Is PN a BT psycho experiment on how to rip people off for kicks?

[#1]

I have been astounded by the sick claim that they will "DO YOU PROUD".
They DID ME PROUD. Have you been DONE as well?
Signed up with the promise of a 4mbs connection with a range from LOW 2.5mbs to HIGH 7mbs.
I would be happy with 2mbs.
I get 0.8 MAX.
This has been tested on android, ios, windows and linux all directly through cable and not wifi.
It is consistent.
I have noted the following:
They provide advice online to switch your router off and on 4 times within the first 10 days.
This helps you think you are doing something useful when you are not but in reality helps you eek out any cooling off period you might have left.
If you try to "contact" them through the online portal you are funneled to a point where you have to agree to pay an engineer's fee if there is no fault on your line. Otherwise you cannot get any help online. You cannot email anybody. If you call you wait and wait and wait and....
If they have lied to you or made a mistake about the connection speed then there is likely to be no fault on the line in which case you will be paying for the engineer's fee. Now a real cynic might wonder about the impartiality of an engineer working for a company that will make money if he doesn't do his job properly either through lack of time, skills or motivation?
From other reviews people seem to think you are trapped in a contract. If you are not getting what was promised when you made the agreement you are not trapped in a contract because Plusnet have breached their side of the bargain, they cannot enforce yours regardless of what the small print says.
There is legislation to protect consumers from unfair small print - it will apply in my case.
I will be writing to Plusnet to provide them the opportunity to put right their side of the bargain at their expense and with no agreement for me to fork out any more money. If they are unable to do so then the contract will be cancelled.
For those of you interested there is a very good book called "The Corporation" by Joel Bakan that explains why companies like this exist - it is in their nature to abuse customers for their own gain. There are some other very good studies about psychopathic behaviour in the corporate world which are also worth a read.
In the meantime if you haven't signed up to Plusnet I would recommend avoiding them.

[#2]

Quote from: CarpetBaggers

If you try to "contact" them through the online portal you are funneled to a point where you have to agree to pay an engineer's fee if there is no fault on your line.

Not quite correct, the faults wizard takes you though tests to try to eliminate the possibility that the fault is with your own internal wiring or equipment, the reason for this is specifically to help avoid any fee for an engineer but they must still warn you that you may be changed if a fault is found in your own equipment/wiring (not the same as if the engineer can't find a fault on the line) - I believe there are many cases where Plusnet are charged by BT Openreach for an engineer call-out but they do not charge the customer.

[#3]

OP...if you think that PN are bad ...you have obviously never been a customer of HORRANGE,TalkTalk or BT themselves!

[#4]

Statistically, most speed problems are due to something wrong in your house, bad extension wiring or that old phone or Sky box that you forgot to connect via an ADSL filter.  You do not need an engineer to fix such problems and you will be charged if the cause of a call-out is traced to something in your home.  You could seek advice via this forum or how to identify, locate and fix such problems or your could just moan and write book reviews - your choice.  

[#5]

Sorry to hear of your issues, however as others have already said, this sounds like a fault that needs fixing.
The estimate we provide would be for a good quality line without faults on it.
The tests we ask you to go through are designed to eliminate the possibility of an engineer fee, and if you've done them I'm confident that no charge will be passed on to you.

Quote

Now a real cynic might wonder about the impartiality of an engineer working for a company that will make money if he doesn't do his job properly either through lack of time, skills or motivation?

We actually lose money even if we pass on the engineer charge, we get charge over twice the amount we pass on.

[#6]

Give all the details of your issue to Plusnet and be a little patient. If you are out of patience, try Talk Talk and you will see how truly awful things can be.
We had a bit of line trouble after signing up with Plusnet ( totally out of their control - it was a faulty piece of equipment in our exchange ) and the Plusnet guys hounded BT daily until they replaced it.
We are now very happy indeed, and can only imagine what might have happened had we been with a company like Talk Talk.

[#7]

Quote from: CarpetBaggers

Signed up with the promise of a 4mbs connection with a range from LOW 2.5mbs to HIGH 7mbs.

On a point of detail, no speeds are ever "promised."

[#8]

Quote from: Chris

We actually lose money even if we pass on the engineer charge, we get charge over twice the amount we pass on.

This is disengenious. You (Plusnet) as a division of the greater BT lose money but the greater BT gains money.

Quote from: KevinG

On a point of detail, no speeds are ever "promised."

While you are absolutely correct from Plusnet's legal point of view, does this just not show what a one sided rip-off broadband is? Plusnet (like most other companies) is allowed to get away with making us sign up for a 12 or 18 month contract, to take early termination charges if the contract is cancelled yet they get away with offering nothing that can be depended upon. No right minded consumer is interested in the fact that a piece of wire, fibre or string connects them to Plusnet, what we all want is a dependable, adequate connection speed. Plusnet (with the help of BT Wholesale or perhaps Openreach) provide figures that are supposed to indicate what they are going to provide us in return for our money, They should have a responsibility to achieve those figures or to state what they will promise to achieve if not those figures. At present, you are correct, they promise nothing.
@Carpetbaggers: Plusnet are no worse than most other companies, are better than some but have deteriorated over the years. They used to be the AAISP of the broadband world but are no longer anywhere near. To get much better service, you are going to have to pay a much higher price and the chances are that Plusnet will get you a much better speed given time.  It might get fixed quite quickly (days?) or it might take months if you are really out of luck. But few other companies will be any quicker so you might as well see if Chis's request to faults produces anything like progress before you jump.

[#9]

Quote from: EnglishMohican

Plusnet (with the help of BT Wholesale or perhaps Openreach) provide figures that are supposed to indicate what they are going to provide us in return for our money, They should have a responsibility to achieve those figures or to state what they will promise to achieve if not those figures.

Presumably, you also believe a car owner should always get the mpg figures the manufacturer provides for their car. However, in both cases, the results are very much dependent on the conditions at the time and the figures supplied are the result of defined* tests.
I will add that I have achieved higher mpg figures than the maximum stated by the manufacturer (three different manufacturers), but it really annoyed other drivers on the M3/M4 because the convoy of centre-lane hoggers prevented them changing lanes to pass me 

* which may or may not be specified

[#10]

Quote from: PeeGee

Presumably, you also believe a car owner should always get the mpg figures the manufacturer provides......... are the result of defined* tests.

1. The car manufacturers tests are tightly defined if not exactly typical of normal driving condition. The estimates provided by Plusnet/Openreach are not based on any tests at all but on a mathematical calculation which appears to be based mostly on theoretical line length. It ignores the material the line is made of, the condition of the line (which a test might detect) and even in some cases the actual line length when Openreach's database is wrong. The estimate I got from BT was 17Mbps on a line that even the most optimistic think will only give 9 and in reality only gives 6 when there is a fair wind.  Openreach's excuse was that they probably had the line length for my previous house in the database. I have only lived here for 29 years so that is probably quite reasonable.
2. If the car manufacturer's figures are 40mpg lets say, then if I only get 8mpg, there is something very wrong with the car and no car manufacturer or garage would even try to claim otherwise. Those figures are roughly equivalent to the OP's speed loss.
Although straying from the thread topic is my fault for which I apologise, I suggest we drop it or start another thread as this is not helping the OP.

[#11]

Just to let you know your not alone despite what other people say. Just because they are happy with there service.
I have the same problems and more and as soon as my contract finishes I will move on My speeds have been at a snails pace less than 0.5meg  and have had to suffer the process of checking out the system router phones etc. However I have always found the staff very helpfull in trying to resolve my issues. It is common practice to adjust your speed at the exchange and in my case when I notify the helpdesk my connection speed is incressed to between 2 and 3 meg which is aceptable however after a couple of days this is again reduced back down again. I am unable to download watch iplayer or any services one should expect from broadband my only use is email and using ebay anything else I have to use my iphone which I use with T-Mobile. This is where it even gets more alarming even though I can't use most services I am now being billed for using more than 10GB IN a matter of days yet I rarely use more than 1GB A MONTH WITH MY MOBILE (And No This is not a Rec. For them just a Fact) I have queried this with PN and got no answers.I wish you better luck in the future

[#12]

Quote from: nightmare

My speeds have been at a snails pace less than 0.5meg  my connection speed is incressed to between 2 and 3 meg which is aceptable however after a couple of days this is again reduced back down again. I am now being billed for using more than 10GB IN a matter of days yet I rarely use more than 1GB A MONTH WITH MY MOBILE

So, when you use your mobile, do you turn off/disconnect all connections to the router (including wireless), thereby ensuring there is no traffic initiated by you over ADSL? That should result in a few kB per day added to your usage. (I get around 90MB per day, nearly all of which is the SamKnows box) and could be a good indicator of where the problem is.
From your figures, it would take continuous streaming at your stated speed to reach 10GB in 2 or 3 of days. I don't use it, but I doubt a torrent connection would do that (I'm happy to be corrected  ).
Since this is your first post here, it isn't clear if you have done the basics of checking virus/malware etc.

[#13]

@nightmare
I've taken a look over your connection and your speed seems to have remained stable at around 2Mb/s.
It could be that there is other activity going on with your connection(anybody accessing your connection wirelessly) which would increase your usage and also reduce your speeds if somebody is using the connection at the same time. It could also be something in the background as PeeGee mentions.
You can turn the wireless off on your router to see if this helps via the WIFI button on the router. You can also track your daily usage here.