Thinking of moving from BT to Plusnet - Are they ok?

mac.d

JenniferK wrote: »

Personally I wouldn't join Plusnet. Currently with EE they are the most complained about internet provider. Customer services can be ok if you don't mind waiting 45-60 minutes just to talk to someone. Their live chat has become very poor.

Where do you get your stats saying they are the most complained about?

JenniferK

mac.d wrote: »

Where do you get your stats saying they are the most complained about?

http://www.computerweekly.com/news/4500260698/EE-and-Plusnet-are-most-complained-about-broadband-providers

forgotmyname

I may have to give PN a call and see if i can get a discount or a new router at least.

Adding the NAS has taken another port so quickly running out.

mac.d

JenniferK wrote: »

http://www.computerweekly.com/news/4500260698/EE-and-Plusnet-are-most-complained-about-broadband-providers

Thanks for the interesting link. I presume the figures are directly from Ofcom's stats (I see someone complaining on the Computer Weekly article that they must be "sponsored statistics"?

On an unrelated note from that article, I knew Vodafone were poorly rated, but I never realised just how bad they were in comparison to every other mobile provider. More than twice as many complaints as the next 'worst performer'. :eek:

Marmitebaby

I've been with PlusNet for nearly a year. They took a while to send me the cheque for £100, but after a couple of phone calls (which to be fair may not have been necessary) they delivered. As I had PlusNet for my 2nd home, I'm not there much, & although I have a phone line it's for internet use only, as I have unlimited free calls with my mobile phone. The internet speed is fine, much better than Talktalk which I have in my "main" home. I paid upfront (+ line installation & router "post & packing" charge) for a year, then £2.50 a month (which is occasionally a few pence more, but not enough to waste time over) but now my contract's coming to an end. I'll probably renew, as they've kept the price the same as last year. I've just spend 10 minutes waiting to speak to someone on their free phone line, it's invariably a very long wait, so although they do have UK call centres, you need plenty of time & persistence to get through. But that's par for the course with most companies now, & I often find it quicker to write a letter! (Which also gives proof of the correspondence).

thistledome

IceColdRum wrote: »

I have been with Plusnet ever since I switched from Orange Broadband years ago (those were the dark days!) I have found plusnet customer services to be the epitome of helpfulness the majority of the time....

I've never had any issues with their unlimited broadband not being unlimited when I used to download lots of content I would regularly go over 150gb's a month and not once did I ever receive any kind of communication or incur fees.....

I quoted this post rather than type out the identical info! I was with the same company from dial-up on my first IBM PC: Freeserve/Wanadoo/Orange/EE from 1999 to 2014, then I just couldn't stand the stress any longer of the appalling and unintelligable foreign "support" every time the router broke down, which was frequently.

Moving to Plusnet was the best thing we ever did. Our first year's contract was up recently and we had to haggle with them a little, but I've found them always friendly and easy to deal with and we really didn't want to leave. Speeds are the best we can get out in the sticks and router *touch wood* has been reliable so far.

They've got quite a helpful forum as well, if you get any problems you can post on there and either a PN employee or one of the knowledgable posters will help.

You're also supporting jobs in Britain, which is important IMO. (Their hold music is right up my street too, being an over 50 - I can sing along to Don't You Want Me Baby while I wait).

I'm a fan.:D

thistledome

JenniferK wrote: »

Personally I wouldn't join Plusnet. Currently with EE they are the most complained about internet provider. Customer services can be ok if you don't mind waiting 45-60 minutes just to talk to someone. Their live chat has become very poor.

Their reviews on something like Trustpilot are terrible, although it should be bourne in mind that happy customers tend not to reviw.

Best of luck if you join - you may need it.

I've never had to wait that long. I'm not saying nobody else has, but in my experience the phone has been answered in reasonable time, every time. EE on the other hand....don't get me started :mad:

oldagetraveller

JenniferK wrote: »

http://www.computerweekly.com/news/4500260698/EE-and-Plusnet-are-most-complained-about-broadband-providers

From that link
"Plusnet saw a notable spike in dissatisfied consumers during the quarter, up from 22 per 100,000 in the April to June period following a major domain name system (DNS) malfunction at the start of September, which left its services unusable for a number of days."

Seems to be a bit of a sweeping statement, particularly the last bit in blue. I suspect the numbers and article have been sensationalised (is that a word?) in typical journalistic fashion.
I'm a long standing PN customer for 'phone and broadband and I'd much rather speak to someone in Yorkshire than offshore, India, Philippines etc..
On the two recent occasions I've phoned them, because of a phone line fault, they answered in 10 minutes and two minutes respectively. The faults were fixed in three days (including a weekend) and two days by BTOR.
Plus I was given an excellent retention 12 months' deal last December.
So, it's not all bad.

frankie

I too have been with Pusnet for many years (MAAF before that) and they used to be great. Seems to me they have lost their USP and are just the same as all the other ISPs now.

Just looked on their forum and am astonished as to how many complaints there are there.

I'm moving home in 5 weeks and I'm dreading what will happen to my phone and broadband, really thinking of cutting my losses and looking for an alternative ISP. But who???

bizzo1065

I switched to plusnet back in October 2015, and they have been nothing but trouble.

They messed up the switch in the first place so it was delayed by three weeks, I was then without broadband for a couple of days during the switch itself.

Paid line rental in advance for a year and have charged monthly line rental on top of that, so you then have to call them up to get a refund. They then messed up correcting the line rental error so had to contact them again to get another refund for the next month and hoping now it is sorted on an ongoing basis.

To cap it all quidco were doing £110 cash back at the time and plusnet have declined the claim!

Getting through to the call centre takes an age. Make sure you set aside some time to get your problems fixed!

As for the product itself, no different in speed to the Sky Broadband I had before, in my opinion.