Plusnet behaving badly

tessal

I signed up for Plusnet line rental and broadband as my contract with another provider had ended and they had started charging very high fees.
So one Sunday evening I had the old provider no problem. Monday morning there was no internet. I assumed there was something I needed to sort out so didn’t worry. Had a brief check that evening and still didn’t worry.
By day 3 having tried everything I waited on the phone and spent ages with someone from Plusnet who got me fiddling with router setting and resetting the router with a pin.
Over the next few days I repeated this process several times, still no internet. I don’t use my landline phone so it wasn’t working as the rechargeable batteries had died. I bought new batteries and checked the line, the phone was working perfectly. I checked the master socket, the wiring, still no internet. Given the only thing in the house that had changed was the router I wondered if it was faulty.
Plusnet said at this point they would not send another, I would have to have an engineer visit. If they deemed it was somehow my fault I would have to pay for the engineer but also he could only come during weekdays when I am at work. The time slots offered are so long it would mean a whole day off work which is not easy to get. But worse I had to offer three days and they would come on one. Given I could not get a day off last minute I asked if they could tell me why I needed an engineer when they’re phone line was fine and the only thing that had changed was the router. Plusnet said they could do nothing, I had to have time off work and let an engineer visit.
I got another router from a friend, it didn’t work either, so it was clear there was nothing in my house causing the problem. But it made no difference, I had to take time off work. I booked the first available day off work. An engineer came. He said Plusnet had given the wrong code to the exchange so went to correct it.
At last I had the internet after being without it for 4 1/2 weeks.
Plusnet quickly contacted me to let me know they considered it my fault not theirs. They said they owed me no compensation as my phone line worked and as the phone line was bundled with the broadband they didn’t consider they had failed to provide a service. And what’s more it was my fault I was not able to have a day off to have the engineer round sooner which led to the delay in getting it fixed. Even though there was clearly nothing in my house to fix.
Then they said they owed me nothing at all for the lack of service but that because they felt generous they would give me £20.
Honestly i didn’t want compensation just the internet service I had bought. It I didn’t expect them to seek to blame me and twist things to pretend they didn’t have to provide the internet.
I feel really angry about their response. I see there is some automatic compensation scheme that started this year but Plusnet has not signed up to it. I am so angry about their response I would like to make a complaint to someone, does anyone know who I can complain to.

Neil_Jones

Its not clear from your post so:

Did you take a new router from Plusnet or not?
If you did it would have just been a case of swapping the connectors from the old one to the new one and you'd have been around on the day of transfer, not three days later.

If you're using a third party router (that Plusnet didn't provide) and it was still configured for the old provider then of course it wasn't going to work. Your friend's router was probably configured for their setup which may be why it didn't work.

tessal

Hi yes I got a new Plusnet router, I think it was automatically included so everyone gets one. After they insisted they had checked the connection at the exchange and that the only way to resolve the issue was for me to take time off work for an engineer to visit I did try another one. Their tech people said there was no point in trying my old one which was from E E as they are not compatible. They said any Plusnet or BT one should work so I got a BT one. It is really hard to get last minute time off work and I can only get it if it’s an emergency and not having internet access does not count.
So as the only thing in my property that had changed was the router I gave it a try
Actually with no internet access it is not possible to reset the router but I guess this proved the problem was not in my house. Which made no difference they would not investigate the problem until I had taken time off work so they could come to my house, which was infuriating as it was clear that was not where the problem was.

JJ_Egan

Have they not charged you the OpenReach call out fee circa £150 ( they may on next bill )

Did they say what the actual fault was ??.

tessal

Well the BT engineer said that Plusnet had given them the wrong code of some kind to set things up at the exchange. He called someone when he got to the house and it was clear there was nothing wrong here. They gave him a code which he wrote down and said he would go to the exchange and change it over to this setting. About 30 minutes later the internet was working again.
And no since it was clearly no fault of mine the charge for the engineer visit is not down to me.
But I remain really angry at PlusNet. They immediately contacted me once the issue was resolved to say it was my fault for not taking time off work more quickly that it took so long to fix, and that they owed me nothing for having no service as they consider the broadband to be a bundle with the phone line and as the phone line worked it didn't matter that the internet didn't.
However this is what they sent after I ordered the service.
Welcome to Plusnet

Thanks for taking our broadband and phone service! Your order

•Unlimited •Line Only •Line Rental Saver
•Plusnet wireless router •Plusnet Protect


It no where says that the order is for a phone line with broadband thrown in so that they have no responsibility to provide me broadband which is what they claim.

JJ_Egan

You post above

Thanks for taking our broadband and phone service


Thats a bundle .

Terry98

tessal wrote: »

Well the BT engineer said that Plusnet had given them the wrong code of some kind to set things up at the exchange. He called someone when he got to the house and it was clear there was nothing wrong here. They gave him a code which he wrote down and said he would go to the exchange and change it over to this setting. About 30 minutes later the internet was working again.

If the above is correct Plusnet are obviously in the wrong by giving BT the wrong code in the first place. Perhaps I have missed something but that alone seems to be the key to your problem and I cannot see how Plusnet can dispute it.

You need to raise a complaint https://www.plus.net/help/legal/complaints-code-of-practice/

silverwhistle

I got my new Plusnet service installed only on Thursday and on line Friday after going round in circles a bit because I was a bit obtuse and missed the fact that there was a default broadband user name set up and I needed to change it to the one received in my welcome letter.



Touch wood it seems a good service with good speed though, so I hope you get over your teething problems. Apart from my mistake it all went very smoothly and I'm saving around £25 over the Virgin bill I had previously. I tested both services using Ookla and although they may have been at different times of day the Plusnet ADSL was slightly faster than Virgin's fibre, and for uploads around 4 times faster!

kangoora

silverwhistle wrote: »

Touch wood it seems a good service with good speed though, so I hope you get over your teething problems. Apart from my mistake it all went very smoothly and I'm saving around £25 over the Virgin bill I had previously. I tested both services using Ookla and although they may have been at different times of day the Plusnet ADSL was slightly faster than Virgin's fibre, and for uploads around 4 times faster!

I'd keep an eye on that and maybe even log speeds over time. My Plusnet service was fine for around a year (circa 24 mb/s) against a projected 20 - 28 mb/s.

After 1 year it dropped to 12 mb/s and when I complained somehow the projected speed had miraculously changed from 20-28 mb/s to 10-18 mb/s so Plusnet said they were within their service levels.

I changed to NowTV broadband and my DL speed leaped back up to a consistent 24 mb/s. Literally the only thing that changed on my end was the replacement router.

I'm 100% convinced Plusnet were throttling my line speed and will never use them again.

silverwhistle

Thanks, I'll keep an eye on it but at 74.81 DL and 18.51 UL I'm happy for now!


It probably helps I'm pretty near the cabinet. But I might just start scribbling the figures in my diary, to join those for my weight and blood pressure!