Plusnet service so bad I cancelled before I got connected

[#1]

Chris,
7 - 10 working days (i.e.up to a fortnight) for a direct debit refund is nonsense and you know it. Why do you bother to spout such lies? Its always a different story depending on which Plusnet employee draws the short straw isn't it? No consistancy of response whatsoever. According to the banks it takes 2 - 3 days. According to your colleagues it takes 3 - 5 days or 5 - 7 days depending on who you talk to and according to you its up to 14 days. 
Anyway the matter is now in the hands of your Customer Services Director and CISAS, as nobody has bothered to respond the latest comment on the Open Ticket in the last 24 hours.

[#2]

Day 14 ... still nothing ... and my open ticket has been Awaiting Support Team answer for >48 hours ...

[#3]

Quick update ... got a missed call this evening at 5:25PM from Jonathon saying that he'd had confirmation from Plusnet's bank that they had spoken to my bank and the money was in my account. "I have spoken to our accounts department and we have confirmation from our bank that your bank has received this payment." to be exact (note 2 seperate banks ... hang on, you'll see). Sadly, not 5 minutes before then I'd been to my bank and I had a statement in my hand that showed that the money still wasn't there.
I called Jonathon back at 5:30PM and was told that he would call me in "a minute or two" to quote the call centre staff. 15 mins later at 5:45PM (I'm sat at the side of the road in North Yorkshire waiting to drive back to Manchester at this point) I called the call centre back who told me that "he would call me back the second I hung up". 5:52PM he did ring me back. I explained that I'd just been to the bank and the money still wasn't there. It was then that I established that I bank with the same organisation as Plusnet (funny how your bank spoke to my bank when they are both the same bank), so after the call ended I spoke to a friend who works for this particular bank who told me that Direct Debit payments from accounts with the same bank never take more than 48 hours (and rarely more than 24 hours) to complete.
The friend told me that it would be a minor abuse of their powers but in the morning they would have a sneaky peek at Plusnet's accounts to see exactly when they received my payment (it left my bank on the 17th, Plusnet claim they started to take the money at the same time as I cancelled - the 11th), and when they refunded my payment (Plusnet claim the 19th but it's still not showing as cleared).
Now if my calculations are correct, 48 hours before the 17th would be the 15th when the money was applied for (after I cancelled on the 11th) and ... well who knows, but 48 hours ago it was Tuesday 23rd, not Friday 19th when the "refund was made" ...
I hope nobody's been telling me porkies ....... tomorrow will tell.
My friend said that they would be unable to tell me whether or not Plusnet's account was overdrawn but that could be a reason why the transaction hasn't completed.

[#4]

Hi
Firstly I'm sorry for the difficulty you have experienced here. I have raised your refund query internally and we'll check out what is happening. Whilst I'm sure your friend wants to help perhaps he/she clearly doesn't understand how our banking system currently works.
As for any suggestion or concern that we might be overdrawn and as a result unable to refund your DD such a suggestion is totally unconcievable and most definitely not the case.
We'll get an update on this during working hours tomorrow.

[#5]

As promised I've done some digging this morning. Looking at the ticket history on your account I can see:

Service Notice: SN83382683
Friday 19/02/10 14:11 This is a Service Notice to confirm that your refund of £xx.xx is now being processed.
That was actioned following your conversation with Mand as documented on Ticket: 31969406  at Friday 19/02/10 14:41
Not quite 14 days by my reckoning unless I'm missing something?

[#6]

DAY 15
Mark, yesterday was 14 days since you (claim) to have begun the process of taking the money from my account (which you weren't authorised to do).
A "little bird" has told me this morning that as far as she can see your Direct Debit process on my account began on the 15th, not the 11th like I was told, the 15th being 4 days after I gave notice of cancellation, without ever having received the service; and the refund was not initiated until some time this week (not Friday like I was told).
Why you took this initial payment by Direct Debit and not by Credit Card is beyond me. Everyone else seems to have had their initial payments processed by CC not DD. This has just added to the delay in returning my money.
A more suspicious person than me might think that this was a vengeful action on behalf of a Plusnet employee to deliberately cause a delay and an inconvenience, knowing that it would take so long to resolve. 
I'll check with my bank this evening to see if the refund has finally been completed but please don't think that I'm leaving it there. There are a lot of unanswered questions that require explanations as yet 

[#7]

Just picked up something from the open tickets added today by Plusnet's Accounting, HR & Legal team ...
--internal--
just to advise this was on the 22nd spreadsheet - it usually takes 10 working days from when issued on workplace
Kind regards,
..............................
... so that would mean I should expect it on 4th March ... wonder why I got a call "confirming" that the money was in my bank last night (when it wasn't) ... and why I was told 19th ...
curiouser and curiouser ...

[#8]

Confirmation that Plusnet has been telling me lies!
Picked up from another ticket (one that had been closed without notification I might add)
"Chris Parr Training/Comms 2:30pm, Friday 26th February 2010
Dear Mr xxxxxx,
I'm not sure why you were told (by a Plusnet Op over the phone last night) the money was in your account as we have no way of checking your personal account details ..."

Its a start I suppose ...  

[#9]

Not that its helpful to your issue, but in defence i signed up to PlusNET for phone and broadband from TalkTalk a few weeks back.  To be honest, TalkTalk were a nightmare and as far as plusnet goes, it was very smooth considering i was not on a BT line but the talktalk variant LLU.
Both my phone and broadband were switched over within 2 weeks and any support calls i did raise to get progress, were responded to within 12 hours or so.  I do however agree that the order progres thing is a waste of time or could at least be more informative to the progress.
Jim

[#10]

 
Well I'm "happy" to say that after 28 days of trauma with Plusnet I have finally got the money back that they should never have taken in the first place. This is by no means the end of the matter though, as out-of-pocket expences are yet to be agreed, this being in the hands of the Customer Services Director for another 4 weeks until the CISAS compaint becomes valid.
Over the weekend I thought of an advertising slogan that Plusnet could use ...
"Enjoy 4 weeks of Broadband-free with Plusnet (terms & conditions apply)"
It has a certain ring to it (like my new landline does)

[#11]

@sharpyuk,
I'm glad to hear your experience transferring to us was positive. We will be improving the order tracker over coming months (it currently only caters for broadband provisioning, so when the phone line needs installing first it can be a little confusing).
@DavidH,
Glad to hear you've got your money back now (6 working days is well within the timeframe we quoted to you). I'll get your complaint looked at today.

[#12]

@ sharpyuk
My Member Centre page still says "Your order is currently being processed" (ironic really because it never was!)
and my Order Tracker still says "activating your line"
I can't make my mind up whether Plusnet have set themsleves unrealistic goals in terms of customer service (nice ideas, shame they don't work) or they are shoddy in their application of the tools that they use. Either way its clearly not working. Pity becuse they do seem to have some staff who are genuinely helpful and competent.
@Mand - I think we're getting somewhere near the end game now 

[#13]

@ David H
Glad to see you finally got things sorted, i had the same experience years back with TalkTalk... and you think PlusNET are bad, try talking to talktalk...    I have been in the internet business for years and i know from experience that all providers have their problems and if they don't, they will have at some point.    I think the issue here is that years back PlusNET were see as a small fish and due to the size were able to offer a more one-on-one service which we all know and love.  Now the market has really taken off and companies like PlusNET are being talked about (in a positive light) more and more which means people are switching from mainstream / bundled broadband such as sky, talktalk etc for a more dedicated service rather than cheap and easy.
I also feel that over the past 24 months the usage of broadband services in this country has gone through the roof, especially with the ever popular medium of on-line gaming!  It would be great to suggest that all providers then ensure they have all the right hardware, backbone, redundancy etc etc... but this can take months of planning and installation, especially if you want to do it right and can't always be forecast.  I do not envy any service that has to provide an active support network to its customers at a rate the customer will be happy with i.e NOW.  I myself am still waiting on a support call i raise on Friday (see my post in feedback forum), but just as much as i want things right now, i think i would rather a good response than one just for the sake of it with somebody who has no idea what’s going on (my previous experience with larger providers).
I wish you luck in your quest for good service when it comes to broadband, and it looks as if you have found one that suits.  But if you ever get in a position where you need to fix a problem miles away that could have 20 - 30 different variations as to the cause... good luck :)..    BTW this does help when you own the hardware, such as BT ..
I shall continue to blog about my experience with PlusNET as the months and hopefully years pass.

[#14]

Not quite there yet sharpyuk. I'm still working on the expense, time & trouble angle. Looks like we might be heading for CISAS after all ...
Oh well, soldier on.