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7 Weeks no Connection

willhjones
Newbie
Posts: 3
Registered: ‎08-06-2021

7 Weeks no Connection

I am waiting for my broadband to be connected and have already been billed for a service I can not use.

Timeline of events is roughly as follows:

  • 22/04/21 - Signed up for Plus Net broadband
  • 08/05/21 - Given activation date but been and gone without broadband line activation
  • 10/05/21 - Contacted support via phone, question raised, it was promised 13/05/21 I would be connected
  • 13/05/21 - 2nd promised activation date goes without being connected
  • 14/05/21 - Called support again, question raised, activation promised by 17/05/21
  • 17/05/21 - 3rd promised activation date goes without being connected
  • 22/05/21 - Phone support to make a complaint and try to escalate the issue - previously have been quite passive on the problem but clearly not making any progress. Customer support would not offer any escalation or solution other than cancelling Openreach order and progressing with the minimum wait time of further 2-3weeks
  • 23/05/21 - Bill received for service, but no connected service
  • 03/06/21 - 4th promised activation date goes without being connected
  • 08/06/21 - 5th supposed activation date but no connection so far (14:00 hours), support correspondence on web updated that 'Order has been Placed' presumably with Openreach

I can't believe how many people from Plus net have reviewed my problem and not one single person has actually fixed the issue. Every person has just ignored this or done the minimum requirements under the system which is writing in industry lingo on the website (pretty much useless information to me) making failed promises.

If you try to speak to someone no body will take responsibility to sort the problem or they will pretty much say what you want to hear and move on the the next customer (Question Closed).

The last correspondence I received today very ambiguous and seems to contradict the promised activation date today of 08/06/21 - "we are now placing the orders" .... You have placed the orders already several times......

Beginning to suspect todays activation is the same as every other time; is this a 5th activation date promise broken?

Can someone actually deal with the problem instead of just passing the buck please?

Thanks

Will

 

 

 

8 REPLIES 8
Townman
Superuser
Superuser
Posts: 22,922
Thanks: 9,538
Fixes: 158
Registered: ‎22-08-2007

Re: 7 Weeks no Connection

Hi Will,

A warm welcome to the forums.  The headlines do not read well, but one could guess at some scenarios which might have given rise to your experience, some of which might be outside of Plusnet's control...

  1. Is this a take over of your existing service at the same property or provision of service at a "new" property?
  2. If a take over...
    1. Who from?
    2. Did you tell the old supplier you are leaving them?
  3. If service at a different property...
    1. Is it a new build?
    2. Is (or was) there still someone else at the property when you placed the order?

 

New provision orders can be bounced by the suppliers (BT Openreach and BT Wholesale) for a variety of reasons, some of which do not properly alert Plusnet's provisioning team, thereby order "failures" can be missed.  In other circumstances due to issues with BT's database information on some circuits, there are other issues with processing orders - each failure requiring a bridge case, each of which under BT rules can take 48 hours to be processes.

The biggest single cause of new order failure is the presence of an open "service cease" order placed on the current subscriber. In the case of a service take over, that would be you or in the case of a move to a property already occupied, the current occupant.  In such circumstances, the new provision order cannot be raised until the service cease completes.  Thereafter provision can take up to 10 working days.

In respect of new builds, far too frequently Retail ISPs and CPs (including BT Retail) can find that disputes between the building contractor and BT Openreach can mean that not all of the infrastructure is in place by the time the properties are being occupied.  In such circumstances, the retail ISPs have no information available on when service can be provided, all they can do is to keep raising the orders.

Have you looked at your support ticket for the order?  That should give you soup to nuts of what has happened in respect of your order journey - log into the portal (in another tab) can click the PN Ticket button below.

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.

willhjones
Newbie
Posts: 3
Registered: ‎08-06-2021

Re: 7 Weeks no Connection

Townman thanks for taking time to reply to my post.

Its a new connection and new service with Plusnet as I have recently moved house. I am sure the previous owner cut off their provider well before we arrive - so we have an existing home with copper landline connection installed. That is to say we had no service for some time after moving in (phone or broadband landline) opting to use our mobile internet instead while getting the move sorted.

It took a long time to recognise there was a problem in my connection and as I say it has been put back time and time again promising it would be actioned.

The last correspondence was that a system error had cause my Openreach registration to stall and was stuck in progressing any further. That said most of the support ticket stuff or phone explanation this is pretty much meaningless to me as I don't work for Plusnet, I just pay for the service in return for said service. 

The conversation I had was that the process was completely reset much to my frustration meaning another 2-3week wait but that it would definitely resolve the issue (like every other time I phoned).

Here are the latest support tickets, there are some today which seem contradictory?

Service Notification
6:05pm, Saturday 22 May 2021

An update report has been received for this account.
The broadband order is being processed by the supplier.
The activation will complete by midnight on 08/06/2021. 

 

Plusnet Support - CSC Analyst
11:05am, Tuesday 8 Jun 2021
Provisioning of your ADSL Account Information
Install diary status changed from Applied Fee Not Paid to Supplier processing
 

 

Plusnet Support - CSC Analyst
11:06am, Tuesday 8 Jun 2021
Provisioning of your ADSL Account Information
Install diary status changed from Supplier processing to Awaiting submission to the DSL supplier
Account set for submission via XML.
 
Your Response
2:46pm, Tuesday 8 Jun 2021
Provisioning of your ADSL Account Information
Install diary status changed from Awaiting submission to the DSL supplier to Application Submitted
(via ADSL2+ Order System Interface)

 

 

 

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

Re: 7 Weeks no Connection

Odd!  "Midnight" 8th June was first thing this morning - 2021-06-08 00:00

This needs the wizard, who is lurking here today - @Gandalf 

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.

Gandalf
Community Gaffer
Community Gaffer
Posts: 26,563
Thanks: 10,265
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Registered: ‎21-04-2017

Re: 7 Weeks no Connection

Thanks for your post @willhjones and welcome to our Community Forums

I'm really sorry first of all for how long we're taking to activate your fibre service. 

I can see we've activated your phone line on the 23rd April by restarting a stopped line that was at your address, so the bills we've been generating would be line rental for the phone service on the back of this.

From what I can see we've repeatedly placed orders to our suppliers, which have all been cancelled due to a system issue we've chased on several occasions, the latest one's currently pending I suspect may fall down the same path.

I've spent about an hour with an adviser from BT's helpdesk, trying to unravel this. With the help of their manager, they've identified that there's an issue with Openreach's records of your line, which is stopping our orders from progressing, so an ORDI (OpenReach Data Integrity) has been raised to investigate further.

Once you're up and running, I'll be happy to discuss a goodwill gesture. As a ballpark figure, this will be £5 per day for each day your broadband order doesn't complete starting from the first failed date we've given of the 8th May, in line with the industry standard when it comes to compensation for delayed orders.

I'm taking personal ownership moving forward so I'll check back tomorrow to follow things up with you.

 Apologies again for the inconvenience caused.

 

@Townman wrote:

This needs the wizard, who is lurking here today - @Gandalf 

I was actually aware and on this before your post. Smiley

From 31st October 2022, I no longer have a regular presence here as I’ve moved on to a new role.
Anoush Mortazavi
Plusnet
Gandalf
Community Gaffer
Community Gaffer
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Registered: ‎21-04-2017

Re: 7 Weeks no Connection

Hi @willhjones 

Just to post back. I can confirm the records have been fixed and BT's progressed the pending order to a 'committed' state then expedited the order for an engineer to go out tomorrow which is showing as confirmed. 

Fingers crossed tomorrow you'll get broadband at your new address. It may take anytime up to midnight for the service to go live. I'm not in the office tomorrow so I'll follow things up with you on Friday.

From 31st October 2022, I no longer have a regular presence here as I’ve moved on to a new role.
Anoush Mortazavi
Plusnet
willhjones
Newbie
Posts: 3
Registered: ‎08-06-2021

Re: 7 Weeks no Connection

Hi Anoush,

Thanks for looking into this for me.

Clearly you have been able to look into the problem effectively with Openreach and I am very happy to see that they are able to escalate the issue. This is escalation is contradictory to what I was told on the phone during my last conversation, but as I say I am glad you have been able to able to finally resolve the issue (it seems). 

I can't help wondering how long I would have waited for if I had not taken initiative to post on these forums and had continued to phone in for help as per convention. 

That is my only comment, but thank you again and hopefully things can resolve tomorrow.

Will

Gandalf
Community Gaffer
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Posts: 26,563
Thanks: 10,265
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Registered: ‎21-04-2017

Re: 7 Weeks no Connection

Hi Will,

Thanks for getting back to me. No problem, I'm really sorry again we haven't been able to effectively escalate this with our suppliers previously. I'll make sure to keep on top of this until all's sorted which should hopefully be tomorrow.

From 31st October 2022, I no longer have a regular presence here as I’ve moved on to a new role.
Anoush Mortazavi
Plusnet
Gandalf
Community Gaffer
Community Gaffer
Posts: 26,563
Thanks: 10,265
Fixes: 1,599
Registered: ‎21-04-2017

Re: 7 Weeks no Connection

Hi Will, just follow up I'm happy to see you've been up and running since last night.

I've added a reply onto your ticket 214562421 with an offer for a goodwill gesture which I hope helps.

From 31st October 2022, I no longer have a regular presence here as I’ve moved on to a new role.
Anoush Mortazavi
Plusnet