Plusnet are rubbish! Any good alternatives?

dllive

Hi all,
Ive been having massive problems with Plusnet recently. The past 3 months my connection has reduced to a crawl. When I phone Plusnet I get kept waiting on the phone for 30+ minutes (no matter what time I phone); their Instant Messaging thing on their site is only open during working hours (when Im working so cant use that!!!) and they take more than 3 days(!) to respond to each ticket I raise on their system! And even then its short replies which dont address the issue!

Ive tried new routers, new filters... all the things they suggest. Still nothing and they are unwilling to help in any way. Ive just seen this: https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.plus.net and see they have 1.3 out of 10 out of 899 people!!! So obviously they are a poorly run company.

.... anyway ....

What are the alternatives? Unfortuantely I cant get fibre (my suspicion is becuase Im directly connected to the telephone exchange - although Plusnet say they cant confirm that!!). Im dubious about satellite broadband.

Should I go with BT? I think Im right in saying that its all their hardware (exchanges, cabling etc...) so they would be in a better position to help? I need to get something sorted.

Many thanks for any suggestions.

Browntoa

Bt is PlusNet ,


if you only have copper to the exchange then I suspect you will get no better speeds with another supplier if that is where the problem lies, ie between the exchange and your house

onomatopoeia99

dllive wrote: »

Should I go with BT? I think Im right in saying that its all their hardware (exchanges, cabling etc...) so they would be in a better position to help? I need to get something sorted.

The wholesale bit of BT is separate from the retail bit and BT retail is just another customer like all the other ISPs that provide a service over a BT line. Going to BT Internet will not help in terms of being able to get Openreach to do stuff quicker because it's a company with "BT" in the name asking.

Going to a different ISP may help in terms of the support people being better able to diagnose and escalate faults.

Plusnet is a separate ISP in the BT group of companies. What they share with BT Internet (and a number of other ISPs) is that they use BT wholesale backhaul over BT 20CN and / or BT 21CN between the ISP and the customer's exchange. The ISP I use also does this, but is neither BT Internet or Plusnet. An ISP like Sky or Talktalk will use BT cabling back to either the cabinet or the exchange but eventually the data gets separated onto their own backhaul network, rather than BT's. The ISP I use also offers the option to use talktalk backhaul instead of BT.


The problem you are facing could be due to a line fault or it could be due to the ISP under-provisioning capacity in its links. If the latter, changing ISP will potentially solve it. Even the much vaunted Virgin Media cable 100Mb broadband suffers from this in some areas, they've connected more customers than their network has the ability to service and it slows to a crawl at peak times - until they install more capacity in their backhaul network in that area the problem won't go away.


Do you find you get better download late at night when the UK Is asleep? If you do it's unlikely to be a fault with your telephone line and more likely to be the fault of the ISP. The cheap ones don't care if they are the point of contention on the user's link to the Internet.

JJ_Egan

Plusnet Bt Sky would be my choices to investigate for a new ISP .Zen is another that may fit the bill or look at one of the more specialist suppliers with better service but higher prices .

jem16

dllive wrote: »

Hi all,
Ive been having massive problems with Plusnet recently. The past 3 months my connection has reduced to a crawl. When I phone Plusnet I get kept waiting on the phone for 30+ minutes (no matter what time I phone); their Instant Messaging thing on their site is only open during working hours (when Im working so cant use that!!!) and they take more than 3 days(!) to respond to each ticket I raise on their system! And even then its short replies which dont address the issue!

Have you posted on the Plusnet Community forums? There are quite a few there who would be able to help. I would agree that their service has gone rapidly downhill of late. Even the CRT staff on the forums are not as good as they were a year ago but you will still get better help there.

What are the alternatives? Unfortuantely I cant get fibre (my suspicion is becuase Im directly connected to the telephone exchange - although Plusnet say they cant confirm that!!). Im dubious about satellite broadband.

Should I go with BT? I think Im right in saying that its all their hardware (exchanges, cabling etc...) so they would be in a better position to help? I need to get something sorted.

Many thanks for any suggestions.

Are you out of contract with Plusnet?

What would be better is to find out first of all what is available on your exchange. Go to Sam Knows website and enter your details into their BB checker. Find out what LLU providers are available in your area as well as obviously those that use the BT equipment as already explained. Then post back with what's available.

dllive

Thanks for all your helpful responses. To answer a few questions:
- Im not in a contract with Plusnet anymore.
- The connection doesnt slow down at night - its just always slow.
- The connection has been ok (not great, but acceptable) for a year+, then a few months overnight just crawled to almost nothing. IT hasnt got much better since - and Plusnet have done literally nothing... apart from taking my money each month.
- Ive done a search on SamKnows. How can I insert an image into this post so you can see it?

jem16

dllive wrote: »

Thanks for all your helpful responses. To answer a few questions:
- Im not in a contract with Plusnet anymore.
- The connection doesnt slow down at night - its just always slow.
- The connection has been ok (not great, but acceptable) for a year+, then a few months overnight just crawled to almost nothing. IT hasnt got much better since - and Plusnet have done literally nothing... apart from taking my money each month.

So have you posted on the Community forums?

Ive done a search on SamKnows. How can I insert an image into this post so you can see it?

You can't unless you use an image hosting website. Might be easier just to tell us what's available or what the exchange is.

dllive

I havnt posted on the Community Forums, although I have read quite a few posts from people who have had similar issues (none of which seem to get solved from what Ive seen). I will post no there this weekend.

My local exchange is Christow. I wanted to post a picture as I wasnt sure I was looking at the right screen.
(thanks for your assistance!)

jem16

dllive wrote: »

My local exchange is Christow. I wanted to post a picture as I wasnt sure I was looking at the right screen.
(thanks for your assistance!)

Not so good! You appear to be on a Market 1 exchange with no LLU providers so you're pretty much stuck with the likes of PlusNet, BT themselves or BT Wholesalers. Virgin isn't available either.

The first issue is what is causing the slowdown. If it's a line fault you will have the same problem no matter where you go. So that really has to be attended to first. Post on the Community forums with the relevant stats from your router so that some of the very knowledgeable customers who post there can help. If it's internal wiring or they suspect a line fault they might be able to prod PlusNet into action. Some of the CRT are better than others.

You can also post your router stats on here and someone could take a look at them.

BT does have some great deals at the moment, especially if you use Quidco for cashback but not much good if you still get the same problem.

dllive

Great - thanks Jem16. Gutted Im so limited. The only other solution I can think of is broadband satellite, do you have any thoughts on this? Ive read what people say and theyve said theres latency issues, and no company can guarantee fast speeds.

Browntoa

and very expensive.........keep reporting faults to PlusNet