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Lost referrals and the data protection act

Rikaitch
Grafter
Posts: 212
Registered: ‎08-06-2007

Lost referrals and the data protection act

I have had referrals dropped by customers, and the only way I know they've left is because my discount has dropped. When I ask who's left, I get told that they can't tell me because of the data protection act, even though they know I am the referrer and helped set up the customer account in the first place! The inclusion of this means that I can contact the unhappy customer, and persuade them to stay.
9 REPLIES 9
sourceit
Grafter
Posts: 127
Registered: ‎08-06-2007

Re: Lost referrals and the data protection act

Also, a status of the account such as closed, active, MAC Code requested would also be a good addition.
neltek
Newbie
Posts: 6
Registered: ‎08-06-2007

Re: Lost referrals and the data protection act

I have had problems too
I referred someone - they signed up and I haven't had the person credited to my referrals discount
There is a support call history on this one : ID: 18542655
I asked to see names to check - most are anonymised so I can't tell which of my referrals has signed up
HOWEVER
one in my list has their email address showing!!!
interalia
Newbie
Posts: 1
Registered: ‎08-06-2007

Re: Lost referrals and the data protection act

I have been receiving three referral bonuses for quite some time and I noticed this month I was receiving only two. All three of my friends are still customers. So I raised a ticket and the missing referral will apparently be restored but not a word of reply to my question of how long have I been "short changed" and no explaination of how I will be compensated for this months loss.
Now I read in this forum that the 50 pence is to be reduced. This is the first I've heard and I think we need a response from Mark Kelly where he explains quite what is going on!
Why are we finding out in this way and how this fits in with his statement that "We're in a much better place right now."
I'm not feeling very appreciated for sticking with Plusnet through the "customer pain". Over to you Mark......
prichardson
Grafter
Posts: 1,503
Thanks: 1
Registered: ‎05-04-2007

Re: Lost referrals and the data protection act

Full information on previous discounts applies can be seen through your existing invoices.
When we receive a report of a missing token (referral to normal folk), we will try to local the account(s) that has caused this.
Although it can be a long winded task, once located, it is very easy to see how many are missing. It only takes a single set of entries to correct a single token, to correc them all.
I can check for you if you wish (a ticket number would be handy if this si the case), but I would hope that if it was a multiple token issue, they would all be done at the same time.
Tom
Newbie
Posts: 7
Registered: ‎09-06-2007

Re: Lost referrals and the data protection act

Phil,
You seem to have missed the point that without being able to see which referal is which refers have no way of knowing:
- have PN added the new referal?
- if a referal has moved away they cannot check to see why?
- if a referal has disappeared could it be a PN issue (as highlighted elsewhere in the forum)?
No visibility, means no auditability, means no accountability
What is the solution?
prichardson
Grafter
Posts: 1,503
Thanks: 1
Registered: ‎05-04-2007

Re: Lost referrals and the data protection act

These comments have not been lost of me, though I did forget to add a fundimental part of my reply I had planned.
There is some further conversation going on regarding referrals on the Usergroup froums, which was prior to the mailout our referrers received.
http://usergroup.plus.net/forum/index.php/topic,4887.msg63559.html#msg63559
One of the bug bears people have raised in the past, is the ability to tag referrals yourself. So you can see yourself if there is a change.
The ability to see when you have received a new referral?
Well, that is an interesting one, and certainly a good idea.
An email  or some other notification that a customer has signed up with you as the referral.
A referral moving away?
Well, that is likely a no go. It would require that we provide you with communication which should rightly only remain between PlusNet and the customer.
In regards to missing referrals, this does raise the question of what type of vanishing act has it performed?
If it is the case that the whole referral has vanished, it is unlikely this has occured. I have never seen an occurance or needed to investigate such issues.
If it the case that there is a token missing for one or more months, then this can happen. We have recently resolved a problem were this could occur on accounts that had changed package more than once.
Possibly the ability to see which accounts generated a token in each month?
Mark
Grafter
Posts: 1,852
Registered: ‎04-04-2007

Re: Lost referrals and the data protection act

The whole issue of knowing who a referral is or identifying their username or other identifiable information has been a frequent area for discussion and debate for ever.
Before I joined PlusNet, as mentioned in the email, I worked with an IT company. We had some hundreds of referrals 99.9% of which were clients. I knew exactly who they were and kept their details on a seperate database / CRM system. However a very few where peolpe I had no idea of. They signed up by clicking a referrral banner on our company website.
This is the case with many of our referrals. The referrer has no idea who they are. They have never met them or spoken with them as such we are obliged not to discuss or disclose details of these accounts with referrers.
One of my plans is to investigate the feasibility of launching a fully blown Partner programme with account management facilities for those who refer a number of customers. This will provide a close link between referrer and referral and should make things more simple for the referral community. But in reality, this is something which will apply to those making multiple referrals rather than a one off but is someting which has been requested by the referral community for some time.

As I said in another thread, I will make this promise. I will listen to your thoughts, suggestions and ideas and I will deliver what I can and what makes good business sense for us in an effort to make life for our referral community as easy and as straightforward as possible.
What I can not do is deliver that which is against the law and the issue of knowing account specifics regarding referrals is something which I have no doubt will continue to arise and be doscussed.
If you refer someone, there are ways of managing that referral account, providing you have the acccount holders permission and retain that permission. I'll leave you to work out the details. Smiley


Tom
Newbie
Posts: 7
Registered: ‎09-06-2007

Re: Lost referrals and the data protection act

Hi Guys,
I trust that you will be remembering that there has to a be a suitable cost v benefit result for the referrer as well as for PN.
Obviously the numbers are different depending upon what sort of referrers PN is looking for.
Quote from: Mark
If you refer someone, there are ways of managing that referral account, providing you have the acccount holders permission and retain that permission. I'll leave you to work out the details. Smiley

There is absolutely no point in me spending time (and therefore money) setting up something that is going to bring in considerably less.
For £6 per year per referral, at worst it wants to be a simple, guaranteed accurate, auditable list delivered by e-mail or via the web that a relatively unskilled member of staff can quickly check.  For £3 per year per referral the sums get even tighter!
Maybe the single payment is the way to go.  It works for the ISP that we were effectively forced to use from 2005.
As things stand at the moment the following need to be suitably addressed before the cost v benefit works for us to be able to make referrals again:
- resolve mxlast and domain hosting issue (see separate thread in this forum)
- a referral system that is simple, guaranteed accurate and auditable
- a support system that doesn't envolve listening on the phone to precorded guff whilst waiting for excessive periods (I know that we are being told that this is being addressed)  Our clients do not like paying us to sit there on hold - especially when they are jumping up and down because something is broken!    And of course as IT professionals we probably have already isolated 90 per cent of the issues to BT ones ............. no don't get me started!!!!
Mark
Grafter
Posts: 1,852
Registered: ‎04-04-2007

Re: Lost referrals and the data protection act

Hi Tom.
I am absolutley with you and it seems to me that your experiences mirror my own.
Quote
- resolve mxlast and domain hosting issue (see separate thread in this forum)

I will address this with the business on Monday
Quote
- a referral system that is simple, guaranteed accurate and auditable

Agreed. This is definately something which I want to investigate thouroughly for those referrers who have many referral clients. I absolutely would like to establish a proper partner programme for cases such as yours.
Quote
- a support system that doesn't envolve listening on the phone to precorded guff whilst waiting for excessive periods

I am happy to say that it is already there. Our business support team are doing a superb job and the queues and wait times you may have experienced last year no longer exist. Our residential support team have also improved massively with call wait time greatly reduced from last year. Our average wait time last week, for residential support was just over 4 minutes whilst Businesss Support was seconds.