11:20am on a Wednesday and 'Online chat is currently unavailable..'

[#1]

I thought online chat had been introduced as a preferred contact option, largely to replace the old 'ticket' system - I have a simple question about a possible chane to my account but I find that online chat is not available and I can't phone as I'm at work (I could phone if I didn't expect to be held in a queue), what determines avaiability of online chat?

[#2]

Hi w23,
I'm sorry no one was available at the time you needed us.

Quote

what determines availability of online chat?

As you might guess, quite literally if all agents are in a chat, none at that time would be available.
This is something we don't want to be a common issue and we're confident that if you;re able to wait just a few minutes in such a situation someone should soon become available.
Feel free to drop me a reply with your question so we can help you via here.

[#3]

Thanks for replying Adam, maybe it's the wording used (or at least the way I read it), 'Online chat is currently unavailable, please choose another option.' is not the same (to me) as (perhaps) 'All our agents are currently busy...' or similar.

My enquiry was specifically about Home Phone so I have posted here.

[#4]

I think there may have been some confusion here.
If the button is greyed out and it asks you to use another option, you're right that it usually means it's not working and it isn't a case of just being a bit busy with no one available to take the chat.
Is the button still greyed out now?
By any chance are you able to check this in another browser?
I remember it being mentioned previously that a browser plugin had blocked the chat functionality on the website, so it may be worth trying another browser with no plugins (Unless of course you're already running one without any plugins)
May also be worth clearing the your cache and cookies on the browser in case something is stuck somewhere and is causing the 'unavailable' message to appear in error.
P.S. I'll head over to the other thread now to see if I can help there 

[#5]

Yes, button greyed out (in Google Chrome), tried IE and it's now green so I have some kind of problem with Chrome....
Checked my extensions in Chrome (I don't use many) and found the 'culprit': Avast Online Security!
What doesn't Avast like?  I'd rather not disable Avast but at least I've found out why I couldn't access chat.

[#6]

I use Firefox and chat worked OK when I last used it  --HOWEVER, I'm now getting a warning re the AVAST Online Security extension -it appears that it hasn't gone thru the Mozilla screening processes...wonder if thats whats happened in Chrome too?

[#7]

worked fine here on Firefox and only two customers ahead of me
closed chat at that point

[#8]

@Oldjim -I'm not even seeing a button for chat ,greyed out or otherwise, this morning.!

[#9]

I went via https://www.plus.net/home-broadband/contact/
Then again Kaspersky is quite happy so it may be an Avast problem

[#10]

Using your route I get a "greyed out" chat button so must be a problem with Avast I think.

[#11]

I've just tried unblocking the web analytics (I assume blocked by default by Avast on Chrome but not on IE), unblocking Google GTM gets the button 'ungreyed', similarly blocking this on IE greys the button.  A Google search suggests this is the thing that Plusnet are using that needs to not be blocked for chat to work: http://www.google.co.uk/tagmanager/

[#12]

I can see nothing,  I use Firefox and bullguard internet security.
So not an avast issue with me.

[#13]

Do you have Adblock Plus (or another ad blocker)? The button is greyed out on my Nexus tablet which uses Chrome, but I don't have Avast on that.

[#14]

I do have Adblock,I disabled it and chat is back,  chat stays after enabling Adblock at present.

[#15]

Oops spoke too soon, its missing again. Adblock dis abled