Waiting List

[#1]

Rather than throwing insults/abuse towards plusnet, why not give them a call? I'm sure they'll kindly resolve the issue pretty promptly and refund you.

[#2]

Indeed, I'm sure we'd be happy to process a refund. Whilst I agree, is a rubbish experience at the moment, being on the waiter's list is the best way to ensure your line will be upgraded as soon as Openreach have capacity (typically inside of 90 days, although normally a lot sooner).

We're looking to make some changes to avoid situations like this, although that will probably involve not accepting waiter's list orders at all and just advising customer's who qualify that fibre is unavailable (this is what most other ISPs are doing I think).

The most ideal situation IMO would be to explain the waiting list process at sign up, and allow the customer to make an informed decision. That's a lot more work to implement though.

[#3]

Give Plusnet a ring to refund a payment for a service that was never supplied (Brilliant) 

I will stick to insults as that is what it deserves 

[#4]

The waiting list is a good idea and I hope it stays in place as an option for those who are based at a cabinet that is at capacity however should people really be charged fibre prices whilst on the waiting list? surely they should continue to pay ADSL rate price until the fibre service becomes aviliable.

[#5]

They should be charged normal ADSL prices, like I've stated just call for a refund. The waiting list is great, however do BT still give plusnet a date the customers will be activated?

Insults will get you nowhere in life, do the adult thing and request a refund!

[#6]

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@etdsaunders wrote:
The waiting list is great, however do BT still give plusnet a date the customers will be activated?

We receive KCI (Keep Customer Informed) notices from Wholesale but our systems are ill-equipped to deal with them at the moment, so we have a manual process for keeping an eye on things.

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[#7]

I'm in a similar position to col6 (fibre order accepted by Plusnet, but cabinet on a waiting list). In my case I have the added complication of switching from BT (phone) and TalkTalk (broadband).
Most internet providers, it seems, just reject your order if fibre isn't immediately available, so credit to Plusnet for making use of the waiting list system. However, I can't give full marks: there's no mention of a waiting list during the ordering process or in the subsequent emails. Obviously the customer should be told and given the option of cancelling the order OR accepting temporary ADSL if fibre isn't available on changeover day OR commiting to the order but having no action taken until fibre is available.
As it is I'm not sure what will happen in my case. If BT / TalkTalk pull the plug on changeover day (as PlusNet has already asked them to do), but there's still no free fibre slot, will my phone / broadband go silent?

[#8]

Hello Spooner, welcome to the forum.

The answer to your question is don't know, but hopefully one of the Plusnet Help Team @Chris will look into this.

One thing I can tell you for sure, if you have told either of your current suppliers - BT or TalkTalk to cancel your service on any particular date (or even at all) that is precisely what will happen and you could lose the phone number if things go badly wrong. These day the changeovers should be left totally to the gaining provider. But I'm a little unsure in cases where the losing provider needs a specific time period of notice, who actually gives that? Is it simply a case of once you've placed the order with the Gaining Provider, the losing provider is aware, and you have to make sure with the gaining provider (in this case Plusnet) that the changeover date is in excess of the required notice period. Hopefully Plusnet can answer this one specifically as well.

[#9]

If your cabinet is on a waiting list then I dowt plusnet will be able to place an order with openreach for fibre it would be rejected other than you going on to the fibre waiting list. I don't therefore think you will loose your BT phone or talktalk broadband unless plusnet have assumed you would be ok with ADSL for now however I imagine they would need you to agree to ADSL first. What might happen is just the phone line is transfered over to plusnet I don't know if you would still have broadband with talktalk. You should ring up plusnet and discuss the situation they might be able to change the order to ADSL. When i switched from BT to Plusnet I remember I got an email from BT saying if you change your mind about leaving you have up until the day before transfer to cancel the switchover.

[#10]

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@jordanc1230 wrote:

If your cabinet is on a waiting list then I dowt plusnet will be able to place an order with openreach for fibre it would be rejected other than you going on to the fibre waiting list.

We place the order with Wholesale, and it would be accepted, but like you say it would stay on a waiting list until fulfillment.

@Spooner wrote:

I'm in a similar position to col6 (fibre order accepted by Plusnet, but cabinet on a waiting list). In my case I have the added complication of switching from BT (phone) and TalkTalk (broadband).

Interesting. I thought TalkTalk had sold most of their offnet customers.

As it is I'm not sure what will happen in my case. If BT / TalkTalk pull the plug on changeover day (as PlusNet has already asked them to do), but there's still no free fibre slot, will my phone / broadband go silent?

It somewhat depends on how your orders have been placed (simultaneous or sequential, manual or automated). I believe automation will attempt a simultaneous transfer in this scenario, which will probably fail and thus not make it to the waiting list. It's worth you getting in touch with us so we can check what's going on.

The safest bet might be to resubmit the transfer request as an ADSL order. Once you're safely across you can then request an upgrade to fibre.

Until an order is placed and completes, neither TalkTalk nor BT should be cancelling anything their side unless you've explicitly asked them to.

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[#11]

I don't believe the functionality of the waiters list is built in to the sign up journey at the moment, but we have been making changes to our internal process and contacts with customers regarding this to make it clearer on what the options and timescales are for this. If you hadn't already called in regarding this we'd have been in touch within a few days of sign up with this information.

[#12]

Thanks, everyone, for your comments. Following your advice I got in touch with PlusNet customer services, and the agent told me "our suppliers cancelled your order as Plusnet has introduced a policy of not putting people on the waiters list due to open ended time scale". So it looks like not even PlusNet now makes use of the waiting list system.

I don't think there's anything to be gained by changing to PlusNet ASDL and constantly checking fibre availability, as opposed to staying with BT/TalkTalk ASDL and constantly checking fibre availability. So I've decided to call the whole thing off, as they say, and hope that the situation becomes clearer soon.

PlusNet seem to have been very quick off the mark in telling BT that I wanted to leave. BT emailed me yesterday saying "Another service provider has told us you want to move your phone line over to them on 12-May-2016. So we're taking this as notice that you want to stop these services with us on that date." To be on the safe side I'll be getting in touch with them to make sure they know I'm staying.

[#13]

"Another service provider has told us you want to move your phone line over to them on 12-May-2016. So we're taking this as notice that you want to stop these services with us on that date."

Now that is what @bobpullen says they shouldn't be doing. I'd actually ask them what happens if a changeover doesn't complete on that date first, and see what they say before you tell them it won't be happening on that date. If they said you'd be without service, I'd have a word with Ofcom, because it seems to be a breach of the rules.

If your exchange is 21CN, then whether you move to Plusnet ADSL2+ is upto you, but if it's 20CN, then stay where you are until Fibre is available.

[#14]

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@Spooner wrote:

Thanks, everyone, for your comments. Following your advice I got in touch with PlusNet customer services, and the agent told me "our suppliers cancelled your order as Plusnet has introduced a policy of not putting people on the waiters list due to open ended time scale".

That's not strictly true. As mentioned previously, I suspect the order was cancelled because both the phone and broadband transfers were requested in tandem, and I don't think that's possible for waiting list orders.

I don't think there's anything to be gained by changing to PlusNet ASDL and constantly checking fibre availability, as opposed to staying with BT/TalkTalk ASDL and constantly checking fibre availability.

We would be able to place a waiting list order for you. You wouldn't have to keep checking.

PlusNet seem to have been very quick off the mark in telling BT that I wanted to leave. BT emailed me yesterday saying "Another service provider has told us you want to move your phone line over to them on 12-May-2016. So we're taking this as notice that you want to stop these services with us on that date." To be on the safe side I'll be getting in touch with them to make sure they know I'm staying.

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They'll have received notice through the mutual provisioning systems we use. I can double check that there's definitely no in flight orders at our side if you message me your account username.

[#15]

It looks like Bracknell has made it into C21. However, I must admit I'm thoroughly bamboozled by the whole affair. My exchange is accepting fibre orders, but I can't place one; fibre is available on my landline ("Yes! You can get BT Infinity"), but then again it isn't; there is a waiting list, but no-one can get on it. (And incidentally, it seems that Openreach offer a service - FTTP on demand - that no-one can buy.) I think I'll hang back a bit until the situation is a bit less surreal.