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Contract Renewal Regret!

FrazUK
Grafter
Posts: 61
Thanks: 4
Registered: ‎20-10-2015

Contract Renewal Regret!

How do I get out of a contract renewal? I signed up 10 days ago (Oct 10) and the switch happened 9 days ago (Oct 11). I'm not spending another 18 months with this abysmal gaming experience. Info Below.

Right, There are a few things to mention here that have caused me to regret renewing my contract for a second time with Plusnet.

First of all, there is a problem I have had ongoing since 2015 back when I was with BT Infinity that makes online gaming the most frustrating experience you can imagine. I switched to Plusnet to get away from this, only to find that Plusnet was owned by BT so it uses exactly the same backhaul which I have recently figured out is where the problem is coming from. I'll get a bit more into this shortly.

Second, I've had g.inp applied since early 2020 thanks to being put on the ECI g.inp trials (https://community.plus.net/t5/Fibre-Broadband/ECI-Cabinets/td-p/1708051). This obviously didn't fix the gaming problem mentioned above but it mitigated it a little since my overall ping was around a third of what it was when it was off, and has been since it was enabled.


Due to g.inp which I knew would disappear if I switched ISP, I decided to save myself the hassle and renew my contract with Plusnet again only to find on the renewal date g.inp was disabled, my pings had tripled, my speed banded at 35mbs all sitting on top of that original underlying gaming problem from BTs backhaul.

As for the gaming problem, It's something I've complained about here before and something i've seen others complain about on this forum before too. I've personally met countless people in games who have also had an isp that use the bt backhaul and all seem to have the same problem. The problem feels like extremely high jitter/instant ping spikes/packet bursts and packet loss even though no in game stats report any of this (theyre all averaged over time anyway so ping spikes just cause your ping to show as a higher than usual but stable ping, packet loss sticks at 0%). The result is just generally very unreponsive and frustrating game mechanics, things not registering, from bullets to actions like opening a parachute randomly getting you killed, enemies moving much faster than the game mechanics allow, feeling half a second behind everyone else on the server, jittery abnormal enemy movements and animations, feeling of not being able to do anything even in a situation where you have the massive upper hand.

I've spent years with this problem blaming everything from the line quality in my area, interleaving, the game servers, local congestion but have just recently found a solution. The solution is for me to use an ISP that has LLU and completely skips the BT backhaul. For me, those options are TalkTalk and Sky.

How did I find this solution?

My next door neighbour, who is connected to the same cabinet as me, and has had the exact same gaming problems on BT Infinity and Plusnet in the past is now on TalkTalk and the problems are none existent. I've even spent a couple of weeks playing on my neighbours connection with a 50 meter power extension coming into my house using an ethernet over power adapter and the experence is 100 times better. Even though the connection is statistically worse with 3 times the ping it feels 10 times more responsive/consistently responsive than my plusnet connection even when it had g.inp enabled.

I know this is never going to be fixed, its been nearly 7 years.

So, how do I get out of this new contract so I can go over to TalkTalk or Sky LLU and finally get rid of this almost 7 year problem?

 

5 REPLIES 5
jgb
Champion
Posts: 800
Thanks: 511
Fixes: 22
Registered: ‎01-08-2007

Re: Contract Renewal Regret!

@FrazUK 

You should have received an email from Plusnet when you signed up. If you go down to "The Legal Bit" (in grey towards the bottom) there is info on your cancellation rights. If you are within 14 days of signing up it should not be aproblem to cancel although there are some charges you have to pay - for the time connected etc. The telephone number re cancellation is 0800 013 2632.

daveplus
Pro
Posts: 630
Thanks: 132
Fixes: 10
Registered: ‎25-08-2010

Re: Contract Renewal Regret!

@FrazUK 

So why did you renew your contract with PN rather than go to another ISP?

adam945
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Posts: 2,319
Fixes: 113
Registered: ‎01-12-2020

Re: Contract Renewal Regret!

Hi @FrazUK

Thanks a lot for reaching out and I'm sorry to hear that you've been having problems with your service. Ping isn't something we can directly influence, as it's partially affected by third party servers depending on what you're suing your broadband for. It does shoot up if there's an underlying fault with the line, which in your case, there isn't.

If you'd like to discuss your contract though, you're best off contacting our Customer Options Team on 0800 013 2632.

Your cancellation period starts the day after it's initiated, so you'll be able to cancel it fir free until 26/10/2021.

 Adam
 Plusnet Help Team - Leeds
FrazUK
Grafter
Posts: 61
Thanks: 4
Registered: ‎20-10-2015

Re: Contract Renewal Regret!

@daveplus as mentioned in my original post having g.inp was a silver lining giving faster speeds and better pings that somewhat reduced problems and I knew I'd lose that if I switched. But now I've lost it anyway so may as well make the switch 

@jgb@adam945 thanks! I'll call tomorrow and get it sorted.

Strat
Community Veteran
Posts: 31,320
Thanks: 1,609
Fixes: 565
Registered: ‎14-04-2007

Re: Contract Renewal Regret!

Moderators Note
This topic has been moved from Fibre Broadband to Accounts / Billing.
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