Big increase in complaints at Plusnet

[#1]

...Complaints about Plusnet broadband increased to 37 per 100,000 customers (from 20 per 100,000 customers)...
That's an 85% increase in complaints in one year?  A great success demonstrating the management strategy is working.

[#2]

Quote from: spoon

And being cheap means no SLA so there's no commitment or reasonable expectation on fault resolution time.

Jelv,
Given that most "faults" are issues in BTOR's domain how does paying more for your ISP get them to perform better?  Setting aside the dire issue of contacting Plusnet in the first place (due to the volume of faults in the BTOR network?) paying more is not going to address BTOR failled appointments, not properly investigating issues or not replacing defective aluminium cables, etc.
BTOR are a common factor in all of this - the vast majority of issues posted around here relate to the state of user's lines or the performance of BTOR's exchanges.  Fixing those issues would eliminate a significant volume of the need to contact the ISP in the first place.
There needs to be a step change in this industry mimicking that of electric and gas supply - if the is a problem with the supply network, you do not report the issue to the body you pay your bill to, you report it direct to the party responsible for the network.  It is their's, they own it, they manage it and should take the direct consequences of their failure to maintain it properly.

[#3]

Even if most faults are within BTOR's domain, if Plusnet take a full week or more before even looking at a fault ticket (as recently mentioned here on the forums) then performance of identifying and fixing faults is going to be worse than an ISP who gets straight onto BTOR.
BTOR's performance is only part of the story (even if a significant part).
Excessive call waiting times, no call backs when promised and similar issues will likely increase the odds of someone making a complaint even if everything else is equal.

[#4]

Quote from: Townman

There needs to be a step change in this industry mimicking that of electric and gas supply - if the is a problem with the supply network, you do not report the issue to the body you pay your bill to, you report it direct to the party responsible for the network.  It is their's, they own it, they manage it and should take the direct consequences of their failure to maintain it properly.

That's fine and dandy for electricity, gas and water - generally it either works or it doesn't.
BTOR would be overwhelmed with calls which were nothing to do with them because a huge proportion of Joe Public wouldn't understand who they needed to report an issue with, for example, unable to reach a particular site. The only way it could work would be to nationalise BTOR, BTw and ALL ISPs connecting by OR supplied lines.

[#5]

w23 has hit the nail on the head.
If I have lose my connection in the evening with Plusnet I know that I'm going to spend the rest of the evening on the hanging on the phone. If I do get through all that will happen is that a fault will be raised for the faults department and lord knows how long it will take to get an engineer's appointment. If I don't get through and I'm out at work the next day, calling is impossible due to the long wait times so I can't even report the fault until I get home and then that's a huge chuck of the following evening wrecked hanging on the phone.
With someone like AAISP, OK the support line is closed outside office hours, but I know that 8am the next morning I'll get straight through to someone who really knows what they are talking about and whatever is needed to be done is immediately under way.

[#6]

W23,
Do not disagree with that sentiment.  However the point I sought to make is that the fault resolution process is unreasonably protracted (by BTOR design) leaving those who have no control over the maintenance regime picking up the pieces of BTOR's failures.
Why should any ISP have to 'field' BTOR faults in the first place?  Issues with their systems should be dealt with direct from the EU.
Why should a subscriber (or ISP) have to work out if it is a broadband or copper circuit issue so that the fault can be passed to the SAME BTOR faults team by the CP or ISP depending on presumed location?
None of this has been designed to be helpful nor proficient.  It has a lot to do with 'How can we (BTOR) get a third party to pay for fixing faults in our systems which by intent we failed to maintain to a professional standard?".
@Jelv,
Go back to the really good old days of a GPO run telecommunications industry?
I am sure that given the consequential call volume BTOR would very quickly expose their tools for fault finding and location, thereby more quickly identify those issues which are in their domain (irrespective of the WBC or POTS divide) and those which are not.  As with any paradigm shift there will be a different set of considerations. The matter under discussion here is how long it takes to get a line fault through the process to resolution.  Taking the ISPs out of that loop gets line and equipment faults to the fault owner much more quickly.

[#7]

To be fair the connection they provide me is excellent. But I'm ever so grateful that I never have to contact their support and as I'm out of contract I might just migrate away rather than try should it ever be needed. 

[#8]

The amount of C/S agents who used to be on these forums have also dropped massively. I think even they have given up.

[#9]

Quote from: Andrue

To be fair the connection they provide me is excellent. But I'm ever so grateful that I never have to contact their support and as I'm out of contract I might just migrate away rather than try should it ever be needed.

I'd been thinking the same thing myself, even with the 10 day delay enforced by OFCOM it might be quicker - and I'm not out of contract.

[#10]

Quote from: I

As i am sure some will be aware Ofcom have published their Q3 2015 complaints report As can be seen from the graphs below, PN have the biggest increase of complaints for broadband and landlines  (from Q2 to Q3 2015) of any major ISP . To many people this will not come as a surprise , certainly does not to me, very sad to see the way thing are with PN at the moment PN what is been done, to hopefully see a decrease in the next quarter ? More info here : http://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2015/12/ofcom-name-worst-uk-mobile-tv-broadband-isps-q3-2015.ht... Kind regards Mike

We’d like to say a heartfelt sorry. Plusnet’s aim is to provide great customer experience and we know we fell short. We’ve been working really hard; heavily investing in our people, and systems, to address the complaints raised and to ensure we do our customers proud.

[#11]

There's a very quick fix: reduce the workload on the support department until such time as it is able to cope. Link

[#12]

Also some bad decisions need reversing...
1. Restore 24x7 hour support to widen the opportunity for people to call
2. Restore the ticket system so that non-urgent admin stuff can be done asynchronously from call / chat agent 'immediate' availability
Unfortunately that will mean that someone will have to admit they got the decision wrong, so there's no chance of that happening.
Chat is an OK additional channel, but with queues of 29 or more (as reported elsewhere) it does not have the capacity to fulfil cutomer's needs.

@Chris, We know that individuals are trying and without them there would be no hope that things could get better.  However it seems that those good souls around here are not being listened to by their managers.  The mangers do not come here and account for their decisions which have resulted in so many compliments complaints being aired around here.  Consequently they are not seen as being part of the solution....
Edit: Thanks Jim - darned predictive text - better get off the iPad and unpack the laptop! 

[#13]

Quote from: Townman

mangers do not come here and account for their decisions which have resulted in so many compliments complaints being aired around here.  Consequently they are not seen as being part of the solution....

Corrected for you 

[#14]

Quote from: Chris

We’d like to say a heartfelt sorry. Plusnet’s aim is to provide great customer experience and we know we fell short. We’ve been working really hard; heavily investing in our people, and systems, to address the complaints raised and to ensure we do our customers proud.

i'm sure that would have sounded better if it didn't look and feel like a copy/paste job from the marketing dept!

[#15]

If Plusnet put a hold on advertising for new customers for a while, they might have a chance!