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Router not delivered - service starts tomorrow

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lakesidekeith
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Router not delivered - service starts tomorrow

I received a letter stating that the router was sent on the 25th August and would arrive in 3 to 5 working days. Plusnet is switching me off my previous supplier on 27th August

Why did you wait so long to post my router. There is absolutely no chance of a seamless switch. It appears I will lose internet service for 1 to 3 days - at a minimum

This is a bad start to a new service!

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bobpullen
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Re: Router not delivered - service starts tomorrow

The router was actually dispatched on the 24th by the looks of things. It is sent using Royal Mail First Class, so unless something unexpected happens, I'd expect it to arrive today if it isn't already with you.

Apologies for the confusion.

Bob Pullen
Plusnet Product Team
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lakesidekeith
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Re: Router not delivered - service starts tomorrow

The router is obviously not with me or I wouldn't waste my time posting and calling. I checked the post box again this morning before raising this issue. I can see from your response that you hope things will work out but hope is not a strategy which I can rely on.

Setting the activation date so close to the date when the router is posted out is a failure in Plusnet's service design.

You organisation is aware of the delivery times for royal mail, you refer to it in your letter. You can factor this into your activation date. If you have delays in supplying the router, the activation date can be amended. 

This issue is exacerbated by the wording of the letter which you send to customers. It is dated the 25th of August and says the router will arrive in 3 to 5 days. 25th plus 5 days = Saturday 29th. The date 24th August doesn't appear in your letter.

 

That implies that your service was designed to leave me without broadband access for 2 days unless Royal mail just happens to deliver quicker than you would normally allow for. There was no need to create this issue. It is simply incompetence.

 

This causes needless stress for customers and increases your inbound calls.

 

I have both posted to the forum and spoken to you customer care team. Neither of which would be necessary is someone had bothered to design the service correctly. This is 100% failure demand. You are creating work and costs for your care team due to a broken service design. A simple fix would prevent this happening again.

 

lakesidekeith
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Re: Router not delivered - service starts tomorrow

After calling your phone line, your Support Team have opened Question 205412768 to track this issue on your account.

 

 

Dear Mr Stagner, Thanks for your time on the phone this morning. I'm sorry to hear that you are concerned that your Router will not arrive on time. I can confirm that we sent for your router to be dispatched on the 24/08/2020 which takes approx 3 - 5 working days via Royal Mail. I have applied to amend your activation date to the 28/08/2020 to ensure you have your router before the transfer date as requested. Order Reference: OR0000012367364 I will apply to amend the activation date further to the 01/09/2020  once the committal date has been updated. We're sorry for any concern this may have caused. If you have any queries relating to this order please reply to this ticket via the Plusnet Members Center: http://contactus.plus.net. Alternatively you can call us on 0800 028 0282 or 0300 123 6123. Kind regards, [CSA Removed] [Email notification sent to: [Removed]]

Moderator's note by Dick (Strat): CSA name(s) removed (to an area staff can see) as per Forum rules.

Moderator's note by Dick (Strat): Personal information removed from a public forum (to an area that staff can see).

Baldrick1
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Re: Router not delivered - service starts tomorrow

@lakesidekeith 

Welcome to the forum!

For the future you may wish to delete personal details from messages before posting on this forum. If your edit window hs closed I expect a mod will do this for you.

Note that the agent has 'applied' for a later activation date, so unfortunately this date is now back in the melting pot awaiting the availability of an Openreach technician around that date so should not be assumed to be cast in stone.

Hopefully this will not cause more problems then waiting another day for the hub to arrive would have done To be honest I am surprised if it normally takes the Post Office 5 days to deliver a first class package that fits through a standard letter box unless this includes a week end.

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bobpullen
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Re: Router not delivered - service starts tomorrow


@Baldrick1 wrote:

To be honest I am surprised if it normally takes the Post Office 5 days to deliver a first class package that fits through a standard letter box unless this includes a week end.


It doesn't. From here:-

royal_mail.JPG

@lakesidekeith wrote:

Setting the activation date so close to the date when the router is posted out is a failure in Plusnet's service design.

As above, in 93% of cases it will arrive a good two days before activation.

 

This issue is exacerbated by the wording of the letter which you send to customers. It is dated the 25th of August and says the router will arrive in 3 to 5 days. 25th plus 5 days = Saturday 29th. The date 24th August doesn't appear in your letter.

Completely agree and I can't really deny the wording is disingenuous. It needs revisiting/changing. 

That implies that your service was designed to leave me without broadband access for 2 days

Obviously this isn't the intention.

In summary, the system dispatched the router on time.

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't concerned it hasn't arrived yet though. That implies that there may be an issue with the address it's been sent to. I'd expect practically all dispatches to arrive within two days.

If you want to drop me a private message, then I'll happily confirm the address we have on file.

Apologies again for the undue concern/worry.

Bob Pullen
Plusnet Product Team
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lakesidekeith
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Re: Router not delivered - service starts tomorrow

The just router arrived in the afternoon post

We are now ready to proceed with activation. How can I obtain the revised activation date?

I am not particularly worried if you support agent has already changed the date. Assurance that I would not lose internet was more important than start date on the new service

lakesidekeith
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Re: Router not delivered - service starts tomorrow

Fix

 

I have been genuinely trying to highlight and opportunity to address an issue that is costing Plusnet money and impacting customer perception of your service. This will undoubtedly affect your customer service Net Promoter Scores and survey results

It is good that you recognise that the letter should be changed.

It is a shame you decided to defend the current service in your response, rather than recognising the issues working to improve it.

> I received my router the afternoon before the scheduled activation date. I am sure I am not the first customer to raise this as a concern, though others might not realise the risk of being disconnected.

> The Post Office statistics states that 7% of all post takes longer than 1 day. It doesn't say that  the 7% will be delivered in 2, 3 or even 10 days. A 7% failure rate is quite high.

> I leave it to you to decide if delivering the router the day before activation is acceptable. I would recommend you check the customer complaint logs to determine how often this happens and calculate how much this is costing Plusnet

I have now received my router. I not interested in invest more time trying to highlight the value of getting the Plusnet service Right First Time for all customers. I leave this with you. 

 

bobpullen
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Re: Router not delivered - service starts tomorrow

Welcome the feedback, and just to be clear: I'm not defending anything that leads to support overheads or a poor customer experience.

The messaging is the main issue in my eyes and there are ambitions to remedy that. Much larger piece of work; but consideration is also being lent to changing the courier mechanism to a tracked solution with tighter SLA's.

From experience, it's a real rarity for a router which is dispatched on time to not reach it's destination in time for activation. Tends to be where there are addressing problems that this doesn't happen. Also of note, is the fact that dispatch time before activation varies depending on the day of the week your service is due to go live. It can be anything up to five days before the event depending on the circumstances.

Glad to hear your router has arrived though and thanks again for sharing your experience.

Bob Pullen
Plusnet Product Team
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androidGB
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Re: Router not delivered - service starts tomorrow

Plusnet sent an email saying my router was despatched on 19th. My activation date was 24th. Existing service ceased at 08:00 on  24th, no router had been delivered, Due to other issues (see Are Plusnet really this bad) I have been in touch with a very helpful customer services person. I contacted her and they put me through to technical who talked me through using my existing Router. She rang me later in the day to say they would be sending another on the 25th by Ist Class Post. As yet nothing has arrived, so  I do not believe Plusnet are allowing enough time with and margin of safety.

 

 

bobpullen
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Re: Router not delivered - service starts tomorrow

@androidGB, something else is going on there. No way it should take that long. Happy to look into it tomorrow of you drop me a private message to remind me.

Bob Pullen
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androidGB
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Re: Router not delivered - service starts tomorrow

@bobpullen PM sent

androidGB
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Re: Router not delivered - service starts tomorrow

@bobpullen  Second pm sent, neither of the routers has arrived

lakesidekeith
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Re: Router not delivered - service starts tomorrow

How can I stop this thread sending me emails. I have contributed my input. Don't want to get a copy of every post added to this thread

MisterW
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Re: Router not delivered - service starts tomorrow

Just above the first post on the thread, to the right, there is a 'thread options' drop down box. One option should be unsubscribe

 

 

 

 

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.