OK. So after a few failed attempts due to the phone queue times last night . I have now had confirmation I am still on the 55/10 product.
And even though I just received a "completion of product change email" (with 40Mbps on it), my product remains unchanged.. Confused? Luckily I can cope with conflicting and contradictory information and, at this point in time, I still trust Plusnet to tell me the truth when pressed directly on the phone, it is valuable to me to be able to trust the people you are talking to.
Even so, I have had product changes forced on me in the past via a "this will happen email" and product detail in communications coming from Plusnet appear to be getting less and less detailed, sometimes conflicting and certainly less transparent than used to be the case.
I re-ran the BTW and Ookla speed tests this morning, following the CS call, and now getting over 50Mbps down and nearly 10Mbps up, My Modem still synched at 80/20 so seems I'm all ok.
So my original question can be assumed to be answered to save increasing any times for other Plusnet members waiting for resolution.
Just some feedback for any Plusnet staff members reading this, who may be able to forward thoughts on to some higher power, who makes decisions:
I have stuck with Plusnet for another 18 months term which will take me to 8.5 years. I like the UK centric staff, honesty when you are talking 1 to 1 on the phone and the decent pricing. I used to like to straightforward and transparent approach.
What has seemed to change over the last few years, I have not been so fond of:
1) Much longer phone queues for customer service. I.e. 3 attempts between 6pm and 9.30pm last night all exceeding 30min wait. Similar time this morning at 9am.
2) The seemingly changed corprorate attitude to now one of keeping all cards close to your chest rather than the openness that used to exist. E.g member centre used to have useful info like synch / Ip profile and other info you could cross check, product information used to have product speeds clearly stated even in the product name itself like up to 40/20 or at least could be found in the detail. Now, you struggle to find pertinent detail anywhere or even in communications sent out like missing product upload speeds.
3) The budget 40/2 FTTC product is a disaster in this day and age of increased cloud and upload utilisation and almost no other FTTC retail operators apply such a low upload rate. Many offerings are cheaper. Even BT have promotional deals that are more economic than Plusnet, with a much faster mid product offering 52/10.
4) I feel like I'm clinging on for dear life to stay with Plusnet on a legacy product that is so special, it is not offered to any other customers. Who is doing who the favour? It is readily available from a very well known competitor / sister company.
The other option I had ofcourse was just to go with another provider who offer still offer the same discontinued product I am on and being treated as a ordinary customer, not part of an exception process. There used to be a lot of points of differentiation for sticking with Plusnet but it seems not as many now.
Time will tell if I have made a correct decision.
