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gordonb27: New customer in cooling off period concerned

gordonb27
Dabbler
Posts: 15
Registered: ‎16-12-2015

gordonb27: New customer in cooling off period concerned

Not wanting to hi-jack this thread but the heading matches exactly what I would have put.
I signed up to transffer my service from TalkTalk last Wednesday, this was all done "online".
Cutting to the chase, in the abscence of any contact and the insanity of the on hold time via phone, I tried to reply to 1 of the 3 emails I received last week;
As follows;
Quote
It's now 1 day short of a week since I received this message.
My bank account has been debited with my initial payment.
I have heard Nothing! zero zilch, regarding transfer from TalkTalk or activation of the service.
Seems the only viable way to contact anyone is by replying to this email as apparently there is no email link on your website, waiting 30 to 40+ minutes on a phone line is NOT an option.
Every other time I have switched service provider I have either been given a date immediately or at worst within 3 days.
Is there a problem? have a made a mistake in selecting Plusnet?
I need to hear something within 24 hours, otherwise you can cancell my order and refund the money you have already taken.

Minutes later I received this responce;
Quote
Hi,
Thank you for your email. Unfortunately we don't pick up any emails sent to this address. That's because emails can easily be lost, misdirected or even deleted and we think it's better if this doesn't happen.
Depending on your enquiry you may find your answer conveniently online - either from our support pages, or through the Help Assistant (http://help.plus.net). These have lots of easy to follow guides to help you with all your broadband and Internet questions (http://support.plus.net).
We prefer electronic 'tickets' to emails, this means that you can always see what updates have been made and check back over previous tickets too.
If you do prefer to contact us by phone you can call our support line on 0800 432 0200 or 0345 140 0200. We're open 365 days a year.
If you're a new customer, and want to know more about Plusnet, you can send us a message from our website (use the sales link at the foot of the page) or call our Sales Team on 0800 432 0080

So it seems there is no simple quick way to make contact, that message mentions tickets but doesn't give any info on how or where to raise 1, besides reading threads on here it seems the ticket system leaves much to be desired.
Thing I find realy concernining is money has already been taken from my bank, yet I'm still in limbo and seemingly "peeing into the wind!" to get any answers. Angry Angry Angry
adie:green changed topic title.]
7 REPLIES 7
gordonb27
Dabbler
Posts: 15
Registered: ‎16-12-2015

Re: New customer in cooling off period concerned

Update to the above;
After 27 minutes waiting I got to speak to someone who transffered me, saying I was going into a priority queue and would wait no longer than 12 minutes, 43 minutes later I got to speak to a guy who could track my order, well seemingly because I had done everything online, my order had not been placed!!?? even though a payment was taken from my bank last Thursday.
Any how he transffered my order to the "Legacy System", everything seemed fine and the email he promised with confirmation arrived.
Fine but on reading it, my phone number was incorrect, stupidly I thought this email could be replied to  Shocked no it bounced!!!!!
So after another transffered call and a total of a lightning fast 23 minutes, I was told that the number in the email was going to be my new phone number when Plusnet took over my line.
That was never mentioned at anytime on the phone nor online during the order placement, this is the first time changing ISP has involved changing my number.
So fingers crossed maybe I'm up and running on the 11th Jan as promised.
Still thing the lack of email contact is abysmal and where the hell is the ticket system hidden? Roll_eyes
matt_2k34
Grafter
Posts: 1,300
Registered: ‎09-07-2007

Re: New customer in cooling off period concerned

Quote from: gordonb27
Still thing the lack of email contact is abysmal and where the hell is the ticket system hidden? Roll_eyes


This is one of the main reasons Plusnet CS is getting bashed IMHO. Someone thought it was a good idea to "hide" that from users because they were getting too many to hit targets I guess. Instead it means everyones phoning up, with long wait times because no matter what the issue is, its easier to call and hold than fumble around trying to find the ticket link. (It's on some users Signatures here)

I feel sorry for the CS agents tbh. They're just being mis-managed. Undecided Plusnet should cull the advertising, increase it's staff numbers, fix its wait times, then slowly turn on the tap.... But that doesn't make business sense when all you need to do is be "best of a bad bunch". CS are always helpful, it's just I don't think there's enough of them. (Especially as PN are targeting the "TalkTalk" market, so people expect the world for next to nothing, or are super light users/less technically able and need more support. It's always been the case here at PN for some years though, as far as i've seen. It's very boom in terms of customer numbers. It plateaus, and CS catch up and PN look amazing, they push for more customers - get loads and can't handle the influx. Spend the next 6-18 months getting back to the plateaus, rinse and repeat. It's like whoever is in charge of the CS doesn't even bother looking at customer number forecasting, and just tries to skimp by on as little resource as possible. Lips_are_sealed  Cry
The opening hours change also has had an impact. Personally used to love calling at 1-4am, you'd get straight through to someone who knew what they were doing...  Wink
Personal experience with other companies is Email is generally a bit meh. For me its Tickets > Calls > * - tickets give you the flexibility to throw your issue into the pool and wait.
I still love PN, they're imho better than most. (I'd love cable to be in my area so I could ditch Sky for VM, and have PN & VM but that looks like a pipe dream  ::))

edit: afterthoughts Smiley
Quote from: rup3s
BT claimed that Plusnet use traffic management to reduce speeds at peak times, I've read more on the subject and I'm not sure that is quite the case.  It appears Plusnet manage your overall connection to prioritise certain types of traffic but don't actually throttle the connection, can anyone confirm that is the case?  I found it odd that BT (parent to Plusnet) were dissing them but I suppose they still want to retain their business

Absolutely, But "management" isn't the same as "shaping". Shaping you reduce the throughput to stop the end user costing the ISP too much. Management makes sure everyone gets a fair chunk. FYI BT do the same thing (IIRC it's one of the things that made PN so valuable to purchase?) This is the PN Management Info Guide
BT's Traffice management guide
MisterW
Superuser
Superuser
Posts: 14,682
Thanks: 5,481
Fixes: 392
Registered: ‎30-07-2007

Re: New customer in cooling off period concerned

Quote
its easier to call and hold than fumble around trying to find the ticket link. (It's on some users Signatures here)
It doesn't make any difference if you DO find it. All that happens is you get a response telling you to use the 'chat' or phone up, and in my experience using the chat just results in 'you need to phone in for that'! Roll_eyes

Superusers are not staff, but they do have a direct line of communication into the business in order to raise issues, concerns and feedback from the community.

dvorak
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 29,497
Thanks: 6,627
Fixes: 1,483
Registered: ‎11-01-2008

Re: gordonb27: New customer in cooling off period concerned

mod:note
split topic for better visibility.
Customer / Moderator
If it helped click the thumb
If it fixed it click 'This fixed my problem'
gordonb27
Dabbler
Posts: 15
Registered: ‎16-12-2015

Re: gordonb27: New customer in cooling off period concerned

Follow up to this.
All is now resolved as I said previously.
What happened 20 minutes ago has aleviated any doubts I had about adopting PlusNet.
Out of the blue unprompted I got a call from a customer services guy, he was aware of my forum posts and my phone calls, he was calling to check I was happy with everything and to confirm my activation date.
This is a level above any other ISP I have used so it's now a big thumbs up to PlusNet Customer Services from me. Smiley Cool
Darkfire
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Posts: 699
Fixes: 30
Registered: ‎17-10-2015

Re: gordonb27: New customer in cooling off period concerned

Should all be sorted soon Gordon, some thanks should be given to Townman on these forums though as he did inform me your questions looked unanswered Smiley
let me know if you need anything more
gordonb27
Dabbler
Posts: 15
Registered: ‎16-12-2015

Re: gordonb27: New customer in cooling off period concerned

OK with reference to the above;
THANK YOU Townman  Cool
mav:quote