I had a call yesterday from relatives who live 20 miles away. Their old Technicolor router died years ago so I have fitted them up with a Smarthub 6.
Recently they lost their broadband connection. As an aside further information has suggested that this was caused by BT working on the overhead lines. This was not suspected at the time.
My relative rang Plusnet seeking assistance. The advice given was to factory reset the router. My relative did not know what this would do and followed the Agents instructions on how to insert a paperclip in the reset hole etc. Obviously this reset the Smarthub back to its default BT settings. It was only after the Smarthub failed to automatically connect to Plusnet's system did the Agent realise that there was a non Plusnet modem/router on the end of the line. At this point the Agent advised that no more Plusnet assistance could be given as they could not help with third party devices.
I accept that suggesting a factory reset was not a bad suggestion but I imagine that there are many non computer literate customers who have Plusnet devices with non standard settings tailored for the user's set up and/or other third party manufacturers' devices that have been set up by friends or paid 'experts', especially in today's interconnected home environment.
Consequently it occurs to me that Plusnet Agent's 'crib sheets' would benefit from the inclusion of asking which Hub customers are using and giving a warning that all special settings will be lost or pointing out that no help is available to reconnect third party devices, before advising customers to factory reset the device.
It might of saved me a 40 mile round trip this morning!
Moderator and Customer
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