Intermittent broadband connection - how to complain?

Winfield

Hi,

I'm asking for some advice on behalf of my parents about their internet connection through Plusnet.

For the past 2 years or so, their internet connection has been intermittent - they've had numerous phonecalls with Plusnet about this issue, and while Openreach engineers have been sent to try and fix things, they're still experiencing problems.

The last Openreach engineers who dealt with them found that one of their connection cables (outside of the house, perhaps as far away as the exchange box at the bottom of their hill) was "rotten", and that they'd need "good luck" in getting it fixed / changed as this cable (apparently) only serves my parents' and their neighbour's house (who also experiences similar internet connection problems).

My parents called Plusnet to complain about this, but were basically told the same by the customer services advisor they spoke to - "good luck in getting Openreach to replace that one defective cable supplying yourselves and your neighbour".

While they were told that they would be compensated for their loss of connection, the only things the advisor could suggest was to either keep complaining when their connection was being interrupted, in order to compile a log to warrant the work needing done (the number of complaints which need to be made though bring the phrase "how long is a piece of string" to mind) or switch to Virgin, who would supply new cabling when connecting them (but they are reluctant to go down this route if at all possible).

Their neighbour on the other side to them (whose internet connection works fine) has suggested they get in touch with an ombudsman to try and get things sorted - has anyone any suggestions as to how they can ensure Plusnet / Openreach sort out their connection problems once and for all?

Thanks in advance for your advice! :cool:

JJ_Egan

Neighbour ok .
is this connection via Wifi ??


Phone service works ok ??
If so thats all OR are regulated to supply .



OR are saying that the infrastucture between house and street cabinet is at fault . Presumably are not willing to dig up the whole street to relay a cable for one user .Would that user be willing to contribute thousands for a new cable ?



Not sure if OFCOM can help but worth a try .


Is the house actually on a VM network ??

wongataa

See if the phone line is noisy when using a phone (wired connection is best to rule out noise introduced by the wireless function). If the line is noisy for voice calls report it is a noisy line for voice and don't mention the internet. Getting a noisy line fixed will improve the internet connection.


Keep pestering the phone company to get the faults fixed.

Cisco001

I would look for alternative rather than rely on opensearch

Do virgin serve their area?

Are they have decent speed from mobile data from three? If yes, consider HomeFi from three.

Are they still in contract with Plusnet? Can they terminate the contract?

Carrot007

They could move to AAISP who are well regarded in getting things fixed (by openreach). However such things come with the cost of paying a lot more.

J_B

We got fed up with OR as we are at the end of a long line (2 miles from exchange) and went with Airband

https://www.airband.co.uk/


We maybe could have used a 4G system, but the signal is sometimes a bit variable.