Very poor customer service

[#1]

I've not been with Plusnet more than about 3 months. I came to you because you were touted as having great support.
This was true up until recently.
Your 'wonderful new site' is clearly a guise to try and push customers away from contacting you as much as possible. I pay a premium fee to you as I expect support.
I do not expect it find it nearly impossible to reach any link to email your support team, and when I do - I get no reply despite an estimate of 3 hours from your 'auto-responder'
Phone calls tell me you are sorry for a wait time of in excess of 15 minutes.
If I want to get such shoddy service, I could go back to BT from where I left as they are the masters at it.
I am extremely disappointed in the new policy of pushing paying customers away from human beings and into the realms of the lottery that is your 'support site'
I'm not prepared to pay you a premium price for such a poor return so I will be leaving you.

[#2]

Oh - and the reason I have typed this here is because this is the only way to contact anyone in your company. Everyone else seems to hide behind the website and a call-steering menu.
Even getting your customers on this fourm to help each other is a blatant example of how you seemingly now wish to try and rid yourselves of any work at all.

[#3]

Link to ticket system; Help Assistant
[edited as original version could be misinterpreted as sarcastic ]

[#4]

Sorry to hear of your bad experience. Is this of any help?:
http://www.plus.net/supportpages.html?a=212
It gives the customer support statistics so that it is possible to choose a good time to call.
Also, there are very experienced users here on the forum - if you would like to share your problems there might be some help available.
Hope that you get things sorted soon.

[#5]

I have always found members on the forum very helpful and any problems have been easily answered for me.  It's also a good way to improve my own PC knowledge.  Post your problem and give it a chance.

[#6]

Chillypenguin - there is no need to be sarcastic. I am quite aware of the Help Assistant. Of course the irony is, it isn't an assistant - it is a hindrance.
I pay a premium price for Plusnet broadband - I don't expect to be shoved to a load of web pages dressed up as a 'service' which are of no use to me. What I do expect is a level of support that befits the prices charged for the service, and also one that fits the reputation Plusnet has.
The issue I had was to do with Plusnet DNS servers, not some petty broadband fault. I needed to speak to a human being, or at least get some kind of answer from a technically skilled employee when they said a response would be given (3 hours 12 minutes).
If Plusnet found I had not paid my monthly subscription, they would be on the phone to me like a shot. I don't then send them to some endless loop of waffle on a website that basically acts as a wall to stop them contacting me. They ring up a number and I answer it.
They dress up this forum as a 'community who help each other'  when in fact this is another example of getting paying customers to answer many of their support calls for them as a 'community' -offload the work, responsibility and of course costs and dress it up in marketing as a benefit.
My query was finally answered about 15 minutes ago, by which time the problem had rectified itself anyway. I posted the question via the Help Assistant at 10.50 am. That is not an acceptable level of support, and it left me in a very difficult position with a client.
After having suffered with BT for so long, I really hoped I could have left shoddy service behind. It seems that Plusnets clothing over their BT skeleton is not enough to stop them suffering from the same problem.

[#7]

Sorry I did not  mean to be sarcastic I was just pointing you in the correct direction to contact Plusnet support. Plusnet do not publish e-mail address for support but use a web based ticket system that gives them better tracking and accountability, or of course the telephone.
Also the 3 hours, 15 minutes and 12 seconds is the "Average closure time", not a promise that you will get a responce within 3 hours, 15 minutes and 12 seconds. It's a bit of a misleading statistic, as many quick telephone calls for very simple issues soon make it look quicker that the true ticket turn around times.
I note that today while Residential customers waited on average 3 minutes and 27 seconds for an answer on the phones today, Business customer only wait 47 seconds!!

[#8]

Quote from: XBumble

I pay a premium price for Plusnet broadband

Are you on an unusual package then? Please explain what it is.
When I joined PlusNet it was very clear that their primary processes, including support, are online.

[#9]

Plusnet do not charge a low rate for their Broadband - there are numerous suppliers out there charging far less.
Believe it or not I used to own an ISP (got out a few years back as the market got silly) and so I know all about Broadband and it's faults. My problem was with a need for Plusnet to possibly flush its DNS servers.
Whilst I agree there is an average for a support response (my ISP used to be 4 hour response - but was usually within the hour), but I waited over 7 hours.
In my book - this is not acceptable.
I tried calling twice today only to be told the waiting time was 25 mins and 15 mins. This to me is also not acceptable.
Why you wish to defend them I am not sure  - you pay good money as do I, and you are entitled to good support as am I.
I do not share your view that it is acceptable for a companies customers to help run their support service with no pay. The company is responsible for delivering support to their customers within the prices set by them.
You are going to ask me why I don't take a business package - the answer is because when I migrated from BT, I had to take a like-for-like package. I informed Plusnet I wanted to take out a package that had premium support and was told to do it once the migration had settled down.
No-one from Plusnet bothered to phone me, and the few times I have called to speak to anyone there has been ridiculous queues so i have not bothered to try and give a company more money when they clearly are not interested in taking my calls.
After the shoddy behaviour I have had to endure today, I'm not going to waste any more money with this lot.
As for online support, I don't have an issue with it if it is easy to get to. Where I have a major issue is the new site is a nightmare to navigate and it does it's best no to give you a link to support. What is unforgivable though is the response time to the email you sent, and of course the quality of the response given. Plusnet cannot seriously believe that a 7 hour response time to an email is acceptable.

[#10]

1. If there are numerous suppliers charging less, why did you com here?
2. If you used to get good service from BT , why did you migrate?
3. Why didn't you change to premium support after migration, as PN suggested?
This is my fifth ISP (including BT) and Customer Support has been much better than all the others.
I think the only way you'll get better service is to go back to running your own ISP.....

[#11]

My sympathies are with plusnet. You're getting the service you pay for.and your problems evidently stem from your misunderstanding of how the support systems work. The support systems DO work. I'll happily jump to defend plusnet because they have given us all an opportunity to learn about who they are and how they work. The transparency of their business is refreshing and you could learn a lot by sticking around, reading the forums, interacting with the staff and shedding your prejudice. Plusnet have won me over because I was willing to learn from them and from their customers. They're not perfect and they have errors but they are open about them and they fix them. What more do you want from an ISP? (I expect you want compensation. )
Instead of getting all het up about things, sit back, relax and read about some other people's support queries and how well they are dealt with. Really, you could learn a great deal and be better equipped for the next time you need assistance.

[#12]

Hi there XBumble.
I am really sorry to hear that you have had a bad experience with our help and suport pages. We do pride ourselves on the level of self help and automated support we provide to our customers.
I am happy to acknowledge that some of the support paths are not as clear or as intuitive as they could but we do have a long term plan to improve this journey.

Quote

I tried calling twice today only to be told the waiting time was 25 mins and 15 mins. This to me is also not acceptable.

I agree but with regard to the longest wait, I am not sure who told you that was the case. I can guarantee that the longest wait today was 12 mins 49 around lunchtime and at no time today did it exceed this and indeed throught the most of the day it was way less. I know this because I spent most of my day in the CSC helping to manage performance and support.
We dont offer support by email but by the ticket system. This is accountable and trackable and will always be available for our customers to view. When you raise a ticket via the help assistant it ensures that your problem is routed to an analyst with the appropriate skill set to deal with your query. When you raise a ticket it drops into a pool and from here the CSC managers monitor the response time and the quality of that response.
If you have raised a ticket regarding your specific problem then feel free to post the ticket number here and one of our team will take a look at it for you.

Quote

when I migrated from BT, I had to take a like-for-like package

I am not sure who told you this or the reason why it was suggested but I will certainly look into this and find out what was said and why.
Our dedicated and highly skilled Business support team operates Monday to Saturday from 0800 to 2000. Wait time on that line (although only for business customers ) is generally no more than 60 seconds. By all means give them a ring tomorrow and they'll be more than happy to deal with your issue and upgrade your account to a business package. Feel free to mention this thread to them. Their number is 0114 296 5182 or you can upgrade via the Member Centre - My Account - Connection settings.
Otherwise post details of your problem here and I'm sure we'll be able to help.
Edit as he properly reads the thread

Quote

My query was finally answered about 15 minutes ago, by which time the problem had rectified itself anyway. I posted the question via the Help Assistant at 10.50 am. That is not an acceptable level of support, and it left me in a very difficult position with a client

Glad it got sorted. Post up the ticket number and I'll glady take a look and review the issue and the quality of the response you received.

[#13]

Heloman - all the anwers to your questions are in my emails if you take time to read them.
Geewiz- you may be relaxed about poor service, but I am not. It seems that second rate behaviour towards customers is a disease creeping into most companies these days. No I don't want compensation - I want to be able to have a decent level of support. Seems I'll get neither here.
Defend Plusnet all you like - you are of course totally entitled to, but if you seriously feel this is good customer service you are receiving, you are either a partisan crowd, easily pleased or an employee. I don't want to stick around the forums for help - I want to contact the ISP after understanding the problem cannot be resolved via the knowledgebase and receive a timely response so I can get on and do my job.
My relationship with Plusnet is to use a service I pay for, not make online friends - I simply don't have time or inclination for such things.
Chewing the fat over another companies problems maybe beneficial to you, but it is a waste of time and an easy ride for the company involved in my eyes.
Mark - thank you for your response. The wait times were cited to me when I rang the support number on your website. After you get through the normal dreaded call-steering menu it tells you how long you will wait.  I didn't have time to hang around on hold that long.
The ticket number is ID: 25963537. I replied as I want to complain, and have been told I have to write to make a complaint. Fairly ironic when you consider your fetish with online contact forms for any other kind of communication. Seems that all support calls must be logged and tagged for both parties, but not complaints. Funny that.
I have no desire to contact your business team - I have a desire to get a MAC code and move from you to a company who can supply me with a decent level of service to its customers.  You have clearly demonstrated to me today exactly how good (sic) your customer service is. By your own admission your current system is not as it should be, but as a cynic I believe it is exactly how you want it - to ensure people don't call you. I understand why this is- due to the appalling margins on broadband, andI actually  don't have an issue with that.
The issue I do have is that when you I have to contact you because all other avenues have been exhausted, those contact emails are left unanswered for 7 hours.
The customer service which you force as a last result fails, and fails badly.
I would like you to please contact me as I am not happy at the way I have been treated. I do not wish for compensation, nor am I a serial complainer, but I am a customer who has been treated badly, and now finds the same difficulty in making my feelings known to anyone in management which is traceable.

[#14]

Hi XBumble,
Thanks for your time just now and hopefully all shall be well in the future.