PlusNet - Not as they were

GreenB_2

For anyone considering PlusNet as an ISP I would think again.

In the last few months the Customer Service Level has plummeted and they have been making changes to services without informing customers, they are no longer a good, truthfull and open ISP.

Calling the CS line can often result in a 20 to 30 minute wait and posting an online ticket takes hours or days for a reply and then usually even longer for an action.

Be very careful of the 45 day satisfaction guarantee as its not as it seems (read the posts on their forums).

In the last 24 hours this has kicked off:
http://portal.plus.net/central/forums/viewtopic.php?t=31971
(use guest as the usernname and guest as the passsword)

People are trying to leave in droves after their lack of consideration for customers.

mcclim

Have you seen this thread on there forum, they have kicked two users off the service for asking questions.

http://portal.plus.net/central/forums/viewtopic.php?t=31971&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

IF you want to view the topic and are not a plucnet customer use the Guest Login...

Neil

Foxy

has anyone made heads or tails of the new t&cs where they can explain what it means in plain english:(

blinky

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=85186

Basically if you are on certain accounts they may disconnect you if your connection has been idle for 30 minutes (and therefore easy to get around). The reasoning is that the BT Centrals which the lines connect into can only support so many connections and not all users are using their lines at the same time*. Therefore by disconnecting idle sessions they can use the BT Centrals they have more effectively and possibly delay buying extra ones.

The last I read (yesterday) Plusnet said that they had no plans to actually implement these time outs but the new terms and conditions allows them to do so in the future.

I would expect all others ISPs to watching this carefully and if plusnet make it work successfully others will follow. Why?


Of your subscription fee BT Wholesale gets £8 odd and Gordon Brown gets his bit. The remaining amount of money has to pay for everything else. Customer and technical staff, running email server, electric, paying for BT Centrals and other bandwidth costs, etc.
The cheapest BT Central is the 155Mbs pipe (~120Mbs usable) which costs £400,000 per year. The prices for the Centrals has been fixed by Ofcom for at least the next 2 years or until 50% of the market goes LLU.
Overall the ADSL packages must make a profit - it's not something which could be used as a loss leader because most customers don't buy any other services.

This also explains the clamp-down on people using excessive bandwidth amounts i.e. 150Gb+ (which means the user is costing the ISP hundred's of pounds per month).

The traffic shaping has been there for over a month now.

Many ISP's have bad CS / TS. At least Plusnet's work 24/7 (I put a ticket in last night and it was actioned at 5:27am today). Phoned up yesterday and waited one minute.

---

C/S (ticket and calls) are long due to people wanting queries on T&C's and requesting MAC codes. Other ISP's are similar - Pipex was recently quoting a 5 day wait for a MAC code rather than the usual 72h.

I don't agree with how the handling of those two users has been handled.

Initially it was said to be just posting on the Plusnet forums which are unofficial anyway (and they could have just had their posting priviledges revoked) and Plusnet staff do not have to answer but then Plusnet said different.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/08/26/plusnet_diconnection/

In the terms and conditions there is an escape clause which allows either party to leave with 30 days notice. This is normal for any contract with an escape clause but it is quite infrequent that a service provider terminates a contract.

* Telephone lines, mobile phones and airlines all work on the same principle. Airlines overbook seats knowing not everyone will turn up and for the phone systems the capacity is less than allowing everyone to use their phones at once.

BobToo

I am a happy Plusnet customer.

You've got to remember that they are offering an uncapped 2MB connection for £14.99 per month. That's never going to come without some strings attached.

I opted for the more expensive Premier service at £21.99 per month because I felt that it was more likely to give me what I want from an ISP and £21.99 is still phenomenal value IMO. I haven't been disappointed.

djohn2002uk

mcclim wrote:

Have you seen this thread on there forum, they have kicked two users off the service for asking questions. Neil

If you took the trouble to read the forums in detail and the ones at ADSLGuide you would see just how many questions. Nothing but trouble makers and if it were my company they would have been gone long ago.
Strange how they keep complaining about PlusNet, yet still didn't want to leave.

mcclim

djohn2002uk wrote:

If you took the trouble to read the forums in detail and the ones at ADSLGuide you would see just how many questions. Nothing but trouble makers and if it were my company they would have been gone long ago.
Strange how they keep complaining about PlusNet, yet still didn't want to leave.

I was just highlighting what plusnet are like, I have been a happy customer of plus.net for a few years now, but only on broadband for 6 months, I have seen a reduction in the quality of the Customer service and the response from staff has become more mistic as time goes on....

It used to be you could raise a query with plus.net and it would be answered within a few hours but now it takes days to get anything resolved.

As for the kicking off,. of the two users yes they asked alot of questions BUT if you were a user paying £39.99 instead of 21.99 would you not want to be told about it ???

Neil

damski_2

BobToo wrote:

I am a happy Plusnet customer.

You've got to remember that they are offering an uncapped 2MB connection for £14.99 per month. That's never going to come without some strings attached.

I opted for the more expensive Premier service at £21.99 per month because I felt that it was more likely to give me what I want from an ISP and £21.99 is still phenomenal value IMO. I haven't been disappointed.

have to agree

i have been with plusnet for a couple of years now and have just had my line upgraded to a 2meg line )

same a/c as you 21.99 per month and very happy overall

danmanchester

I have only been with Plusnet a couple of months (with not a single problem) but was a bit worried by the kicking off of two users from the Plusnet forums and the soon to be implemented new terms & conditions-although they shouldn't apply to my package being the £21.99 premier deal.
I think I'll stick with them for now as there aren't many (if any) ISP's that can offer 2mb uncapped and a 250mb website space amongst their features for £21.99 - I was with Pipex paying £33.99 and getting less!

amateur_saver

Despite having read all about plus.net on here and problems, I am going to stick with them... they have been excellent so far, and if it changes then I may think again, but for now... stick to what I know, and that has been quality.

A_S xx

GreenB_2

BobToo wrote:

You've got to remember that they are offering an uncapped 2MB connection for £14.99 per month.

Thats the point PlusNet do not offer a True Uncapped / Unlimited service.

They will not tell you in plain english they waffle on about contention ratios.

Uncapped means you can download as much as you want - correct? Try doing that and you will be warned and then put on a slow pipe or asked to leave.

The so called trouble makers were kicked off because PlusNet refused to give straight answers so they kept on asking the same questions in hope of getting one.

To everybody thinking of joing PN or who are with them read the T&C's very very carefully you will see all sorts of clauses which mean basically PN can change the service or restrict any user however they see fit.