"Good Honest Broadband" Blah Blah Blah!!

Brains1969

Hi there everyone

I'm a new to the forums but have visited the main site regularly.

I live in an area where the Broadband is very poor (<5mb)

For years i was with BT paying stupid amounts for their unlimited package.
Then I switched to TalkTalk about 3 years ago and at first everything was great, my speeds increased as well. But then I started experiencing connection problems so had to constantly re-start the router. Then the phone started to fail with lots of dead lines. So I TRIED to get through to their Customer Service (many times up to 1 hr waiting on hold).
After getting more and more frustrated i decided enough was enough and left for Plusnet.

What a huge mistake!!!!

After checking through their Website i decided to go for the value package of 10GB with unlimited downloads from midnight and also selected something called "Plusnet Pro" which is supposed to give priority to Online Gaming for me and my son. This was an extra £5 on top of the package.

Day 1 : Could not connect to my online game server neither could my son. Both my daughters could not get online at all from their laptops.
Called their CS they forgot to activate my Pusnet Pro package. Ok fine I thought simple mistake.
Day 2 : My son couldn't get online at all from his XBOX or PS3 and i kept getting disconnected from my server. At least the girls finally got online. Called CS they informed me I had to set up my router to open ports for the 2 game consoles. Ok again i'm quite technical so knew how to do this.
Day 3 : Still no connection for myself or my son to our game servers. Called CS the router had reset itself overnight as soon as my son turned off his game consoles had to redo the procedure with the ports again.
Day 4 : Received an email from Plusnet telling me i had exceeded my 10GB usage and would be charged £5 for add 5GB. Still no joy with our online gaming with constant disconnections.
Day 7 : After 3 more emails regarding exceeding my usage i thought right i'm off. So tried to contact CS. "You need to contact our Cancellation team mon - fri between 9:00 - 17:30 which just happens to when i'm in work. Anyway finally got in touch and told my tale of woe and that i wish to cancel. The Response was incredible.

"We will put you on our Unlimited Package".

"I couldn't see that package on your Website" I told them "Oh that's because it doesn't exist only the cancellation team can offer this to try to keep hold of our customers"

Refer to title

I thought well why not i'll give it try. Might as well not have bothered same problems as before. So on Monday i called CS for the last time to cancel. I'm now waiting for my MAC code and i'm in the process of moving to SKY Unlimited for 1/3 of Plusnet's price and even better it's free for the 1st 6 months.

One last comment i think the reason why Plusnet has such a high score for Customer Service is that no one can get through to complain!!!

Rant over

[Deleted User]

Doesn't help you, but I used to be with TalkTalk and had similar problems. I guessed what the issue was (the line back to the exchange), but TalkTalk refused to get BT out to check (my line rental was through TalkTalk). Eventually I got BT to install a second line - I then knew that the pair of wires back to the exchange was distinct from my previous circuit, switched to O2 broadband and have been happy ever since. Needless to say that once the second line was in, I cancelled all my services with TalkTalk.

TalkTalk Customer (non) services is a story for another day ...

rsoles

thanks

i pay £9 a month BT line rental, have full sky package and have bt internet at £26 a month. do i need to rent a line from BT to change? sky seems the best option but glad you have steered me away from plusnet

rob7475

just a quick point - plusnet and BT are the same company. Plusnet used to be an independant ISP but BT bought them out years ago.

I'm with sky and have had no issues since I joined about 6-7 month ago. Much better than BT.

spannerzone

Plusnet do operate seperately to BT though so thankfully you get a UK call centre and not an Indian one....doesn't mean the service can't fail as the OP seems to have had happen sadly.

I'm with Plusnet for over 2 years and have been very happy with service and their customer support....like every single ISP in existance, some people will have nothing but trouble while others will have no trouble at all.

To be honest, I can't see how 10Gb a month could ever have been suitable for a family of gamers! several kids and adults would almost certainlyuse many times that usage a month....2 hours of Iplayer takes up to 1GB allowance alone.

Butti

I hate plusnet with a passion.
To be fair I don't think it's all their fault, some of it appears to be an issue with running wireless broadband in a 3 storey house with the connection and the computer on different floors. Nearly sorted that with the purchase of a laptop.

My main problem is when things go wrong. Their whole website seems to be designed to stop you asking a real person a real question. You go round in loops just thinking give me a bloody number. When you get one you have to find your user name and password before they will speak to you.

The LATEST balls up is cutting my service because they haven't been able to collect my direct debit. On checking their system they invoiced for it on 21 December and the money left my account on 29 December. If I could actually get off the portal page and on to my hotmail page I would be able to get my user name and password and actually ring them, but I can't. So I send this missive from the university library where I can actually get to other websites and ask for my password.

Fortunately I think I only have another month with them and then I can leave. Can't wait.

exprog

Butti wrote: »

I hate plusnet with a passion.

When you get one you have to find your user name and password before they will speak to you.

The unspeakable bounders. How dare they presume their customers might have access to their own personal information.

UncleZen

So your first post is rant about Plus Net, you gave them 7 days to resolve your problem then you leave, and you end up saying that your moving to Sky.
Well I hope it works first time or you'll be in the queue on the Sky CS line. I suggest you start planning who you'll move to after Sky fail to impress you.

spannerzone

Butti wrote: »

I hate plusnet with a passion.
To be fair I don't think it's all their fault, some of it appears to be an issue with running wireless broadband in a 3 storey house with the connection and the computer on different floors. Nearly sorted that with the purchase of a laptop.

My main problem is when things go wrong. Their whole website seems to be designed to stop you asking a real person a real question. You go round in loops just thinking give me a bloody number. When you get one you have to find your user name and password before they will speak to you.

The LATEST balls up is cutting my service because they haven't been able to collect my direct debit. On checking their system they invoiced for it on 21 December and the money left my account on 29 December. If I could actually get off the portal page and on to my hotmail page I would be able to get my user name and password and actually ring them, but I can't. So I send this missive from the university library where I can actually get to other websites and ask for my password.

Fortunately I think I only have another month with them and then I can leave. Can't wait.

WOW you're easily upset it would seem

So you're annoyed at Plusnet because your 3 floors don't give good wifi coverage, that's hardly Plusnet's fault (unless they supplied a poorly performing router) and will apply to any ISP.

You're frustrated that they ask you to provide username AND password before they'll speak to you.....how do you cope with any other company online or on the phone I wonder?

And of course they'll try and get you to go through their help/support pages first before speaking to a person.... I imagine all call centres for every ISP find that a very high percentage of 'faults' are people with faulty equipment or doing something wrong and could probably solve many problems if they tried to.

On the several occasions I've contacted Plusnet support for me or a family member also with Plusnet, I've had a sensible person asking sensible things...I told them what I'd checked and they agreed we had a BT line fault and escalated it.....it was pretty straighforward on all occasions I've spoken to them and other than a 15 min wait on a Saturday midday (a busy time I suspect for any call centre) it was pretty painless.

May I suggest you migrate to TalkTalk? :rotfl:

brewerdave

spannerzone wrote: »

May I suggest you migrate to TalkTalk? :rotfl:

..........................or HORRANGE !! :rotfl::rotfl:

Phones4Chris

rob7475 wrote: »

just a quick point - plusnet and BT are the same company. Plusnet used to be an independant ISP but BT bought them out years ago.

I'm with sky and have had no issues since I joined about 6-7 month ago. Much better than BT.

Plusnet ARE an independent company. They may be owned by BT Retail but they operate as a separate organisation with their own staff based in Sheffield. They are FAR better than BT Retail and most ISP's (other than AAISP where you'll pay more).
They get no favours from BT. OFCOM would be down their throats if that happened - they are treated just like any other ISP by BT Wholesale and OpenReach.