Constantly changing activation date and general poor service

[#1]

I joined Plusnet on the 23rd October with a view to having the broadband (which my wife and I both rely on for work) up and running when we got into our new house. I was told on the phone that this was fine - the current occupiers phoneline wouldn't be affected before we moved in on the 2nd November and we'd have everything working by the 6th November. I then received an email out of the blue a few days before the move 'confirming' that the phone activation had been cancelled. There were no previous emails, phonecalls or texts telling me that this might be the case - just the one email to confirm with no explanation. I assumed (naively in hindsight)  that it must have been a mistake.

On the day that we moved house I had a phonecall to say the activation was going ahead as planned. The activation being on the 14th instead of the 6th - again with no explanation. 

The following day I received a text to say it'd be on the 17th!

Several failed calls to customer service (constantly being told the waiting time was up to 60 minutes regardless of the time of day) and one failed attempt to have an online chat later I managed to find a section to email on the website. After explaining everything I've just written here and demanding to know what the delay was caused by I got an email response today to say the activation is the 16th - again with no explanation or apology or even any reference to my email. From what I've seen on similar threads on here I'm not expecting anything different by way of response either.

At the moment there's very little stopping me from cancelling the order completely.

[#2]

This is probably one of the most common order failures. Chances are the old provider on the line ceased the line-since their customer was moving. What that means for you is the order from Plusnet to take over the line is cancelled.

Plusnet then have to wait for the line to stop, before placing another order to restart the line fresh-hence the first date change.

After that it's at the mercy of openreach engineer availability, and often that initial expected date is moved simply as OR don't have enough engineers-especially if it's fibre.

The move back to the 16th I suspect is a matter of translation. The activation date will be some point on the 16th, but up to midnight. So some will say exactly that, where others knowing it could be half 11pm on the 16th, will go with "you'll be active by the 17th".

I had exactly the same thing a few years back when I exchanged house-pnet went with the transfer. The other persons provider, sky just dropped the line cancelling the whole thing. No warning or anything though-of course since I wasn't a sky customer they wouldn't have told me.

[#3]

Hi @Mysteryjones

I am really sorry to hear about the lack of communication surrounding your house move order.

I have had a look through your account and have responded via a ticket on your account with full details however I would like to say that @Kdog did explain the situation well.

You can view the details of your ticket here

If you have further questions feel free to get back in touch.

[#4]

Thanks for the reply and for clearing it up a bit. I ended up cancelling my account anyway and went with NOW TV who, I have to say, have been brilliant despite the bad reviews I've read about them. They managed to get the account set up and internet running in less than a week which surprised me (not that I'm complaining!)