Does Waitrose offer better support than Plusnet?

[#1]

I and a client had to call Waitrose broadband technical support at around 5pm today.  We got through with barely any wait and the support agent was very clear, helpful and thorough.  I was surprised at how promptly the phone was answered because it's a busy time of day and I've read about long queues for Plusnet Tech Support (and experienced a long wait myself when calling at about 8pm in June).  Yet, to the best of my knowledge, all Waitrose Broadband services are provided by Plusnet.  Was I just lucky or does Waitrose/John Lewis have dedicated staff and perhaps shorter queues?    

[#2]

Almost three years ago I was with Waitrose broadband,I moved to PNet as I was often exceeding allocated usage.
I'm sure when contacting them by phone it was quite quick,hence I guess they get priority service
But at a price https://www.johnlewisbroadband.com/fibre/

[#3]

When i was on a call last year to the JL brand , I was told the JL brand has it own dedicated PN team.
Regards
Mike

[#4]

Hi ReedRichards,
Thank you for your feedback and I'm glad to hear that you were able to get through quickly to our support team.
We do strive to offer the best levels of service to all our customers, however, some calls may be answered faster than others as we have different teams working different workflows and therefore response times will vary depending on call queues.

[#5]

Linn does not quite make this explicit but I suspect I.T.Works is correct and that Waitrose/Greenbee/John Lewis has a dedicated team of Plusnet employees.  And yes you do pay quite high prices with John Lewis Broadband but maybe that's what you have to do these days if you want good and prompt customer support. 

[#6]

Ruddy hell, I just looked at the Waitrose prices and I for one will stick with long wait times when I ring Plus Net 

[#7]

Agreed. I'm realistic with expecting service response times vs. what I pay.
If I wanted 24/7 tech support with answer times in seconds then I suspect my £20 a month for unlimited FTTC wouldn't stretch too far .......

[#8]

It's a pity quite a few other people don't realise that Dom, especially when you look at some of the posts round here, never mind the benefit of the support through this forum.

[#9]

Possibly that's the issue - prices have been cut to silly levels?
I'm now paying less for unlimited ADSL than I was for the previous 10G product.
New customers can get FTTC for less than I'm paying.
At these prices, answering a single CSC call has to cost more than two months service charge.

[#10]

Well my price hasn't been cut to a silly level and that's OFCOM's fault with this damned market classification 

[#11]

The current new customer offer of unlimited fibre for £3.75/month for 6 months seems to me a hell of a loss-leader for a company that's struggling with support call waiting times like Plusnet is (though I have my suspicions that the offer being subject to taking phone line as well may mean the 'subsidy' is not as great as it first appears).
If PN customers (reasonably) should expect a slightly poorer response time for support compared with JL customers paying more then might I, as a long-standing customer without special discounts, expect a better response than new customers paying a fraction of my monthly broadband charge? 

[#12]

The logic is admirable! 

[#13]

Well they do have a current "special" offer open for existing customers but only those on ADSL and it's very special as you have to pay £5 extra to have any (all) inclusive calls and the BB discount is only for 3 months. That compared to the current new customer offer of 1/4 price broadband for 12 months if in a low-cost area, but if not, you pay more than 1/2 price  ,w/e calls are included and must take line rental.

[#14]

Quote from: ReedRichards

I and a client had to call Waitrose broadband technical support at around 5pm today.  We got through with barely any wait and the support agent was very clear, helpful and thorough.  I was surprised at how promptly the phone was answered because it's a busy time of day and I've read about long queues for Plusnet Tech Support (and experienced a long wait myself when calling at about 8pm in June).  Yet, to the best of my knowledge, all Waitrose Broadband services are provided by Plusnet.  Was I just lucky or does Waitrose/John Lewis have dedicated staff and perhaps shorter queues?

That's disgraceful. Why should Plusnet get fair share equal rights with support and why is Waitrose get higher priority over than Plusnet. A formal complaint submitted to Ofcom about this! If plusnet support call take longer than 45 minutes, then we should do the same phoning up 0800 022 3300 instead of 0800 432 0200 because it the same company - PLUSNET!

[#15]

Because they pay a lot more for their broadband, did you not read carefully