PlusNet / BT Openreach Frustrations

_andrewstewart

Bit of a rant I'm afraid, but I'm being driven insane by this.

On 24th December I cancelled my Sky package and placed an order with PlusNet for fibre broadband and phoneline, a router was arranged to be sent to me and an engineer appointment was made for Tuesday 14th January.

On Monday 13th an engineer unexpectedly turned up - fortunately somebody was in. The engineer disconnected my Sky Broadband, but as the router hadn't arrived (PlusNet had failed to send it out) the engineer said he would return the following day during the originally agreed time slot with a router to complete the job.

Nobody turned up, and since then PlusNet and BT Openreach have seemingly been in conversation about who's fault it is.

Now, after 10 days without an internet connection, I am told it will be another 5 working days before we can even make a booking for an engineer to come out (and even then it will be another few days until the appointment)

I have a full time job during the day and rely on freelance web design in the evenings to provide for my young family, and have missed deadlines and had to turn down contracts as I can't guarantee when I'll be able to complete the work. It's looking increasingly like I'm going to be missing out on close to a month's worth of work (and subsequent payment) due to the inability of either Plusnet or BT Openreach to get their act together.

To top it off, I was told that if I want to cancel my order I would have to pay early cancellation fees (which they have since offered to waive) but it is now no use cancelling as that process combined with the wait for a new provider will presumably take even longer, so I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place.

</rant>

kwikbreaks

Sadly none of this helps you...

Openreach no shows are pretty common. I had one moving from cable to FTTC which resulted in me staying on cable. I did move to Plusnet FTTC but made sure I got it installed before cancelling the cable. You of course didn't have that option.

Openreach are the villain of the piece but PlusNet support are a shambles right now which won't help you at all. You should be able to register for the forum - http://community.plus.net/ which does get some attention and avoids you hanging on the phone for ages.

I hadn't properly research PlusNet support before joining but luckily apart from getting my account activated on day 1 (through the forum) I haven't needed them.

_andrewstewart

Thanks, I'm registered on there and nagging at them from all angles (probably doesn't help things, but it's a release!). Facebook, phone, ticket system and forum.

I appreciate PlusNet are the middleman and can't do much themselves about it aside from pester BT - but if they'd have sent out the router when they should have done I'd have been up and running on the Monday

_andrewstewart

Hallelujah, just had a message saying it's booked in for next Monday. Fingers crossed! 2 weeks with no internet is still shocking

My fiancee or I will be taking the morning off work - weighed it up and it means losing less money than we would otherwise by turning down any more freelance contracts. If it's another no-show I will have to be sectioned - I love the way they say if there's nobody in they'll charge us £60 but the same doesn't apply to their no-shows

oldagetraveller

"I love the way they say if there's nobody in they'll charge us £60 but the same doesn't apply to their no-shows"

Plusnet are rewarded to the tune of £50 by BTOR for a no show.
Bear that in mind if it does happen to you.

_andrewstewart

Since it's already happened once I might have to mention this to them in my 'feedback'

forgotmyname

You dont need the router to setup the fibre though. Engineer replaced my faceplate. Fitted the modem and checked the connection.

I was told about 68mb. He said the line was something like 82mb but capped by my package to 76.

I get 73mb on speed tests.

Initially i used a BT hub 3 to connect whilst i waited for my router to arrive. Turned out it got delivered to the neighbours and they brought it round recently.

Engineer had no issue with me not having a router and didnt need to call back.

_andrewstewart

Thanks, that's also good to know. Finally been installed properly today and the engineer (who was very helpful) said the guy who came out first had only installed the faceplate and done nothing at all at the cabinet (despite going off there for 15 minutes to have a fiddle about)

"Plusnet are rewarded to the tune of £50 by BTOR for a no show."

Is this confirmed anywhere? Just putting together a letter of complaint and would like to mention this.

Pincher

Resilience, redundancy, back ups.

Eventually, businesses realise that breakdowns cost money, so they have contingency plans and backups. I used to have Virgin cable and BT ADSL, now it's BT Infinity and Plusnet ADSL2+. Yes, backups cost money.

A cheaper approach is to arrange a reciprocal agreement with your neighbour. In this scenario, only one house should upgrade at a time.

I used to work for a company that set up a backup operation in Switzerland, just in case the London operation gets bombed, or flooded. The system in Switzerland runs in standby, and can take over in two seconds if London falls over. Amusingly, it runs in a dark room, because they switch the lights off when no one is there, which is most of the time: presumably because it saves a bit of electricity.

_andrewstewart

Lovely idea in theory, but when it's a struggle to put food on the table and heat the house at the end of the month it's a bit harder in practice!

kwikbreaks

Pincher wrote: »

now it's BT Infinity and Plusnet ADSL2+

Considering both use the same last leg route you'd have been better off keeping VM cable in the equation.