Primus nightmare

Nahhah

Hi hoping someone can help me. I recently moved house and a look at the MSE article on cheap broadband directed me to Primus. I phoned them up and arranged to have phone and internet installed at my new address once I'd moved in. Well the date came and went without a visit from the engineer. So I called them and was put on hold... on my mobile!! It may be an 0800 number but that's not cheap on a mobile. I was on hold for 20 minutes before I gave up! The next day my boyfriend sat on hold for 30 minutes at work before giving up. The day after that I decided to get in early and I called at 8am when their offices had just opened. I literally called as the second hands passed 8 on the dot and yet I was still on hold... 25 minutes this time! I was also emailing them but getting no response. Finally I gave up on them, set up with Talk Talk and cancelled my Direct Debit to Primus. I know you mustn't cancel a direct debit without talking to the company but they are not providing me any service as the internet has not been installed by them and as you can see it was impossible to get through to them to discuss the issue. Talk Talk came when they said they would and set us up. This was about 3 weeks after we had agreed for Primus to set us up. Another week passed and I received the router and other equipment through the post from Primus... not sure how their engineer was going to set us up without that or if he could, we would have had to have waited 4 weeks to use the internet anyway. So a few weeks later I'd all but put it out of my mind until my first month's bill from Primus came through the door. I haven't been able to get through to them yet... same problem, though I do now have a landline so listening to that hold music is a bit less painful as the minutes tick by.

Basically I want to know if I'm in the wrong here and if they can force me to pay them £15 a month for a year when they haven't upheld their part of the bargain?

macman

I sugest you write to Primus by RD, failure to resolve this will result in them continuing to bill you and eventually trashing your credit record.
Broadband is a self install process, no engineer visit is supplied or required, and the line is provisioned at the exchange. For a line reconnection, access may be required by OR.

jamespir

stupid question have you tried plugging the router in ? to see if the broadband was worjing

macman

Not a stupid question at all, I suspect it was already enabled around the time the router was received, the OP apears to have been vainly awaiting a Primus 'engineer' (no such thing) to come round and plug it in.
If the line is has switched to TT, it won't work now.

Nahhah

I wasn't waiting for an engineer to come round and plug my router in - I'm well aware of how to do that, thanks. The man who came from Talk Talk had to install a phone line, so I imagine that is what the Primus engineer (or whatever he is supposed to be) would have done as well. So simply plugging in the router is no kind of solution to my double broadband issue... plus as I mentioned the Primus equipment took over three weeks to arrive and the Talk Talk installation had been done by then so why would I try to plug it in?!

Thanks macman I will write the letter straight away.

macman

The physical install of a line is done by BT OR engineers, not by Primus or TT. Clearly Primus failed to liaise properly with OR to get the line provisioned.

nollag2006

I had the very same problem with Primus.

Their engineer was due to come to install a phone line at a new property and didn't pitch up. Cost me approx £70 for same. The same story about sitting on a phone line to "customer services" and promised call backs which never materialised.

Wrote to them to cancel the contract, as they did not deliver the service they were contracted to, and then cancelled my direct debit.

Had to take them to the Small Claims court to get back my installation fee. They didn't respond to the court forms and I had judgement by default

Now with Plusnet, and much happier!

It seems that others are also suffering from Primus poor customer service:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3521591=

Nahhah

Thank you nollag2006. It's great to hear that someone else experienced this and triumphed. I have drafted my letter and will send it off today - I will take it to the small claims if necessary.

In other news I have now received a bill from Talk Talk for £85 - should be £15... There's a £50 connection fee which I wasn't supposed to pay for - maybe it gets refunded..? but I'd better check - and another additional £10 as well it seems... is there no end to my broadband nightmare!!