Frustrating beyond belief

[#1]

So my 77 year old father moved home a few months ago.

To say the experience from Plusnet has been frustrating is an exercise in understatement.  From call centre staff not having booked agreed dates into the system to being allocated a new number in error to being randomly cut off due to an administrative error to the inability of any support people to help in a timely manner (or, sometimes, at all).

All of this against a backdrop of my technologically challenged father being the person having to spend hour upon hour on the phone, being promised things will be fixed and then nothing happening.

So, the problem is this.  After reporting the latest problem and having numerous web chats and phone calls and being told the problem is fixed it still isn't.  On the face of it it seems quite trivial.  Voicemail can't be turned off using account management.  However, my father has significant mobility problems and can't get to the phone within enough rings.  He can't operate the voicemail so his social contact is being being lost.  He can work his answering machine but voicemail cuts in too quickly even for that to answer the phone.

For the last few months he has had a land line that is, in effect, of zero use to him and I worry he is becoming increasingly socially isolated.

So where do I go from here?  He refuses to engage with Plusnet any further having wasted many frustrating hours with to no end with them already.  He tells me he is going to cancel his direct debit with them until they fix the problem but I worry that will just saddle him with threatening letters about non-payment.  I thought about writing to the ombudsman but I really just want this fixed, not to create a complaint that goes on for months and months.

Any ideas?

[#2]

Hi @leecramman, thanks for getting in touch. Firstly, I would like to say I'm sincerely sorry for the poor experience your father has had with us the last few months and the inconvenience this may be causing him.

With regards to the voicemail, if you could please respond on the ticket here confirming you would like this removed, we can attempt to action this from the back-end system for you. If you please let us know once you have added a reply we'll pick this up for you.

[#3]

I have responded.  Turning voicemail off would be useful but the control panel still won't work.

Thanks

[#4]

Thanks @leecramman, I have picked this up for you. I have raised the issue with the relevant team with regards to being unable to make amendments through the phone control panel.

[#5]

Hey Lee! I amSO sorry about your experience!

Life is challenging enough without Plusnet putting gremlins in everything they do.

the way this happens is you speak to an advisor, soon you ask a question, the response to which is always

"Hold on 2 minutes, I'll just get that information for you"

what happens is the advisor seeks out the support team and speaks to them, then  the support team get info,

the info has to be relayed indirectly, back to you, so you are one part of a chain that goes round and round, and of course, it becomes like Chinese Whispers, and something is always lost in translation.

The obvious result is that you think you have communicated clearly and you have but it is to no avail as very soon you find out there are all sorts of hidden charges that have never been explained, 'unlimited home phone and mobile' that is NOT unlimited, and the limits are not explained. There is a complete lack of transparency. When you complain they will tell you it is in the small print that was in your contract, a contract you wanted to be sent in the post, but they don't do that, only they didn't say that they, in fact, have emailed it to you, to some stupid new email address they gave you which is ridiculously insane and you can't access. And now you are turning blue as you just got a bill for £20 extra because of hidden charges, and your phone won't dial properly and takes 4 or 5 dials till it gets you through, and you cannot use a standard extension wire as it causes noise and drops calls, so you have to keep missing calls as the phone is sited too far away, and you lose business and social contact. Your £50 reward card never came, but they don't help you resolve that they say you have to find out the day and date and time of the call and the name of the advisor who signed you up, so they can check the call to verify you were promised £50 . . . its a never-ending nightmare. Only thing that helps is ring them and press the thinking of leaving us button, and explain you are giving notice if this is not fixed right away! You SO well described it ' frustrated beyond belief' absolutely describes how I feel right now. It took me a month to psyche myself up to phone them again to sort out probs I've had since joining them 5 months ago. And because I had decided I'm leaving sufddenly they seem to be sorting things out for me.

SO

1) get an extension cable so your Dad can pick the phone up next to him.

It may well cause other problems which it shouldn't, but at least he'll stay in touch that way

2)Tell them you want to leave if they don't properly sort your problems, give them a date by.

3) PRAY!

Bless you Lee,

I so hope you get sorted, I'll pray for you

Judy

[#6]

Hi @judy1angel, thanks for getting in touch on our forums. I am really sorry to hear that you feel you have had a poor experience and feel that you have been incorrectly informed.

I have taken a look into this and have provided a more detailed response on the account here for you. Please do get back to us if you have any further queries.

[#7]

Thank you Lauren.

Getting it switched off is useful but as per your message, "No timescale on a (proper) fix" is what my father has been hearing for several months now.

I appreciate we've actually moved forward now but it really shouldn't be this hard.

[#8]

Hi @leecramman 

I understand the points you make, but I'm afraid that we really don't have any more information than that which @LaurenB provided. 

To tell you anything else without it being 100% correct would be wrong of us and nobody here wishes to provide incorrect information. 

Kind Regards, 

MoR