Useless "Instant Chat"

[#1]

Just a grumble really about how useless the web chat is.  Before even starting you have to select what service you're asking about, mobile of course in this case.  However that doesn't mean they won't pass you around and end up dealing with the broadband or home phone department.  Meaning your at cross purposes, and still more time is wasted and you have to give the same information over again.  I thought it would be a quick way to answer a simple question but after 27 minutes and they're still asking about memorable information or whether or not I have an account password, I simply gave up and signed off.

And by the way why is it OK for them to wait ages between their responses, but if you delay in the slightest they start complaining that you're not responding.  You ought to realise that if you're asking for information that needs to be looked up, then response isn't going to be instant. 

[#2]

Hi @aesmith

Thanks for raising this.

Would you mind providing further information on what your query entailed so that I can understand why you've been passed between our mobile and broadband teams? This seems odd and likely unnecessary, but I'd need to have insight into what you chatted about before I could say for sure.

Best wishes

Dave

[#3]

I agree, completely unnecessary, on the Contact page the very first question ("What would you like to contact us about?") already tells them you're asking about Mobile services.  My actual question was whether clicking on the "Thinking of leaving?" link actually initiates a cancellation, as the text and email sent was a result are quite ambiguous.  I thought that worth checking but not worth an hour on hold on the phone.

Really it would be nice if questions could be asked and answered by email, because contract and billing type issues don't actually need an immediate answer.

[#4]

I understand your point of view @aesmith and thanks for your insight on that. It's highly doubtful we'll ever provide support over email. However we'll always respond to messages and posts on Community and social media as quickly as we can. I do appreciate it would be good to have that kind of information easily available without having to as so I will be passing on some feedback about that. 

[#5]

The Chat function would be good if I ever found it working.

I can't log into my mobile account which I want to close anyway & the thought of having to phone fills me with despair. 

[#6]

Sorry to hear this @caravanj

So we can investigate further can you PM me the following?

- Your mobile number or account number
- Your full address and postcode
- Your full name and if you're the account holder?

[#7]

Just to confirm that I PM'd you all the details yesterday.

[#8]

Thanks for the PM @caravanj

I've just sent one back requesting some more info.

If you can let me know once you've responded I'll get that picked up for you

[#9]

---

@MatthewWheeler wrote:

Thanks for the PM @caravanj

I've just sent one back requesting some more info.

If you can let me know once you've responded I'll get that picked up for you

---

@MatthewWheeler Hi Matthew, I've just replied.

I'm fairly certain I've given you the correct bank account numbers (the DD could be on one of two accounts) but if not I can send the numbers for the other account.

Thanks again for your help.

[#10]

Thanks for getting back in touch @caravanj

Can you confirm if you receive any error messages when trying to log into the mobile account? Are you attempting to log in via the mobile app or through a browser?

Regards

[#11]

Opera, Firefox IE browsers with the message Oops! Something went wrong, please try again

Moderator's note by Dick (Strat): Full quote of preceding post removed as per Forum rules.

[#12]

Really sorry to hear you are having trouble accessing the online account via these browsers. Could you try clearing the cache and cookies & try log in again? If that doesn't work the next thing would be try on either a different device or another browser such as Chrome.

Thanks.

[#13]

The cookies & caches are cleared every time I close the browsers for security purposes.

I've tried different computers & different operating systems.

Also the 'Chat Online' is always greyed out, unless you click on joining then it isn't..

[#14]

Hi @caravanj

If this issue is still ongoing I would advise speaking with our Mobile team directly by dialling 500 from your handset. Their technical support team should be able to assist further with this. 

Kind regards

[#15]

Thanks.  I think part of my point is that the over rigid processes make the chat into an unnecessarily long winded affair.  For example a generic question shouldn't need full security vetting and details of my bank account sort code and account number before you're prepared to answer.   Also the slow individual response.  I guess each of your chat agents is actually handling a large number of calls simultaneously, so naturally each call progresses slower than it should.

I don't know why Plusnet has this big thing against email.  I remember when I was a broadband customer there was some weird excuse about why you couldn't raise or update a support case by email.  Following that they suggested using Twitter to contact support - it's hard to imagine a less suitable method!

So I suppose I'd put this as a challenge to Plusnet.  What's the best way of getting a question answered, if an answer in a few hours or maybe next day would be perfectly acceptable?