noticed on my order status that Plusnet were in the process of 'Checking your line' so I telephoned customer support to inform them that the ordered router had not arrived - the response was that there had been an 'internal error' or words to that effect and the router would be despatched immediately.
The telephone line transferred yesterday - 3rd July but not the ADSL. Received an e-mail that as a simultaneous transfer had not taken place then a  discount would be applied. Whether the discount would be applied to the telephone or the ADSL I have no idea.
The router did not show and even though I was assured via telephone and live chat that ADSL would go live yesterday it didn't. My order is still showing as 'Activating your line'. In the meantime, in order to obtain internet access I have connected my smartphone although the 3G signal comes and goes and yesterday I had to drive to my nearest city so a couple of important documents could be downloaded. I have incurred extra charges through EE as I have needed to 'top up' my data allowance so all in all a totally unsatisfactory experience.
When/if the fiasco gets sorted out I will be billing Plusnet for the extra charges as clearly there has been a contractual breach. In the meantime there seems little point in engaging with Plusnet either via telephone or live chat. I may even look to simply pay the full 12 month contract fees - move to another ISP and issue proceedings through the small claims court on the basis that a verbal inducement to purchase forms part of a contract irrespective as to the small print.
Apologies for the length of the post and I hope others have had a better experience with Plusnet. Mine has not been and goodness, the ADSL hasn't even been connected yet and I frankly have no idea when it will.
Rant over.
9 REPLIES 9
bugs4me
Grafter
Posts: 41
Registered: ‎21-06-2015

Re: Service - I think not and a warning to others

An update - spoke to PN and they pushed a button to enable ADSL. Whilst my earlier comments may have sounded harsh there is clearly something not up to standard with their procedures if I need to make the phone call to make ADSL go live.
Probably goes okay 99% of the time so I guess I was the 1% where if it could go wrong then it did.
Townman
Superuser
Superuser
Posts: 22,922
Thanks: 9,538
Fixes: 158
Registered: ‎22-08-2007

Re: Service - I think not and a warning to others

Hi bugs4me,
Welcome to the forums.  Really good to hear that your issue was resolved.  An explanation of what went wrong might be offered by CRT (PlusNET staff) however one might guess that this is another example of the inter-organisation IT system issues between BTOR, BTw and ISP management systems.  BT's systems are notorious for failure and PlusNET are revising their provisioning system to defend against such failures.  However the realise if that system is taking a long time.
All of that said, BTOR failling to confirm that a service has been activated is far too common.
I hope that you'll now have a better operational experience than you've had to date.

Superusers are not staff, but they do have a direct line of communication into the business in order to raise issues, concerns and feedback from the community.

catelliott
Grafter
Posts: 242
Thanks: 1
Registered: ‎05-02-2015

Re: Service - I think not and a warning to others

Hi there bugs4me Smiley
Looks like we didn't get notification from BTW that your broadband order had completed, I am really sorry about that, it does happen on rare occasion. It just requires us activating the account manually rather than automatically.
Have you managed to get connected? Smiley
bugs4me
Grafter
Posts: 41
Registered: ‎21-06-2015

Re: Service - I think not and a warning to others

All working fine now Cat - thanks for asking.
Router also turned up but I think it may be giving some spurious figures. Speed fine but SNR being reported as 2.1 and there's no way that with an attenuation of 61 would the connection hold. So swapped it back out for my 582n which reports SNR as 6.4 - 2656kbps download. Tried an old Belkin - a really old one and the SNR reported as 6.3.
I'll keep an eye on things as the Plusnet router is a neat little thing but for now I'll stick with the 582 until everything's settled down.
Again, thanks for taking the time out to post on the forum.
PeeGee
Pro
Posts: 1,217
Thanks: 84
Fixes: 3
Registered: ‎05-04-2009

Re: Service - I think not and a warning to others

Quote from: bugs4me
... Speed fine but SNR being reported as 2.1 and there's no way that with an attenuation of 61 would the connection hold.

Before changing to FTTC (syncing around 76/19Mbps) I used to get 2.5 to 3Mbps at 4+dB SNRM and 62dB attn for long periods, but i also had short periods (perhaps a week or so running at 3.5Mbps and SNRM down to 2dB (and even 1dB was reported for a couple of hours before a resync Shocked  Smiley  )
Phil
Plusnet FTTC (Sep 2014), Essentials (Feb 2013); ADSL (Apr 2009); Customer since Jan 2004 (on 28kb dial-up)
Using a TP-Link Archer VR600 modem-router.
bugs4me
Grafter
Posts: 41
Registered: ‎21-06-2015

Re: Service - I think not and a warning to others

Think this is the problem with all the repaired old copper wiring - your mileage may vary. Whenever my SNR has dropped to less than 4 then the download speed has been close to 3Mbps but it's only lasted for an hour or so before resetting itself at a higher SNR with a lower DL speed.
With the PN router the SNR was displaying 2.1 with a download of about 2.4Mbps. No problem as I have a spare TG582n which is now working fine. With a bit of luck and a following hurricane OR may just FTTC enable my cabinet - the exchange has been enabled for several weeks now but getting a date out of anyone - it's a State Secret round these parts.  Grin
Townman
Superuser
Superuser
Posts: 22,922
Thanks: 9,538
Fixes: 158
Registered: ‎22-08-2007

Re: Service - I think not and a warning to others

Rather sounds like you might have interference on the line.  SNRM and speed fluctuations as you describe ought not to happen.
With the TG582n router you should try running routerstats (full version from the link below) configured as described below.

Superusers are not staff, but they do have a direct line of communication into the business in order to raise issues, concerns and feedback from the community.

bugs4me
Grafter
Posts: 41
Registered: ‎21-06-2015

Re: Service - I think not and a warning to others

Thanks for the link. Now running routerstats. SNR download is at 6.0 with  bandwidth 2848kbps. Attentuation is as usual 61.5 as I'm at the end of the line.
TG582n has been stable for over a day but possibly the thing is still being auto-tweaked from the exchange so there may be a few more adjustments.
Have never understood the FEC, CRC and HEC errors bit.
Again, thanks for your input.
Townman
Superuser
Superuser
Posts: 22,922
Thanks: 9,538
Fixes: 158
Registered: ‎22-08-2007

Re: Service - I think not and a warning to others

Hi b4m,
If you really want to know take a look here - http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/linestats_errors.htm
In short, FEC errors are recoveries made by the router without the need for data retransmission.  This is facilitated by interleaving, it carries a slight over head but can significantly reduce the need for the data to be retransmitted.
HEC and CRC errors generally require the lost data to be retransmitted.

Superusers are not staff, but they do have a direct line of communication into the business in order to raise issues, concerns and feedback from the community.