Long-term intermittent disconnections

[#1]

Hi,
We’ve been with Plusnet since the end of October, although our issue existed with our previous broadband supplier as well, when we moved house in August.

The broadband connection has been dropping multiple times per day, sometimes over 20 outages according to the outage graphs we are sent by the Plusnet team. The main light on the hub will flash orange and then the orange broadband light will appear, although sometimes it is the red flashing broadband light. This will continue for between 2-20 minutes, sometimes longer.

We are now into double digits for the number of Openreach engineers who have come out to fix the issue (and 4 appointments which the engineers have missed). Each time they say something different such as a DSLAM fault or REIN. However, they have not been able to fix the issue, despite being adamant that the problem should be resolved.
This was until the last engineer (who we’ve personally had around 5 times now) said that he didn’t know what the problem was and, after phoning his manager, claimed that the Plusnet hub was to blame. We then went out of our way to by a third party hub, and whilst the number of disconnections has decreased the dropouts remain- so surely Openreach are passing the buck here?
Plusnet have now offered to send us a new router, and we are waiting for their response to our reply on the ticket.

What has made the situation more frustrating is that there is seemingly no proper communication between Plusnet and Openreach. Engineers arrive not knowing what the problem is and Plusnet seemingly aren’t able to contact anyone more senior at Openreach who might be able to sort out a more senior engineer (although the last engineer was allegedly a senior multi-skills engineer). An official complaint through Plusnet and various “escalations” on the ticket have also not got anywhere as of yet.

I don’t pretend to know how broadband works or that it is easy to fix. But what I would expect is communication and a bit of accountability by whoever is at fault, especially as we are still being charged. For their part Plusnet have been very helpful and we don’t really think the issue is their fault, but we can’t contact Openreach personally so are relying on the Plusnet team!
Any help would be appreciated!

[#2]

Hi, I wrote a longer reply to this but I think I forgot to click 'post' !!

So without going over my own intermittent problems too much about 6 years and 4 providers I would be inclined to think you have a line fault. Have you got a home phone ? If so plug it into the test socket of the master socket (remove 2 screws to rmove the faceplate and test socket is revealed) ... don't pull too hard on the faceplate as extensions may be attached.

You may have a different socket installed in which case ignore what I just said.

Listen for noise on the line, crackling, hissing, etc  would likely be the cause of disconnections.

Mine could be fine for up to 2 months and then a phone call was inaudible for 4-5 days , then ok for a few weeks  so on and so on. If you dial 17070 and go for option 2 (quiet line test) you will hear any crackling etc.

If so make sure to report it as an intermittent line fault.

I'm not using the Plusnet router but the HH6 from BT , not sure how to get the stats from PN router but should look something like ........