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Ticket system yes / no?

mssystems
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Ticket system yes / no?

Anyone know the status of the ticket system for business customers? 

I have a premises move coming up which involves shifting an existing PN account to new line and starting a new PN account on the old line.  The corporate [-Censored-] mess up potential is high and I would like to keep a clearly written and fully visible record of promises and commitments made by PN/BT.

Please do not suggest using the chat system.

Thanks

 

 

20 REPLIES 20
mssystems
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Re: Ticket system yes / no?

Really?  50 views and nobody knows.

 

 

Anonymous
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Re: Ticket system yes / no?

I guess the majority of those views are from residential customers, but it shouldn't stop Plusnet staff like bobpullen replying. Hint. Hint.

MauriceC
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Re: Ticket system yes / no?

I'd hazard a guess that there are few Business customers left to pass an opinion.  I follow the board out of interest, but no direct experience on which to base a valuable response.

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.

mssystems
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Re: Ticket system yes / no?

Thanks Mook, MauriceC for at least responding.  More than PN are willing to do it seems.

 

Chris
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Re: Ticket system yes / no?

House and premises moves can only be started by a call I believe, however once this is underway there is a ticket created for this which documents the orders and progress.

 

The only issue I can see here is that you'll be talking about 2 different accounts, which will need tickets on the 2 separate accounts as we can't discuss a different account to the one the query is on.

Former Plusnet Staff member. Posts after 31st Jan 2020 are not on behalf of Plusnet.
mssystems
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Re: Ticket system yes / no?

Thanks Chris I appreciate the attention.

How do I do this with the least amount of downtime?

At the moment, my PN account is associated to a BT phone line in my home office.   I have over 10 years worth of referrals accrued and a static subnet which is programmed into an awful lot of customer premises equipment.   My business has expanded recently and I just rented an office unit up the road.

As far as I can tell, the order things need to happen is;

1. I need to install a line in my new premises 

2. Shift my existing PN account onto the new line

3. Port my existing home office land line number to my SIP provider

4. Put a new PN account on the home office line

I would like to take advantage of the lower line rental offered by PN, so do I order the new line with BT or with PN?

 

The only issue I can see here is that you'll be talking about 2 different accounts, which will need tickets on the 2 separate accounts as we can't discuss a different account to the one the query is on.

I am sure you have more imagination than that.  I have had my share of BB installs which did not go as smoothly as they should when they were entirely straightforward.  Ordering anything vaguely 'off the menu' with a busy 1st line department fills me with a special kind of dread.  My internet connection is one degree of separation from the dole office.

BTW.  You realise how ludicrous it is, to have two accounts with one provider and not be able to mention them both in a single communication.  Basil Fawlty ridiculous is what it is!
Once again, thank you for the attention.
 
 
Chris
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Re: Ticket system yes / no?

As far as I can tell, the order things need to happen is;

1. I need to install a line in my new premises 

Correct

2. Shift my existing PN account onto the new line

Could the new account not be put on this line instead of moving the existing account to this line?

3. Port my existing home office land line number to my SIP provider

This should be fine, but will disconnect the broadband. To port a number to a new provider the number needs to be active on a line, only one order can be in place on the line at a time. Therefore we can't renumber your line as this will either stop the number being active before porting which will stop them porting it. We'd need to reprovide the service on a new number once the previous number has moved away, this will take the normal lead times for new orders.

4. Put a new PN account on the home office line

My answer to 3. covers this too.

 

I would like to take advantage of the lower line rental offered by PN, so do I order the new line with BT or with PN?

You could order with us, the caveats above are relevant though.

 

Former Plusnet Staff member. Posts after 31st Jan 2020 are not on behalf of Plusnet.
mssystems
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Re: Ticket system yes / no?

> 2. Shift my existing PN account onto the new line

Could the new account not be put on this line instead of moving the existing account to this line?

I don't think so.  i) I need my public/static subnet to follow the business.  ii) We may sell the house and I don't want to lose my referrals.  iii)The subnet and the internet connection are  business critical - Where I need to sit to use them, less so.

 

> 3. Port my existing home office land line number to my SIP provider

This should be fine, but will disconnect the broadband.

I am aware of that, thanks.  Hence:

1. Install a new line in my new office unit.

2. Move my PN business account to the new line in the new office unit - At which point I can move out of the home office.

3. Once the home office line is free of my PN business account, port the telephone number out.

4. Put a new PN account on the renumbered home line.

I understand there will be an interruption to services at home but that is not a problem as long as I can work from my new office unit.

Presuming the sequence of events I am proposing is sensible.  This is where I get confused and the 'can't talk about separate accounts' rule starts to look ridiculous. 

Do I need a new account to order a new line, to switch an existing account onto?  Or what?

 

Really appreciate your attention Chris.

 

 

AlaricAdair
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Re: Ticket system yes / no?

If your business depends on internet access, I'd suggest you order a new dedicated line to the new premises and get internet working on that before you attempt to migrate the existing services in a cut-over "move". Many things can go wrong during a move. Quite often they are not BT/PlusNets fault and might take a while to resolve.  When everything is running smoothly you could then use the "new" line as a backup. 

Dual WAN firewalls are not expensive and can provide automatic switch over in the event of a single line failure.

Ideally the alternate line should be from another vendor to reduce the effect of network failure within the ISP.

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mssystems
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Re: Ticket system yes / no?

My business depends on my public IP numbers.  There seems to be some difficulty understanding that, which is quite surprising for an internet company.

Like most small businesses, I do not have redundant electric cables from alternative suppliers or a tertiary diesel generator.  The fragility of the current BB network is just one more feature of what is a virtual monopoly choosing to underinvest, leaving small businesses and the whole economy to pay the price.  The answer is to double the cost of the utility to the business, inflating the profit of the underperforming monopoly?  Pure lunacy.

If you read the plan I laid out above, the risks are mitigated as best they can be, without inflating the cost.  Getting people to read and understand that plan is once again, a struggle.  I have moved offices and BB accounts many times for customers, have seen many things go wrong but I am sorry, the problems have all been within the control of PN and / or BT.  More often than not, caused by a lack of attention to or ownership of, the problem.  In fairness, PN have (or had) some absolute stars on the service desk but it's a lottery whether you get through to one.

Thank you for your interest all the same.  Unfortunately, ordering the new line has not gone smoothly and not being able to use the ticket system was a significant contribution to the difficulty.

 

 

 

 

mssystems
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Re: Ticket system yes / no?

I take it back. Plus.net have turned into a complete bunch of numpties. 

While trying to sort out one mess, they have created an even bigger mess.  If this wasn't all aggravating enough.  I am once more denied the facility of writing, to set out the request, the events and my complaint, carefully and with consideration.  I will be forced to gamble precious working hours in the lottery of call waiting.  And when I finally get through, I will be talking to someone who prior experience leads me to think, won't actually be capable of listening.

Whatever happens next, by the time this is resolved, I will have had to pay £100s in rent on a building which I can not work from.  My knee jerk reaction is, to borrow a term from the Yorkshire vernacular,  [-Censored-] them!  Cancel the order and refuse to hand any more money to a business so determined to boost the CEOs bonus by providing  shambolic customer services. The horror of trying to do even that though, is only now starting to sink in.  The phone is active with PN and the line rental charge is likely a bundle agreement.  Can I even cancel without penalty?  The longer it takes to sort this out, the more £100s I pay renting an empty building.

 

The saga so far.  We were forced to place our order for a new phone and fibre service, by phoning Plus Net.  After 30 minutes waiting for an answer during business hours, we gave up waiting. I should add we spent another 30 minutes waiting earlier in the day, on behalf of a customer.  My wife (secretary) tried again the next day, Saturday, while I was on a call out.  PN answered within 5 minutes and all seemed to go well.  The day after, Sunday.  I get an automated message from BT, informing me PN have applied to take over my business line.  Unsurprisingly I was just a little anxious about this unexpected turn.  My business line, my livelihood,  was in danger of being moved to an office I was not ready to move into.  So we called PN the same day, Sunday, to try to sort it out. 

PN had completely missed the fact we are on VOIP and so the phone number on the physical line is of little interest  They had ignored the carefully prepared request I gave my wife and sold what they thought we needed.  It took a lot of explaining to get through that my public IP numbers are the crucial factor and the number on the physical line is of no consequence.  I explained, we want a new fibre account on any old phone number you like, and once the phone and broad band are active in the new building, we can switch the new account with my home office, move and start working.   I thought we were all clear about it  when the call ended.  

So the long wait for BT/OR to provision new services begins.  BT activated the phone line a couple weeks ago, which we can't use because we have to wait again for the fibre provisioning.  E-Mail duly arrives, informing my wife the broad band will go active on the 11th April, next week.  Router arrived Friday I think.  We have arranged to move the server, the phone system, the work benches, test equipment and my desk, over the bank holiday next weekend.  We had arranged with friends to help us.  And of course I am running a business during the busiest time of the business year.

Today I looked at the box containing the router in a little more detail and was shocked to see the model number 2704N.  Sure enough what is inside is a Hub Zero, with a WAN port marked ADSL.  Can you see where this is going yet?  I log into the customer portal for the new account for the first time and there it is in black and white.  PN have placed the order with BT to provision ADSL, not fibre.  The lack of fore thought is astonishing.  Keep in mind that in that earlier phone call, we agreed we would be switching the new service with the existing service as soon as we are ready to.  But someone at PN honestly thought a network engineer might want to downgrade from 80/20 fibre, to an ADSL line which will hardly make 5 Mbps down.  To add insult to injury, I also noticed they neglected to add our existing account as the referrer. 

This is numptytude of the first order and now I have to try to sort it out.

 

Remember folks, your business can be this rubbish too, just as long as you break a million subscribers.

Moderator's note by Mike (Mav): Avoidance of swear filter edited as per Forum rules.

Townman
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Re: Ticket system yes / no?


@Chris wrote:

2. Shift my existing PN account onto the new line

Could the new account not be put on this line instead of moving the existing account to this line?

Is "moving" the account actually necessary?  IIRC any account ID can be used on any PN broadband connection and the static IP address is associated with the account ID.  Therefore is not the following (simpler) approach viable?

  1. Order a new line with a new account at the new premises
  2. Get that service up and working using the new account
  3. Move the old router to the new line (with the existing account ID in its set up)
  4. Move the new router to the old line (with the new account in its set up)

I believe this will work (deliver what you are requesting) with minimal opportunity for things to go wrong, but @bobpullen will know for sure.  The only potential problem here might be in dealing with fault reports... which hopefully there will be none!

Note to use this approach, both accounts would best be business accounts.  HTH?

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.

AlaricAdair
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Re: Ticket system yes / no?


@mssystems wrote:

...Like most small businesses, I do not have redundant electric cables from alternative suppliers or a tertiary diesel generator. ...


I run a small business and we too cannot operate without the Internet. For our primary office we have have a dual vendor internet links, standby generator (with enough fuel for a week) and a UPS. We also have an alternate site 10 miles away so that in the event of our local telephone exchange burning down/ or a 747 landing on the exchange unexpectedly, we can move and be underway again in less than an hour. There's a cost to this, but it is much less than losing clients.

Our business?  Helping technology dependent businesses move smoothly to new offices on an international basis. Wink

Townman's suggestions look fine to me.

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mssystems
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Re: Ticket system yes / no?


Very smug of you AlaricAdair Wink  Are you trying to tell me you know what is right for my business, or are you trying to promote your own?

The clues are all there.  I am primarily a network engineer, trying to move out of a home office and my wife is my part time secretary.  What do you think that says about my business?  My cash flow does not have a hope of absorbing the scale of standing charges you are talking about; just in case.  If it did, I would rather use the surplus to fund an employee or more rack space in the data-centre I use.

The internet is an essential utility for just about every business and organisation these days.  The majority of small business and charities  employ < 5 staff who don't all use computers.  If you told them they _need_ a backup generator, you would get laughed at.  The last DR analysis I did for a small community charity.  Turns out they can function adequately well with a smart phone as backup.  Another client recently found me in exasperation, after two 'I.T. consultants' [salesmen] both tried to sell him vastly over-engineered solutions from their 'standard' menu.  

Don't get me wrong, I have had a lot of time for reading your posts.  However, if you are going to claim that every order you have placed with PN/BT/OR went smoothly, I am going to call you a liar.  Didn't I read you are dropping PN as a supplier?