my location has no other option but to use Openreach as the supplier of equipment for internet connection and fibre was installed TTC. it has never been particularly good nor reliable and, as far as i am aware, only 4 ISPs are 'unbundled' in the local exchange, being talk-talk, sky, BT and Plusnet. i appreciate that changing ISP does nothing except put a new name at the top of the bill that i pay my monthly fees to. i was with sky for quite a while but they became very bad with speed, dropping down to levels of literally a few kbps. i tried BT but the connection was pretty unreliable, hence my move to Plusnet. i had similar problems again with speeds not being as advertised (originally supposed to be between 35-48mps. i didn't expect anything above the lower estimate, as i am approx 1.1km cable route from the exchange), and 32mps being the best i got. this never lasted long, with speed drops being pretty common and engineer visits to try to correct things. i have had spells during the 1st year of up to 41/2 months of consistent speed around the 30-31mps mark, with no router reboots but then things would go pear-shaped. the most notable change was as soon as i renewed the contract for the 2nd year and speeds fell to under 30mps and became pretty unstable, constant reboots etc and an engineer visit told me my profile had changed. put it back and all good for a while, then off we would go again. it carried on like this until i had another good spell of 70 days, no reboots, no issues, then just as it was renew time, problems again. speed down to 27mps and told the line wont cope. why? it was coping fine! no new houses, (and 3-4 cabinets in close proximity to one another, so didn't have to put all the new connections into the same one anyway) no new equipment or set up changes in the house, the telegraph pole is outside my house with 12 drop wires. given the lack of availability of how the equipment is supplied and that changing company basically does nothing, i called to renew the contract for year 3. the first thing i was told was that the guaranteed minimum speed had been lowered to 23.8 mps and no callouts would happen until the speed dropped below that. that seemed a bit off so still went ahead. 2 days after renewing, the speed dropped again down to 261/2mps. i waited to see what happened and sure enough, it dropped again to 25mps. i raised my concerns with Plusnet and was told that as my connection was stable at 25mps, nothing would be done. sure enough, a few days later, another reboot and the speed is under 25mps now. it seems to me that the connection is being deliberately throttled but cant prove it and Plusnet has obviously denied it but have offered no explanation when asked. i sent every log i have since joining Plusnet but they reckon 'the experts' can see nothing to indicate any interference by them or anyone else, even though it's plain to see when changes have occured, have then rejected all the logs but offered nothing to back up their statements. i am waiting to see how long it takes for the connection to go down to as low as possible but still be above the 'guaranteed minimum' because i honestly believe this is being done deliberately and if it isn't Plusnet, they should be fighting my corner with Openreach to get the speed back, to get the equipment rnewed/changed whatever so that the connection is what it is supposed to be, Superfast Broadband, not allowing the equipment to keep degrading so that speed loss is the norm.
i have put the case to the Ombudsman because of the unreasonable responses from Plusnet, but given the way things have gone, expect Plusnet to spill some BS so that i get the blame and nothing is done.
this post is as much a warning to the way Plusnet has behaved towards me, as a paying customer, for other customers to take note. beware of complaining about the service because yours could suddenly fall away. the ad says 'we'll do you proud'. what a load of rubbish! nothing like made me proud! even being on their list of OAPs with chronic health issues, relying greatly on the internet has been completely ignored, so there isn't much in the way of 'caring for customers' being thrown about! they know the alternative is non-existent, so staying is the only option but doing anything for customers seems to be furthest from their minds with taking the money at the forefront, the excuse being 'we cant tell Openreach what to do'. well you damn well can and should! plusnet is a customer of Openreach, regardless of whether they are under the same umbrella and Openreach have a duty of care to their customers to maintain the service they are being paid for, just as Plusnet has a duty of care to it's customers to do the same, not sweep things under the carpet and use threatening language to stop customers trying to keep the service they are paying for. pretty poor show, i think but screwed anyway!
oh, and before the suggestion is offered, the mobile service here is abysmal as well, so no option to use that!
