Being majorly messed around by PlusNet. What are our rights?

V_Chic_Chick

We signed up for PlusNet on 10th September, having taken over the tenancy on 1st July (we're students, hence the gap). They said it would take 10 days to be installed.

Once we had paid our money, they said it would take a month (this is the legal maximum, according to them?) to be installed, thus taking us up to 11th October. On the 11th October, we received an email and a text saying that our internet was ready. We plugged in the router, but it won't work (the broadband light keeps flashing, and our devices can see that there is a router, but we can't get past a funny login page that won't accept our details).

It's now the 13th October, and we still haven't got any internet. We've emailed them, and they said that they would reply in 24 hours, but they haven't.

All three of us are third year students, and heavily reliant on the internet for our courses, so this is affecting us academically, as we have to travel into uni every time we need to do work (a 20 to 60 minute round trip, depending on method of transport, time of day and traffic). I also work from home for an internet-based company, so this is affecting me professionally. We've also all gone over our phone's data allowance as a result of this, so it's affecting us all financially too.

What are our rights?

keyser666

Give them a call 0114 296 5196.

forgotmyname

Working from home on a private/home phone line / broadband connection.

You may not want to tell them that. They may say you need a business package.

pops5588

It really is best to phone them, they don't reply to emails really.

V_Chic_Chick

I'm not running my own business, I'm doing a small amount of work for a company that I do not own in any way shape or form. It is far from the bulk of my broadband usage normally anyway.

Do you reckon there's any hope of them paying the data element of our phone bills?

pops5588

V_Chic_Chick wrote: »

I'm not running my own business, I'm doing a small amount of work for a company that I do not own in any way shape or form. It is far from the bulk of my broadband usage normally anyway.

Do you reckon there's any hope of them paying the data element of our phone bills?

Probably not, they could argue if you were desperate you would have contacted them by phone on the day it was supposed to go live, they do say that if you connect your router and it doesn't work to phone them.

Anyway, either way you will be refunded money for however long you did not have internet access for in the first month so you will get money back.

EDIT: Having looked over my emails, this is what they sent me once they said my broadband was ready to be activated:

Are you having problems getting online?
Your Plusnet handbook (attached to this email) includes a troubleshooting section to help you deal with the most common connection problems.

If you can get online through another connection, see our connection troubleshooting guide

If you're still having problems you can:

Use our Faults Checker to report a potential problem
Contact us online using the Help Assistant
(You'll need to log in to these services using the Account Username listed above.)

If you don't have alternative Internet access:

Call our support team for help on 0800 432 0200 or 0345 140 0200, available 24/7.

Also looking through emails, once our broadband was activated they sent us an email to confirm they could see it's activated and to let them know if we needed anything else in terms of assistance, so they should be able to see that you haven't activated the broadband and won't charge you for it.

WTFH

What is the "funny login page" you are getting?

As for the 24 hour response time, does that include weekends?

Proc

V_Chic_Chick wrote: »

Do you reckon there's any hope of them paying the data element of our phone bills?

No - at best they'll offer to refund line rental for the period you haven't received. They might throw in a free month out of goodwill.

V_Chic_Chick

They responded by email and said that they would ring us between 3pm and 8pm yesterday. They didn't.

So, we rang them. They said that they will have someone call us back today between 1pm and 2pm (we await this with baited breath). Apparently there may be a fault on the line, but they don't know yet, and are refusing to give us a date for when this might be fixed. Why didn't they work this one out at some point in the last month? Because "when we turn it on, we assume it'll work". Fantastic.

This is primarily being dealt with by my housemate (the person named on the bill). He said that there was no mention of the 24 hours not including weekends. I'm not at home now (currently using the internet at uni), so can't see the login page, but will try to update this when I get home.

We got in contact with them on Saturday, which was the day after the internet was meant to start working. This followed phone calls in the preceding weeks to complain that our internet wasn't going to be installed for a month, when they originally said ten days. They have (very politely but firmly) been made aware of our situation.

I'm fuming. Apparently, as we're new customers, we're a priority, so I'd hate to see what it's like if you have a problem as an existing customer. Given that our need for internet is quite demonstrably more necessary than for those who want to watch cat videos on youtube, you think they'd get on with it. I have absolutely no idea how they can be so thoroughly incompetent - friends nearby have gone with other companies (Virgin seems to be particularly good), and have had internet installed within a matter of days.

wealdroam

V_Chic_Chick wrote: »

Given that our need for internet is quite demonstrably more necessary than for those who want to watch cat videos on youtube, you think they'd get on with it.

Clearly you think your need is much more important than anyone else's.

I am however not sure how that is demonstrably so.

WTFH

V_Chic_Chick wrote: »

Given that our need for internet is quite demonstrably more necessary than for those who want to watch cat videos on youtube, you think they'd get on with it.

If your "need" is so great, then:
1. Why did you wait 3 months before ordering it? Sure, you're a student, but your needs should have made you react sooner, rather than waiting until the last minute.
2. Why did you choose one of the cheapest options, when you clearly "need" a business account with a company that supplies the cables to the building as well as the broadband?

Sorry, but your need is the same as the person who wants to watch cat videos, or anyone else who pays exactly the same price for exactly the same service. If you want better service, because of your self importance, then pay for it.