Honest opinion of Plusnet service

[#1]

I am nearing the end of my contract with Talktalk and Plusnet is my preferred option, but there does seem to be quite a lot of discontent with the Plusnet service, with either the router or regular dis-connections.

Could I have some honest opinions of the Plusnet fibre service please.

Thanks

[#2]

Moderators Note

This topic has been moved from Fibre to Everything Else

[#3]

Hi @dekorasirumah7  and welcome to the forum, thanks for expressing an interest in Plusnet, whoever you decide to join, I hope the changeover goes smoothly. 

As I'm sure you're aware these forums are primarily used for customer support and so the majority of people posting will have experienced some kind of issue. 

A great way to see how companies stack up is to view their Quality of Service page, It will show you the key stats for each ISP. Ours can be found here

[#4]

I have been with Plusnet since 2014 initially with standard ADSL but then upgrading to fibre once available in my area about 4 years ago.  To be honest I have had no real issues with either the service provided by the broadband connection itself or with the Plusnet Customer Service team.  OK, I may have had the odd query but these generally get resolved pretty efficiently. 

When the new Hub came out making the BT Openreach Modem redundant, Plusnet had no qualms in sending me the newer router. 

Upload speeds did drop a little after BT had performed a line upgrade a couple of years ago.  This was supposedly to give customers a slightly higher download speed but as I was already running up to the max expected then I saw no increase while the slight degradation for uploads had no impact on my own personal usage.

Having been with several ISP's over the years, Plusnet has topped the rankings both from personal experience and observations gleaned about other ISP's both on a service and VFM basis. 

I also subscribe to a Plusnet SIM for my mobile and have since included other members of the family as their current contracts expire.  Again no qualms with the service levels and VFM.

The end result is that I have yet again renewed my contract for another 24 months having negotiated an improved rate closely matching what would be available to new customers signing up.

[#5]

I have been on Plusnet fibre since I joined the fibre trial service in 2010. I have moved three times since then. The only problem I have ever had was a result of roadworks next to my cabinet which led to outages overnight for few days. Also my speeds have always been at the maximum of the product I am on.

I have a Plusnet router, but I don't use it as the BT VDSL modem and an old Netgear router work well for me.

I should mention that I live in London in an area that Virgin colonized long before I joined Plusnet so it is possible that loads on the BT network are not as heavy as in other places.

HTH

Dave

[#6]

@sirteuk - When making this decision you also need to take into consideration the number of satisfied customers that Plusnet have, a number that may well exceed the 100s of thousands, if not more. These customers will never appear on this forum as for the majority it is a place to get a resolution to a problem not to provide praise for a service that should just work.

Like the others above I’ve been with Plusnet for many years and I’ve never experienced an issue that hasn’t been resolved in a timely manner. If the truth be told I don’t think you would regret moving to Plusnet for your services.

[#7]

@sirteuk 

To be honest the ADSL router is pretty bad. Some people are also having problems with the fibre Plusnet Hub One. Should you have issues then the router can be swapped for your own. Many of us use a BT Smarthub 6, which can be bought for about £20 from Ebay.. 

Plusnet use the BT infrastructure for fibre so fibre disconnections should be the same as for your current ISP.

The great Plus that Plusnet have is this forum. Here you will find fellow customers and knowledgeable Plusnet staff who will do their best to help with any issues that you have.

[#8]

Thanks for the replies, I am looking at the 36mb fibre service.

I still have my bt home hub 5, which I believe the plusnet router is a clone of.

My bt hub 5 was excellent so hopefully the clone will be as is!

[#9]

@sirteuk 

Hi

Compared to my last isp, who would not listen when a fault was described to them and they refused to deal with it (cost them plenty in compo, I do like compo) Plusnet are like saints, but they do need to think outside of the box a bit.

As someone stated, you never get the good reports, and the support staff have to deal with a constant barrage of problems which if the consumer actually read the tips would probably enable them to resolve it themselves.

I prefer to contact CS with the more interesting issues.

You can use your own modem, the previous one would not allow it, another reason for leaving, and the price is fair for the service supplied by openreach. The community have some knowledgable  people contributing which helps, compared to the other isp where the moderators / contributors were muppets.

7/10, (would be 8/10 but for the PoxyPopUp, bet nobody actually reads them)

[#10]

Yes, I believe that the Plusnet Hub is a branded clone of the BT Home Hub 5.  Still waiting for the clone of a BT Home Hub 6 to come out.

Router (Hub) reliability has proven itself with no real issues apart from:

• Slowness of firmware updates and no info available what these updates resolve or add.
• More importantly,the ability to manage the Router from a remote location out on the internet.  All other routers I have ever used always offer this via an admin account and customisable external port.  Indeed I think the BT Home Hub may even offer this - but I could be wrong.

[#11]

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@sirteuk wrote:

I still have my bt home hub 5, which I believe the plusnet router is a clone of.

My bt hub 5 was excellent so hopefully the clone will be as is!

---

The Plusnet offering is a HH5A with Plusnet firmware. Some are giving wifi issues, prpbably due to iffy Plusnet firmware. To be honest if you have.a BT version I would use that. They look better.. Also if you have a HH5B it might perform better. Setting instructions are here. https://community.plus.net/t5/My-Router/Use-a-BT-Hub-2-3-4-or-5-on-a-Plusnet-connection/m-p/1192234#...

Also some of the recent Plusnet hubs are noisy when using the 5GHz wifi band.

[#12]

@sirteuk There are elements of the Plusnet service which are common to most UK ISPs (use of Openreach infrastructure) and other elements which are within their control.

The initial provision and any changes can be a bit "bumpy" and communication seems to be based on Openreach being instructed to do something and it happening being at the same time.

Calling customer service can result in long wait times and the billing system can be odd.

For all that, actually I've found the service works well.

I have a static IP address (which was a modest one off charge) and my own router (I wanted more facilities than the Plusnet unit).

It's a while since I needed support but when I did it's been good.