Community Fibre & Plusnet Terrible Service - Please Help!

Joshz

I have a bit of a story to tell so please bare with me here. The broadband deal I had with Plusnet came to an end on the 20th July 23 and as I forgot to check only realised this when I received my next bill and the payment was for £54.39. Double that of what I was originally paying.

So like any sensible consumer decided to look at my alternatives. I had received multiple leaflets through my door from Community Fibre and after checking USwitch found I could get 920mpbs speed vs 64mpbs I previously was getting from PlusNet and a £150 Amazon voucher to switch.

I liked the sound of the deal and immediately checked the Community Fibre website which informed me that I could indeed receive their service at my property.

I then contacted Plusnet to see what deal I would receive if I stayed loyal to them and was offered a £50 Voucher (prepaid credit card) & 2 months free. Although their service over the past 18 months had been great I felt the offer was too good to pass with Community Fibre decided to switch.

Telling PlusNet to disconnect my service on the 2nd August 23 as I had the engineer scheduled with Community Fibre for the 1st August 2023.

As scheduled the Community Fibre engineer arrived at my house and this is where the nightmare began! 

I was advised due to the proximity of the closest telephone post I was not close enough for the cable to be run and would not be able to receive their services. (The engineer had also been to another property on the road and had had to advise a similar fate).
He explained that he would put notes on the "system" and be contacted by the cancellation team.

Realising that Community Fibre was no longer an option I immediately contacted PlusNet to see if I could renew and accept the previous offer to stay with them.

The salesman advised me that they had already processed my cancellation request and that I would need to open a new account as a new customer. Not only this but I wouldn't be entitled to any of the previous offers discussed. 

As my housemate works from home and has a wired connection for security, I decided I would cut my losses and forgo the discounts as he advised that the house would only be without internet for a matter of hours if that while the account switched over.

This is where it gets really fun. Just before I go to sleep at 12:12 am on the 2nd August I see the internet connection drop out as expected, thinking when I woke up this should be reconnected.  

To my surprise there is no internet in the morning and with my housemate on a day off didn't stress and expected it to come back on at some stage during the day.

I then get a call from my housemate around 13:00 to say there is still no internet, so I get on the phone with Plusnet who advise me because Community Fibre have taken the line with OpenReach they would need to wait for this to free up before reconnecting me, expecting it to take 24 - 36 hours!

I now have a situation where my housemate needs to work from home the following day and has no internet to use.

I call PlusNet again that evening, they tell me that I shouldn't have been advised by the original salesman this way that the normal time is around 5 working days and that they still can't see the line from their side and will call me on 3rd August to advise if the line is free and they can place their installation order.

This call comes through and of course, there is still no available line for them to place their order. I then contact Plusnet again and ask a new consultant to just tell me the status of the line at my house and if Community Fibre has cancelled it from their side.

He explains the line being taken by Community Fibre has never been the issue as it is a fibre optic cable connected directly to the house and that the original line I had with Plusnet has been taken by another user such as a neighbour or local business and an engineer would need to open a new line and this will normally take 2 weeks!

I call again today 4th August and am advised they will get an engineer out on the 10th August to install a new line and the house should have internet again on the 10/11th August.

However, this has not only left me without internet but forced my housemate to take 6 days of annual leave. 

To add to this Community Fibre are yet to contact me since the engineer came round on the 2nd to confirm they have cancelled my original order, even after me calling them 3 times to cancel it manually as I didn't trust they would.

I am still without internet & awaiting the engineer's arrival next week but would really appreciate any advice to confirm if I am entitled to any form of refund or compensation for the stress, aggravation & missed work/holiday time ensured by the misinformation given by Plusnet or Community Fibre

Thanks for reading
Josh



 

alanwsg

Can't help you with the compensation question, but have you considered hooking up to a 4G mobile network as a temporary solution.

I have a 4G LTE modem that I've tested with the SIM card out of my phone (1pMobile) which worked straight out of the box and gave my 4 times the download speed of my current broadband (I'm with Plusnet too). In fact I'm considering ditching the BB connection when my time's up with Plusnet and just using LTE.

You can get an unlimited data SIM from Smarty for £18 on a monthly contract.

Depending on your router, you might even be able to just tether a spare mobile straight into it to avoid having to acquire a dedicated modem, but I don't think you'll get the same speeds. Might do as a temporary option till you get your problems sorted though.

littleboo

Community Fibre are not part of the Ofcom automatic compensation scheme, and Plusnet did what you asked them to do, cancel the service. Too late now, but if continuation of service was important, then placing the cancellation once the new service is in would be the way to do it.

Marmaduke123

I did a similar switch to a Cityfibre provider. They advised me not to cancel my previous service until the Cityfibre one was safely up and running. What did Community Fibre advise you to do, if anything?