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Plusnet seems to ignore communiocations - am I doing it wong?

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iceman3
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Registered: ‎20-02-2017

Plusnet seems to ignore communiocations - am I doing it wong?

I'm a new customer who ordered a brand new phone line to an empty property at the end of January.

I carefully explained on the support phone number that there was no telephone poles or wire within 500m or the property and that a survey and new poles would be needed. I repeated this via email to support@plus.net. I also explained that the property was very remote and  hard to find so my email included the gps coordinates and full details of how to get there, plus a photograph showing the driveway and also showing no poles nearby. I asked for this to be given to openreach so they didn't waste their time, or mine in trying to install 'just a drop wire'.

Since that email I have sent several more and phoned again (each time waiting about 45 minutes for the support phone line to be answered) to ensure that a survey was done first and that Openreach knew poles were needed. However Plusnet insisted all that was needed was a drop wire.

I have had no replies to any of my emails to support except several of the form  'we can't answer question 123435 at the moment. we've placed it on hold until <insert different dates here>'

Today I drove nearly 200 miles to the property to meet the engineer on my 'activation day'. He had also driven round most of the morning trying to find the property as Plusnet had not given Openreach my directions and photo as I requested. He took one look at the property and said 'You are going to need a survey plus several poles'

 

Exactly what I had been trying to tell Plusnet!

 

Is there any way to reach somebody at Plusnet who knows what they are talking about and has some authority without either...

Sending an email to support@plus.net that will never be answered

Spending nearly an hour waiting for the support phone to be picked up

Using Live Chat and trying to understand the poor English and lack of understanding of the agent

 

Or should I just give up and try a different ISP?

12 REPLIES 12
adamwalker
Plusnet Help Team
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Re: Plusnet seems to ignore communiocations - am I doing it wong?

Hi there,

 

I'm sorry to see how this has unfolded so far. The reason the information you emailed us didn't reach the engineer is that it won't have reached us either as support@plus.net isn't a monitored email address.

 

We don't actually provide any support by email but any messages to that address should be met with an automatic response, I've just tested this and received one straight away so I'm unsure why you've not received those. The test of our auto-responder begins as follows so you might want to try searching your emails for it:

 

"Thank you for your email. Unfortunately we don't pick up any emails sent to this address. That's because emails can easily be lost, misdirected or even deleted and we think it's better if this doesn't happen."

 

I'm sorry to see you had problems with long waits on the phones and with webchat too. I'd like to take ownership of this for you so I can ensure things are moving forward with your orders as appropriate and collate some feedback to pass on about the webchat you've mentioned.

 

Going forward I'd recommend continuing to communicate with us via this post in relation to the matter, if you can please send me a private message with the username for the account in question I'll get straight on to this for you .

 

Adam.

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 Adam Walker
 Plusnet Help Team
iceman3
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Re: Plusnet seems to ignore communiocations - am I doing it wong?

Thank you for a real human reply.

So do I understand correctly that support@plus.net is only uni-directional ie from Plusnet to customers and that there is no way for a customer to communicate privately in writing back to Plusnet (excluding this public forum)?

 

Good job I record all my phone calls otherwise there would be no evidence of any discussion or promises made.

 

As you kindly suggested, I shall PM you with all the details and for the time being use you as my 'contact' at Plusnet.

I expect things will progress a little more smoothly then and with rather more feedback than I have had so far.

 

jelv
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Re: Plusnet seems to ignore communiocations - am I doing it wong?

You should have open questions/tickets at https://www.plus.net/wizard/?p=search. You can communicate by adding to the relevant ticket.

jelv (a.k.a Spoon Whittler)
   Why I have left Plusnet (warning: long post!)   
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iceman3
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Re: Plusnet seems to ignore communiocations - am I doing it wong?

I believe that is where this was started. A chat agent 'elevated' my question to another agent who still couldn't answer it so they said they would raise the issue in 'Technical Support' (by which I now realise they meant www.plus.net/wizard).

The first thing I knew about it was an email in Plusnet's web email saying 'Question 12345 has been updated'. I had no idea what Question 12345 was so I replied to the email asking.  However Adam has now advised that the support email address is not monitored so there is no point using webmail to send any emails there.

I continue to monitor the 'question'  in www.plus.net/wizard, even though I had to find out about the very existence of that page by trial and error.

adamwalker
Plusnet Help Team
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Re: Plusnet seems to ignore communiocations - am I doing it wong?

Thanks a lot for the PM,

 

I'm taking a look through your account now. I'll get feedback passed on as I mentioned but I can see we're due an update today so I'll get that chased up now and will update you ASAP.

 

Adam

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 Adam Walker
 Plusnet Help Team
adamwalker
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Re: Plusnet seems to ignore communiocations - am I doing it wong?

Just a quick update to let you know that a survey engineer is due to go on site today so I'll be able to chase up the order again based on their findings on Monday.

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 Adam Walker
 Plusnet Help Team
jelv
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Re: Plusnet seems to ignore communiocations - am I doing it wong?

The irrelevant diversion started by NSCOFFIELD was split off to a separate topic.

There should have been an update from @adamwalker yesterday based on the last post but it looks like (as usual) more prodding is required.

jelv (a.k.a Spoon Whittler)
   Why I have left Plusnet (warning: long post!)   
Broadband: Andrews & Arnold Home::1 (FTTC 80/20)
Line rental: Pulse 8 Home Line Rental (£14.40/month)
Mobile: iD mobile (£4/month)
iceman3
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Re: Plusnet seems to ignore communiocations - am I doing it wong?

OK, I think I'm getting the hang of this. The 'irrelevant diversion started by NSCOFFILD' seems to still have the same title as mine so I was watching the wrong thread 

 

adamwalker
Plusnet Help Team
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Re: Plusnet seems to ignore communiocations - am I doing it wong?

Hi iceman3, I'm chasing this up now and will get back to you shortly.

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 Adam Walker
 Plusnet Help Team
adamwalker
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Re: Plusnet seems to ignore communiocations - am I doing it wong?

I've been in touch with our suppliers, they apologise as the survey due to take place by 27/2/17 hasn't gone ahead yet. due to this I've asked them to escalate the issue further.

They have now advised that an update should me made available to us on 3/3/17

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 Adam Walker
 Plusnet Help Team
iceman3
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Re: Plusnet seems to ignore communiocations - am I doing it wong?

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Openreach have now been in touch with me personally and said that the likely costs of installing cable to the property from the nearest access point will be in the region of £65,000.

This is a bit of a jump from the £49.99 advertised on Plusnet's web site. They also thought they wouldn't get permission to do the work anyway as it's in National Trust land.

Nevertheless Plusnet are persevering and have now emailed me to say that my service will be activated on 8th March, (in spite of there being no cable available). They also threatened me with extra charges if I'm not at the property to meet the engineer on that date. However I do not intend to drive another 400 miles to the property to meet an engineer who hasn't been told there's nothing to connect to.

 

More worryingly though, Openreach said Plusnet had advised them I had already agreed to pay whatever charges were necessary to get the line installed. I most certainly have not agreed to pay £65,000 and do not intend to do so.

 

Accordingly I have today braved another long wait for the Plusnet's customer support phone to be answered and have cancelled this order completely.

 

I hope that in future that Plusnet's sales people listen to potential customers when they explain circumstances peculiar to their installation and not plough on regardless, making promises they cannot keep. The first Plusnet representative I contacted when placing the order said quite clearly that I would only be charged £49.99 regardless of how many new poles were needed or the length of new cable involved. I record all calls I make to Plusnet. The company should take care what their representatives say as a court might rule that such a comment formed part of our contract.

 

I hope this is now the end of the matter and that the refund of my up front money paid happens smoothly.

 

Mav
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Re: Plusnet seems to ignore communiocations - am I doing it wong?

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