Unfair charge on engineer call out

[#1]

I am fuming this evening. I have had nothing but praise for Plusnet and have referred 3 new customers and my experience today has made me feel like cancelling and persuading my 3 referrals to do the same.

I tried to get online around midday today and there was no internet (no green light on the internet on the router even after reset)  Phone was working.  I phoned support and was told to change the filter and access the master socket.  Being disabled I had to ask my Grandson to come to do this for me.  After this had been done still no internet.  I phoned again and support did a few 'diagnostics' and suggested that the fault was probably in my router or phone socket and that it would require an engineer to call as nothing was working to rectify the problem. I was told that if it was my phone socket or wiring I would have to pay, but if it was the router that I wouldn't.  Fair enough...I was told that the engineer would be here tomorrow afternoon. A few hours passed and I noticed that my internet was back working and that I had the green light return to the router.  I was pleased until I phoned Plusnet and was told that I could not stop the engineer calling as I had not given 24 hour notice and that they didn't know if I would be CHARGED for a call out.  As the problem was obviously a 100%  outside fault I really do not think I should be charged for a call out that I do not require as the outdoor fault was obviously rectified. I really am fuming and don't know who to complain to.

PS I have just seen this .......

Planned BT Network Maintenance - Week commencing 12th December 2016.

Brenda

[#2]

Hi, 

I am sorry for the issues you encountered. If you only reported the issue today and the issue then cleared due to planned maintenance and you have contacted us to cancel the engineer right away then you are right it is not fair to charge for a call out under those circumstances.

While under normal circumstances we would charge if a request to cancel an engineer was made within 48 hours but as this was raised and booked in under 48 hours then there was nothing you could do.

If you can PM your username I will get this sorted tomorrow with a Team Leader and noted on your account that this was beyond your control and no charge should be applied.

I hope this clears things up for you.

Edit: I notice this was raised yesterday but regardless either way it wasn't your fault and nothing you could do.

[#3]

HI,

I have got that engineer cancelled for you, I am sorry for any issues caused.

I can also confirm you will not be charged for this and I have updated the fault ticket to reflect this.

[#4]

Many thanks for sorting this out.  I would hope that any future planned BT work is known by the telephone support team instead of assuming a fault is in the home.

[#5]

The BT maintenance is generally overnight and when we test a line if there is an issue with the exchange that's known, it'll be flagged up. So I'm actually not sure that the maintenance was the reason you were offline, I'm glad to see you're back on though and Peter is sorting the rest out for you.

[#6]

Thanks Chris...I too am mystified as to the reason at the few hours that I was offline.  I had gone through everything advised (changing filter /accessing master socket / resetting router) and the only possible fault could have been the router or indoor wiring or a broken phone socket or an outdoor problem.  All that equipment is in another room from my laptop and wasn't touched for the rest of the day.  While offline on my laptop I noticed that I had suddenly gone online !!  So it could not have been any problem in my home and knowing B.T. as well as I do, I firmly believe that they were 'fiddling' somewhere in a green box on a pavement or somewhere up a pole...Or even in a hole.  I once had B.T. digging outside my house and was told that they were going to reroute overhead lines underground.  They put the trunking in, created inspection hatches and reseeded the verge that they had dug up...That was it...Years later BT came along to renew overhead cables as they were now too close to overhead power lines. They had finished renewing the overhead cables and I asked why they hadn't used the underground facilities that had been laid years earlier and they replied that they didn't know that they were there

[#7]

Large bureaucratic organisations, don't you just love 'em, eh?