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Was left less than impressed when I asked about switching to business grade.

inhost
Grafter
Posts: 182
Registered: ‎06-11-2011

Was left less than impressed when I asked about switching to business grade.

Hi Folks,
Perhaps I just got through to a new guy on your sales team but I was all ready to sign up and by the time I finally had to hang up I fell like it could be a very bad decision.
After calming down for 30 minutes or so I am thinking perhaps your sales team simply are not qualified (which is fair) to give answers to the sorts of questions I want to know so thought I would pop in here and see if your tech/management guys could answer some of my questions/requirements.
I will make it simple enough, what I need and want to know is:
1) Guaranteed SLA on resolving internet connectivity issues?
2) Do you take ownership of the issues end to end i.e. I don't want to hear "well we were waiting for BTOR to do something so we paused your SLA?
3) Static IPv4 included?
4) IPv6 available and if so do you ignore all RFC's and assign individual addresses or follow the RFC's and give a routed /64 block?
5) rDNS support for IPv4/6 ?
6) Is there any priority put on Internet connectivity issues not just within plusnet but with your suppliers if I am switching to business grade?
7) Should I expect any service interruption if I move to business FTTC (currently on home FTTC)
Cool Is your SLA financially backed?
You can call if you want (not sales people) as right now my FTTC has been down for 52 hours and no one cares and my internet access is patchy at best on 2g Smiley
Thanks.
15 REPLIES 15
Chris
Legend
Posts: 17,724
Thanks: 600
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Registered: ‎05-04-2007

Re: Was left less than impressed when I asked about switching to business grade.

I'll ask one of our Business Team to reply to this as they're best placed to answer your questions.
Quote
You can call if you want (not sales people) as right now my FTTC has been down for 52 hours and no one cares and my internet access is patchy at best on 2g

See my reply on your other thread, from what I can see you're connected.
Former Plusnet Staff member. Posts after 31st Jan 2020 are not on behalf of Plusnet.
inhost
Grafter
Posts: 182
Registered: ‎06-11-2011

Re: Was left less than impressed when I asked about switching to business grade.

Thanks Chris,
Yep it is up now thanks, just looking for some RCA work now.
Pettitto
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Posts: 6,346
Fixes: 5
Registered: ‎26-11-2011

Re: Was left less than impressed when I asked about switching to business grade.

Hi inhost,
I've just tried to give you a quick call on the contact numbers on your account but couldn't get through. With regards to your questions, I'll answer them as below:
1) Guaranteed SLA on resolving internet connectivity issues?
As your account is residential, they offer an SLA of up to 72 hours. That is when you should expect a further update at the very least. From the business point of view, we aim to get in touch and update customers within 24 working hours.
2) Do you take ownership of the issues end to end i.e. I don't want to hear "well we were waiting for BTOR to do something so we paused your SLA?
The residential Faults Team do work through a ticket pool to work through the older faults first, however, if you'd like personal ownership of your fault, you should be able to request this without any issues.
3) Static IPv4 included?
A Static IP address (IPv4) is available for a one off fee of £5.00. Static IP addresses are included on business accounts as a standard, for free.
4) IPv6 available and if so do you ignore all RFC's and assign individual addresses or follow the RFC's and give a routed /64 block?
IPv6 isn't available at the moment, we are currently trialling and looking at different ways in which we can prepare ourselves for when the IPv6 switchover does happen.
5) rDNS support for IPv4/6 ?
If you could expand on what kind of support you'd be looking for, I'd be happy to help. We can change your rDNS settings, for example, changing the rDNS from username.plus.com  to your IP address if you prefer.
6) Is there any priority put on Internet connectivity issues not just within plusnet but with your suppliers if I am switching to business grade?
The Business Team chase for updates on each touch. We try and touch each ticket once per day. If you're looking for something quicker than that, we do offer Enhanced Care which does cost a little extra, but ensures that we get in touch with you within 2 hours of you first raising a fault. With regards to our suppliers, they work very closely with us anyway, but Enhanced Care, they understand requires near immediate responses.
7) Should I expect any service interruption if I move to business FTTC (currently on home FTTC)
You shouldn't notice any downtime at all. This is a back-end change.
Please let me know if you've any further questions and I'm really sorry for the experience you have endured on this occasion. It's certainly not the kind of service that we aim and try to offer.
inhost
Grafter
Posts: 182
Registered: ‎06-11-2011

Re: Was left less than impressed when I asked about switching to business grade.

Could you be a bit more specific on the SLA and end to end support please, I think you missed the main point of that?
Also could you confirm the business team have a separate Faults team as my connection just went down again and I was informed the faults team only work 9-5 so no one would be looking in to this until the morning which is a little annoying as I have been without stable service since 20th September.
Maybe give me a run down of how things would have been handled differently under a business contract?
jelv
Seasoned Hero
Posts: 26,785
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Registered: ‎10-04-2007

Re: Was left less than impressed when I asked about switching to business grade.

It sounds like what you may need is Enhanced Care
jelv (a.k.a Spoon Whittler)
   Why I have left Plusnet (warning: long post!)   
Broadband: Andrews & Arnold Home::1 (FTTC 80/20)
Line rental: Pulse 8 Home Line Rental (£14.40/month)
Mobile: iD mobile (£4/month)
inhost
Grafter
Posts: 182
Registered: ‎06-11-2011

Re: Was left less than impressed when I asked about switching to business grade.

Actually what this sounds like is the only benefit of going with business is a free static IP, if you actually want a better level of service you have to pay extra again on top of the extra cost of going for the business grade package... confused.
Pettitto
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Posts: 6,346
Fixes: 5
Registered: ‎26-11-2011

Re: Was left less than impressed when I asked about switching to business grade.

Hi,
Sorry I missed that part off. We don't have an SLA, we look to work faults and tickets as quickly as we possibly can. As I said in my previous response, we aim to update each ticket once per day.
The Business Team have their own Faults, Provisioning and Support Team so we are entirely separate when it comes to the support that you receive. The end to end support is quite simple, we try and contact our customers on each touch of a fault ticket so you know what we're doing to try and resolve the issue. The Business Team work 8am-8pm, however, Enhanced Care faults are still picked up as a matter of priority.
The level of support that we offer for Business Products is great, but if you want that extra level of support, then yes, it is something you will need to pay extra for.
If you were a Business Customer, with a fault, a ticket would be raised and picked up within 24 working hours. We will test the line, give you a call to discuss what we intend to do to resolve the issue. Upon each touch of that ticket, we will attempt to get in touch to keep you in the loop. The Business Support Team is full of very, very experienced people and know how to deal with very complex issues, so we are in a very good position.
I hope this helps.
jelv
Seasoned Hero
Posts: 26,785
Thanks: 971
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Registered: ‎10-04-2007

Re: Was left less than impressed when I asked about switching to business grade.

Well of course Enhanced Care costs more. There would be no point in having a faster response from Plusnet if when the passed it on to "their supplier" you were stuck with the same response times. Plusnet have to pay extra to BTw for the faster response times so they have to charge more themselves.
jelv (a.k.a Spoon Whittler)
   Why I have left Plusnet (warning: long post!)   
Broadband: Andrews & Arnold Home::1 (FTTC 80/20)
Line rental: Pulse 8 Home Line Rental (£14.40/month)
Mobile: iD mobile (£4/month)
inhost
Grafter
Posts: 182
Registered: ‎06-11-2011

Re: Was left less than impressed when I asked about switching to business grade.

Sorry you lost me as a potential customer as soon as you said you offer no SLA.... I mean really....wow.
Pettitto
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Posts: 6,346
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Registered: ‎26-11-2011

Re: Was left less than impressed when I asked about switching to business grade.

I'm sorry that you feel that way.
jelv
Seasoned Hero
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Registered: ‎10-04-2007

Re: Was left less than impressed when I asked about switching to business grade.

When you find an ISP that offers an SLA on a broadband connection at an affordable price (say under £50 per month) could you post here to let us know.
I won't be holding my breath!
Edit: An example BT Broadband Network is £58.50 per month ex. VAT
jelv (a.k.a Spoon Whittler)
   Why I have left Plusnet (warning: long post!)   
Broadband: Andrews & Arnold Home::1 (FTTC 80/20)
Line rental: Pulse 8 Home Line Rental (£14.40/month)
Mobile: iD mobile (£4/month)
inhost
Grafter
Posts: 182
Registered: ‎06-11-2011

Re: Was left less than impressed when I asked about switching to business grade.

Well when I spoke to the business sales people it was more than £50 a month with Plusnet iirc it worked out about £62 after the VAT. so perhaps BT is a better choice, thanks for looking in to that.
No SLA on a business grade service is nuts imo, but as you asked, Zen, TalkTalk, BT, OpenITC all offer service level agreements to business customers.
James
Grafter
Posts: 21,036
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Registered: ‎04-04-2007

Re: Was left less than impressed when I asked about switching to business grade.

I'd be interested to know specifically what they are.  I can see from the TTB website that they do offer one, but not specifically what it is.
FWIW, on our Business Products, on standard care, the response time (SLA) for broadband faults through Wholesale is 30 calendar hours, for phone faults through Openreach its the end of the next working day (on residential this is end of next working day plus one).  The criteria (I put "response") is for Openreach/Wholesale to "clear" a fault.  This means passing back to us with further diagnostic requests or notification that a problem has been resolved.
I don't think any ISP can give you a guarantee that a fault will be fixed within X hours, but they can say (as I have above) what our SLA for a response from our Wholesaler is.
jelv
Seasoned Hero
Posts: 26,785
Thanks: 971
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Registered: ‎10-04-2007

Re: Was left less than impressed when I asked about switching to business grade.

The BT package does specify the compensation that is paid if they fail to meet the service level. Where are the details of the compensation Plusnet pays?
@inhost What compensation do Zen etc pay?
jelv (a.k.a Spoon Whittler)
   Why I have left Plusnet (warning: long post!)   
Broadband: Andrews & Arnold Home::1 (FTTC 80/20)
Line rental: Pulse 8 Home Line Rental (£14.40/month)
Mobile: iD mobile (£4/month)