So what was last night about?

[#1]

Got disconnected last night and 2 calls to PN were unhelpful.
The first was a lady telling me to switch the filter on the master socket - while talking to her. Clever way of ending the call that, I unplugged it to put another in as she told me and suddenly she's no longer there and I'm no longer her problem.
She did however say that there was a loss of signal according to her system and when I offered her the signal details from our router she said she didn't need them. What kind of tech support is that?
Today the internet is back - despite the lady last night trying to convince me the filter was duff. I did try another and that one was dead. I've gone back to the old faithful this time.
Plusnet please get your act together. I had enough of this bull with BTInternet years ago. I'm not stupid.

[#2]

Perhaps it was a subtle way for her to check that your phone was filtered!

[#3]

Frankly I have a feeling that PN were suffering an IT failure of some sort but don't want to admit it but yes, she certainly filtered me out.

[#4]

It looks as though our supplier had an outage in your area last night, if you put your phone number or postcode into the following page it'll give you the details.
http://usertools.plus.net/exchanges/
Unfortunately we didn't receive notification of this outage until 00.20 which was after your calls to our support centre otherwise they should have picked up on the issue and advised you of it.
Sorry the support didn't live up to expectations, I'm going to listen to the call now and feedback on where it could have been improved.

[#5]

So that idiot I spoke to last night who told me there was nothing wrong with the exchange either:
1) bare faced lied to me
2) Didn't have a clue what he was talking about
3) All of the above.
See PN What you need to remember is we're not all idiots. Some of us have half a clue.
I told your people last night this was a problem that you needed to sort out but oh no... never believe the customer... he doesn't have a clue...
EDIT Checked that link you supplied, apparently even Hastings was affected by the failure. Bet you got some more happy customers also infuriated at your support.

[#6]

Quote

So that idiot I spoke to last night who told me there was nothing wrong with the exchange either: 1) bare faced lied to me 2) Didn't have a clue what he was talking about 3) All of the above.

I think that's very harsh, as per my edit to my previous post we weren't advised of any issues in your area until after midnight which was after your call. The agent you spoke to wouldn't have known prior to us receiving the notification of any problems at the exchange.

Quote

Unfortunately we didn't receive notification of this outage until 00.20 which was after your calls to our support centre otherwise they should have picked up on the issue and advised you of it.

[#7]

Well you guys are the ones who always assume its at the users end.
It's not my fault that you guys (now owned by BT who used to say "It's good to talk") can't communicate. For a pair of communications firms you don't seem to communicate very well.
I've bookmarked the exchange checker link... god knows how I'm supposed to use it next time the internet drops dead but I've booked it.

[#8]

That's because in 90% of cases, it usually is the end user's fault / problem.
Sure, BT could have notified Plusnet a lot earlier of the ongoing fault.  Hindsight is like that - a much more precise science.
B.

[#9]

I've just been emailed by the SO that you've sent 4 update emails during the night PN - how on earth was that supposed to work?
I quote: "I'm not happy with Plusnet though as they have sent me 4 emails last night even though I had no means to pick them up, whats worse they have also sent a link to a survey about the quality of their response, laughable really."
Does common sense still exist? - Emails with no internet access... PN maybe you should get into the 3G market and supply all your customers with dongles for these emergency outages. THEN we can check emails you send. Until then it seems pointless. Admittedly I do have a dongle but payday is still 2 days away and I'm not putting a tenna on it to be told "Your service is down"..

[#10]

Quote from: okrzynska

So that idiot I spoke to last night who told me there was nothing wrong with the exchange either: 1) bare faced lied to me

Unless you use a different definition of lying to everyone else, it means to state something that you know to be untrue.
In this case PN were not notified until after your call so there was no way they could have known, therefore it was NOT a lie.
Or are you demanding that clairvoyance is a pre-requisite for CSC staff?

[#11]

Quote from: Chris

I think that's very harsh, as per my edit to my previous post we weren't advised of any issues in your area until after midnight which was after your call. The agent you spoke to wouldn't have known prior to us receiving the notification of any problems at the exchange.

Perhaps it is harsh, but thats exactly what Plusnet (and many ISP's) in essence call their customers when telling the customer what is a or is not at fault, whilst I know there is a balance to be struck (Ive worked in support myself) but when you start telling customers the problem is 'x' when the customer already knows it is not 'x' then the customer is going to get agrevated, and feel that they are being insulted themselves.

[#12]

At last, someone who understands things from a customers POV.

[#13]

Quote from: jelv

Quote from: okrzynska So that idiot I spoke to last night who told me there was nothing wrong with the exchange either: 1) bare faced lied to me Unless you use a different definition of lying to everyone else, it means to state something that you know to be untrue. In this case PN were not notified until after your call so there was no way they could have known, therefore it was NOT a lie. Or are you demanding that clairvoyance is a pre-requisite for CSC staff?

The fella I spoke to quite clearly told me that there was NOTHING WRONG WITH THE EXCHANGE AND HE HAD PERSONALLY CHECKED IT HIMSELF.
I'd call that one hell of a fib then if you don't call it a lie.

[#14]

It's neither a fib nor a lie. He'd checked all the information available and no problems had been reported so the statement had been made in good faith.
Edit: By making a utterly stupid allegation that the agent was lying you are totally destroying any credibility in the other valid issues you have with the support you received in this case. I suggest you apologise for the lying allegation and concentrate on the other areas.

[#15]

Quote from: fourfourdevon

... but when you start telling customers the problem is 'x' when the customer already knows it is not 'x' then the customer is going to get agrevated, and feel that they are being insulted themselves.

Well said. Having been playing that game on a daily basis for the last two months, I can say that echoes my sentiments precisely. In this case, while you can hardly fault Plusneet for not being aware of the exchange issue, the solution offered seems a bit robotic.