VERY slow broadband and Poor service from Plusnet

bouble

Hi All

I hope somebody on here can maybe help with what I need.

I signed up for phone + free broadband with Plusnet at end Oct/start of Nov, and after numerous cancelled orders on their behalf, I received the phone connection on 26th November and I eventually received Internet at my home on the 31st December after many phone calls and re-orders. Except it is VERY slow. my average speed (using broadband checker) is:
Upload : 0.4mbps
Download: 0.3mbps
I live 2.6miles from the exchange

Because of where I live, I expect a slower connection than most are used to....but with these speeds I can barely send an email or open up photos. When I do it can take upto 10mins for an email to get sent, if it doesnt disconnect.
I am at the point now that I am sick to death of calling Plusnet (1-2 times every week) as they never call me back when I request a call back.

I have been going back and forth for the past month as my broadband speed have never reached over these speeds, most of the time its less. When I signed up originally I was given a min speed of 1-2mbps that I would receive, then, 2 weeks after my broadband started 'working' I was sent an email from Plusnet that said my current line speed is 7.15mbps. Of which, i'm yet to see.

I have tried plugging into the main connector on the BT socket but no difference to the speeds, and have done all the required tests this end. I had to input details to my router as when they sent it out it hadn't been setup for me. And since then have continued to go round in circles for the past month.

Plusnet have now emailed me saying:
Thank you for your patience. I have tested your service today and I can see that your speeds are now showing within the acceptable limits for the length of your line. However there is currently a Major Service Outage which maybe affecting your broadband service. I have checked and can see you are currently online but we would like to monitor your account until the service outage is over. In regards to the performance of your broadband connection I am sorry to say that because of the length of your line it is unlikely you will achieve anything more than what you are currently receiving. There is nothing further other than sending an engineer to the property we can do to resolve the issue. Please note that an engineer may not be able to do anything further to increase your broadband speeds and if he can not find a fault or the fault is caused by any internal wiring or equipment then a call out charge of £50 may apply. Please let us know if this is something that you wish to proceed with or we will consider this fault resolved. If you do wish to proceed with the engineer visit, then we can arrange this, please reply with 3 available dates and then you accept the possibility of an engineer charge, if it is found to be caused by your equipment or internal wiring. The engineers are available Monday to Friday 8AM -1 PM or 1PM - 6PM. Thank you for your patience and cooperation in this matter. Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience caused.

What can I do? Is there any hope of me getting an engineer out as they have mentioned they were arranging one the past 3 times I have called but still nothing has been done? Am I expected to pay £50 call out charge for a service Plusnet provide? Am I expected just to put up with the speeds? I don't understand how in 2016 we still have to put up with these speed in Cornwall.

Anyway. Any help would be much appreciated, I fear that as I received 'free broadband for 12mths' when I switched phone provider and took up the offer that they see me as receiving broadband for free and are reluctant to fix the problen? Or maybe I've reached that cynical point where I fear they aren't going to do anything at all.

Many thanks

Kate

Browntoa

the "may apply" is if they prove a fault to your own wiring past the BT main socket


if the fault is between the exchange and the back of the BT socket (Bt last point) then no charge should be made


your line is Bt Openreach's problem regardless of your ISP , PlusNet pay a wholesale fee for the line maintenance to BT

JJ_Egan

Major Service Outage nothing you can do until this is fixed . Could be equipment in the exchange broken cable flooding etc .

Is this speed you are measuring over cable or WiFi ??

macman

Where did you get a £50 call out charge from? If there is a line fault upstream of your master socket then the OR call out is FOC, if not then the charge is around £130 for the first hour.

cajef

bouble wrote: »

I don't understand how in 2016 we still have to put up with these speed in Cornwall.

Large areas of Cornwall are now covered by Fibre FTTP/FTTC and get superfast speeds put your phone number in the checker here to find out if you can get Fibre.

http://www.superfastcornwall.org/can-you-connect

ALF_2

You will never get good service with Plusnet, cut your loses and go to a proper company. I lost patience with them and gone to BT. Proper service. Still trying to complain about Plusnet using Resolver site and they are rejecting saying "they are ignoring my complain for my own security".
PLUSNET ARE A MICKEY MOUSE COMPANY, CHEAP AND NASTY

cajef

ALF wrote: »

You will never get good service with Plusnet, cut your loses and go to a proper company.
PLUSNET ARE A MICKEY MOUSE COMPANY, CHEAP AND NASTY

Just a matter of opinion, I have been with Plusnet for many years and have no complaints about the service I have had with them, since I changed to fibre with them three years ago I have never had a dropped connection or speed problems, maybe I have been lucky but I do not find them a micky mouse cheap and nasty company.

manchestman

ALF wrote: »

You will never get good service with Plusnet, cut your loses and go to a proper company. I lost patience with them and gone to BT. Proper service. Still trying to complain about Plusnet using Resolver site and they are rejecting saying "they are ignoring my complain for my own security".
PLUSNET ARE A MICKEY MOUSE COMPANY, CHEAP AND NASTY

I am having the same problems complaining to Plusnet via resolver, so have resorted to good old fashioned royal mail post for my complaint.
As to plusnet being 'mickey mouse' I don't agree and have usually found their customer service to be very good.

To Bouble: Don't give up. Take your own broadband speed test measurements using a cable rather than wi fi, take several tests. It's hard work complaining, but it is meant to be hard so that you will give up!
My daughter had similar probs, so bad they couldn't even open web pages, eventually got engineer around. Things didn't immediately improve, but with more phone calls, it did get to be a reasonable speed where they can now stream satisfactorily. Keep at them is my advice.

forgotmyname

Dont forget when testing your connection your also testing the connection of the server doing the test.

I can pick a town 40 - 60 miles away rather than the closest one and get faster speeds. The test sites servers in that location are probably not as crowded.

kwikbreaks

Post up your router stats. http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/frogstats.php

2.6 miles is your distance to the exchange but the line may well take a circuitous route and be a lot longer. Even if it were just the 2.6miles that's a long distance for ADSL and the speeds would be poor.

2.6m = 4.16km



http://www.increasebroadbandspeed.co.uk/2012/graph-ADSL-speed-versus-distance

There are steps you can take to avoid lowering the speed even further by poor internal wiring. Have you ever looked into that? http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/socket.htm

DavidP24

Hi Kate

You have done all you need to prevent a charge by testing on Master Socket unless you have some dodgy extension or a phone plugged in without a splitter.

So one thing worth explaining is how speed gets so slow

When connections is bad the kit at the ISP drops the speed until a line can be maintained it then stays at that speed. Over time it will automatically improve as they try higher speeds or you can ask PN to retrain the line when work has been completed.

Turning off your router makes things worse as the system things you had a reliability problem, ideally you should leave it on until the matter has been resolved.

I suspect that they wanted to measure and do some manual retraining but your router was off.

If and when the service is given the all clear by plusnet you can argue that they have not completed their part of the contract and get out.

Out of interest have you checked 4g coverage in your area?