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How brainless can CSAs be?
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- How brainless can CSAs be?
How brainless can CSAs be?
21-12-2013 7:18 PM
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My Mum died recently. She had a Plusnet Account for the broadband at her house and I thought I ought to tell Plusnet about it and take responsibility for the service while we sort out what to do with her house. I am an authorised user on Mum's account so I logged on to her account and raised a ticket (77983800) saying very much what I have said above. I am also a Plusnet user in my own right so I stated my username quite clearly so that they could pick up my details easily
A reply arrived - addressed to Mum, asking to see her death certificate (scanned and attached to a ticket) and saying that there was no problem transferring the account into "her" name. It took a while for me to sort out a reply and that ticket had auto closed on the very day I tried to reply - so I opened another ticket, (78728361) referenced the first - even quoted from it - and attached a scan of the death certificate. Mum duly received a reply - addressed in her name, saying sorry for your loss and that she needed to speak to customer options who had tried phoning her (at her house) but could not get through! Would she phone customer options please?
I assume it is some Plusnet software that puts the salutation onto the replies and we all know that Plusnet use software first written to manage the Ark. I would have thought both CSA's could have overridden that software but I will forgive the first CSA, she gave a reasonable and (if correct) helpful reply. The second CSA appears to be unable or unwilling to read - or think - or both. He replies to the person whose death certificate he had in his hand, he does not appear to have read what the previous CSA had written, and he decided on a different procedure with a few more hurdles in the process, so one CSA or the other is wrong. He then tried to phone the dead person at her house and now expects her to phone customer options which even if we assume he meant me, given Plusnet's current telephone queues is nearly impossible and certainly utterly unreasonable. Why - probably to try to get a long term contract out of the death - something I had specifically said was not going to happen.
If Digital Care would like to have a look at my tickets and tell me whether they think I am being unfair and if not, perhaps they would like to re-educate at least one CSA (and no, he is not a newcomer from Leeds, he has been around a long time). Following that, I would like confirmation of what my options are and hopefully we can proceed in the direction I originally hoped to go in.
I think it is utterly unacceptable that I have to post this sort of thing on a public forum in the hope of getting sense out of Plusnet. Yoru customer services are a total disgrace.
A reply arrived - addressed to Mum, asking to see her death certificate (scanned and attached to a ticket) and saying that there was no problem transferring the account into "her" name. It took a while for me to sort out a reply and that ticket had auto closed on the very day I tried to reply - so I opened another ticket, (78728361) referenced the first - even quoted from it - and attached a scan of the death certificate. Mum duly received a reply - addressed in her name, saying sorry for your loss and that she needed to speak to customer options who had tried phoning her (at her house) but could not get through! Would she phone customer options please?
I assume it is some Plusnet software that puts the salutation onto the replies and we all know that Plusnet use software first written to manage the Ark. I would have thought both CSA's could have overridden that software but I will forgive the first CSA, she gave a reasonable and (if correct) helpful reply. The second CSA appears to be unable or unwilling to read - or think - or both. He replies to the person whose death certificate he had in his hand, he does not appear to have read what the previous CSA had written, and he decided on a different procedure with a few more hurdles in the process, so one CSA or the other is wrong. He then tried to phone the dead person at her house and now expects her to phone customer options which even if we assume he meant me, given Plusnet's current telephone queues is nearly impossible and certainly utterly unreasonable. Why - probably to try to get a long term contract out of the death - something I had specifically said was not going to happen.
If Digital Care would like to have a look at my tickets and tell me whether they think I am being unfair and if not, perhaps they would like to re-educate at least one CSA (and no, he is not a newcomer from Leeds, he has been around a long time). Following that, I would like confirmation of what my options are and hopefully we can proceed in the direction I originally hoped to go in.
I think it is utterly unacceptable that I have to post this sort of thing on a public forum in the hope of getting sense out of Plusnet. Yoru customer services are a total disgrace.
8 REPLIES 8
Re: How brainless can CSAs be?
21-12-2013 8:06 PM
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It certainly sounds like someone on the customer service team need a bit of a speaking to.
Sorry to hear of your loss by the way
Last year seems to have been a bad one for a lot of family and friends for losing loved ones
Sorry to hear of your loss by the way


Re: How brainless can CSAs be?
21-12-2013 9:27 PM
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Sorry for you loss EM.
I am really starting to get sickened by the way PN are treating their customers, reading these forums it just astounds me how stupid some of the CS staff really are. I guess it makes no difference having an English call centre if the staff have no basic common sense.
I am really starting to get sickened by the way PN are treating their customers, reading these forums it just astounds me how stupid some of the CS staff really are. I guess it makes no difference having an English call centre if the staff have no basic common sense.
Re: How brainless can CSAs be?
22-12-2013 12:10 PM
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Sorry for your loss. Your dealing with PlusNet is totally unacceptable and once again demonstrates how bad things are getting in CS.
Re: How brainless can CSAs be?
22-12-2013 1:20 PM
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Sorry for your loss EM. My Mum died 3 yrs ago and my experience of sorting out various services is not dissimilar to what you experienced from PlusNet. One of the power companies, having being informed of her death, wrote a letter back addressed to her saying 'were sorry you are leaving us, we hope you may return to us in the future!!!'. When I contacted their CS and asked if it was 'complete insensitivity' or 'gross incompetence' they accepted is was the latter. The one shining light amongst them all was, much to my surprise, British Gas. As soon as I spoke to them they said 'I'll just transfer you to the bereavement dept' and they were obviously trained to handle the situation compassionately.
Re: How brainless can CSAs be?
23-12-2013 11:29 AM
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Definitely doesn't sound good enough. 
I'm getting one of our Customer Support Team Leaders to have a look at this. Will check back later on it.

I'm getting one of our Customer Support Team Leaders to have a look at this. Will check back later on it.
Kelly Dorset
Ex-Broadband Service Manager
Ex-Broadband Service Manager
Re: How brainless can CSAs be?
23-12-2013 3:49 PM
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Hi EnglishMohican,
Looks like we got that cleared up for you. Sorry for the hassle.
Looks like we got that cleared up for you. Sorry for the hassle.
Kelly Dorset
Ex-Broadband Service Manager
Ex-Broadband Service Manager
Re: How brainless can CSAs be?
23-12-2013 4:11 PM
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Thank you Kelly. The magic of Digital Care worked again. Had a phone call from CS, polite, helpful, problem solved within minutes.
Also thank you to everyone for their sympathy and support. It is surprising how good some companies are at handling this sort of thing and how poor others are. United Utilities get my vote of confidence - they have a phone back system that works and one phone call back sorted the whole thing. ScottishPower are my bete noir at the moment and they make Plusnet look really good. At least with Plusnet there are competent people who can handle the situation once you get to them.
Also thank you to everyone for their sympathy and support. It is surprising how good some companies are at handling this sort of thing and how poor others are. United Utilities get my vote of confidence - they have a phone back system that works and one phone call back sorted the whole thing. ScottishPower are my bete noir at the moment and they make Plusnet look really good. At least with Plusnet there are competent people who can handle the situation once you get to them.
Re: How brainless can CSAs be?
24-12-2013 12:56 PM
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Sorry for your loss EM. Your post sounds like the kind of thing you'd see on some farcical comedy. Glad it's all resolved for you.
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