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Cannot view bill in new billing system

Townman
Superuser
Superuser
Posts: 22,922
Thanks: 9,538
Fixes: 158
Registered: ‎22-08-2007

Re: Billing system gone to pot?

This is believed to be a stale session issue.

Have those encountering the issue...

  1. Disabled auto logon?
  2. Used log off to force a clear down of all the backend session states?

Following a force re-logon or just closing the browser is not going to fix this issue when encountered.  I rather suspect that some browsers working, others not working could be to do with the state of sessions in the different browser environments.

 

Superusers are not staff, but they do have a direct line of communication into the business in order to raise issues, concerns and feedback from the community.

CrystalJayme
Grafter
Posts: 124
Thanks: 5
Registered: ‎06-01-2015

Re: Billing system gone to pot?

I don't have auto logon enabled and I'm running latest FF on windows 10 pro 64bit build 1803. I have the same problem as others have reported that soon as you click the Bills link nothing happens but account and other links work.
alosend
Dabbler
Posts: 17
Thanks: 3
Registered: ‎22-10-2009

Re: Billing system gone to pot?

You are dead right in my case.  Just a couple of hours before reading this post I did just that, i.e. deleted all Plusnet cookies, disabled Auto Log-on and used Log-off.  Signed back in and all seems to be working now.

CrystalJayme
Grafter
Posts: 124
Thanks: 5
Registered: ‎06-01-2015

Re: Billing system gone to pot?

I did exactly as you did ie: logged out then cleared cookies and data then restarted FF then logged back into my plusnet account then clicked Billing and nothing
corringham
Seasoned Champion
Posts: 1,211
Thanks: 634
Fixes: 16
Registered: ‎25-09-2015

Re: Billing system gone to pot?

It isn't as simple as cookies or logging out/in. I currently have 3 Plusnet accounts - one closed (well, almost, pending billing system problems being fixed). I also have several computers, both Linux (Ubuntu 16.04 & 18.04 and Centos 7.5) and Windows 10, as well as Android devices I have several browsers FF, Chrome, Edge, IE.

Using Windows 10 and Edge, the bills for one account comes up immediately, for another they take maybe a minute to appear (the third has no bills yet due to billing system problems).

Using Ubuntu and FF the bills take 15-20 minutes to appear, while using the same system with Chrome they appear in around 3 minutes.

Using Android, I've not waited long enough to see whether they ever do appear.

The page components downloaded for Windows and Ubuntu have differences - there are a lot of time-outs for Linux.

"System errors" of one kind or another appear about one time in 6 or 7.

I suspect that whatever steps people take and find the problem "solved" are mostly chance, and are not general solutions.

If I get bored over Christmas I may spend some time debugging the issue in detail.

Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Billing system gone to pot?

@corringham - Are you serious about the time it takes for your bills to appear? And maybe you can clarify what you mean by appear?

When I use the system I get a link on the value of the Last bill and clicking it downloads the bill as $STANDARD, if I select the View your bills button and select a bill then click the View bill button it is once again downloaded as $STANDARD. But for me this is instant, there’s a flash of white on the browser screen (not sure what it is) and the bill is downloaded.

Edit:- I’ve changed my browser’s settings so that Firefox is now set to “Preview in Firefox” for PDF files, but as before I get an instant response with the bill displayed in front of me.

corringham
Seasoned Champion
Posts: 1,211
Thanks: 634
Fixes: 16
Registered: ‎25-09-2015

Re: Billing system gone to pot?

Yes, I am serious about the time it takes. I suspect that a lot of people that complain about the bills not appearing just haven't waited long enough.

 When I click the "View my bill" link I immediately get the "Home Manage Account Billing ..." heading, but it then takes 15 minutes for the "Bills and Payment" frame to display . Once that displays the bills are viewable by selecting "View your bills"  and using the selector (that only takes maybe 10 seconds each , but that is partly my ADSL speed) .

My main machine is an i7, but it is similar on my Ryzen 1800X (both with very fast SSDs), so it isn't the speed of the computer that is the problem - it is mostly waiting for responses from Plusnet's server.

Edit: clarified the description above a bit, and it I tried again while writing this response, and it "only" took about 6 minutes.

Mad_Moggies
Rising Star
Posts: 1,285
Thanks: 43
Registered: ‎01-08-2007

Re: Billing system gone to pot?

@Anonymous Same here, usually loads very quickly, but when I download the bill I'm given the option to change the name, the same as with any download, because I have FF set to ask where to save them (as they're mostly bills, receipts and statements).

Plusnet user since November 2003
Full Fibre since September 2023
Mac OS14 and Firefox user with latest versions of both
davidj66
Aspiring Pro
Posts: 746
Thanks: 56
Fixes: 4
Registered: ‎04-09-2008

Re: Billing system gone to pot?

After reading the last few posts this morning, I've done some brief trials.

1.  On my Win 10 desktop with FF 63.0.3 (64 bit) logging in from scratch, on clicking "Billing" the page just hangs as a white space under the headings. Left it for an hour.

2.  Same set up using latest Chrome, the Bills and Payments page loads within 10 seconds and I can drill down to individual bills.

3.  On a laptop running Lubuntu with Firefox 63.0.3 (32 bit) - everything operates as you would want ie all bills can be viewed and downloaded as pdfs.almost instantly!

Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Billing system gone to pot?

@corringham - I find that incredible to be honest, that's just Crazy3

From what has been posted above this makes this whole issue even weirder than it is, if that’s even possible. I don’t know how Plusnet have coded their billing system but a CGI timeout of in excess 2>3 minutes is not just bonkers but reckless so I hope this isn't the case.

What would be really interesting is a Wireshark packet capture of this process from someone who is experiencing these difficulties and I suspect this would shed some light as to what is really going on.

corringham
Seasoned Champion
Posts: 1,211
Thanks: 634
Fixes: 16
Registered: ‎25-09-2015

Re: Billing system gone to pot?

@Anonymous, yes I agree that it is Crazy3

A few weeks ago I spent some time in the FF and Chrome debuggers watching the page load. At that time it was downloading 5MB in a single uncached stylesheet every time a bill was displayed (that alone is 5-10s on my ADSL line) - that is now cached and smaller. However there is still an amazing amount of stuff downloaded - a lot are various tracking items, and on Linux there are a lot of timeouts and missing components.

As I mentioned before, if I get bored over Christmas and the problem hasn't been fixed by then (ha!) I'll have a proper debugging session. I'm happy using Wireshark and other tools. I'd like to compare the differences between Windows 10 and Edge against Ubuntu and FF.

infidelus
Rising Star
Posts: 56
Thanks: 10
Registered: ‎29-03-2015

Re: Billing system gone to pot?

Good to see you're up for the challenge Smiley

 

Still, you shouldn't have to do Plusnet's job for them, and it once again proves how ineffective their developers are if they have to rely on the community to tell them how to fix their problems.  I hope you're going to send Plusnet a bill afterwards ata specialist contractor rates. Wink

 

Of course I'm sure it will be totally unnecessary as Plusnet are bound to have fixed it all by then .... not!

coople
Grafter
Posts: 43
Registered: ‎15-04-2014

Re: Billing system gone to pot?

For what it's worth the billing system does not work in Firefox but works perfectly in Chrome (last 3 invoices only), both in Windows 10.

Mad_Moggies
Rising Star
Posts: 1,285
Thanks: 43
Registered: ‎01-08-2007

Re: Billing system gone to pot?

@coople with your set up it doesn't work in Firefox but in my set up it has worked perfectly in FF since I ditched auto log-in!

Plusnet user since November 2003
Full Fibre since September 2023
Mac OS14 and Firefox user with latest versions of both
Anon
Pro
Posts: 634
Thanks: 209
Registered: ‎16-04-2007

Re: Billing system gone to pot?

Never worked in mine and I had FF and no auto log in.

 

Perhaps Pnet adapted it just to work with obscure FF update, so they could enjoy the punters stuck in contracts tearing themselves to pieces and spending hours on their PC trying to sort it out. Did this start on April 1st?

 

Has all the hall marks of an April fool. Few interventions by staff, no resolution over months and months and months. Sorry forgot this was Pnet and that's how they operate every day.

Whatever happens always remember "We will do you
.........................proud" say Pnet.