More problems with John Lewis Broadband

Horatiojohn

I am currently in dispute with John Lewis Broadband after I cancelled my contract having received appalling broadband and customer service. My experiences are similar to those documented on these boards – intermittent, slow or no (mostly no) broadband, extremely long waits (over an hour) when calling customer services, clueless staff providing contradictory information, failures to make promised callbacks and engineers not appearing for their visits. After 3 weeks of no internet and prospect of more of their inept customer service, I took matters into my own hands and cancelled the contract.

When I cancelled the contract, I also cancelled my DD and specifically told them that I withdrew my authorisation for them to claim funds from my account until we had discussed early departure fees and compensation for their failings. They still tried to take the money from my account. After receiving my detailed (5 pages) complaint, despite promising that they would be in touch within 10 working days I heard nothing – another demonstration of their stunning customer service! I finally received a letter on 29th November backdated to 21st (presumably an attempt to meet with the 10 working days requirement). The reply came from Plusnet, who provide the service for John Lewis, and was one of the most insincere responses I have ever read. It basically said “sorry about all that and you still need to pay the exit fee” and did not address a single element of my complaint.

In my letter, I also asked them to discuss the early departure fee and compensation in good faith. They have in fact come wading straight in threatening to pass the bill to a debt collection agency. What steps do they have to go through before they can do this?

Can anybody offer some advice please? As my original contract was with John Lewis Broadband, should I tell Plusnet that I want to deal with John Lewis Broadband (they both seem as bad as each other). All previous communications were with John Lewis Broadband and on the rare occasions I was actually connected to a customer services adviser if it turned out to be a Plusnet one they would move me on as fast as they could.

I am told that having explicitly withdrawn my authorisation for John Lewis Broadband to take funds from my account the fact that they have still attempted is technically theft. How do I report this?

I suppose that the moral to this story is “don’t trust your internet to a company more readily associated with home furnishings”. I’ve also complained to John Lewis and Partners themselves. Strangely they don’t seem too bothered about being associated with such calamity and poor customer service. Presumably this is indicative of John Lewis and Partners’ own decline!

JJ_Egan

Might be worth waiting for JL to send in the debt collectors for the broken contract.
Unless you are on a business contract they do not offer much more than £30 compensation .

editor1

Am I correct in thinking that the John Lewis Service is a re-branded Talk Talk service?

onomatopoeia99

What level of compensation does your domestic broadband contract offer for non-performance? What does it provide as grounds for you to terminate the contract before the agreed minimum term? Have those grounds been met?

[Deleted User]

editor1 wrote: »

Am I correct in thinking that the John Lewis Service is a re-branded Talk Talk service?

No, it is a re-branded Plusnet service.
But that doesn't make it any better, OFCOM complaints show Plusnet is just as bad.

(And as a Plusnet customer, I wouldn't recommend them, the customer service is in the pan currently)

pmduk

JJ_Egan wrote: »

Might be worth waiting for JL to send in the debt collectors for the broken contract.

Most ISPs will just default you and trash your credit record.

editor1

@gsminx,
Thankfully i changed from PlusNet to Sky a few years ago, i think before BT imposed its own poor customer service levels on a business that had a good reputation - no complaints with Sky and have a quite a good deal with them.