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Fibre order delay - Will it be delayed again...

Kevin23
Newbie
Posts: 1
Registered: ‎19-01-2016

Fibre order delay - Will it be delayed again...

Hi All,
I work from home for an IT company without any UK office facilities.  I have not had internet since 21st December when we moved house, so I have had to ask my (not pleased) manager to rent shared office space for a couple of weeks.  I also do not have a good mobile signal in my house, with EE only providing a poor 2G signal. My (fibre) provider was BT, and when we notified them of a change of address on the 16th December they gave us an switch date of 23rd December.  Well, that did not work out, and virtually every other day when I rang them they came up with different excuses why they could not meet the date that had previously promised. On 7th January there was a new activation date of 28th January, so on 9th January I phoned Plusnet to place an order, and they gave me a target date of 25th January.
After getting a strange cancellation email from BT yesterday I phoned them as they still thought I was keeping my broadband with them. They said they still had open orders on the line so they cancelled their orders, and after their advice I phoned Plusnet for a status on my order.  Plusnet informed me that my new activation date was on 8th February, with no possibility of an earlier date as the it was a resource issue at BT wholesale used by all providers that was the delay.
So if I had stayed with BT I would LIKELY to have had service on the 28th Jan….. Is this Plusnet’s fault? Well no, but they have not been without fault:
1. BT wholesale are not under their control, but it would sure be nice for BT wholesale to be held to account for their poor service.
2. Plusnet failed to inform me of a delay to my order. So now I have lost confidence in them straight away based on my experience with their parent company in them and assume that I will have to check for regular updates.
3. I assume that Plusnet will still bill me in full on my direct debit date of 21st January for a service which they are not providing.
But the bottom line is that I do not have internet, and need it to work, so it looks like I have to hope I can VPN in coffee shops, or pay for an Internet dongle that I can use at my parents’ house in the next town (they have dial up…). 
My questions:
As there were two orders on the same line, but with the first one now cancelled will Plusnet’s order actually now be implemented?
I am sick and tired of ringing phone companies, so I am looking for advice or options to getting internet ASAP, but not delaying my order further. Does anyone have any suggestions?
Lesson for all: BT wholesale are first come first “served” and you cannot expedite the work (I have been told by BT and Plusnet), so once you have a date with one provider: DO NOT change provider until you have an active service.
Regards,
Kevin
2 REPLIES 2
adamwalker
Plusnet Help Team
Plusnet Help Team
Posts: 16,871
Thanks: 882
Fixes: 221
Registered: ‎27-04-2007

Re: Fibre order delay - Will it be delayed again...

Hi Kevin23,
Apologies first of all for us being unable to advise you of the delay proactively.
What BT advised you does sound a little odd as it's not actually possible for more than one provider to have open orders on the same line so I'd guess they maybe experienced a system issue which meant those were left open.
As the reason for the delay is down to engineer availability this does mean any ISP using BT Wholesale's infrastructure would have been affected.
We definitely can't force our suppliers to push the order completion date further forward I'm afraid but I will take ownership of making sure that you're billing is adjusted for the downtime. As you suspected billing will take place as normal as that's an entirely automated activity. However me taking ownership of adjusting that should reduce any delays between the billing taking place and refunds coming through.
If this post resolved your issue please click the 'This fixed my problem' button
 Adam Walker
 Plusnet Help Team
Bindunbefore
Newbie
Posts: 1
Registered: ‎08-04-2016

Re: Fibre order delay - Will it be delayed again...

Good Day One and All,

I have been with Plusnet since the Dial up days became broadband - service was not great but much better than dial up, years went by - each time my contract was renewed my starter date was brought forward and I became a customer from that date (Or so it seemed) No value is placed upon one's years of membership.

On the 25th March this year I enquired about the Optical fibre broadband that I had seen a poster advertising (stuck to the green Junction Box) Contacted Plusnet and was given the new financial details and from the conversation, expected that the connection would be active straight away,

Pn's next communication, dated April 4th told me that service would be available on 11th April, - the next very brief communication informed me that the account had now been modified and the fibre order is committed for 19th April 2016

Feeling rather "Let Down" I requested that my contract date and the 14 day cancellation period be also carried forward and guess what, these details are set in stone - One Law for the Suppliers and another for the customer it seems.

I just thought I would have a moan - now having read other experiences, I am wondering how many times my "Fibre" will be delayed - never mind the nice man said last time I enquired, although you will be paying for a service you are not getting, a credit will appear in your account in due course - I ALSO LIVE IN HOPE!!