PlusNet Reviews

I feel since I've reviewed my current ISP it was only fair I shared my experience with PlusNet.

Initially it was very good, the price was the main reason I joined, but ofcourse like you hear everytime, they sneak charges into your bill...

Free broadband for x amount of months etc.. I think in 24 months I probably got 2 months free as they slam you with all sorts of figures.

Speeds were WORSE then any one else, this includes TalkTalk, virgin (adsl) and o2. Come 6PM it was impossible to play any sort of game online despite my line speed syncing around 11mb (this has since improved with Origin Broadband to around 15-16)

My advice would be shop around, and read more into their "special deals"

Or... Look into Origin Broadband.. they've been fantastic so far.

Farewell PlusNet.. you won't be missed.

Been with plusnet around 6 months now and have had a stable connection on ADSL.
Speed is around 15mb.
I've only had one issue with plusnet since I've been with them and it was when I moved home. I moved on the same exchange so I got to keep my phone number which was good. I moved closer to the exchange but for some reason after the move my upstream sync got capped at 448kbps.
A quick phone call to support and a few days later this was returned to around 1mbps upload.
Also I no longer use their ADSL router the wireless wasn't great and I like to use gigabit for wired connections.
Using a modem and a netgear router with PPPoE and it works great.

Heaven alone knows how this firm continues to win awards, including awards for its customer service. This firm has the worst customer service I've experienced from an ISP, and given that my last ISP was BT that really says something. I haven't seen one of their TV adverts for a while, but I have a feeling that they used to say something about being good honest Yorkshire folk. Well, nothing against all the other Yorkshire folk, but these ones are about as honest as the average politician. Their logo now incorporates the slogan "We'll do you proud". What's wrong with this is the word "proud". "We'll do you" is accurate.

To be more precise, when I first became a Plusnet customer I was lied to about the call package that I was told I had to have (I was switching both my broadband and phone line to them), then I was overcharged, then I didn't receive the correct refund. The customer service staff seemed not really to be capable of solving simple problems and were unable to give explanations. Furthermore, they were happy to pass the buck when things went wrong.

I was going to change from Plusnet after a year, but they offered me a very cheap deal. What a fool I was to accept it! Again, they overcharged me. What's more, the deal included £50 cashback, which I was told would be sent after 14 days. Again, this was a lie. Eventually, one of their incompetent staff managed to tell me it would be paid within 60 days.

I will not be with them for a third year, whatever deal they may want to offer. The staff of this firm are (a) dishonest, and probably deliberately so in order to persuade people to sign up to their services; (b) incompetent; (c) unprofessional; (d) disrespectful of their customers; (e) badly trained; and (f) ignorant. Furthermore, the senior managers of this firm appear unconcerned by the poor service that customers receive.

If you do contact this firm, don't believe what the person you speak to tells you unless they're prepared to put it in writing, and even if they do that keep a very close eye on how much they take from your bank account each month if you sign up to their services. Plusnet cannot be trusted and you have to remain alert to their habit of charging more than you agreed to pay. Otherwise, they'll do you.

I find it hard to understand how PlusNet win any prizes (especially for customer service) because I think they haven't got any. The only explanation I can think of is that all the others are even worse.

I moved house and took on Plusnet because they were the existing service provider to the property. I foolishly thought that would speed the transfer up. it didn't. Indeed, they managed to cock up the transfer process so it had to be restarted adding a further 3 days to the period without service.

This is a rural area but with (we were told by neighbours) reasonable BB speeds though only ADSL1). AskSam reports a short line length to 'the exchange' (c700m) but despite this upload speed is never better than 5 MbS. Lately it's been dropping out a lot and for extended periods. Then the router packed up.

Dealing with customer service is almost as bad as with energy providers. They don't respond to emails (ever) and the only way to get them to respond is by phone or on-line chat if you have the patience to hang on. But they can't actually answer questions with even a slightly 'technical' element (e.g. VPN or connecting a wireless printer).

I think they are rubbish and I'm going back to my previous provider (AAISP by the way) as soon as I can

I joined plusnet (pn) at the beginning of February 2015 as I wanted to save some money as I was spending a lot of money with my previous ISP (BT). Annoyingly they don't offer a static IP on their residential services which was one of the main reasons I migrated to pn.

I was pretty much at the max end of FTTC (80/20) with BT and on migration day my speeds dropped to about 60/20. I contacted pn via twitter and their forums expressing dissatisfaction in regards to the drop in speeds. Various c/s agents purported that I was getting the speeds my IP Profile suggested; however nothing had changed in my set up from BT to pn and I couldn't fathom out what was going on.

An engineer from openreach (or) was sent out who only called me and said from his tests everything was fine with my line. He said that an IP Profile reset could reduce my speeds further. This made no sense as 1) I live about 100/120 metres from the green cabinet and 2) nothing had changed before and after migration.

Speeds didn't improve and I raised another ticket with pn. After 5 days or so I had a call from C/S who said they would send out another or engineer. This time he was more helpful and actually came into my property and checked everything. He suggested that ISP's have more tests that they can do on lines than what he can do AND also said ISP's can do IP Profile resets. Anyhow, everything was fine and he reset my IP Profile - the next day I was back up to 80/20 speeds.

C/S is pretty hit or miss, especially on the official forums. Sometimes it can go days without any official pn comments - but when it is good it is very good. Tickets can be slow in regards to being dealt with, but when they are I have been satisfied with the outcome.

Pro's:

- Static IP (at a one off cost of £5)
- Pro Add On (£5 a month) which is good for online gaming
- Reasonable priced broadband and pn is a derivative of BT
- Good customer service and UK based!
- Can use own VDSL router and the friendly forums have assisted me in configuring mine with some agents providing indirect support in setting this up
- Can use the Homehub 5
- Good value
- Good support on twitter and facebook
- Was able to request permanent number withold on my landline at no cost
- When there are outages or planned maintenance this is clearly shown on their website and via RSS feeds with resolutions (for outages) being pretty swift IMHO
- Good breakdown of usage albeit with a 3/4 hour delay
- Free Mcafee antivirus software

Con's:

- Poor supplied router in terms of ethernet speed and no gigabit support
- No IPTV (yet!)
- Response to fault tickets can be slow
- Hit and miss consistency with faults that are being dealt with on the forums (i.e. staff dealing with a specific issue may be on days off and nothing seems to be resolved)
- Sporadic speed issues (for me) in the first 6 weeks of service (now resolved)
- The free email took several hours to activate on my package

Overall, I am pleased my speed issues are resolved and I am now happy with the service. My contract is up in the New Year (2016) and I will let the contract roll on, considering that BT don’t offer a static IP.

Massive disappointment in the service I have so far received since switching to PlusNet.

I contacted Plusnet via website in early January to move from my previous supplier (sky) to PlusNet and selected a switch date of 28th Jan 2015. A few days later I received an email to say my date would be on 4th Feb and I would need to be available in my house for an engineer to visit. I took time off from work to accommodate this.

On 3rd Feb I contacted plusnet to understand why my router had not arrived as my switch was imminent. I was shocked to discover that there was a problem with my order, and plusnet had not kept me informed of this problem. I was told I would not be switching to plusnet on 4th Feb. I had wasted a days holiday due to this lack of communication and was now waiting to hear further.

Later on this day (3rd Feb) I received a text to say my telephone switch would happen on 4th Feb as planned originally and that my router would now be dispatched.

On 4th Feb. my telephone line went dead and I made several calls to understand why. I was told an engineer would again visit my house to resolve the problem; I took more time off work to be available. The engineer visited my property on 9th Feb and found no fault at the property but was able to resolve a problem which was introduced during the switch-over. During this process, however, my broadband line has now stopped working.

Plusnet now admit they cannot provide fibre broadband as contracted and seem unable to maintain control of this situation and keep me informed of the status.

Help desk calls are always long waits (30 mins wait time not unusual) and using the web chat is next to useless.

I'm really disappointed with Plusnet and cannot recommend them.

Moved from PlusNet ADSL to PlusNet FTTC... neither are / were particularly fast.
Getting through to customer service or support phone lines has been terrible.
Will probably move at the end of my contract.

It might have gone unnoticed but I have switched 3 accounts to Plusnet in one go and I must say the level of unprofessionalism that I have experienced with this provider was unprecedented. My phone line & broadband accounts are business, in 3 different parts of London, connecting to each other with the server installed on one of them requiring constant access.
On account 1 the engineer switched the phone line over but forgot to install the bt openreach modem without which the plusnet router does not work... fixing this took speaking to 3 different agents who would all give me completely different answers and loads of stress because other members could not access the server all day. The modem was installed next morning by another bt openreach engineer. This however was just the beginning of our problems... Plusnet issued a new phone line number on account 1, they have not bothered to cancel this account with the previous provider and we were billed for another month by both. Neither takes the responsibility.
I tried preventing potential modem installation problem on account 2 that was scheduled next day after account 1. I have explained to yet another agent what happened with account 1 and they have assured me that the engineer will have the bt openreach modem with themselves when dealing with account 2. Guess what, the engineer did not turn up at all. Fixing this took 48 hours, loads of time on the phone with plusnet and loads of nerves.
Account 3 was the simplest to switch because it was the same 17mb speed as before and it only required to overtake the phone line by the provider. Trying to prevent any unforeseen disaster, I specifically asked the agent to do the switch on a Thursday, when this account was not in use. Plusnet decided to do it on a Friday instead. So, on the day, the phone line went dead for a whole day. Plusnet senior shift agent told me there was nothing they could do and that our phone line would be active by midnight. Well, it was Tuesday next week before the phone line was working. Again this took loads of time on the phone with a few different agents, a lot of stress and the whole switch over did not feel like a welcome experience.
It has been 1 month since we are with Plusnet... we have frequent dropouts on all of 3 accounts that keep paralysing our work. The speed on one of the accounts is 38mb while 78mb was promised and despite 2 separate engineers have confirmed that the speed up to the phone socket at the premises was 80mb. there is a problem with the interface of routers on all 3 accounts: it takes some 30 seconds to open any configuration page on it even if connected by the cable.
I do not feel like trying to sort any of the existing problems with Plusnet. I only regret that I signed up with them and I will simply change the provider by the end of contract.

I have been PN since 2010, at first they were petty good but for the last 18 moths my connectio0n is regularly unstable but each time I report a fault they test the line and then tell me its fine.

Afer 12 years of being a Plusnet customer I decided to transfer to a cable ISP to be able to get their TV service. I thought that this would be a simple matter but how wrong I was!!

I telephoned Plusnet cancellation department on the 20th November. I spoke with Sarah, cancelled my account and paid all outstanding bills in full by debit card. Sarah confirmed that my account was closed and that there would be no further contact from Plusnet. A day or so later I cancelled my Direct Debit at my bank.

Sarah's comment was far from correct. Within a few days a received notification from Plusnet that they were to take my monthly payment by Direct Debit. I posted a comment in the Support area of the Plusnet and in a telephone call was told that the matter would be corrected.

Wrong !! I then received a barrage of texts and emails complaining that they hadn't received my monthly payment. Each time, I posted on the Support pages and telephoned, pointing out that my account was cancelled and I owed no money. Obviously, no one at Plusnet read these comments or took any action to deal with what was happening.

The final straw was when I received a further email threatening me with the news that Plusnet would involve a Debt Collection Agency if my bill was not paid immediately.

So, I telephoned Plusnet again and after hanging on the phone for 32 minutes my call was eventually answered and I was put though to Sam in 'cancellations'. Sam was totally laid back about the situation; descibing it as 'a bit of confusion in Plusnet'. He also totally dismissed my suggestion that Plusnet should pay me any compensation in recompense for all the trouble I had had.

He agreed that he would confirm in an email that my account was closed , that no money was outstanding and that there would be no further contact from Plusnet. Not, surprisingly, I have not received an email which includes these points.

So, there's my tale of my service experience from Plusnet - as far as I am concerned, I am very pleased to have discontinued my custom of a business that treats its customers in such a shabby way.