Engineer no show, Plusnet support so bad, I've cancelled my account

[Beebsdj]

Waited in yesterday for a non- existent engineer. Called to find out why, was given something about suppliers (not my problem, yours so don't make it mine) was offered appointment of today (couldn't make it as had to work) and told them my only free slot this week was Wednesday PM. Was told I'd get email and SMS confirmation that never arrived, phoned this evening to find out why and have spent a frustrating 35 minutes on the phone (about 90% of which was on hold) and was just told that tomorrow's appointment won't be made and 26th June is next available. Well, I've taken off 1.5 days already and since I'm self employed, that's another day's wages that I'm not prepared to waste.
In the end, I've cancelled not only the fibre installation but also my Plusnet account since they seemed so unwilling to resolve the issue to my satisfaction and stick to the two dates that they gave me.
The response - "well if you cancel, it'll take you longer to get even normal broadband than if you just wait until the 26th".
You know what - I'll wait. And I'll also take my business elsewhere.... If you mess up that badly, then you need to make an extra effort to resolve the issue. You made no effort at all.

[adamwalker]

@Beebsdj
I'm really sorry to read about your experience, I'm really disappointing to see things turn out this way.
I hope you don't see this as us being defensive or deflecting blame in any way (as that lies with us ultimately) but I feel it's important to shed a bit of light on why things happened this way.
It seems that our suppliers wrongly believed your phone service to be inactive yesterday and as an active phone line is a requirement of having a broadband that caused the order to cancel, regrettably we weren't able to let you know in time simply as we didn't know ourselves. I'm certain too that the 26th at the time would have been the soonest available appointment as they can and do get booked up very quickly indeed.
I realise it's too late now as you've arranged to cancel but all the same wanted to make it clear that we're sorry about what's happened and I will be seeing what we can learn from this.

Adam

[HPsauce]

Quote from: _Adam_Walker_

our suppliers

It really is time to stop using that silly "sloping shoulders" phrase and "name and shame". It does you no favours whatsoever. :'(
Not to mention taking greater ownership of these silly issues and showing that you really are trying to manage the shortcomings of (in the short term) and improve (in the longer term) the performance, communication and accountability to you and your customers of your MONOPOLY "supplier".
We all know it's a sister company of yours in the BT group, is it so embarrassing to be honest, or is it part of your "trading agreement" to shelter them?  ::)

[jelv]

[me=jelv]clicks like button on HPsauce's post[/me]

[Anotherone]

Ditto, ditto.

[EnglishMohican]

Isn't that nice - all of us in total agreement. First time for everything!

[w23]

I'll second that!

[Beebsdj]

To be honest Adam, it was the treatment I got on the phone lines from your telephone support staff that prompted me to cancel. A no-show is a pain in the rear as I lost a day's wages that day and was assured on the phone that this afternoon would be the re-scheduled engineer visit. It was only after not receiving a confirmation that I called to find out what was going on and that's where the problem started. I don't like being kept on hold for 1/2 hour while people try to find out what went on.
This also on my notes>
**INTERNAL**
customer unhappy with engineer appointment leadtime, booked in for 26/06/2013 PM. transferred to COT.
That was the tip of the iceberg. The lead time would have meant taking another day off work. Who's going to pay for that? Plusnet? In your appointment email, you state that if I miss the appointment, I'll be charged £50. I lost a lot more than that by not being able to work Monday and today...  Why should I have to take 3 days off? And the last guy I spoke to told me that engineer appointments were only ever provisional and not guaranteed... Excellent...
At the beginning of phone calls, there's a voice that says that calls might be recorded. You should go back and listen to mine. It was just before 6pm yesterday... You might then understand why I'm not a customer of yours anymore.

[Beebsdj]

And to be honest, if you've got a locked, sticky topic on the subject of engineer visits not being honoured, then your problem is clearly a lot worse than it already appears. I imagine there's quite a lot of people out there who don't even know about this forum and have been shafted as well.

[tijara33]

Quote

I imagine there's quite a lot of people out there who don't even know about this forum and have been shafted as well.

That's true, but equally there are the majority of customers who aren't shafted by BT OR & have a seamless transition to Plusnet, as I did.

[Beebsdj]

That's how business works. If you annoy more people than you satisfy then you go bust. Your having a seamless transition is no reflection on how good Plusnet Customer support is or has any influence on my situation. I know the events of this week and it was enough to get rid of them.
I put up with Sky for years, even though they sent out monkeys, but at least they turned up when they said they would. Their phone support was rubbish, so now I'm on Freesat. That's the choice in the free market and I'll take it. There are too many other options out there so you don't have to be treated like a mug.
jim:quote

[adamwalker]

Quote

To be honest Adam, it was the treatment I got on the phone lines from your telephone support staff that prompted me to cancel

OK, I'm going to make sure we do have a listen to that call and see what can be learned, really sorry again for the poor experience.

[o2refugee]

This is exactly what happened to me, although I transferred from another ISP. Every time I contacted Plusnet the onus was placed on me to somehow magically coordinate supply of services between them and BT. Needless to say, I was without a phone line for nearly a week, and without internet for nearly 2 weeks. I am still waiting for a line repair to be completed after 2 cancellations due to Plusnet's inability to control their suppliers. All this is in spite of dozens of phone calls and help desk tickets explaining to them in advance the situation.
Assuming my line eventually does get repaired next week, my next fight will be trying to get the full download speed my line is capable of and was promised before signup.

[adamwalker]

@o2refugee
I'm hoping that gets sorted next week too, I'll be looking our for mentions of any issues.

Quote

my next fight will be trying to get the full download speed my line is capable of and was promised before signup.

I'd not assume the worst for now and I'll help you cross that bridge when we come to it, there may not even be an issue at all hopefully.
Adam

[o2refugee]

Well BT did not turn up again today for the dig. Until they do that I stand no chance of getting my full speed.