Community site dysfunctional - cannot log in, and customer service lacking

[#1]

I've been a Plusnet customer for ten years, so I have a Member Centre account and can log in there without difficulty.

I also signed up many years ago to this Plusnet Community site (with a separate username and password) and indeed posted comments and queries from time to time.  But I hadn't logged in during recent months.

About a month ago I encountered a problem with the deletion of my entire email archive without any warning.  I'll post details separately, but it was the same problem as Bladerider had suffered - see this thread.

I wanted to compare notes and join that community discussion.  BUT that's when I ran into another exasperating problem, which turned into a sequence of problems which raise serious questions both about the technical systems and the quality of Plusnet customer service:

• I could not log in to the Community site.  I know that my username and password were correct.  But the Community website did not 'recognise' them;
• after several attempts I resorted to the 'need help with login/password' option.  I entered my email address (the one I had originally provided when registering, as I'd carefully noted that too).  I got an auto pop-up response saying that a link to reset my password had been sent to that email address.  Fine, I thought;
• guess what..... no message from Plusnet with a password reset link ever arrived in my email Inbox (nor in the Spam folder - I did check);
• I waited a day or two and tried again.  Same login problem.  Same request to reset password.  Same lack of message from Plusnet;
• increasingly frustrated, I went into the main Member Centre website, contacted Customer Service, and had a ticket raised (ref 170931917) in mid-March which covered both the original email archive issue and the inability to login or reset my password on the Community site;
• the email archive issue was partially answered within a week or so.  But the ticket was left open and 'extended' by Plusnet until 11 April because they were investigating the problems and could not provide solutions;
• so I waited.....  only to find that on 11 April that ticket had been closed (without any notification to me) with the comment from a customer-service person "no action required".

What could I do?  No scope to query or respond to customer service as my ticket had been unilaterally closed.  And I still could not log in to this Community site and its forums....

But here I am.  I have had to reinvent myself.  I have re-registered as a new member of the Plusnet community.  I have created a new account on this site.  I have devised a new username which is very similar to my old one, and set a new password.

None of this should have been necessary.  I still don't know why I was unable to login to the Community site under my original username.  I still don't know whether Plusnet customer service have looked into that login issue.  I have had no explanation as to why I did not get the password-reset messages when I requested them.  So I assume that there is still a technical glitch somewhere in the Community site login system.  And I'm pretty hacked off at the inadequacy of the responses provided by Plusnet.

I would thus welcome comments not only from other community members, but from whoever on Plusnet staff is responsible for quality control and service standards.

[#2 · Accepted solution]

A little over 2 years ago the Plusnet Community moved to it's current Lithium platform and whilst the user profiles were also moved to the new platform I seem to remember that all passwords had to be reset so you've probably missed that resulting in your current login problems.

I'll tag @jaread83 to get his attention as I believe he'll be your best bet in reviving your old account but bearing in mind it's late Friday it's very possible he won't see this until Monday morning.

[#3]

A few years ago now Plusnet changed the community platform so it was necessary to re-register in order to keep an account going. I had long discontinued the email address that I had originally used to register, which raised complications  so I found it easier to start again.

You seem to find this to be an issue. It never occured to me that it mattered.

[#4]

Thanks to both Baldrick1 and Browni for those quick and helpful replies. 

If the Community site did move to a new  (Lithium) platform a couple of years ago, that would certainly explain why I couldn't log in using my "old" username and password.  Not a major disaster for me, but it was frustrating.  I'm not psychic.  Nor do I expect to check the Community site every week or two to see whether the goalposts have moved.  Life is too short for that. 

As for Browni's kind suggestion, I'm not too bothered about reinstating my old username etc.  The posts I made back in the day are still visible (my new username differs by only one chracter from my old one).

But it would surely not have been beyond the wit of Plusnet to alert people directly when the Community site "moved" and to advise us of the need to re-register?  I certainly never saw any such notification.

And even if they did not do that, there is no excuse that I can see for Customer Service's failure to explain the situation when I raised a ticket.  I'm pleased that I now have what appears to be a rational explanation, even if it is 'stable door after horse has bolted'.  But for that I have to thank Community members.  Plusnet itself could do better, methinks.

[#5]

I’m pretty sure there was an announcement via email - but if you’re not subscribed to marketing emails you may well not have received one.

[#6]

Thanks dvorak, for looking at this and adding to the explanation.  It's my standard practice not to agree to marketing emails - because I don't want to be inundated with emails about marketing....

But service-status changes and requirements to re-register on forums are user-notifications, not marketing mailshots.  I would have hoped that Plusnet could recognise the difference and act accordingly.

And when I ask Customer Services via a 'ticket'  what's happened, it would be good to get an informed reply rather than have my question closed without answer. That's an issue (QoS) that needs looking at.

[#7]

Hi @br1anst0rm, sorry to see that you're having trouble logging in to your old forum account. Have you tried resetting the password via the login form? It should send you an email with a link to reset the password and recover your account.
As far as I was aware, all community members were notified via email about the move to this new platform. I was not involved in this part of the migration so I can't comment on whether this also includes users with email notifications from 'marketing' switched on or not (and the person who was involved in all that has since left Plusnet). I do recall there being a prize draw for coming to the new community and logging in so it could be deemed as 'marketing' when framed like that. I am sure those who have marketing emails switched off would not have appreciated receiving an email about a prize draw.

[#8]

Thanks, @jaread83, for those comments.

I had indeed tried (several times) to log in to my old (pre-Lithium) forum account, being unaware of the platform change.  Not only were my old username and password not recognised, but when I requested a password re-set, no email with the necessary link came through.  I tried that several times too!

I now know that the move to Lithium happened two years ago.  I am certain that I did not receive any kind of message saying that this was about to happen and inviting me to re-register, with or without a prize draw offer.  If it was sent only to those who had opted in to marketing messages, then that would explain why I received nothing.  But it does seem that a major change to a community website which required re-registration should have been notified to all users whether or not they had agreed to marketing messages.

Water under the bridge now - and at least I can once again engage in the community forums.  But it's been a bit of a saga to get back on track.....

[#9]

Sorry it has been a bit of a pain - I wasn't involved in the comms for letting everyone know about the new community launch at the time.
I can certainly look into recovering your old account for you. If you can send me a private message with the username and email address related to that account, I can take a look and change the password for you so you can get in and change it to something else. Let me know and I will look into it for you.

[#10]

Thanks, @jaread83 for that kind offer.  PM sent.