John Lewis Broadband

SaveMeDo

My contract with Plusnet ran out 28 April, so I shopped around and decided to sign up to the John Lewis Broadband deal, £16 a month with the discount card.

It turns out that "John Lewis Broadband" is actually Plusnet broadband in disguise, but I figured "John Lewis Broadband" would surely be a premium service in terms of customer service? WRONG

The John Lewis Broadband website says the switch would take ten days to complete, so I ordered the deal on April 19 which would mean I would not fall foul of the £30 penalty for early cancellation from Plusnet, but after signing up it soon became clear that John Lewis Broadband staff are every bit as incompetent as the morons at Plusnet.

I was assured that the switch would happen on the 4 May, 4 May came and went, phoned up, "oh, the switch is on hold" they said, "why" I said, "I don't know" they said!

After much time on the phone the said the phone service will switch on the 6 May, and the broadband on the 7 May, today is the 8 May and I can't get through to customer support, they have probably blocked me.

So now I can't cancel without a penalty because more than 14 days have past since I order the wretched "John Lewis Broadband" deal, and in the mean time Plusnet is charging me £32 pounds a month for their ADSL service because I am out of contract.

I feels like the yobbos at Plusnet are seriously taking the pee.

southsidergs

The 14 days should start when the service starts not from the point of ordering, if you're not actually connected yet you should still be able to cancel the order with them

cajef

southsidergs said:

The 14 days should start when the service starts not from the point of ordering, if you're not actually connected yet you should still be able to cancel the order with them

It starts from the day the order is accepted not from when the service starts.
From the T & C :-

. Cancellation period

9.1. Unless our Service Terms say otherwise, we provide you with a 14 calendar day cancellation period which starts:

9.1.1. for services, on the day after we accepted your order;

SaveMeDo

Yes, the contract says 14 days from ordering the service, which is crazy, because all the scammers do is put the switch on hold until you are bound by their terms, and you can't cancel without a penalty.

I have been a Plusnet customer for years and years (off and on, of course) I would NEVER sign up to Plusnet again.

The whole telecoms industry in the UK is in utter chaos, and it's high time the government brought these scoundrels to book with some proper regulations.

littleboo

I doubt they deliberately delay customer activation as a matter of course, unless you have some information to the contrary? I agree that the 14 days should start from the provision of the service, but apart from that, what else make you think there is utter chaos and what further regulation would you like to see?

matelodave

The 14 day cooling off period is to to give you the opportunity to change your mind before the service is provisoned. If they then dont fulfil the contract, either by not provisioning it or not providing the service that they have contracted to (speed, performance or other reasons) then it would not be unreasonable for you to cease the contract citing that they have not fulfiled their obligations within the agreed timescale.

Do it in writing, ideally e-mail and by recorded delivery letter - not by phone,clearly giving the reasons rather than having a rant

elsien

Have you checked whether or not it is actually up and running?
My JL broadband switch happened without any confirmatory messages from them. 

macman

SaveMeDo said:

My contract with Plusnet ran out 28 April, so I shopped around and decided to sign up to the John Lewis Broadband deal, £16 a month with the discount card.

It turns out that "John Lewis Broadband" is actually Plusnet broadband in disguise, but I figured "John Lewis Broadband" would surely be a premium service in terms of customer service? WRONG

The John Lewis Broadband website says the switch would take ten days to complete, so I ordered the deal on April 19 which would mean I would not fall foul of the £30 penalty for early cancellation from Plusnet, but after signing up it soon became clear that John Lewis Broadband staff are every bit as incompetent as the morons at Plusnet.

I was assured that the switch would happen on the 4 May, 4 May came and went, phoned up, "oh, the switch is on hold" they said, "why" I said, "I don't know" they said!

After much time on the phone the said the phone service will switch on the 6 May, and the broadband on the 7 May, today is the 8 May and I can't get through to customer support, they have probably blocked me.

So now I can't cancel without a penalty because more than 14 days have past since I order the wretched "John Lewis Broadband" deal, and in the mean time Plusnet is charging me £32 pounds a month for their ADSL service because I am out of contract.

I feels like the yobbos at Plusnet are seriously taking the pee.

It's just a branding exercise: Did you not realise that JL do not have any broadband staff: Plusnet just answer CS calls under the JL brand.
It obviously works in marketing terms, because you made the assumption that paying more for a JL branded service would give you a better service.
The LL broadband homepage clearly states that the service is provided by Plusnet.

SaveMeDo

Hi

I had a very unpleasant phone conversion with  the "John Lewis Broadband" staff yesterday, which is clearly Plusnet staff on a different phone number, I couldn't get through on the "John Lewis Broadband" carousel, so phoned the tech support line who then pasted me to "provisioning".

The guy seemed very put out that I was bothering HIM, with this "John Lewis Broadband" problem, as I was explaining the situation, he started talking at the same time, then accused me of talking over him, and threatened to end the conversion! I've have this before on Plusnet it seems to be a standard tactic at call centres, anyway after a lot of grunting and sighing from this pig I finally got him to switch over the account, which could have been done in five minutes 20 days ago.

John Lewis Broadband is a trading name of John Lewis plc John Lewis Broadband is provided by Plusnet plc Registered in England 3279013 Registered Office: The Balance, 2 Pinfold Street, Sheffield, S1 2GU VAT No. 245 7193 48 Email ref: JLB348

Dear xxxxxxxxxx Account username: xxxxxxxxxx Congratulations, your John Lewis Home Phone service is now ready to use! Your telephone number is xxxxxxxxxx.   About your invoice   When you signed up to John Lewis Broadband you paid your initial one-off charges and set-up fees, including an advance payment for your next month's service in full. Because your broadband and phone were activated at different times, we'll refund you for the period between your broadband and phone going live which will appear on your next bill as a credit.   Managing your account   We're here when you need us, either online or over the phone. You can manage your account online at any time; from setting up your email, amending billing details, to viewing technical support guides. Simply log in at johnlewisbroadband.com. If you need to call us, Customer support is available all day, every day on 0800 022 3300. Alternatively, get in touch online here.   Kind regards, John Lewis Broadband Customer Support www.johnlewisbroadband.com

littleboo

Morons, scammers, yobbos, pig, you sound like an absolute charmer

matelodave

I do wonder if SaveMeDo is the sort who can get people wound up without too much effort. He has a choice vocabulary which I'm sure goes down well when trying to get someone to help or assist. In my experience, getting irate, angry or abusive does not usually help the situation.

After I retired, I used to help out in a local chandlery and I can assure you that if people were polite with me, I was polite and very helpful in return.
However, even though I was also everso polite to the arrogant, uncouth and snotty ones,, they didn't really get a lot of help or assistance and some would even get the phone put down on them. I can assure you that the sailing fraternity has more than it's fair share of obnoxious people.