Problems switching to Plusnet - is there a provider with good customer service?

Sago48

We've had BT broadband for decades but have had to look to reducing the costs as it's expensive in comparison with say Plusnet (which we think is also BT?). So we arranged to switch to Plusnet on 9 sep but nothing happened. After phone calls of around 1 hour including waiting we were told that an automatic cancellation had prevented our order being processed. My wife dealt with this and described the faint apology as grudging. And yes, one of us did stay in waiting.

The second start has now been arranged for 23 Sep and we received a formal note of this by email. In the email it said that if we failed to attend the appt there would be a fee of £49.99 to pay. So we replied saying fine and can we please have £49.99 for Plusnet's missed appt on 9 Sep. Now we've had one of those 'not sure what you mean' replies.

We also find Plusnet's website very complex - I switched my father to them some years back and it seemed very simple then. Hmm.

I'm wondering if our experience is common - i.e has Plusnet gone off the rails somewhere? If it seems that they have we will cancel the order and think again.

Also, is there a provider with very good customer service over the years?

Maybe price isn't everything?

Thanks

jem16

Sago48 wrote: »

I'm wondering if our experience is common - i.e has Plusnet gone off the rails somewhere? If it seems that they have we will cancel the order and think again.

I'm afraid it is rather common these days. Plenty of posts on PlusNet Community forums complaining of similar issues.

levineg10

Talk talk are really good. Moved over from bt just over two weeks ago and had no problems.

tronator

Why do you need to be at home during the switch? If you had a working broadband connection, then the switch will be done at the exchange, if at all. You will only have a short downtime during the switch, you might not even notice when you're not at home.

As for the technical support, I have only positive experiences with Plusnet's CS. They really have competent people who don't just read some scripts like in other (foreign?) call centers.

Sago48

Thanks all.

Will look at Talk Talk.

Good to know Plusnet CS can be effective - we may persist. Not impressed by what seems to be a take it or leave it attitude and 30 min waiting time for phone to get through. Their mistake, our inconvenience.

We were at home for an engineer's visit at Plusnet's request, so whatever you think it was about clearly it was different.

Other suggestions and experiences would be welcome.

onomatopoeia99

Sago48 wrote: »

Also, is there a provider with very good customer service over the years?

Yes. Andrews and Arnold. I use them (over a decade now) and recommend them.

You may not like the price.

JenniferK

Sago48 wrote: »

Thanks all.

Will look at Talk Talk.

Good to know Plusnet CS can be effective - we may persist. Not impressed by what seems to be a take it or leave it attitude and 30 min waiting time for phone to get through.

Only 30 minutes? You're lucky.

rubble2

I have just (last Thursday) completed the migration of my second phone line/Broadband service from BT to Plusnet.

The first line we swapped in August went without problem, phone switched over during early hours and BB followed about 5 hours later.

With the second line again the phone switch went well but for some reason Plusnet initially put me on an ADSL service instead of Fibre extra as requested. In all fairness though it was all sorted out within 24 hours so no real complaints from me.

One piece of advice I would give ( I learnt this from my many years as a BT customer) and it seems to hold true of Plusnet as well - avoid contacting Customer services if at all possible. My problem with the switchover was sorted due to me posting a message on the Plusnet forum, one of the moderators saw the message and determined that I was on the wrong tariff despite CS previously telling me that I was already on Fibre plus and that I would need to let the line training period (10 days) elapse before they could do anything to correct the low speeds I was experiencing.

Sago48

Thanks everyone.

I'll look at Andrews and Arnold - thanks.

I thought I'd noticed a change for the better in customer services with some companies - and assumed the rest would follow on. Maybe not. One problem is you don't get to use them regularly so impressions can be misleading. But long phone waiting times suggest a bit of a cavalier attitude to customers I think.

I will have a look at the the Plusnet forum - thanks.

We're still thinking about just cancelling. It doesn't seem sensible to switch to a company that makes such a dramatic mess of the switch without mentioning recompense, (we weren't actually looking for any) and then has the nerve to write warning us that we'll have to pay £49.99 on the second switch date if we aren't there. We've now concluded that this isn't calculated rudeness, but rather that the company is fragmented and one bit doesn't know what the other bits are doing. But this does not inspire confidence either.

Perhaps pretty much all of them are a bit poor at times?