No Internet - and no Phone or Chat help available

[#1]

Tried again this morning to get some help with the dropping out problem and got straight through, but guess what, the call handler could not assist me and so they put me through to a technical person and 40 minutes later I was still waiting!

Had enough, I going to consult some consumer groups and make a complaint to Ofcom.

I notice that the stupid Plusnet TV commercials have stopped, obviously because they cannot deal with their existing customers never mind any new ones.

[#2]

Hi @Mikerich323,

I'm sorry that your connection is dropping and for the inconvenience that this is causing you. I can see that your connection settled down after our faults team previously looked into this for you and there were no drops for over three days. However, the connection became intermittent again on the 1st of May:

Testing your line isn't picking up the cause of this from here:

GEA Test Detail
Circuit ID	NA	Service ID	BBEUXXXXXXXX

Test Outcome	Pass
Test Outcome Code	GTC_FTTC_SERVICE_0000
Description	GEA service test completed and no fault found .
Main Fault Location	OK
Sync Status	In Sync
Downstream Speed	32.0 Mbps
Upstream Speed	7.6 Mbps
Appointment Required	N
Fault Report Advised	N
NTE Power Status	PowerOn
Voice Line Test Result	Pass
Bridge Tap	Detected
Radio Frequency Ingress	Not Detected
Repetitive Electrical Impulse Noise	Not Detected
Cross Talk	Detected
Estimated Line Length In Metres	1029.1
Upstream Rate Assessment	Very Good
Downstream Rate Assessment	Good
Interference Pattern	Regular Interference Observed Daily
Service Impact	Retrains Observed
Interference Duration Longest Occurrence	From20:00to20:15
Interference Location	Unknown
Interference Observed In Days	0
Home Wiring Problem	Not Detected
Downstream Policing Discard Rate	0.0
Customer Traffic Level	Upstream and Downstream traffic detected
Technology	VDSL
Current 15Min Bin Retrains	0
Last 15Min Bin Retrains	0
DP Type	External
Profile Name	0.128M-40M Downstream 3dB, Retransmission Low - 0.128M-10M Upstream, Retransmission Low
Time Stamp	2020-04-20T15:30:00

Parameters	MIN	MAX	AVG
Down Stream Line Rate	30.0 Mbps	34.0 Mbps	31.8 Mbps
Up Stream Line Rate	7.0 Mbps	7.7 Mbps	7.5 Mbps
Up Time	0.0 Sec	900.0 Sec	821.7 Sec
Retrains	0.0	12.0	0.0

Current and Last 15 Minute Bin Performance
Parameters	Last Traffic Count(Upto 15 mins)	Current Traffic Count(Upto 15 mins)
Start Time Stamp	2020-05-03T14:03:44Z	2020-05-03T14:18:44Z
Ingress Code Violation	0	0
Egress Code Violation	0	0
Errored Seconds	0	0
Severely Errored Seconds	0	0
Unavailable Seconds	0	0

As you've done the internal troubleshooting, we'll need to arrange an engineer so that this can be investigated further. Due to COVID-19, the engineer won't be able to access your property but will fully investigate the fault externally. We would ask that you are available and at the property during this appointment as the engineer may need to call you to discuss the fault. Please add your availability for an engineer visit to the ticket here and then get back in touch on this thread so we can pick this back up and get that booked in for you.

[#3]

Mike...

Forward me some of those consumer groups and OfCom details would you please my good man... Emily has responded to you, maybe if I threaten them I’ll get some actual customer service too...

Shouldn’t be too much hassle for them to post a router out eh?

[#4]

Hi @samfinlayson,

I've responded to your queries via the separate thread you've raised.

[#5]

I won't be taking time off for this as I am a key worker in Local Government. Strange how you know when all this dropping out occurs and yet you don't know what is causing it.

Having looked on the OfCom website it strongly suggests that providers should financially compensate customers who cannot use their internet, just like me when I could not during my first week, because Plusnet forgot to switch it on. I tell you what, I have another idea, just cancel my contract and let me go to another provider. I was with BT before and I never had any problems like this and looking around the net there does not appear to be any other providers suffering outages or problems with their systems or customer service like you are doing.

Personally, I've never been treated so badly by any company as Plusnet have treated me and I now have no faith in you sorting anything out at all. 

[#6]

Sam

Hope you got my message and this will assist in solving your problems.

All the best

Mike

[#7]

Hi Mike,

I did get your message, thank you very much. I have actually had a response now and a ticket raised (although it has been closed already before I got to read it... I have added a comment to it in the hope it gets opened back up till such a point as I confirm rectified).

I’m sticking around on this forum... it took me a week to get a ticket raised but it got raised in the end - I suspect as a direct result of yourself and mine’s interaction...

We shall see on my end, keep us up to date on yours!

[#8]

If you are Alexander then I have just seen your comments, I note you make a suggestion of something I hadn’t tried (although if that fixes one of the problems we have here, then it shouldn’t have and there’s something wrong at a much deeper level but if it works, who cares in this house? “Unsyncing” the 2.4Ghz & 5Ghz networks shouldn’t be a fix for WiFi dropping out or not connecting at all on multiple devices...)

The ticket has been closed prior to me reading it, I hope this is changed so it remains open whilst this is investigated as WiFi isn’t the only issue, it’s just the worst offender at present.

Thank you for finally looking into this for me.

[#9]

Hi Sam

Great to hear that things are working out. Like yourself I received a ticket and like yourself it had been closed before I could respond to it. I have spoken with OfCom, who inform me that the Odbudsman cannot become involve until 8 weeks have passed. However, in the meantime as the Customer Services helpline is completely useless I suggest people write to Plusnet and complain.

Plusnet

The Balance 

2 Pinfold Street

Sheffield

S1 2GU

Again I cannot stress enough how much of a disaster Plusnet is.

[#10]

@Mikerich323 Ofcom and the odbudsman will reject your complaint simply because you have not allowed PlusNet to send an engineer out to try and fix the issue. If you are not prepared to allow Plusnet to try and fix the issue, then you then have no comeback. The engineer needs you at premises incase they need you to do something. They can see from the monitoring software you have had a number of dropouts uptread. Nothing magical about that. But the line test does not show a obvious fault. If it is anything like the fault I had they could see disconnects but no clear fault showing on the line, when engineer came out he found the box on the outside wall of our property had a faulty wire which had corruded and when it touched it it fell apart, on redoing the connect the line was fixed

[#11]

Wakeman

The engineer can access the line outside the property without me being there. There is no point in me being home because due to the current work practices regarding the medical situation the engineer cannot enter my property. 

[#12]

Wakeman

Further to this... if you've read through my postings you'll see that the plastic cover of the box actually fell off recently, suggesting that it was not secured back into place properly.

Also, you'll notice that I work for a local authority in the housing division and I can honestly say even in these times any service we provide is vastly superior to anything Plusnet has provided me.

[#13]

Hi,

The suggested fix has no resolved the problem, we’re a day into the change and we’re still having to turn WiFi off on our phones to open simple web pages and google search things etc.

Where do we go from here? As I can’t get back to the “raised ticket” which hasn’t been reopened as far as my email count goes.

[#14]

Mike,

I’d probably have to do a SaR to get the point at which I first complained about the service which would be the start of the contract, they’d probably argue that I didn’t follow it up (because the stress [-Censored-] like this brings is intolerable and you end up settling for a shoddy service just so you don’t have to constantly moan and whine at someone - it’s depressing and a miserable existence), what do you do? Buy a different house I think is the option and never again darken the doorstep of Plusnet.

I haven’t received any emails or notifications to say someone has looked at my message on this other thread (that I don’t know how to get back to) or if it’s been left in an open state or just left as a “closed ticket”. Suspect it is still “closed”? I’m amazed it was closed without any input from me in any way shape or form... that is extremely shady in my opinion!

[#15]

@Mikerich323 

There is every reason for you being in the property.

The engineer may ask you to reseat the faceplate, or even check the incoming wires behind the faceplate, the bit you are in normal circumstance are not allowed to touch.

If there is an issue then he could talk you through fixing the issue with no health danger to you or the engineer.

If you want your internet back then you really need to assist the engineer as much as possible.