People always tell you about a bad service but rarely good.

[#1]

Was looking through some of the feedback posts, I've been a long standing customer for Plusnet and never had much cause to deal with support because my broadband comes down my line at expected speeds and I can count the times I haven't had any on one hand. On all but two occasions it was my telephone line and the other two were just router reboots.

Haven't been in the forum for a while but had a browse as I was looking at PN TV and upgrading to fibre and was shocked to see the amount of complaints about customer service. My worry was that PN were going down hill on their USP. Fair to say that it couldn't be further from the truth.

I must have tied up various Plusnet staff in various depts for a good couple of hours today and in every instance whether it be over the phone, through the support forum or the web chat I found them to be courteous, professional and nothing was too much hassle. More importantly they were willing to do a deal which saved me a few shilling.

Actually, going off the Mantra of "Broadband your way" I would say they were pretty close to the mark. So credit where it's due, you’re only as good as your last job.

Watch now the switch to fibre/TV/Phone will be a nightmare and I'll have to eat all of this

[#2]

Well I hope it all goes smoothly for you, and you've obviously had a good experience today, it's just a shame that the many customer that have had to post moans haven't enjoyed that same brilliant experience that Plusnet used to deliver time after time.

[#3]

Hopefully it will go well, it's not just the experience today, generally speaking any time I have had to use support I've never had any issues. When I read say the first page of feedback section my initial thoughts were PN were getting a lot of flak about engineers not turning up when they are meant to, in all fairness I guess they only have limited control over the situation. It's heavily reliant on BT being organised and servicing the infrastructure, And we all know how good they are at that. If BT have seven installations to do today, 5 for BT and 2 for PN and they are running late I feel sure the PN customers are getting knocked back. The person dealing with this is just a customer rep, unless they are getting in the car, coming to your house and taking a crash course in telecommunications on the way the it's a bit unfair to start screaming plusnet are useless and wanting to cancel everything.

Another issue is speeds, I've pretty much renewed my phone line, put it in another position and know how to check for noise etc on the line, Lot of people on here again wanting to cancel and calling the company without showing any signs of checking  whether the problem could be at their end first. PN staff will be aware that it could be them but without sounding patronising to an already irate customer. No mean feat.

Attitudes of the staff, open to interpretation depending on what sort of mood you're in, One thing I noticed today was when I started dealing with support names I knew kept appearing that rang a bell, Where else in a company of this size would you find that the guy who was changing something on your account was the same guy you remember resetting your SNR about 12months ago when you were getting some plastering done in the house and the plasterer cut through the BT cable. In that respect you do feel part of a community rather than just an account number.

Live chat. lot of people bad mouthing that, I waited for about a min and someone was on, I asked a question if something was possible swapping a domain name and got told how to do it and then asked if I wanted them to do it for me right now, can't fault that, could have just been fobbed to the FAQ if they didn't care.

Deals, explained my situation with my TV/Phone/BB and they had a shuffle about of prices to make it better off with PN. Dealing with someone who didn't want to lose me as a customer which is always a good thin in any business. On the contrary, earlier on I was dealing with BT regarding my phoneline, couldn't get through on the phone and the live chat, although it said a waiting time of 5 mins was actually 16 before I got through. Explained I wasn't happy because 0845 numbers which were inclusive were now getting charged and in effect if they had breached the contract so I should be able to cancel without penalty, No offers, no deals, just told I would have to pay the remaining full amount of line rental and finished on "sorry, is there anything else I can help you with today?" So in balance, not bad customer service IMO.

Finally, I couldn't login to this board because my user name was too long since the board refresh, Apparently you can't change your user name after the 30 days period allowance which meant I lost all my previous posts. Got in touch and they changed it for me. Again they could have just pointed me to the rules and said sorry, anything else I can help you with today.

In every instance someone at PN has given a little bit more than they had to and that's why I give them my money. Just thought that it was worth a mention to balance out the posts of disgruntled people because as the heading suggests. not enough people do.

[#4]

Well you have been really lucky today then to encounter people whom you recall from previous contact. With the significant increase in CSC staff that there's been to cope with the large increases in the number of customers over the last couple of years that can't be bad 

[#5]

The customer may be paying the piper but plusnet is calling the tune.

You're lucky that you want the same tune otherwise there would be no deal. As many have found out.

[#6]

@Anotherone Yeah, maybe it's coincidence that the names rang a bell with more staff and them using their first name and initial of surname as their ID. Plusnet as a business needs to grow, back in the day when I did a lot of gaming I was drew to PN by the way they managed contention and low ping. It felt like my line was being managed rather than dumped on me then out of their hands. As long as it was within tolerance that's your lot. Whereas with PN they did appear to try and get the most from what you had. They were also pretty much the cheapest and you very rarely get both in this day and age. You could pretty much pick an adsl that suited your needs the most, others you just got what you were getting and any specialised lines you paid top dollar.

Problem is with growing companies you have Directors and managers who, although they act big on customer service really have their eye on the bottom line of a spread sheet $$$$$$ They want to be the biggest BB provider out there and that involves reducing pricing while maintaining enough staff to deal with the customers. Alternatively if you don't have enough staff to deal with the customers that aggravates the customer further. The down side of that is you have to employ a few d**ks, it's the nature of the beast. I've been there! And as they say if you work in a big company and don't know who the d**k is, chances are its you. They slip through interviews, "focused, team player, yadder, yadder," then when their boots are on the ground the cracks start to develop, wondering what went so wrong in their life that they have to keep civil on the phone to someone who's being an A hole. You know how it works. It only takes one bad egg to unravel all the effort everyone else had put in and that tarnishes the whole company. Obviously a few people on here have met the d**k and all of a sudden they want to cancel everything. If PN can increase their size and maintain the customer satisfaction then the world is theirs and everything in it. Going off Which, if that's anything to go by they're doing all right. So far!

@billnotben it's a buyers market brother. If the package isn't there then vote with your feet. I've been with PN for many, many years and when I phoned I was split between the two providers. If the deal they offered wasn't beneficial for me brand loyalty wouldn't have came into it. I'd have just left because that's the way it is. I was lucky I guess, I looked at my Sky TV and what I was paying and realised I've a myriad of channels that no one in my house is watching. Bit of customer research with my wife and daughter to see what they watch and the TV package PN were offering ticked all the boxes and I've upgraded to fibre, which I wasn't that fussed about buy hey, why not. I've had to throw Netflix in there to appease the daughter and by time I put the package together was within a couple of quid of what of Skys offering. I've no doubt that when I ring Sky tonight to cancel they will beat that price but so far PN haven't kept sneaking a couple of quid on my bill every six months and BT, well see my previous post. My bill has been constant for as long as I can remember. I'm a contracts manager so when I tell people I'm going to do a 1K job for them then that's what they get. If the price of my materials goes up in the meantime I absorb that hit. It is, by nature, a contract. If I can absorb that hit I'm sure a company like BT could have or at least attempted to get me in another contract that was beneficial to both parties.

So I made my choice, Sky would have been probably a little cheaper with some badgering but hey, I'm not going to lose any kip over the price of a skinny latte a month. I'll see how it goes.

[#7]

Whilst things can and do go wrong, again from personal experience I have to report that talking to COTs yesterday was everything I could ask for.  Phone answered straight away, friendly service ([Removed]) got a new deal which is cheaper than what I was paying for the same package.

Phone answered in under a minuet, while deal concluded in less than 10 minutes, some of that spent just in being plesent.

Moderator's note by Mike (Mav) CSA name removed as per Forum rules

[#8]

Haha, I bet 8mins of that was reading out the T&C's. PN should just ask if you want them read out or emailed to you. That would speed up call time wait further by hours and you never know, they might be able to cut down on staff and pay the d**k off I had chance to make a coffee and finish it and TBH I still don't know what they said.

People who pop up and say they're disgusted with the attitude obviously need to deal with humans more often. The person they are dealing with could have just had a row with their partner before they left work or got stuck in a school run. Just talk to someone else until you get some sense. It happens.

PN are just a sales team for existing infrastructure. they don't have a lot of control over the BT engineer coming out, they don't have control over the extensions in your house or the various other electrical goods interfering with your wifi that you don't even realise is doing it and everyone has an off day.

[#9]

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@Townman wrote:

Whilst things can and do go wrong, again from personal experience I have to report that talking to COTs yesterday was everything I could ask for.  Phone answered straight away, friendly service ([Removed]) got a new deal which is cheaper than what I was paying for the same package.

Phone answered in under a minuet, while deal concluded in less than 10 minutes, some of that spent just in being plesent.

Moderator's note by Mike (Mav) CSA name removed as per Forum rules

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Any chance you could let me have COT's phone number please.

[#10]

0800 731 7512 Select option 1 then option 2 (If you are thinking of leaving us)

[#11]

Many thanks indeed for that .....

Phoned them, deal done! 

[#12]

Just to add a bit more meat to this, the deal (upgrade from 40/20 to 80/20) was done around lunchtime on Thursday and, although I was told that the upgrade would happen on my next billing date (15th), it was actually done during the early hours of Friday morning. Excellent, well done PlusNet!