Plusnet no line rental broadband top pick, we want your feedback

joe134

violentvinyl wrote: »

I had planned to jump ship from TalkTalk when they raised their prices (not because of the rise in price mind you, but because I had a bad experience with them where they charged me for an engineer callout and I had to fight with them for hours to get it refunded).

I signed up with Plusnet online, and on the day of the install, I had the foresight to call on the morning of to confirm they were coming. Turns out they had never booked the engineer to come out (apparently they have to do this manually on some orders?). So I rescheduled the engineer, and requested compensation for my lost time. I was originally given a £20 credit, then realized Plusnet would have charged me £50 if I had missed the appointment, so I called back up to ask for the full £50 credit. They offered £30, but wouldn't go any higher, so I just cancelled the new install out right. For some reason, Plusnet thinks they should be able to charge you £50 if you miss an appointment, but they only felt they needed to compensate me to the tune of £30 when they missed the appointment.

So TT are not the worst, and the grass aint greener the other side.
:cool:

diamonds

joe134 wrote: »

So TT are not the worst, and the grass aint greener the other side.
:cool:

Thats the problem with most UK companies, they want your money not complaints, they expect your brit stiff upper lip to play part of the unwritten contract, I've lived abroad and find the service standard in the UK to be dismal.

jem16

leedsdigital wrote: »

Both the management and the staff have no idea what they are doing and the only form of apology I got was constant blaming of the supplier BT Openreach. Very naughty of them considering Plusnet and BT are one and the same.

I'm not going to condone the terrible experience you have had with Plusnet as these kind of mistakes with provisioning have been happening more and more.

However you are wrong on one major point. Plusnet is owned by BT Retail. BT Openreach is an entirely separate company and has nothing to do with BT Retail. BT Openreach are responsible for the line which carries your phone and BB signal and it is them who are responsible for installation. Plusnet are at the mercy of BT Openreach just like every other supplier other than Virgin who install their own equipment.

BTOR have a bad reputation for no shows I'm afraid.

Not only that, Plusnet is just down the road from me, sort of, in Sheffield.

Not sure what that has to do with anything I'm afraid.

jenniewb

Just make sure you are aware of the new changes within PlusNet.


I was a customer with PlusNet for a while, I signed up due to the many reports on customer service being so good and even on their own site they quoted themselves as having "excellent" customer service and "available 24/7". I signed up on this reason mainly as I often get internet outages which can last anything from a few hours to a few days and these will start at night.


Being that I had another outage I tried to contact PlusNet at 10:30pm one night, only to find there was just a recorded answerphone message asking me to call back when they were open the next day.


I did this but found where as in the past I'd have to wait about 10-20 minutes, I had to wait 45 minutes.


Another issue and another 45/50 minute wait...I could see that not only had the staffing hours been cut but there was now a backlog of issues people were queuing for- stuff that no doubt had been dealt with when the service was available 24 hours now were needing to call within a shorter space of time (either this or staff numbers had been cut?).


Being that the reason I had signed up to PlusNet; that what they advertised was no longer possible because of changes they had gone out of their way to make (it could be understandable if changes had happened because the bar was higher to meet or for some other non-direct reason) and added to this, the prices had gone up for their services I decided to leave.


On trying to get the issue of wanting to leave dealt with (which I did in the end) it took so many calls, letters and online chat attempts to get through and get something resolved, it just made me very sure I would not be returning any time soon. Maybe if you have price as your main guide or are looking for a service they offer or even a discount they offer, this would be a reason to sign up. But just make sure you are aware of what they do offer and what they no longer offer because these things have changed and they are not what they used to be. Suited to some but not to me.


And just as a tail note- I've signed up to BT since; they don't all come from 'Up North' so am not thinking PlusNet are BT. Maybe they are owned by the same financial people but as far as staff go and the way the companies work, they are not the same. BT even offer a different router to PlusNet (much better IMO as I can now have a wireless connection again! The router from PlusNet (I tried several) would not work wirelessly despite what the box said.) and BT offer 24 hour technical help if the internet fails which PlusNet now do not offer.


And btw- does anyone know why the MSE site auto-corrects my "Plusnet" as "PlusNet"? It's really irritating!!

charlotte24

Been with Plusnet for a few years using their standard broadband and most recently telephone too.
Never had any issues and on the few occasions when I had to use their customer service it was quick and reliable.

This has all changed when I switched to Fibre as part of the MS switching event in August when my contract run out!

In the last 2 months:
-initially PN unable to switch me to Fibre (upto 38 Mb/sec contract)
-eventually after 3rd engineer visit they managed to put me onto Fibre
-since put on Fibre getting significant speed drops at peak times after initial "settling period". Less than 1 Mb/s at times!---clearly a contention ratio issue as I am getting almost 40 Mb/s off peak
-this week engineer (Openreach) came out the 4th time and confirmed -again-no problem with the line, problem most likely to be due to contention ratio set up by PN
-The worst of all is my experience with PN customer service. I must have spent hours in waiting queues for the last 8 weeks as waiting times are anywhere between 20 and 60 mins. And the bug passing game between PN and BT openreach about who's fault the speed problem is.

PN used to be good and that might be reflected in some historic customer service rating but something must have changed in recent months. Some cost cutting exercise?

Well, I will be trying to cancel my contract with PN now and change to another provider.

keiran

To the plusnet rep on here.....
Or to anyone who's had both incentives paid

Pl can you state categorically the answer to this query, after having researched and once you know for sure?
I have asked your chat operatives and got 2 different answers to it.


If I sign up via a cashback site (quidco currently offering £110..!!) and I mention a friend's username in the referral section of the application, would I get the cashback and my friend get the 75p/month (better then nothing!)?

Or would it be deemed that the friend referral meant that quidco hadn't "referred" and as such not be payable?

jem16

keiran wrote: »

Or would it be deemed that the friend referral meant that quidco hadn't "referred" and as such not be payable?

I wouldn't risk £110 cashback for the sake of 75p per month for a friend.

froggy27_2

Reading all the reviews here I am surprised.. I have been with PlusNet for years (in fact I was with Madasafish before they took over) and I have always had a good service from them. We had few problems along the way but they were sorted out. In fact I have just renewed with them for unlimited broadband only for £8.50 a month which I believe is good.

oldagetraveller

"In fact I have just renewed with them for unlimited broadband only for £8.50 a month which I believe is good."
If you belive £8.50/month is good for unlimited broadband from PN then I'm sorry to say you've been conned.
I'm on a Market 1 (A)exchange and pay £5.99/month for their unlimited broadband and will be haggling for cheaper in a month's time when my 12 months' agreed minimum and LRS expires.
I too am ex MAAF prior to PN takeover.

jem16

oldagetraveller wrote: »

If you belive £8.50/month is good for unlimited broadband from PN then I'm sorry to say you've been conned.

The poster is referring to having BB only which starts at £12.49pm upwards.

I'm on a Market 1 (A)exchange and pay £5.99/month for their unlimited broadband and will be haggling for cheaper in a month's time when my 12 months' agreed minimum and LRS expires.

Yes but you have line rental too which makes it more likely that you will get BB at a lower price, if not free.