Freephone calls to Plusnet to report faults??

[#1]

Bob,
Have you read any of what I have written?  I'm not saying that to mean that you haven't but I personally not not see the value in having an 0800 fault line for Home Phone faults when it would cost you to call this number from a mobile.  What are your thoughts on this other than continually asking PlusNet to consider this?
I would also be interested in the thoughts of others regarding this.  Do people see any value in a 0800 faults line?

[#2]

James,
I appreciate your personal views.
I would like to find out what the personal views of other people at Plusnet are. How about it?
I just happen to think that folk might be persuaded to sign up for Homephone if this facility were offered.
I just get the impression that financial cost looms large in your personal assessment, when you do not know the price. It could be that whatever the cost it may be considered of value to PlusNet.
I think you will agree that just because my view may appear to be a little lonely, that it may be supported by the silent majority. It may also be a correct view.
Reliance on views on forums may not be the best way to find out.
I have to confess that I am dubious about such views because many things expressed are just not true. Things are stated as fact when the contributor is very badly informed.
I did mention this opinion to Mark Kelly at the open day. I realise I may be wrong in this view, but some comments are frankly just not true. If you read all the comments to my suggestion you will see that this is the case.
You ask why I am continually asking for consideration of my suggestion. This is the first and only time I have made this suggestion.
You also assume that the use of mobile phones is universal.
I again refer you to Poppy's remarks. She also mentions that it is not always convenient to rely on neighbours.
I am not suggesting that a freephone should be used for all telephone contact with Plusnet, but the facility would be very useful when your Homephone just not work at all.
BT do not give much away, but the contact with them by telephone to report faults etc has always been free.
Please do not ignore the value of this suggestion.
Perhaps you would like to ring me to discuss. My telephone number you do have access to.

[#3]

James,
I'm sorry, but I've just remembered the very old remark about someone who knows the price of everything but the value of nothing.
Bob

[#4]

Hi Bob,
I do fully appreciate your suggestions.
I do appreciate and understand that not everyone would rely on using a mobile phone in situations as you have suggestions, I was merely offering a reason why I did not feel that it would be a valuable universal implementation.  I have however asked the relevant people to find out the associated costs involved with offering 0800 support and will let you know once I have heard further details.
As before, I am making no assumptions.  I am merely offering an argument as to which is may not be a realistic possiblility.  My argument is not nmerely financially based, but I also have concerns over difficulties in implementation as I don't know how we would go about adding such a service.  although I imagine it wouldn't be too difficult.
My query regarding your making your suggestion was merely out of concern that you had not replied to the points that I had made earlier.

[#5]

Thank you James for at least looking into this proposal.
I had not considered this until now, but I have to say that having had the aforementioned glitch a couple of weeks ago, it took me a little while to think how I would manage to communicate the problem to the company.
If there was a 151 service I could have made a brief call via mobile to one of my friends who would have been able to report the problem for me via this number.  I would have been a bit more hesitant if I had had to ask them to wait in the call queue in the middle of the day when you are at your busiest. Also, although loss of the telephone for a short while is not such a big deal for me, if it is to be repaired in a timely manner, it is probably best to report it as soon as possible, preferably within the working day.

[#6]

Have just thought of a compromise which might be worth considering, particularly as we have now lost the call limit and  we also have geographical numbers (and I have to thank Plusnet for these as they are a real boon and greatly appreciated).
For me, the issue was the time involved in waiting to report the matter via the call queue. Would it not be possible to have a designated geographical number for Homephone users to by-pass the call queue? This could be provided only to subscribers so that it wouldn't 'get out into the open'.

[#7]

Hi Poppy,
I'm quite surprised by that in all honesty.  Our Business Support5 team remain logged into the Home Phone faults queue and if there is a Home Phone fault call between 8am-8pm, then these should be getting picked up very quickly.  There's also a few of the Residential Support staff logged into this system too.  It isn't prioritised above general technical enquiries, but by the fact that BSC are logged into that huntgroup, calls should be picked up within a minute.

[#8]

Co-incidence?
http://broadband.o2.co.uk/helpline.jsp
I see that thinkbroadband reports that O2 now offers a freephone support line. I beleive that Waitrose do as well, at least they used to.

[#9]

Still trying to track down this information for you Bob.
For your information, Waitrose are part of the Brightview group, owned by BT Retail.
The new O2 product looks scary.  Very.

[#10]

Thanks for the reply James - I didn't know about the dedicated Homephone service staff and that faults should be picked up quickly.  I thought that even if you selected Homephone on the menu you would still queue.

[#11]

Quote from: Jameseh

Hi there, 150/151/152 will not work without the 0800 800 prefix should the customer be calling from a home phone service.  Also, it would be relatively pointless phoning them as you would not be a customer of theirs. We currently have no plans set to offer a "free" number for home phone support, however, depending which of our packages you are on, the fact that we offer a geographical support number would mean that your charges for calling us would be either free or very low.

People could simply use their broadband phone if they needed to contact you on the geo number, that would be free

[#12]

Why would using PN broadboard phone make the calls free? Calls are only free from 18:00 to 08:00. Also you would have to find a internet connection. Good chance if the phone is not working then the broadband connection is down also.

[#13]

Itsme,
You get free minutes with Broadband Phone on our BBYW packes (and legacy products).

[#14]

I don't on my package I only get free minutes at off peak times.

[#15]

Ah, my apologies.  You get Anytime minutes on Options 3 & 4, Evening and Weekends on Option 2, PAYG on Option 1.