Fibre Connection Down

[#1]

Hello

This is my first post. I’ve been a PlusNet customer for a number of years and am tired of the unreasonably slow response times and lack of communication regarding rectifying problems.

My fibre connection dropped on 02 January and I’ve had no broadband since. I’ve been advised by PlusNet staff that it’s an issue that will have to be rectified by OpenReach, but that I will have to wait 72 hours before the issue is passes to an Open Reach agent, who will then book an appointment for an OpenReach engineer to look at it.

In this day and age this level of service is really, really poor. I anticipate I’ll be without a broadband connection for a week, as I don’t have any confidence in a resolution before the weekend.

I contacted PlusNet yesterday to ask whether, since the issue is with OpenReach, that a slot could be booked with one of their engineers asap and was advised that it’s not possible and that if my ability to work from home is affected that I should pay for a business account. This seems completely unreasonable!

Perhaps PlusNet could respond, I struggle to see any reason to remain with them as a Provider in the future, delivering a quality service doesn’t seem to be one of their objectives.

I’d also be really grateful for any advice from anyone who’s been in a similar situation and has managed to expedite an engineer appointment.

[#2]

Hi there

We all feel your frustration.

There is precious little that can be done about it short of BT Openreach doubling the number of engineers on it's books  and Plus Net doubling its support staff. A change in the weather would help too, but given the wind and the rain there isn't a lot we can do about that while winter is upon us. To coin a phrase or two , "in this day and age", there are going to be the "knock on effects" of much bigger costs to the customer if that ever were to happen, which are of course not appreciated  by those paying them, the customer. It's a case of "you get what you pay for".

My advice is :

1) wait for the problem to be fixed and keep nagging at your provider to get the job done

2) consider if you want to pay significantly more for your broadband service

3) choose from the top 3 providers available to you in terms of cost and switch to the one that promises to do the switch to them  the fastest. Zen, AAA and several smaller independents can provide superior Ccustomer service, though not even they are immune to the weather, or BT.

I contacted PlusNet yesterday to ask whether, since the issue is with OpenReach, that a slot could be booked with one of their engineers asap and was advised that it’s not possible and that if my ability to work from home is affected that I should pay for a business account. This seems completely unreasonable

Actually I don't completly agree with you there: ( I have a client who pays for PLUS NET business phone all calls and internet service who pays less than a residential package costs. - It just requires a bit of negotiation skill) 

If you are working from home you can claim taxable allowances  for the costs of your phone and internet and its your repsonsibilty to balance affordabilty v. reliabity and service to keep your business in orpeation.

[#3]

I sympathise with you, OP. In this day and age it really sucks when you have no internet (or even poor internet) for any length of time.

But, that said, it amazes me how often I read on this forum words to the effect of 'I work from home and need my internet to work'. Plusnet are quite within their rights to point out that, if your connection really is business critical, that's what business packages are for - they come with better SLA's for fault resolution than the residential packages most of us use.

I honestly don't see that switching ISP will make much of a difference, if at all. For example, BT are more expensive and have lower customer satisfaction ratings than Plusnet. And, even if you switched to some sort of premium ISP (and paid the associated premium), they'd still be using most of the same underlying infrastructure, and you're still ultimately at the mercy of BT.

[#4]

Problem being is that Plusnet do advertise their great customer service awards , and sayings "we will do you proud "

but in fact they are a cheap provider and so you get service you pay for , but i do agree its all to easy to say its in the hands of BT and they have no control what BT do