Should Plusnet suspend all advertising?

[#1]

Recently the time to answer the phones has consistently been 30 minutes or more. The average response time to tickets is approaching 40 hours (the target is 24 - but the target was increased from 4 to 8 before being raised to 24 a year ago).
We see far more mistakes being reported on these forums (and I'm sure there's a lot more happening that we never hear about).
There's a new support centre opened in Leeds - but we are not seeing the benefits of that yet (and inevitably the new staff will be making more of the mistakes).
While this happens there will be more and more very unhappy users who will leave and tell all their friends about their bad experience.
Plusnet will probably respond that they have to grow to survive. That is rubbish. Any business can survive if their user numbers remain static. They can even improve their profits by getting smarter and reducing the costs of supporting their users. What doesn't make sense is doing business in such a way that there is a large increase in churn as new users take more support resources than long term users. And making more and more very cheap offers to attract users isn't the best long term strategy as the type of customers attracted by those deals will not likely to be loyal and will leave again as soon as they see a better offer.
So should Plusnet suspend the advertising until the support situation has improved?

[#2]

Most certainly !
Regards
Mike

[#3]

Have staff been blocked from voting? 

[#4]

Staff haven't been blocked from voting (it can't be done). In the past staff have abstained from voting in polls so (unless things have got much worse than I fear) those three votes won't be staff.
It would be interesting if the three voting no gave their reasons!

[#5]

The current situation reminds me of the ADSL24 days, of under priced and over subscribed ISP's trying to under cut each other.  When I joined plusnet for one reason they cost a bit more and there support was quick and reliable.
Current offer for Unlimited DSL for £2.50[it went down again from 2.99] a month plus phone line at £14.99, just brings in more custom than you and your network can handle, so yes time to retire the actor.

[#6]

I haven't voted (I may be classed as biased) but I don't think they should stop advertising just stop the really silly offers which are essentially loss leaders until they can cope with the resulting influx of  customers
Now if that was an option I would have voted for it

[#7]

I voted yes but would have preferred a 'scaling back' option including as per Oldjim's comment.

[#8]

I agree with Jim about the offers. I did consider putting in options about that. In the end I decided to keep it simple and just ask about the advertising.

[#9]

I'm another one in agreement with Jim. All these offers are alienating some of the present customers. Surely it must be cheaper to retain users rather than recruit new ones by cheap offers and cash back sites. I suspect that PN are hoping that a lot of customers will pay full price and not contact them to try to obtain a better deal when the contract runs out.

[#10]

Quote from: Oldjim

I haven't voted (I may be classed as biased) but I don't think they should stop advertising just stop the really silly offers which are essentially loss leaders until they can cope with the resulting influx of  customers Now if that was an option I would have voted for it

I voted and also with Oldjim on this 1

[#11]

But if they stopped advertising then we would stop phoning the retentions line 

[#12]

I voted yes purely because it would allow the support teams to catch up with the backlog and work out how many staff they actually need to keep the existing customer base happy.
I couldn't give a monkeys about whether they started offering a £1 FTTC for the first six months offer or whatever, I always look at the long term with who I sign up for and have no problems paying for  the service I receive.
I do however worry about companies who attract more customers than they can manage to keep happy. I don't want to be with the next "TalkTalk" when it comes to poor customer service (if/when I need it).

[#13]

I left talktalk just over a year ago in search of better support . If Plusnet continue attracting customers in a talktalk style and the support reduces to that of talktalk then I will vote with my feet.
The equivalent package on talktalk for me was a couple of quid cheaper per month, but I wanted decent support and reliability so am prepared to pay just a bit more.
I did vote yes, but Oldjim's suggestion also gets my vote!
HB.

[#14]

Provide an excellent service and new customers will come by referals and word of mouth. No need then to spend much money on advertising and huge discounts.
Allow the service to degrade and new customers will become harder to attract, existing previously satisfied customers will up and leave and more and more desperate measures will be required to maintain customer numbers.
I wonder if the staff numbers at the new call centre are additional or whether the number in Sheffield has been allowed to fall prior to beginning recruitment for Leeds.

[#15]

I also left talktalk for however was a bit more recent and for a few reasons
1, Their most recent price rise
2, Kept adding to extra fees to my bills on a regular basis
3, Customer service went from okish on their forum > near non existent or very poor and blaming the consumer for the a lot of the billing faults
The only thing that was better with talktalk was the extra speed that I am now lacking with Plusnet although Plusnet is approx £17 cheaper per month for as near as dammit package
Come on Plusnet please dont sink as low as your competitors and
I hope things can improve way before the official launch of the new call centre