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

DavidP24

Yes I get carried away sometimes

When I say I despise a company (TalkTalk) it is not praise, you should look at my previous posts on here, they make entertaining reading and explain why I will NEVER deal with them again.

I did say you got the appropriate deal for your parents, the elderly seem adverse to changing and as I pointed out when you consider the rip off for anytime calls, deal was good, just not for me.

Actually I lived in 4 countries last year so experienced quite different levels of service, this one was for California

http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/4280709127

What was amazing there is that I could see 30 different wireless signals and has to really work on the router to get good signal then even a wired signal would see it max out because of the way the ISP's consolidate

http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/4299218214

I know that Singapore has one of the best signals in the world but before your comments did not know about HK, just because things are bad elsewhere does not mean we should tolerate bad service, bad management or unethical practices (selling your data as TT do).

Right now I am having a few months using 200gb with EE on 4G, speed is variable between 4mb and 24mb so not bad and will keep me going till better offers come along, I also get upload speeds. Can't mention that without thinking of TalkTalk and that makes me spit nails, how their fibre has virtually no upload.

What I said in previous posts in this thread is that I thought Plusnet were very straight talking, no nonsense with credit checks and their policy if you move is very reasonable, they either do it free if you stay for 12 months or they max the bill at £65, others hold you to contract.

My rant was more about how they and other companies damage their reputation by using services like Quidco, it is like upmarket restaurants that I have seen go out of business after using Groupon. The market those sites appeal to are freebie seekers, so if you do not deliver what you promise, you get bad reviews.

I was with Plusnet for many years, I stuck with them during the bad times when BT Wholesale terms almost put them out of business, the amazingly BT bought them and it fixed 99% of the problems.

Plusnet's biggest problem is ironic, a communications company that has trouble communicating.

I totally get your point about competition abroad, I renegotiated that contract in California with Cox, there was no real competition in the area, the company made a dozen promises that I recorded in a spreadsheet and they broke every one. One tech said our problem was the router and that we had a credit of a new router so they might as well send it to us free. We did not use it as we had bought our own, then they billed us $80 for it!! We renegotiated a price for 14 months then when 2 months passed they billed us at old rates. So we voted with our feet and cut back on TV, moved phone number to VoIP and we cut back the speed of the line (they have 5 levels). So upshot was they got less than 15% of the income they had before. To be fair California does apply some state taxes to things like phone lines that can be avoided if you use VoIP.

I still hate these cashback deals and prefer good old fashioned cheap pricing, hey I am sounding like a Plusnet ad!

editor1

At the end of the day many ISP's need to pull their socks up and stop milking users of what is now a required utility.

I'm annoyed at having to put in some valuable hours to find suitable deals and still don't really comprehend the CashBack business, that said, to-date I have never had serious issues with CashBack and given the folks are not IT-savvy their greatest hang-up is junk telephone calls rather than junk mail.

Again though I will emphasise that the service I've personally received from Plusnet has been good - but recognise that if they mess up no doubt they do so in a royal manner.

As stated, if it were myself, I'd have utilised the BT deal, but like you were prefer a straightforward cheap contract for the basics and the ISP's can then cream off other add-on services persons really do not need.

The fact remains, compared to Hong Kong the UK is quite competitive as far as Broadband goes and most private companies globally don't seem to like to offer decent customer services anymore, unless it's the likes of Apple, which charges you an arm and a leg to begin with.

It will be interesting what happens this time next year, but if can get what my folks want for a tenner a month, then I'm a happy camper.

bandaj

I took up the offer via MSE as having retired I needed to move away from a business service. I knew I would miss the great customer service ( about 30 seconds telephone waiting time !!).The PN deal looked good, so I signed up on December 1st for BB and anytime phone. I paid the line rental upfront, and was given December 15th for the changeover.. No further contact from PN, and on Dec 15th the phone went dead, but BB was still active. Managed to gert through on the chat line, and was told the phoen would be back on later that day (it was) but no idea about the. BB. Since then, PN have been unable to supply BB, and all I get is an weekly email saying " the question has been put on hold until ???" They blame the problem on the fact that another supplier is supplying the service! YES, you are supposed to be swapping it over !!?**!#
Latest is that they will review the question again on Jan 21st.
I posted the problem on PN forum, and did get a message from a new person saying his team had token the problem over, but nothing has changed. Waiting nearly 8 WEEKS now, and counting.:mad
P.S. I did get an email saying i could claim my £75 - I won't hold my breath

DavidP24

Goodness, that brings back some memories.

I remember years ago having to make a complaint then when nothing happened and call centre were keeping on hold, I went to forums and had a good !!!!! and the fault got taken up by one of the staff there.

I seem the remember the customer service manager was female and if she took it on they got results.

The question I have for you is whether you told your old supplier you were moving and who to?

Since OFCOM scrapped the MAC code it seems that some suppliers are not taking the word of the new supplier and waiting until they have been told by the client.

They can't hold onto the phone line but the do not cease their broadband kit until you tell them and guess what, they bill you for it as well!

My_perfect_cousin

I signed up to Plusnet in November 2014 through the MLMSE site with a £70 cashback. I had endless service problems - eventually resolved by plusnet. I signed up to a new contract in November 2015. I was given a £75 cashback offer. This reminded me to check whether I received the first one. Nope. I now have many conflicting messages from Plusnet in which they variously state that I had 2, 3 and 6 months in which to respond to an email (which I don't have) for my 1st cashback! I have messages from them stating that I 'triggered' the new cashback in Jan 2016 when I complaIned about the old one... and messages from Plusnet stating that the new cashback didnt require me to do anything! As of today I have not received either the £70 or £75 cashback. Very very poor service in my opinion.

olly300

Plusnet are deliberately billing me monthly for line rental and broadband even though I have paid them for a year in advance.

Why am I saying it's deliberate?

Well the customer service operator I spoke to on online chat today admitted that the last person I spoke to using online chat did not do anything. They don't seem to realise that all the transcripts are provided to you. I am now writing them a formal complaint after which I will take them to the ombudsman.

DavidP24

A friend of mine showed me a way you can even the score with suppliers waste your time like this.

Basically I tell them that I operate a one time report and fix policy. So when I first report the problem I say

"I believe that this error is 100% your fault and you are in breach of the the contract we agreed on said date. I am now formerly informing you that I operate a ONE TIME REPORT AND FIX POLICY, if you resolve the problem I have reported to you today I will NOT be charging you for my time, HOWEVER, if I have to contact you again because you do not resolve this or subsequent matters related to this contract, then I will not only be invoicing you for my time today at £250 an hour or part thereof but also any subsequent time spent on this matter, I also reserve the right to invoice you for any consulting I need to make with 3rd parties at the same rate as well as for Counsel and recovery of cost of legal action. A copy of this message will be sent to your company secretary tomorrow, continuation of service is acceptance of these terms, failure to accept these terms will result in an invoice for my time today and potential legal action for breach of contract. Any outstanding invoice will accrue interest at 4% above Bank of England base rate per annum if not paid within 7 days."

I then send a copy of the script to the company secretary, I use duedil to find their name and then find their contact details online.

I make it very clear what they did wrong, how and why it is in breach of what was agreed, what I want them to do and by when.

If things escalate and I have to contact them again for the continued breach of the agreed contract I tell the person immediately "I just need to inform you that I have reported your breach of contract to your company secretary Peter Jones and agreed that I will be seeking recovery of my time and related costs, so it is in your interest to resolve this matter as quickly as possible"

I then go on to explain what was agreed what they are not doing and what I need them to do.

It is quite reasonable for you to have to call them to report a problem but after that it is on them.

As for Plusnet in your case, I suspect it is their incompetence rather than deliberate.

olly300 wrote: »

Plusnet are deliberately billing me monthly for line rental and broadband even though I have paid them for a year in advance.

Why am I saying it's deliberate?

Well the customer service operator I spoke to on online chat today admitted that the last person I spoke to using online chat did not do anything. They don't seem to realise that all the transcripts are provided to you. I am now writing them a formal complaint after which I will take them to the ombudsman.

terra_ferma

I chose to go with Plusnet because of the good feedback about their customer service and reliability....
Phone/broadband have still not been activated (a fault with the phone line apparently) and the only way to get updates on the fault is to log in online..... It took them 2 days to just test the line and say it needed an engineer. All of this would have been avoided if we have an engineer actually visiting instead of the self-installing package.
Cannot comment on the actual broadband yet, but so far not so good.

DavidP24

Sadly from feedback on this forum it seems that their support is like a rollercoaster, it seems we are on the downward bit.

To be honest I blame install issues on BT Wholesale mostly, I made an enquiry to have a line put in and 3 providers all said BT was the delay and it would be three weeks.

If the line is not LLU (provider using their own kit in the exchange) then it comes down to BT, there was a time when they were faster with Plusnet but that led to complaints, so now they are kwap for everyone.

The acid test will be when you get the service.

Keep us informed!

terra_ferma

Even less impressed, on the update they stated that I needed to phone to arrange a visit from an engineer. But when I phoned they told me I didn't need to book an appointment after all, as they actually needed to book an engineer to check the line outside. Two days just to get to this point, not great.
After I complained about the fact that I only got updates online I started receiving emails.