Sudden change for the worse in broadband service

[#1]

I live in the sticks and am connected to the Maddery exchange (017684) by 1.7km of copper which gives me approx 7.25mps downloads. With one notable excetion (due to RF noise), my download speed has been stable for at least 2 years. Suddenly during the night of 20/21 April there was a dramitc deterioration. I raised a ticket immediately (#84563027) but was told by Plusnet that my speeds were normal (approx 7mbs) when my experience told me otherwise.
This widespead fault is very well documented by ChrisJohn on the BTCare Community Forums: https://community.bt.com/t5/ADSL-Copper-Broadband-Speed/Sudden-change-for-the-worse-in-broadband-ser... including performance graphs and histograms.
On 30th April I was told that "This Question is now on hold until Wednesday 30th April at 4:00pm." but shortly afterwards was told it was off hold. Since then, no word from Plusnet.
Suddenly during the evening of 21.30hrs, Fri. 02.05.14 my service returned to normal for me, BT customer ChrisJon and presumably everyone else on the Madderty exchange. However, I am not going to close ticket #84563027 just yet as things may go pear-shaped on Monday!
What concerns me about all this is:
(a) Plusnet's diagnostic equipment was unable to detect my poor speeds
(b) Obviously Plusnet was not informed by BT that there were issues at the Madderty exchange - and t they did not even tell BT Broadband that there were issues.
(c) Plusnet ceased commuinicationg with me on ticket #84563027at 4:05pm, Wednesday 30 Apr 2014
(d) For about 2 weeks I have not been getting the service I am paying for.
Arcadian

[#2]

Hi there and sorry to read about the issues you've mentioned.
I'm sorry you were waiting a while for an update but can see your ticket was updated yesterday specifically regarding the exchange issue (hot VP) so please look out for another update soon. I'll do my best to address your concerns in the meantime:

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(a) Plusnet's diagnostic equipment was unable to detect my poor speeds

Our diagnostic tests don't always detect faults, that doesn't meant to say we won't acknowledge there is one.

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(b) Obviously Plusnet was not informed by BT that there were issues at the Madderty exchange - and t they did not even tell BT Broadband that there were issues

I'm sorry if at some point this is something we could have been aware of and perhaps have overlooked it, that may not be the case though but I will make sure that's looked into.

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(c) Plusnet ceased commuinicationg with me on ticket #84563027at 4:05pm, Wednesday 30 Apr 2014

When tickets come off hold they're released into a ticket pool which are worked through in chronological order so it's extremely rare for there to be a response as soon as a ticket is released from hold.

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d) For about 2 weeks I have not been getting the service I am paying for.

I can only apologise for that and make sure that we make sure you're credited for the downtime after the fault has been resolved.

[#3]

Many thanks for your response. I don't really blame Plusnet for this fortnight long debacle. From what I can gather from talking to local people on the same exchange, BT (Wholesale?) shot itself in the foot by not telling BT Retail or *any* ISP what they were doing. It appears that was a software upgrade in the exchange which probably knocked everyone back to very basic profile and restarted a 10 day training period.  It has cost you, a lot of other ISPs and BT's own call centre in India a lot of money.
I would like to think that you, Plusnet, will demand some explanations from BT. It seems incredible that a major communications company cannot communicate with its own branches or its own customers e.g. Plusnet.
Martin

[#4]

Cheers for the reply Arcadian.
I will be looking to see if the right processes were followed regarding the broader issue that's mentioned. Either way this is something I'd like to make sure we feedback to our suppliers BT Wholesale.