MSE News: Primus customers hit by service woes

forbetter

I have been with Primus for over a year.
I believe that you can only differentiate a bad provider from a good one when something goes wrong.
My personal experience with Primus services has been awful.
I concur with other dissatisfied customers. Primus average response time to a call is 30mns!!! Who can afford to wait 30mns to report a fault?
I have requested a Mac code to transfer to another provider but it can only be done within 48hrs??!!
There is a mis-selling issue because what they advertise as an instant chat messaging is just a mere email messaging system with no trace of your message being sent or confirmation of receiving it.
I understand that for security reasons it is better to have an internal messaging system (contact us) but surely providing an "email me" button to receive a copy or a print icon so that the user can print a copy including date and time is not a luxury but an undeniable obligation for legal reasons and to comply with their terms and conditions.
Sometimes you wonder how these companies can trade under the banner of Ofcom and be totally unaccountable.
It makes our regulators look worse than the perpetrators otherwise how can one justify the breach of code of practice, breach of due care and ironically the unjustified price hikes above inflation rates. It can only be done in the UK.
No wonder ill-intentioned oligarchs are flocking to the UK.

Avoid Primus if you can.

StevieJ

I have used their telephone service for 15 months current charge of £7.50 pm. I don't think I would risk the BB but my telephone service (and communications) have been fine.

watcher100

Guys_Dad wrote: »

To quote from your article

"We often feature Primus deals in our weekly email and guides on the site, as it offers some of the the cheapest line rental, calls and broadband packages."

Well, MSE, stop featuring them and explain why along the lines of "Primus offer very competitive deals but we are unable to recommend them at present because of....." and spell it out.

You need to give informative information rather than simply highlightins prices.

PLEASE SEE THEIR AD ON FACEBOOK , CLAIMING THAT YOU
RECOMMEND THEM . DON'T LET THEM GET AWAY WITH IT !!!
I HAVE JUST RECEIVED MY BILL FOR DECEMBER AND ON IT SHOWS 3hrs.58 MINUTES I WAS KEPT ON HOLD BY CUSTOMER SERVICES.

alixandrea

So, nearly a year after this thread was set up, it would appear that Primus are just as incompetent as ever. When I first signed up to them I had similar problems to everyone else; it took them ages to get my line installed and my account set up. Then they charged me for 'excess usage' which I never truly believed, but paid and then upgraded to their 'unlimited broadband' to prevent recurrence.

In October, I switched to a cheaper provider (EE, as I have a t-mobile account). They handled the switching process and my broadband was switched off on Oct 21st by Primus, being taken over by EE a few hours later. I paid Primus' October bill (up to the end of the month) then cancelled my direct debit.

Ever since then, every month Primus have continued to bill me for my usual montly amount. When I obviously don't pay these bills, they then send me demands for payment both via email and in the post. I have responded to every email, repeating that my account is closed, and that I don't expect to be paying them for a service I am no longer receiving. I also ask them to send me a final bill on the account if indeed one is outstanding.

I send all responses to the email address which is quoted in the body text of their messages to me as being the one to contact them on. Yet I have so far had NO response. I've tried calling them to discuss the issue, but each time I'm on hold for an unacceptable length of time; I only have a mobile and no landline, so pay for 0800 calls.

At one point, someone claiming to be from Primus rang my mobile to demand payment. I explained the situation once again, and he gave me his email address and asked me to forward him all the messages I had received and sent. He claimed he would look into the situation and call me back to sort it. I forwarded everything to the email address he supplied me as soon as we hung up the phone. I haven't heard a word from him since.

Last week I sent a letter to them detailing the above issues. I know they received it as I sent it recorded delivery and tracked it. I still haven't heard anything back from them yet.

The thing is, if I owe them to the end of a contract or something that's fine. If they can prove to me that I owe them money and give me details of exactly what and why I owe them, I will happily pay (EE will refund this). However, I've never had any sort of final statement or human explanation from anyone at Primus as to why they keep billing me when they stopped my service in October. Every email and letter has appeared to be computer generated, with no human touch at all.

tl/dr - Primus are S**T. AVOID THEM!! :mad:

jonny83

I have had to sign up to MSE just warn anyone not to sign up to Primus!

I originally signed up to the calls package as they were the cheapest and I thought what can actually go wrong with a phone line. A few months later I noticed they were the cheapest for fibre so at that point the phone line was working fine and I would transfer across my existing internet to them.

Roll on a few bills later and I notice the initial half price deal that I signed up wasn't being taken into account. Phoned customer services (circa 1 hour wait) and it was confirmed I was being charged line rental twice every month. This would be sorted I was told. On the same call I advised I was moving home and would need phone and fibre moving across. I was advised there is a 50/60 pounds charge to move home. I requested this was waived due to being overcharged as a good will gesture. I was advised it would not be by a supervisor. This conversation was on the 22nd November 2013.

I moved home on the 29th November and can confirm today I am still without a phone line or internet connection. I have called them over 30 times (most times I give up as over an hour on call waiting) to resolve and possibly 20 emails pleading for progress or to cancel my contract. Having paid the line rental up front I will be owed significant money from Primus so luckily for them I have not cancelled the DD....yet.

My advice to anyone is to avoid Primus at all costs. You will not come across a more incompetent and poorly resourced company in telecoms, utilities, pretty much any walk of life.

watcher100

Lol wrote: »

The worst broadband service experience in 10yrs of being a customer. I joined mse about a month after Martin set up the website (tho due to a glitch some of us had to rejoin a yr or so later) and so have switched broadband (and other services) many many times.
I switched to Primus 3 months ago. I received intermittent service in the first month, almost NO broadband whatsoever through December and have still been charged monthly rate PLUS an exceeded data allowance (pah!) resulting in my last monthly bill being £50+! For what?..I have told them (and cc'd ofcom in it) that if my last three months bills do not reflect what I have actually received..(and, let's be honest, usage to your home is visable from their end, so no excuse..) then I expect to be 'released' penalty free and recompensed. They have offered 2 future months free. Not good enough. How can they assure I will get any Internet service if in 3 months they haven't provided it? My last intentions were emailed a week or so ago. I don't hold out much hope in a reply. A previous one took 4 wks to be responded to. I have been warning family and friends not to touch them with a bargepole and I urge others to do the same.

I just got my primus bill for December I have 3hrs 58min logged to holding on for customer services .

watcher100

Primus_Saver_representative wrote: »

Hi Everyone

I've had a few people contact me directly who have been having a few problems accessing their online billing accounts.

If you send me a quick email (address in my profile) I can have you up and running in a jiffy.

On a side note the customer service wait time is currently 5 seconds and is averaging 1.16 minutes for the day so far.

Thanks
Elliott

I just checked my bill for december and found that I had three hours plus waiting on the line for customer services...thankfully on freephone. Freephone yes ,but doesn't leave me much free time .

bluesntwos

What a joke of a company.

I ordered a new phone line on 7th October '13. The only options on the order screen were install new line or supply previous phone number. As I didn't have the phone number as it was a new property (built 2010) and the previous owners didn't give us the old number I selected new line although BT had installed sockets throughout the house so it was merely a case of turning the old line back on. On Primus's website it states:

‘Connecting a phone line with Primus Saver is FREE*
If you have recently moved house and found that the phone line in your new home isn't working then you can call Primus to have it reconnected. If the wiring, socket and routing from the exchange to your property are intact then we may be able to reactivate your line for free, providing that you sign up to one of our award winning home phone packages.’

I was told I would have to pay a new connection fee of £59 and to confirm by phone that I would accept the engineer's date of 25th October '13. I confirmed the appointment over the phone but queried why an engineer was required as there were already phone sockets installed. The lady on the phone could not answer why so I e-mailed customer services on the 21st October '13 to query again why an engineer needed to attend our property. This was allocated a case number. THIS HAS STILL NOT BEEN REPLIED TO!!!!!!!!!

The engineer arrived, walked in, changed a face plate on the wall, tested the line and then drove off! He stated the face plate was to enable the broadband. We don't even have broadband through the phone line!

I contacted customer services by phone to query what was happening with my case number to which the lady said they will reply to you in due course. When I told her I had already been waiting 7 weeks and 3 days for a reply she advised me to... email a complaint. You couldn't make it up!!!!

I wrote a letter and sent another email to Primus on the 14th December '13. They claim a seven day response to letters sent. Surprise surprise, no response to either email or letter.

They have no interest in anything other than taking the money which they seem to have no problems doing. I certainly won't be renewing after my contract ends and think MSE should be removing them from any recommendation. I have resorted to contacting the Ombudsman as I can not get a reply from Primus.

Mandysj

Primus are the most expensive telephone calls I got charged on Christmas day and Boxing Day as it was not at a weekend; the internet goes down constantly there is now a fault on the line, you can't get hold of them, no wifi and when I asked if I could move my contract they wanted £100 I wrote by recorded delivery to the CEO he never replied. I would not recommend them to an enemy let alone a friend they are a rip off and I would dearly love someone to kindly sort it out as I was with a perfectly good provider Orange but this came up the best in your website search never have I regretted anything more. I was with orange years I lost a signal a couple of times and a fault was repaired with 13 hours. PLEASE COULD SOMEONE SORT THIS OUT we trust Martin Lewis but have to say it has definitely clouded by vision now. Will never trust it again.

Mobeer

Primus are appalling. They don't answer the phone, don't respond to emails, and keep on charging despite my having changed suppliers.