Is Plusnet worth the extra cost?

dezza

My Orange Broadband contract has just ended so I was looking for other broadband providers, after having a barely satisfactory service with Orange.

After checking the estimated speeds, only Plusnet, Orange and BT offer decent speeds (well, 5mb compared to much lower with LLU providers) - BT is far too expensive so I'm looking at Plusnet.

I was wondering however if their service is worth the extra cost - overall, compared to the retention deal Orange is providing it will cost me £70 more per year going with Plusnet on their Extra broadband package, even with the half price deal they have on at the moment.

Orange technical and customer support over the past year has been pretty poor, but in the last couple of months seems to have improved. I don't particularly want to enter another contract to experience poor service so any thoughts on Plusnet would be greatly appreciated.

notbritishgas

Well like most topics you will get both sides of the story here.

I am on Plusnet value so cannot comment on Extra. So far I have had reasonable service. As far as Customer service is concerned to back up their phone service they also have a very good forum which is regularly policed by technical staff, and one appears on here from time to time.

dezza

Thanks for your reply, seems to be good and bad reviews floating around the net like any other provider.

Would you say the service is generally reliable - connection wise?

Robisere

I am waiting for FTTC connection to Plusnet, as it has just come into our village and my current ISP does not have any fibre connection facility. I have asked several questions of them, some technical, and received full, informative replies in each case, whether by phone or online. Rep's are courteous and patient as well as knowleadgeable. They also speak plain, clear English, a bonus after some previous experiences. So I will say that, prior to the actual service, it all looks good, but I will know more after I have had the service for a while after actual connection. Certainly their speeds will be higher than I have now, but in rural Lincolnshire, any increase is a bonus!

I will give you a tip that I used to keep my present ISP aware that I was taking notice. Most ISP's use this site: -
internet-speetest.net
- for users to record speeds and type their phone numbers into the box. It goes straight to your ISP and helps them with any issues you have. I use it every day, it also lets them know that you are keeping an eye on the service. I have actually made a table to record speeds and calculate an ongoing average, but others may think that a bit OCD.

If you are not changing for a while, please post again in a month and I will give you more information.

You should also know that BT are the actual parent company of Plusnet. This happened after Plusnet bought madasafish.com, another ISP. Then BT Group bought both. However, Plusnet have complete autonomy and independence to operate their service.

rev_henry

We used to be with them and they were excellent. Were with Tiscali for about 3 months, internet unusable and their Indian 'tech support' were unable to do anything other than read from a script. Got out of the contract early as the service was useless and went to PlusNet who fixed it in about 3 days, phoning us several times throughout to let us know how they were getting on. They also have normal rate UK callcentres who, as said, are excellent and know what they're talking about.
This was a couple of years ago, but I'd recommend.

Check topcashback too!

Ben84

I had plusnet for a couple of years at the last house. They were very good. On the couple of occasions things went wrong, they were easy to contact and resolved the problems effectively. Personally, I'm willing to pay a bit more for a company who are reliable as my internet connection makes and saves me money all the time it's working. Life is too short to be chasing up problems with useless companies who don't help you anyway.

dezza

Thanks for the replies everyone, very useful getting an insight into their support which sounds much better than what I've experienced before. After being an ex Talktalk/Tiscali customer before that would be a welcome change!

Just realised that Topcashback/Quidco offer around £38 cashback so that almost offsets the extra cost, so I'll go ahead with joining.

Again thanks for your opinions everyone, much appreciated

macman

dezza wrote: »

Thanks for your reply, seems to be good and bad reviews floating around the net like any other provider.

Would you say the service is generally reliable - connection wise?

Both Orange and Plusnet are just resellers of BT's wholesale service, so it will make no difference from that aspect.
The difference is CS. Plusnet is regularly near the top of the list, whereas Horange is invariably bumping along the bottom with TT and BT.

dezza

Oh ok I see, that would explain why the speed estimates for Orange, BT and Plusnet are all the same.
Just one more thing, do you know which model of router they supply, if you opted to have them to supply you with one?

macman

Plusnet currrently use a Tecnicolor 582n according to their support pages.

dezza

Ok thanks - hopefully that'll be better than the dreadful Netgear router I've had to use with Orange