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Assistance from Staff required - A whole list of problems with Fibre.

Thomas5020
Grafter
Posts: 49
Thanks: 2
Fixes: 2
Registered: ‎29-06-2016

Assistance from Staff required - A whole list of problems with Fibre.

I feel the need to explain this situation thoroughly just so everyone, especially Plusnet Employees and higher up's know what's going on here.  Your supplier, Openreach/BT is not doing the work they should be, and claim to be. Most important points in bold for easy reading. Thanks for you time. 

 

On the 25th of September, we received information that my cabinet was going to be upgraded and we would be getting faster speeds. Downtime was estimated to be 2-3 hours but could be a little longer. Fair enough. 

 

So on the 25th, an engineer went to the cabinet, internet went off, and didn't come back on again. A new cabinet had been installed, Cabinet 9. Previously, we, and everyone else nearby, were connected to cabinet 7. Our router connected to the newly installed cabinet network equipment, and this could be seen by our router clearly showing a sync speed and modulation (Although the modulation showed that we were on ADSL, not fibre) However, there was no connection to the internet, also proved by the router saying it had no connection. Had an engineer out, messed around for a while, thought we'd fixed at as the router had a blue light, the second he drove off it went back to the red/orange light (Plusnet Hub One, the large light on the front). A few phone calls later, about a thousand router restarts and resets (The reset using a pin) we got given some instructions to check our login details. Router just said PPP Connecting. Disconnected the ethernet so it went away, checked details, reentered them just in case, they were right. Still the same. 

Saw an engineer at the cabinet doing some work, spoke to him, he said the reason we had no internet is because our ISP had switched off our service on cabinet 7 before 9 was fully activated. At the same time, a friend who lives 10 seconds walk from the cabinet had received his upgrade within the 2-3 hour timeframe and was on the new cabinet. Don't know quite how that works. 

Called up again. Rep said the whole ordeal may have fried the router. We got a new router. Same thing. 

 

Another engineer visit. Drove to the cabinet. Found out Cabinet 9 wasn't active, which we had been told. He called Openreach, and asked for an activation date. They said cabinet 9 did not exist. (They built a whole cabinet and installed the equipment and didn't know they'd done it. You wouldn't think it possible, but here we are). He then spent considerable time at the 2 cabinets, and we don't know quite what he did, but he managed to get us a connection back. This still goes further. 

 

Before the attempted upgrade, we had 2.2MB down (16+ megabits), although it often synced down to about 2. 

After, we have about 900kbps, sometimes peaks at 1.1MB/s, but not too often. 

 

Not only has my connection not been improved, it has been made considerably worse. We are now paying for a Fibre connection, and although we are technically receiving the data through Fibre as shown by the router, these are not Fibre speeds. 

Openreach refuse to talk to me. They keep telling me to take it up with my ISP. I have taken it up with Plusnet. Many times. We are not getting anywhere. Here I am. Again. But this time on the forum. 

My entire network setup has been replaced. (Router, master socket, DSL cable, all ethernet cables in use). This is not my issue. Our second engineer agreed my network equipment is not at fault. Both engineers were very helpful we had, they did nothing wrong. They worked to the best of their ability. There were other faults that were presented during the upgrade, such as a "DIS One Leg" I believed it was referred to, although this was fixed 

Genuinely, what can we do about this? Openreach Engineers cannot fix the problem. Openreach as a company will not speak to me and keep directing me back to you (Talk about passing the blame... Angry). This issue is beyond Plusnet phone support, they've ran out of suggestions to help us (Not really their fault). 

I understand 900kbps is "enough for modern devices". (Yeh enough for one device, you can't tell me a family can share 900kbps and not experience problems, especially when latency is a concern such as online gaming). But we paid for Fibre as we wanted a faster speed, and we've had it taken away from us, yet we are still paying Fibre prices. Once this is resolved, we will be seeking compensation for at a very minimum, the 6-7 days of downtime we experienced, but for now getting it fixed is top priority.

I'd also like to mention that we (As users of the connection) are likely to involve trading standards. Not what we wanted to do, but nobody seems to be making much effort with this,and you have to remember that Plusnet really should be ensuring that  you are getting the proper service from Openreach, as you are their customer.  

Thanks for taking the time to read this. Smiley

1 REPLY 1
Gandalf
Community Gaffer
Community Gaffer
Posts: 26,563
Thanks: 10,265
Fixes: 1,599
Registered: ‎21-04-2017

Re: Assistance from Staff required - A whole list of problems with Fibre.

Hi @Thomas5020

I'm really sorry to read this, and thanks for posting with the detail.

I've been looking into this and there definitely isn't something right as your speeds are way below the estimates of 35mbps. I think the next step is to send out another engineer.

I've re-opened your fault ticket https://www.plus.net/wizard/?p=view_question&id=183062494 adding more detail. Could you reply to it with your availability for another visit please?

To try to ensure this is further investigated and resolved, I've raised an escalation with our suppliers BTwholesale, so that they can escalate this accordingly with Openreach ahead of the visit.

From 31st October 2022, I no longer have a regular presence here as I’ve moved on to a new role.
Anoush Mortazavi
Plusnet