Contract / Cooling Off and line speeds.

[#1]

Hi there community,

Having received the email yesterday that my fibre unlimited is active I then proceeded to connect to the service.

The speeds were sub par with what was expected 34.7 (the plus net service says between 51 and 71). Indeed I know this is possible as I have another broadband connection from BT giving me 71mb download and 18mb upload.

Next step was live chat. Live chat said wait up to 4 days and see if the speed increases. This morning I rebooted the router and tried again giving me 44mb down and 5.23 up. Still really slow in comparison.

My main gripe is that on chat I asked about the cooling down period and how many days I have to cancel.

Naturally if I'm paying for an expected service and it does not deliver I would expect 20 days from the point of having the service activated. This seems not to be the case and the contract starts from signing up. Quite unfair really considering the service has only been activated a day and I have clocked up 15 days on my contract. Giving me affectively 5 days to cancel and the line is still subject to small speed increases I'm assuming due to DLM as is being discussed in the forum.

So I guess this post has two areas of interest.

The broadband speed. Can the speed really go from 40s up to the 70s in speed over 3 days? As mentioned I already have a second broadband fibre connection and from the moment it was activated the speed was 71mb down and 18mb up. The fluctuation if any was within a mb not 10s of mbs.

Why does the customer have such a short cooling down period considering they do not know their service is suitable. By that I mean actually having a service.

[#2]

@squirrelband 

You appear to be mis-understanding the rules around the contract and cooling off period.

As I understand it your contract starts on the day that your service is connected.

The cooling off period begins the day after you place your order with Plusnet and is for 14 days and not the 20 days you seem to believe.

[agedgopher]

Thanks for the comment agedgopher . So I would like from an Plusnet representative just to confirm that I have 14 days start from point of activation in my case yesterday 29/03/2019.

Since I agreed the deal leads me to believe it is from sign up and not activation I would just like conformation from an official representative.

So my next question would be from other users have they had an increase from mid 30s to 70s in mb over a few days?. I'm trying to gauge how long I have to wait to obtain a minimum of the stated speed. Best scenario what I would be getting from BT at present.

And yes for some reason my brain keeps the 20 days so apologies for that. I now acknowledge it is 14. But from what point?

Chat Transcript------------------------------------------------------

Myself: Connection status Connection status: Connected Downstream: 39.68 Mbps Upstream: 5.34 Mbps
[CSA Removed]:

as we cant do anything for a new connection as a lot of the time speeds rise after a few days.

Myself: I have 20 days to cancel am I correct in saying this.
[CSA Removed]:

14 since you agreed the deal

Moderator's note by Mike (Mav): CSA name(s) removed (to an area staff can see) as per Forum rules.

[#4]

Just to clarify.

• I'm the only user on the router.
• It is a hard wired connection to the router.
• Router is BT Home Hub 5
• The speed test is via BT wholesale checker. http://www.speedtest.btwholesale.com/

Activation date was 29/03/2019

BT Home 5 Broadband connection tab. As mentioned over the last day it has increase from 33.something to 44.something by the looks of it.

Connection Information

Line state:	Connected
Downstream:	44.37 Mbps
Upstream:	6.099 Mbps

[#5]

@squirrelband 

As you don't believe @agedgopher  can I suggest that you read section 9 'Cancellation Period' of the 'Terms and Conditions' to which you have agreed. You will find a link if you click on the Legal Bit field of the Plusnet home page.

[#6]

I have no equipment involved in this contract Baldrick1 so a lot of those clauses are not relevant.

Could you just clarify what "on the day after we accepted the order" refers to. Is this not referring to me having signed up with the plus net contract?. If it does then [CSA Removed] was correct in the transcript.

I'm quite happy to chat and reply. Have no ulterior motive and absolutely do not wish to offend users. Just official clarification.

Your feedback is appreciated.

https://www.plus.net/help/legal/terms/#packageTerms

9. Cancellation period

9.1. Unless our Service Terms say otherwise, we provide you with a 14 calendar day cancellation period which starts:

9.1.1. for services, on the day after we accepted your order; or

9.1.2. for any equipment, on the day after we delivered it.

9.2. If you cancel any services within this cancellation period you must:

9.2.1. pay for any services received up to the date that you told us you wanted to cancel;

9.2.2. pay any installation, connection or activation charges associated with that service (including the full cost of charges that were discounted or advertised as free as a condition of taking services on the terms that you agreed); and

9.2.3. return any equipment we have provided as set out in paragraph 9.5 below.

9.3. If you just ordered equipment and cancel within the cancellation period, paragraph 9.2 doesn't apply but you must return any equipment to us as set out in paragraph 9.5 below.

9.4. If the service you signed-up for is a product change, a re-contract or add-on, upon cancelling the service we may move you back to your previous agreement or the closest matching service.

9.5. Where you cancel as set out in paragraphs 9.2 and 9.3 above and are required to return any equipment to us:

9.5.1. you must return the equipment to us (undamaged and in its original packaging) within 14 days of telling us you want to cancel, at your own cost; and

9.5.2. we'll refund anything you have paid for the equipment less an appropriate amount (up to the full value of the refund) where the equipment is damaged or has been used more than necessary to check it.

9.6. If you don't return the equipment within 14 days of cancelling you'll have to pay the full price of the equipment. If you subsequently return the equipment to us, we'll waive or return what you have been charged for the equipment.

9.7. These rights are in addition to any other legal rights you may have to cancel our agreement.

Moderator's note by Mike (Mav): Duplicate post removed.

Moderator's note by Mike (Mav): CSA name(s) removed (to an area staff can see) as per Forum rules.

[#7]

So from what you have posted, the 14 day period is from the day after you signed up for the deal.  When doing so you will have been given the expected speed range (and possibly the minimum guaranteed speed, I forget now if you get that at the point of sign up).  Is your speed within that range?

[#8]

No where near pjmarsh (thanks for asking).

I initially got 34.6 it then increased to early 40s this morning. I'm away from the router at the moment but I would hazard a guess that upon returning it will not have increased from 40 to 50 (which according to my contract is the minimum speed 51-70 on my plusnet package).

As stated I have two BB connections coming into the property. Both from the same multi core cable. I know from experience that the cable route travels down to the fibre box via the same multi core cable. 2 pairs in total. My first connection (pair) is via BT fibre over copper this is giving me 71mb down and 18mb up. I fully appreciate that the switching infrastructure may differ between fibre cabinet and main switching route this is not an apples for apples scenario. But plusnet must have an equal hardware and software gambit to compete with BT openworld (or I would like to think so).

The plusnet is the second cable pair connection and the speeds are in discussion here.

From experience having established the initial connection the difference between initial connection and DSM completion is not going to fix the disparity in speeds. I may be wrong but they appear to be very different at the moment.

I have prior knowledge of the poles / terminations and boxes on the route down to the fibre cabinet. The hardware in terms of cabling I would say is almost identical.

Thanks for the reply anyway. My intention is not to get aspiring hero members back up but simply to clarify if what I'm getting is normal in terms of rates. Also to illustrate that upon sign up the consumer has limitations to sample to product before cancelling terms expire. Given this is not a physical product and you are solely reliant on the word of the supplier I would have expected a slightly wider scope of terms for cancellation.

Should the speed increase to the desired rate then great stuff. I hold no allegiance to any provider, only that the service provider is true to their word and the product is as expected.

[#9]

The only bit I can see is:

Having received the email yesterday that my fibre unlimited is active I then proceeded to connect to the service.

If you opted for Unlimited Fibre, then you would be provisioned on 40/10, with the average download speed being 36Mbps

However, if you opted for Unlimited Fibre Extra, then you would be provisioned on 80/20, with the average download speed being 66Mbps

The averages were taken from the Plusnet site - https://www.plus.net/home-broadband/fibre/

This could be why you're not seeing the same speed with BT...?

But, if you are on 80/20, then Plusnet may need to make sure you were put onto correct product.

And as others have advised, the 14 day cooling off period starts when you first order the product(s), not when the connection itself goes live.

(just pointing it out and I will now step away:))

[#10]

Thanks for confirming. This isn’t really a cooling off period issue as such. The point of the cooling off period is to give you time to reconsider the actual contract, price and such things (nothing Plusnet specific there). Your issue here is that your connection isn’t meeting the expectations set out for you. In that case an ISP would be obliged to release you from your contract (no matter how far into it you are) if they couldn’t sort it out for you.

As far as sorting it out for you, due to the nature of the products being a self install, there are certain things that you will need to do first to ensure that it isn’t due to your equipment or internal wiring. There is a troubleshooting guide somewhere (just replying on my phone at the moment, so not too easy for me to find it) which will guide you through those steps. If you find that it isn’t due to areas under your control then you’ll need to raise a fault so that it can be investigated, most likely requiring an engineer to visit either your property or your line between your property and the cabinet to make a repair.

There is very little Plusnet (or any other ISP) can do to affect your sync speed, so to see what you are seeing will need to be investigated on your line.

You say about the two lines being on the same multi core, but there will still be a number of joints along the way. It’s also not unheard of for swapping cores on the same cable to fix faults/improve speeds.

[#11]

DS, he’s syncing at over 40mbps so must be provisioned on 80/20.

[#12]

Yep, good point!!

Only other time I've seen that is when users on 55/20?10 were emailed about moving down to 40/10, but stats were showing 40+. Then the systems 'caught up' and their stats dropped.

Plus read reports on here of PN profile rates reducing unexpectedly....?

[#13]

Thanks pjmarsh,

Ok that makes sense regarding the ISP releasing the contract if they cannot fulfil their obligation.

In terms of the property I have access to 3 routers all of which are giving the same readings in terms of connection speeds.

• The router when connected has one solitary user this being myself the one carrying out the test.
• It is hard wired to a pc stock install window 10.
• The test is being conducted on the BT wholesale link mentioned previously.
• The wall socket has not other extensions connected.
• The wall socket only feeds the router.
• I have a brand new filter supplied with my home hub 6. In this case though I currently have the homehub 5 connected. All giving the same throughput.

I'm really crossing my fingers in terms of it not being a cable or hardware issue outside the property for obvious reasons.

Just returned home and rebooted the router.

Connection Information

Line state:	Connected
Downstream:	45.84 Mbps
Upstream:	5.682 Mbps

[#14]

Have you tried the test socket (the one you get to by unscrewing the face plate)? It’s not unknown for those to go faulty from the to time. I know you say the filter is new, but have you tried other filters?

If the speed is still not within the estimated range then you need to raise a fault at https://faults.plus.net

[#15]

I haven't unscrewed the face plate but it was inspected and tested by an engineer around a month ago. I don't think it's the face plate. The filter I could try it may be the cause.. I will swap out the other filter with this one and check it out.