New Order - Update?

[#1]

Hi,

Broadband ordered originally on 25-05-18. 

After hearing nothing at all back I began chasing up for information on ticket number 176250592 & I was advised 08-06-18 that an order had been placed and an activation date would be confirmed within 48 hours. 

On Monday morning 11-06-18 instead of confirmation of activation date I found the subject was put on hold for a further 48 hours.  I'm a patient man and as I spent most of Tuesday counting the unfathomable number of routers you'd decided to send me (FYI one will suffice) I was just about ok waiting til Wednesday to finally get my date.

I wasn't happy at all on Wednesday to find query had been put on hold for yet another further 48 hours and that would only be for an update. 

So 112.5 hours after I had been told I would be given an activation date (I quote "a completion date will be confirmed in 48 hours. " and putting the phrase in bold was you not me) 

I'm now having to reschedule appointments which require me to have internet access again. Is there anyone there who can just give me the date I can expect broadband to be activated.

Regards 

[#2]

So no response on 176250592 which was due to be updated 0700 this morning. No response on these forums, and no response in any of the multiple 10 minutes i spent avoiding doing my job so I could spend fun times on hold waiting for customer services. I'll look forward to driving a mile or so from my new house over the weekend to get enough mobile signal to find out that nothing whatsoever has changed over the weekend either. Is it already too late to cancel and go with Zen or some other reputable option? 

[#3]

Hello @hardabit,

Thanks for getting back to us, and we are sincerely sorry for the delay in confirming your order. I have updated you ticket and we will be monitoring this closely for you, providing an a further update on the 19/06/2018. We are sorry for the inconvenience this has caused.

[#4]

19/06 - You tell me phone order is showing is cancelled in your suppliers systems - so goodbye to the phone number you gave me on 08/06/18 and which I've distributed to friends family work contacts etc. Broadband order also in your words "somewhat stuck" as order not built correctly and needs to be closed down and replaced.

20/06 - Line records show phone line as active when it isn't. This was apparently going to be rectified and the ball would start to roll again the next day. 

21/06 - Line records now show the phone line as no longer active (this is good) However the line is also not having shown as recently stopped - the line appears to have disappeared into a kind of administrative limbo (this is very bad)

22/06 - Line records still not showing the line as active or stopped so joy of joys an entire new line installation is required. Obviously I don't get an installation date but you do give me a new phone number. However I'm not falling for that again and don't bother updating anyone with this.

22/06 - Fibre order has now failed due to lack of capacity in the cabinet. You expect Openreach to get back to you within 7 days about this. You give me an option to cancel due to the delays. Interestingly you also now offer me standard broadband in the interim. I'm more than a little miffed that this wasn't offered as an option 4 or 5 weeks ago when the problems began but what the hell in for a penny in for a pound etc. so I was almost about to take you up on this. Then it struck me that the new customer deal for standard broadband you kindly offered me was a little pricey at £21.99 per month so I used yet more of the rapidly dwindling data allowance on my phone to find that the actual new customer offer was £18.99 per month (it's since gone up to £19.99) When I queried this apparent blatent larceny I was offered £19.99 per month. However I'm taking you up on the cancellation instead.

Zen will be charging the best part of £80.00 for a new line installation which as far as I can see should be covered by either yourselves or Openreach as no such installation was necessary before your involvement. 

Regards

[#5]

I'd like to start of by saying I sincerely apologise for the experience you've had.

Ideally we would've liked a smooth activation.

19/06 - You tell me phone order is showing is cancelled in your suppliers systems - so goodbye to the phone number you gave me on 08/06/18 and which I've distributed to friends family work contacts etc.

Apologies for the inconvenience caused here, when I replaced your phone order I wasn't aware that you wanted to keep the same number. Unless the number has since been taken by another provider, we should be able to use it again.

Broadband order also in your words "somewhat stuck" as order not built correctly and needs to be closed down and replaced.

I like to be as straight talking as I can, IMO there's no need to fluff things up. When we place an order, it is built automatically via several supplier systems and, in this case, it didn't happen correctly.

20/06 - Line records show phone line as active when it isn't. This was apparently going to be rectified and the ball would start to roll again the next day. 

21/06 - Line records now show the phone line as no longer active (this is good) However the line is also not having shown as recently stopped - the line appears to have disappeared into a kind of administrative limbo (this is very bad)

22/06 - Line records still not showing the line as active or stopped so joy of joys an entire new line installation is required. Obviously I don't get an installation date but you do give me a new phone number. However I'm not falling for that again and don't bother updating anyone with this.

Unfortunately line records aren't within our control and I was disappointed to see that there's no stopped line present as I was hoping for a relatively quick activation from that point. With regards to the telephone number, as above I'm sorry that I placed the order with a new number however we should be able to retrieve it still.

22/06 - Fibre order has now failed due to lack of capacity in the cabinet. You expect Openreach to get back to you within 7 days about this. You give me an option to cancel due to the delays. Interestingly you also now offer me standard broadband in the interim. I'm more than a little miffed that this wasn't offered as an option 4 or 5 weeks ago when the problems began

Whilst I apologise that we didn't offer you standard broadband when the orders failed due to no fibre capacity at the cabinet, our suppliers reassured us at that point advising that there was capacity as shown here.

I was disappointed when the order failed again.

Then it struck me that the new customer deal for standard broadband you kindly offered me was a little pricey at £21.99 per month so I used yet more of the rapidly dwindling data allowance on my phone to find that the actual new customer offer was £18.99 per month (it's since gone up to £19.99) When I queried this apparent blatent larceny I was offered £19.99 per month.

I admit this was completely down to me and me alone. When I checked the offers on our website, I didn't see that we had more than one offer for standard broadband, and when I checked again after you pointed out there was a cheaper deal, the offer I saw was for £19.99 however as a gesture of goodwill I'll be happy to offer you the £18.99 deal you saw previously.

However I'm taking you up on the cancellation instead.

If you've made the decision to cancel, then I respect that and I'd like to wish you all the best with your new provider and thank you for choosing to sign up with us in the first instance.

Zen will be charging the best part of £80.00 for a new line installation which as far as I can see should be covered by either yourselves or Openreach as no such installation was necessary before your involvement. 

Unfortunately we can't cover their new line installation (NLI) charge. It's worth noting that, before it failed due to no fibre capacity, I placed a NLI order without asking you for the NLI fee of £49.99 that we charge for these type of orders.

That said, I do hope you'll reconsider and if you do I'll be happy to continue to take ownership of this matter by placing a new line installation to activate standard broadband for you then modify the line to fibre accordingly once our suppliers get back to us about the fibre availability, and discussing a gesture of goodwill with you when this is resolved.

Thanks,

Anoush

[#6]

Thank you for your response although it does not satisfy my complaint.

As far as the NLI goes yes it's hardly surprising you would waive this as it's either the fault of Plusnet that I no longer have an active line in my house or it's the fault of Openreach / BTW in which case I would assume you will be offcosting the charge anyway. 

What is absolutely certain is that it in no way my fault that the active line to my address no longer exists and that I have been financially disadvantaged as a result.

If you do not intend to cover my additional costs then I will of course follow your complaints procedure (which almost certainly given my experience thus far with Plusnet will prove to be a totally fruitless exercise) and then go to the Ombudsman.

 Regards

[#7]

Whilst I appreciate that you didn't cause these problems, I'm sorry to say but we're not able to cover any fees incurred if you choose to leave us for another provider, but if you're happy to remain with us I'll be happy to discuss a gesture of goodwill with you that's fair and proportionate once this matter is resolved.

[#8]

Things more likely than my remaining with Plusnet

1/ The sun rises in the West

2/ I receive an e-mail from a real Nigerian Prince needing my help in obtaining his fortune.

3/ Entropy decreases in an isolated system

4/ David Beckham has a head transplant and demands to be known as Elvis Beckham

5/ Queen Victoria found alive, well and working at The Blue Fin fish & chip shop in York.

[#9]

Well try to imagine my complete lack of surprise when my current supplier advised me today that I apparently want to cancel my service with them and move to an alternate supplier. As I also received an e-mail from Plusnet around the same time giving me an estimated date of 21/08/18 for my switch to Plusnet.

I really really don't like being slammed especially by yourselves.

In response to my ticket 176250592 on June 22nd at 05:16 you said

"If you would like to cancel your order as a result of these delays, please also let us know by replying to this ticket or calling our cancellations team on 0800 013 2632."

I replyed to the ticket on 24th June at 07:14 as follows

"I wish to cancel the order in it's entirety both due to the delay itself, due to the delay in offering standard broadband as an alternative and due to the "error" in pricing of the standard broadband. Could you please repay all monies taken from me asap. As I'm having to have a new line installed by a more capable supplier I would also like you to pay the cost of that (This seems perfectly reasonable as prior to Plusnet involvement there was a working active line into the property) Zen are charging me the best part of 80 quid for the new install which is the fault of either yourselves and / or Openreach - sort it out between you and get it paid. I'll be more than happy to go to Offcom and let them resolve if you are unwilling." 

Now call me naive but I was under the impression that cancelling as per your stated instructions amounted to cancelling. 

In case my cancellation was insufficiently clear (nah it's really very very clear) I believe my comment on this forum 24/06/18 at 1618 clarified it for you

I haven't checked my bank to see whether you've repaid my refund and if you haven't done so I suggest you expidite payment asap. My order is cancelled as of 24/06/18. I shall naturally be complaining to OFCOM and the Ombudsman regarding your slamming attempt.

Regards

[#10]

Sorry to hear that.

My response shortly afterwards advised that we're unable to cover any fees that Zen are charging you and asked if you would still like to go ahead.

As we received no response, we assumed you wanted to stay with us and I can see we've also been regularly updating you via email since then too.

Unfortunately we can't take confirmation of a cancellation request via the Community.

If you can reply to the ticket on your account instead I'll get it cancelled and your fees refunded.

Thanks.

[#11]

So what you are pretending is that when I wrote my cancellation in a reply to the ticket as per your instructions you chose to interpret a perfectly clear wording of my cancellation and an additional request for compensation for your failings as a cancellation which was conditional upon the compensation being paid. That's quite frankly ludicrous and rather pathetic

I have absolutely no interest in your regular e-mails. I have no wish to deal with a company that makes NPower seem competent and customer focused, I also had no reason to read your e-mails as my order had already been cancelled. The only contact I have any interest in from yourselves is a deadlock number for my compensation claim as you have clearly stated you won't pay it.

"Unfortunately we can't take confirmation of a cancellation request via the Community."

Well that isn't a problem as I haven't cancelled via the community I cancelled on June 24 as per your instructions I'm using the community to draw your attention to that.

If the actual requirement to cancel is to reply to the ticket on multiple occasions then you should really have stated that in the first place & you should really advise on what other conditions are required which weren't previously drawn to my attention. Will my 3rd cancellation request on the ticket have to be a haiku composed in Vulcan for instance? Will the 7th one need to be in written in Wingdings? If I get one wrong do I have to start again at the beginning?

[#12]

As per my previous response, as you requested us to cover the installation fee of your new provider and your account cancelling I didn't want to cancel your account before confirmation that you were happy you wanted your order cancelling without the compensation you've requested that we can't cover.

Just tried to call you to discuss this, but the call didn't connect

If you can call us on 0800 013 2632 as per our cancellations policy Here or reply to your ticket we'll get the order cancelled and initial fee refunded, 

[#13]

As per my previous response.

At no point did I request cancellation conditional upon compensation being paid. In fact I made it perfectly clear that I would be quite happy collecting this through alternate means afterwards I quote from my response to the ticket when cancelling the order " I'll be more than happy to go to Offcom and let them resolve if you are unwilling." Its can't be much clearer that I would be willing to go to ADR to resolve recompense for your removal of my active line and the subsequent financial disadvantage resulting from Plusnet actions

The cancellation was made in accordance with your directions.

Order was cancelled 24th June and no amount of specious argument can alter that. 

The fact that you have taken it upon yourself not to bother acting upon my cancellation of  the order is a matter for you to explain rather than me. While you're at it you could explain why Plusnet knowing at the point of cancellation that I had no active line would then attempt to hijack my nice new active line from my current supplier (a supplier who I'm very happy with) for which I had to pay an installation fee. Does my suddenly having an active line from another supplier somehow give you reason to think I was regretting my cancellation and really really wanted to be supplied by a bumbling, unprofessional & inept company such as yourselves after all? 

[#14]

To resolve this can I call you back please to discuss this further?

[#15]

I'm at work with no phone reception and have no great desire to discuss anything in private that wouldn't be better discussed publicly here for your other customers and prospective customers to see.

The only resolution required is for you to act upon my cancellation & refund my money