Can't log in - so no access to my account or emails

[#1]

I have Windows 7 and use Internet Explorer, and have been happily logging into Plus Net for years, via the home page with the man in checked shirt, then clicking on 'My Account' in top menu band.  That took me on to (after a sudden recent change) to a page that said "ticket loading" with a circle going round, until blank boxes appeared for me to complete my log in details.  That done, I would be taken to a new page with my account details, or, on right hand side menu, I would click on 'webmail'.  This would take me to another page with the little grey boxes to put in either of my two email addresses which would then take me to the relevant email page - where I could read them, save them, delete them etc.........

Out of the blue a few days ago, when I got the checked shirt man home page, I click on the top menu band options -  'my account' - and get a (faulty) new page that just repeats that top menu band and then after a very narrow blank area of page, just a band with the boxes that are always at the bottom of every PlusNet page; the "about us/contact us/careers/press office" options: as at the bottom of this page I am typing on now. If I click on 'my account' again at the top of that strange page, I either get no change of page, or intermittently, a new page with two big red boxes; one for broadband and one for mobile phone. If I click on the broadband box, back we go to that faulty previous page with no other option rather than to go round this again and again.  I do not have Plus Net mobile. Where I live my broadband speed varies between 0.2 and 0.5 and we have no mobile signal so I do not have a smart phone or lap top, tablet or anything.  We use a desktop PC with Ethernet cable.

Anyway, I got fed up after a few days of this not correcting itself and rang PlusNet technical help - spoke with [CSA Removed], and was stunned to be told that this was apparently a well know problem that would not be rectified until "March at the earliest". Her follow up email, see below, then said the estimated fix date for this is Mid March!!!

I was then sent an email 'confirming' our telephone conversation - question ref 187030014.  .......I wonder why she thought emailing me on the site I cannot access made sense?  I only managed to read it because when googling like mad to try to find any info that this was a known problem for PlusNet, I found a PlusNet topic page which is totally blank - but has webmail as a menu option at the top of the page.  This is the only way I can check my emails!  If this page disappears from google search, I have no way to access emails -which as you can imagine will create chaos for me.

1.  My issues are that [CSA Removed] seems to have misrepresented my problem as "being presented with a white screen when trying to log in to the member centre", which is not correct.  As above; I cannot access any log in at all, not even to my account details. This might be important in getting the right people fixing the right problem for me?

I did try to email back to her about this, and point out that my alternative email address (which is noted on my account details) MUST be used to contact me during this period of this fault, but I just got an automated bounce back saying I could not contact PlusNet via email about problems

2.  I need to have access to my account and emails please. Can anyone advise on how and when this can be fixed?

3.  I presume PlusNet is not going to just leave me unable to access my account details, billing details nor normal access to emails and consider that a service........will I get reduced contract charges during this period?

4. I am due to renew my contract by March 10, but am I really supposed to want to renew whilst I (potentially) cannot access emails or my account info.........that would be beyond bizarre!

5.  Also, why is there a Plus Net page showing 'no faults known' for broadband, emails, etc when [CSA Removed] told me on the phone and in writing that this recognised problem that is "part of a larger issue" and that it is being worked on with many weeks to go until a fix? That surely is a problem to show under emails at least? Isn't this being false and misleading?

I am not tech savvy, I do not want to change from Internet Explorer. IE is widely used, and works fine for me with everything else I do on the PC, so it is hard to believe that this might be linked to the problem, plus it has worked OK all these years with PlusNet until a few days ago. Any help?????????????

Moderator's note by Dick (Strat): CSA name(s) removed (to an area staff can see) as per Forum rules.

[#2 · Accepted solution]

A warm welcome to the forums.

IE (along with WIn7) is way out of date and no longer supported.

Using a browser other than IE will permit access to the portal.  Whilst I can understand that the portal not working with IE at the moment is frustrating, you need to ask yourself which is most important to you - complaining that you cannot do this with IE at the moment (and await a fix) or gain access to the portal now, using a different approach (technology)?

The internet has evolved a long way since the days of IE - there is a lot of common modern HTML functionality which is simply not supported by these legacy technologies.  Indeed there is some very smart drag and drop functionality which does not work on the current version of the Win10 Edge browser … very sadly I have to use Chrome.

[#3]

Just to amplify @Townman comments.

IE  is way out of date and no longer supported even for security bugs since Feb 2016.

WIn7 support is due to end at the end of Feb this year

[#4]

@MauriceC I thought W7 support was to February 2020?

[#5]

You're quite right @jab1    I still use it for many dev't tasks instead of Win10!

[#6]

Hi there @NorthernNanook

Thanks for getting in touch - I'm sorry to hear of the frustration caused by the Member Centre issues.

Just to confirm, the larger issue that my colleague has attributed as the cause of your problem is correct - although the symptoms are slightly different, the root cause is the same, so they've done the right thing by adding your account to the affected accounts for that problem.

As several forum members have alluded to, you may find that using a different browser resolves this issue for you in the short term. Additionally, we're more than happy to assist you with any aspect of your account via our social media channels, or other contact methods should you need to know anything.

Just in terms of your webmail query, you can access webmail directly by visiting https://webmail.plus.net/ or by setting up your email via a mail client like Outlook or similar.

Finally, the Member Centre and email aspects of your account are provided without cost and therefore we will not provide any compensation for the issues you're experiencing (there's no cost to compensate you against). Additionally, as stated above, alternative methods are available for accessing the information you need.

I hope that this helps to shed some light on your post - please let me know if there's anything else you need.

Best wishes

Dave

[#7]

Moderator's Note(s)

Thread moved from ADSL Broadband to My Account/Billing.

[#8]

I started off this morning trying to view my bill.   Now I don`t even appear to be able to log in to the main PNet website.

There is nothing but a blank Pnet page.  Any ideas what is going on

I`ve attached an image.

[#9]

What OS and browser are you using @Mgnl1983?

I've just had no problem using W7 Home Premium and Firefox 65.0 (64bit)

[#10]

Hello John, I'm using windows 8.1 version.   I`ve never had a problem logging in the past.

Kind Regards,

Chris

[#11]

OK, Chris, the important question you didn't answer - what browser? Not Internet Explorer, by any chance?

[#12]

Hi Townman,

many thanks for your advice - and to all the other responders.  I installed Google Chrome this morning and now have full access to my PlusNet account and emails.

I understand Windows 7 is not being supported after January 2020 so was planning to get a new pc and move to Windows 10 (and presumably Windows Edge, etc)  nearer the time, but had not seen anything about IE not being safe, or efficient, to use in the meantime.  

Not impressed with the PlusNet response stating that you don't get reduced contract costs for periods when you can't access your account or billing details, nor emails, because this is a cost free service.........suspect many of us would have a different view on that.

Also noted Plus Net did not mention the lack of transparency in not marking up emails as having an ongoing problem in the service status pages.  

Also the webmail access details suggested had already been provided by the telephone technical advisor - but don't provide access with this IE problem.

But again, very grateful to you, and all the community feedback, for this technology challenged customer - pushing me onwards towards better IT practices worked!

[#13]

Ok, Yes I had tried logging in with Internet Explorer, but there was no login page.

I have now tried logging in with Google Chrome,  and I can login, but the billing page so "Service not available, try back later".

So I suppose I am one step nearer at least 🐵

Thanks for pointing that out, I didn`t know Internet Explorer wasn`t compatible.

Chris

[#14]

It is not incompatible, so you would not know.

As a staffer mentioned, there is a fix in the pipe-line.

As for accessing billing, there could be a couple of other issues there, the most common of which is a stale session.  Use the forced logout option from the right hand side of the portal menu options and try again.

[#15]

@Townman Sorry, I didn't mean to suggest it was incompatible, merely that there have been reported problems.