Complaints

[#1]

I have been a customer of Plusnet for a long time and have had my ups and downs with them, but overall I was happy - until this week !

I had a disappointing experience today when a support engineer called to discuss my logged problem.

I raised the fact that in my original call on Thursday, having acknowledged that he could see the disconnects of my service on that day and preceding days, the support member asked me whether I was connected by WiFi or Ethernet - as we had established that there were recorded drops in the link, the question and the advice for me to try a different channel for my WiFi were not relevant at best and at worst an attempt to fob off a customer with invalid technical information. After a long discussion the agent today continued to take the stance that this was appropriate and that Plusnet are not responsible for my WiFi - I agree that they are not responsible for my WiFi, but I also stand by the fact that having acknowledged that there were drops in the connection recorded for my account that any discussion about WiFi is irrelevant !

The upshot of the conversation that the agent advised me that I should look elsewhere for my broadband ! Extraordinary ! As yet the specific question asked in my update to the ticket raised on Thursday (28thJan) has not been answered and according to the agent today, despite a number of drops being seen in the period 21-28 January "we would not consider this to be a broadband problem" - I, however would ! I am hoping that I don't have a repeat of the issue raised in 2020 which resulted in several engineers visits over several months - this problem was eventually resolved with an OpenReach config change - which is the subject of my unanswered question.

Can anyone tell me how much the email only service is rom PlusNet and advise whether it is a good option ? Having recommended many people over the years, my email address is about the only thing that is keeping me with Plusnet !

[#2]

@gauntty 

A warm welcome to the forums.

I am horrified by the experience you report.  Indeed wifi has nothing to do with internet disconnections.  I will raise this in the SU forum for review.

These days mail only accounts are free, however down grading to one MUST be done following a strict protocol ... or it will go wrong!

1. Before initiating a transfer to another ISP you MUST contact COTS, advise them that you intend to leave BUT wish to retain your account as email only
2. Make a list of all of the mailbox / email settings
3. When the account terminates the mail service will be trashed
4. The account will then be reactivated
5. YOU need to recreate the mailboxes as was
6. Plusnet will then restore the mail to those mailboxes

If you have your own mail domain attached to the mail service, you should discuss that explicitly with Plusnet (I am not certain how that is handled).

Any inbound mail between (3) and (5) above will be lost.

[#3]

Hi there @ gauntty,

Thanks for getting in touch and apologies for the issues you have described, I appreciate your comments and apologise if the information provided by my colleague was at odds with what was previously discussed.

I've run a diagnostic test and this confirms the information provided to you recently, as in no fault has been found on the line and the line speeds are consistent in recent tests and above your minimum guaranteed speeds. The current diagnosis is therefore to carry out your own checks to ensure internal wiring is sound, however if you are not satisfied with this you can request the fault is escalated to allow further investigation. Please come back to us via the ticket if you wish for the fault to be investigated further and we will refer it back to our suppliers.

Thanks - LF

[#4]

Thanks for testing my connection again - as you and your colleagues note, the connection does not appear to have dropped since 28th Jan.

I note that you do not answer the specific question in the ticket relating to the OpenReach configuration of my service, acknowledge that I have confirmed there are no extensions or internal wiring, nor critically do you acknowledge that in a scenario where confirmed disconnections are the subject of a fault report, any discussions about WiFi are at best a waste of time, or more worryingly an attempt to fob off a customer who does not have the technical knowledge to challenge you (and get told to go elsewhere for their broadband) - that is unacceptable !

[#5]

Many thanks @Townman - I will start further investigations on arranging a switch - I suspect I actually already have a mail only service running with a previous account name following a not so smooth transition to my current fibre service.

[#6]

As far as I know, there is no complaint department in Plusnet unless if you want to take your complaint to Ombudsman (which I am planning to do). 

I am in a similar situation where I have been having many issues with the internet and speed drop, most of the time in the past weeks my internet speed is less than 0.5Mbps!! and I work from home which impacted my work performance significantly. I Called many times to customer services anf the technical team and every time someone just logs the complaint and issues the same diagnostic instruction but no real effort to resolve your issues. 

I have been with some other internet providers and this has been so far the worse as no one takes the ownership to resolve your problem and no complaint department. !!

One the suck you in 18-24 months contract that's it!! I gave up now!! I am planning to cancel my contract and also pay the termination fee despite issues that have been running for more than 2 months.

[#7]

@fatimag196 

There is  separate team that deals with formal complaints. I know as I have been pursuing that route with regard to long standing billing issues and that is now in the process of being resolved.

If you follow the Complaints Code of Practice (see the bottom of this webpage) you can raise ticket (if it is broadband account issue). This will be dealt with by a different team from the usual CS who do seem to have a bit more clout. You should also get a dedicated handler for your complaint so that the same person keeps dealing as things develop or not. You will also get a different phone number to call if you need to follow up with your handler.

[#8]

@fatimag196, so have you followed those diagnostic instructions and confirmed to Plusnet that you have?