poor customer service

[#1]

3 years on there is little improvement as far as Customer Service is concerned, although I am pleased to report that the broadband service is stable, as least as far as I am concerned, which is a distinct improvement compared to my previous ISP. However it took a ridiculous 6 weeks to fully switch me over from my previous ISP even though I explained the urgency because they had unilaterally terminated the service within days of me giving notice to leave.

As to "Do you proud" ? I don't think PN have any concept of the meaning of that claim. It is simply a marketing catch phrase to them, designed to impress, but no has no foundation in reality within PN, IMHO. In fact they made me b. angry at the sheer incompetence of the whole switch over operation which included 3 separate FUs by PN.

Got an email from one of the CS reps today, because I couldn't drop what I was doing and take his call at the time he called earlier. It was helpfully suggesting he would call on Monday, so I replied suggesting a convenient time, only to get an email back from [CSA Removed] (does she really exist or is that simply a nom de plume for a mindless computer system ?) saying that they don't accept emails because "emails can easily be lost, misdirected or even deleted". What a load of absolute pants - I don't "lose, misdirected or delete my emails" unless I intend to, so why can't a company with a £3,000,000 turnover manage its emails better ?

In reality that is not the problem IMHO, much more  a manufactured  claim so that they can bully you in to using their cumbersome ticket system.

Are there no ISPs who can supply reliable broadband AND decent customer service at a reasonable price ?

Moderator's note by Adie (Dvorak) CSA name removed as per Forum rules and topic title changed

[#2]

Moderators Note.
post split from old topic for more relevance and better visibility

[#3]

unless you were moving from someone that doesn't need the BT network (e.g. Virgin), you shouldn't need to have informed your previous ISP you wanted to leave as this can lead to issues such as you found yourself in.
PN would have taken care of the transfer and informing the old ISP as a matter of course.

[#4]

Adie

How incredibly petty "CSA name removed as per Forum rules".

May I suggest that you go read your own rules yourself because IMHO I have not transgressed them. They state 

"Personal details are not to be posted on these forums, this includes the content of private message unless permission is obtained from all parties. This includes the names of staff members who you may have had contact with via a call, chat or ticket. This does not include members of the Plusnet Help Team."

Specifically this is a post in response to a 3 year old post addressed to your Head of Customer Service at that time explicitly by name, so

1. you have clearly changed the rules in the meantime
2. It was not "a staff members who you may have had contact with via a call, chat or ticket", or even a CSA come to that, it was simply picking up on a previous post
3. Seemingly there is an exception for "members of the Plusnet Help Team" and since as Customer Services Manager she is ostensibly responsible for them then she too is exempt IMHO,
4. And last but by no means least, by taking it out of context of the post to which I am responding, allegedly to make it more relevant, you have in fact made it much less relevant

The key point I was making, namely that the broadband service appears to have improved but Customer Service has not IMHO, still stands.

As a moderator may I respectfully suggest that you pause and think before you wade in with both feet and "moderate" posts just because they are in part being critical of PN. To do so smacks of censorship. Or will you simply now moderate these comments as well ?

[#5]

Hi @pureedfruit,

I'm sorry to hear that there was a delay to your switch to Plusnet, and I would like to apologise for the inconvenience that this has caused you. I can see that an advisor has taken ownership of your complaint and has been looking into this. If Monday is not a suitable time for a call back please can you advise when would be suitable for you? We can then pass this on to the person that is looking after your complaint.

I'm sorry that you are unhappy with the ticket system and at not being able to correspond with us via email, however, the ticket system means that a copy of all of our and your communications are automatically saved on the account and means that any messages from your are matched to your account which means that they won't get missed.

[#6]

Emily

THANK YOU for that apology.

What I can't understand is that given seamlessly switching people over to your service is, or should be, absolutely core to what you do, why I experienced not one, but 3 maladministrations.

Moreover, once again your reply has been disassociated from what I originally wrote, so

1. it will make little sense to others reading it, and
2. even I am wondering which of several posts that I made I am actually responding to, and
3. despite your colleague's insistence that I should not mention "Lisa Hardie" by name, there she is, still in the message heading, for all to see and wonder about. Incidentally I still wonder whether she is for real, or just a "nom de plume" for a mindless computer system 

As to contacting me, what I was trying to explain in my bounced email, is that I have a class on Monday mornings so suggest calling me between 1 and 5 pm.

KR

[#7]

Moderator's note:

Posts split to their own topic for clarity.

[#8]

Hi there, thank you for replying to us. I have updated the account advising my colleague to call you between 1pm and 5pm.

thanks

[#9]

Moderators Note.
More posts merged.

[#10]

Dvorak

Thank you for that "enlightenment", but what are you trying to tell me ?

1. That PN can only manage a switch in a reasonable period of time if it is from another ISP on the BT network? Really?
2. Or that I should have known that it would take for ever switching from VM ? YES it was from VM, as was made very clear up front, and there was no warning from PN that it was any more difficult. In fact they got off to a good start and had my old BT telephone line up and working again within 48 hours using a temporary number.

It was not sending a modem out in good time, time taken getting an engineer to set up the broadband, sorting out the modem set up problems caused by inadequate information, which should have been sorted out over the phone instead of having to wait yet again for an engineer to come out to fix it, then taking yet more days to get my original phone number switched over, because they had totally forgotten about it, that caused the cumulative delay. All of this should be second nature to PN, and should have been accomplished in 7-10 days, not 6 weeks.

[#11]

Dvorak

What an earth is "post split from old topic for more relevance and better visibility" meant to convey ?

All you have done is give it a stupid, irrelevant heading of "Hooked" (hooked in what sense ?) so that once again it is separated from the thread that it is part of, and thus made to seem irrelevant.

Do I conclude from this that it is PN policy that any constructive criticism of PN is to be made to seem as irrelevant as possible so that you can pretend it did not happen, rather than looking for ways to improve the service so that it does not happen again ?

FYI that is one of the reasons why organisations like PN set up such feed back systems, so that they can improve the Customer Experience.

I feel that it is so disappointing when staff who are members of Customer Services (thus ostensibly employed to be of help to customers like myself) take it upon themselves to game the system in this way.

All it does, unsurprisingly, is put my back up.

So it leaves me with a choice - walk away, or lodge a formal, written, complaint with your CEO Andrew John Baker.

Which course should I take ?

Pureedfruit

 

[#12]

@pureedfruit  FYI  (How I hate those acronyms)....

. For Your Information.

@dvorak , @Strat, and a couple of others.... are Moderators on this forum.

(FYI) they are ordinary customers, just the same as you, and I.  

(FYI) they do not get paid for their time they spend looking after all the boards on this forum,

(FYI) they are not connected to PlusNet, except in the manner of their "duties" as moderators, to PlusNet policy.

(FYI) they are voulnteers, without them, this forum, would collapse into anarchy.

(FYI) they do a good job trying to keep the post on all boards in a way that is reasonably easy to follow from one post to the next... hence the "forum rules"...

[#13]

Shutter

Thank you for your explanation of the voluntary nature of the work done by the moderators, and their independence from PN, which we all appreciate.

However that does not put them above criticism IMHO, as you seem to imply, and I feel that the treatment that my postings have received has been unnecessarily heavy handed, and have had the courage, and audacity, to say so.

As I have already carefully explained: I have not in my opinion transgressed the posting rules, and I have explained why in some detail, yet I have had my posting thread disjointed to the point whereby even I have difficulty in following my own thread. I do not feel that such heavy handed treatment is an acceptable moderating objective.

I note also that the only apology I have received is from Emily, of the PN Help Team which is appreciated.

However I started what was a legitimate comment about the service level received, which now regrettably seems to have morphed into comment about moderation practices and practicalities. That was NOT my intended objective, so I will endeavour to stick to the service level issue from now on.

Regards

Pureedfruit

[#14]

All you have done is give it a stupid, irrelevant heading of "Hooked" (hooked in what sense ?)

"Hooked" is not a topic heading.

"Hooked" is your personal ranking within the forums.

Your ranking is a function of the number of posts you have made, the number of likes they receive, the number of fixes you offer to others looking for help and some other factors.

[#15]

Faisal

THANK YOU.

I was here all afternoon, sadly the call never came, nor are their any messages in my voice mail 

I am here again this afternoon, if you or your colleague wish to chat, although I don't think there is much left to say.

I would just like PN to take my comments on board and commit to do better in future.

After all it is not rocket science, more efficient admin it seems to me, and that should be well within PNs capability.

Regards