PlusNet Reviews

Here is a copy of recent exchanges I have had with Tony Thompson who works directly for the CEO of PlusNet, Andy Baker:

Tony, Thanks for speaking to me and documenting our discussion. I would make two points:

1. I was promised three years ago that you were taking steps to improve call waiting time. Nothing has changed except the
fact that you have removed information from your real-time call stats. The fact you do not have a target says it all.

2. PlusNet have no excuse for not using intelligent call handling software which is readily available, to manage and inform
your customers.

It would be nice to have a personal assurance from Andy Baker that he will resolve these issues within the next six months. I fancy that the Consumer Association have no idea how bad things are with regards to call handling. Their questionnaire does not cover the specific question of call waiting time, perhaps they can be persuaded to include this very relevant factor when assessing your overall rating.

Regards, Mike


Tony Thompson - Complaints Advisor

12:34pm, Wednesday 23 Sep 2015
Dear Mr Davies,

Thank you for coming back to me.

I appreciate you've been told the information three years ago. I did in fact give this information to customers at that time. During this time I have seen an improvement too. Maybe this wasn't as much as I'd liked, but I do believe we got better. Of late though, things have gone slightly downhill. As explained, we've started again to look at other aspects and continue to work to the ultimate goal.

Our stats are still available, but different telephone software is being used so it wasn't possible to provide the same information as previously. Our targets are there, it's just not necessarily the are the same as you believed.

The suggestions you've made have previously been passed on for you. I'd hope we could provide our customers with as much information as possible. Ideally though, we'd like to sort problems so this isn't as urgent.

Andy is aware of the problems, and I am sure he is doing everything possible to resolve matters. I wouldn't like to say that he can have it fixed in any particular time frame though.

Should I be able to assist further though, please let me know.



Kind regards,

Tony Thompson

The last paragraph demonstrates that the CEO does not consider reducing call waiting time to an acceptable level (2 minutes) as being a priority. He does not even have a target date which is disgraceful for a service company with several million subscribers. As for "We'll do you proud" I think that this statement contravenes ASA rules. (Advertising Standards authority).

Their service is decent enough and there are no restrictions on the internet (as far as I would look), speeds are decent enough. However, I am shocked and appalled by their repeated failures of service, their inabilities to provide on simple requests or arranged appointments or even call backs.

I cannot begin to fathom how they function.

So far adrift in a sea of endless failures I've been forced to report them to Ofcom.

I have been with plus net for over 2 years. And I am about to leave them.
Their customer service, or lack of it, is a joke. They must employ people with the worst arrogant attitudes by default. If you raise an issue with them, they simply ignore what you say and go about playing the blame game. |To which they refuse to accept anything themselves.
Having been with Virgin for many years previous, a house move meant we could no longer be customers. Virgin by comparrison are leagues ahead. If you have an issue, you can get to speak to someone in a timely manner. If the fault is theirs, they will re-imburse you for the incoveince.
Plus net on the other hand, forget it. Their arrognace goes into to overdrive, they will blame you equipment, and speak down to you. They will make out you are an idiot aznd thats why you have a fault.
Awful company with zero customer care. But they will always take your money. Avoid like the plague

I have been with PlusNet for the past fiver years or so. I must confess I do not recognise the service apparently received by most reviewers here, though I was unaware that BT had taken them over.
For me the service has been seamless and any time I have called them I was well pleased with the response. I should nevertheless add that I have not had occasion to call them for some time, so that aspect may have diminished in the interim.

The costs are pretty good, and I have not seen any better that I would consider changing to at this stage.

So until this morning I was a customer of Plusnet's so called "fast lane" fibre optic 'based' broadband service that promises to "do you proud" however since joining in February 2015 that has not been the case.

Upon finding Plusnet we was amazed by all the awards they had got and the features they offered.

We where helped through the process of joining by a very helpful guy "Matt" who was very helpful and on hand through-out the long process of getting a new line installed to the property by Openreach.

After around 4-6 weeks we where finally up and running, however within 4 weeks we started seeing light congestion issue which at first Plusnet said was rare and would be fixed but it got worse and then the helpful Plusnet support and Matt himself didn't seem to give a damn anymore.

We submitted tickets online with diagnostic's, we jumped through all the hoops, but still got know where and got a some what 'oh well' feeling from Plusnet.

So support tickets turned into a blood bath argument over terms and conditions, we weren't getting what we was promised... this went on for sometime and services got worse during this time too.

By now we was involved in discussion on with Plusnet's community forum, I and others started noticing the transformation of Plusnet's service quality and then features of the service started disappearing, the electronic ticket system started being stripped of options and even started hiding in menu's in the background of Plusnet's site, then a "leaked" announcement of Plusnet's plans to reduce it's 24/7 support lines to daytime hours which added to the insult of communication cuts.

The tools on Plusnet's customer portal and support pages started being removed that helped customers diagnose issues.

So then a new argument over the terms and conditions of service started as they had altered the terms and conditions of customers contracts without the required notice and without the option to leave penalty free, this was agree on by Ofcom and CISAS and after highlighting these concerns to Plusnet by quoting the Ofcom GC9.6 regulations they finally folded and agreed they would clear all early termination charges from the account.

During this time I had contacted CISAS about the issues with performance, service alterations and receiving contact from CISAS saying that Plusnet had "ignored" their requests for comment on the issues.

It was pretty obvious that something was seriously wrong at Plusnet...

(later) received a notification from Plusnet saying that CISAS had been in touch and that they had been order to pay out compensation (£200) to myself for any inconvenience.

The issues with service quality and speed continue to get worse with browsing for me was very choppy and basic things like streaming Radio was impossible some days, even when I had speeds of 60Mb/s I could not stream Radio or services like Now TV which only required 128Kb/s - 2.5Mb/s between them.

Plusnet's latest announcement on the community forum was that they where aware of the issue and could replicate it on there own connections in there offices but could not pin point what or where they where....

I highly recommend that you think twice before committing to any 18 month contracts with these guys as they'll certainly not "do you proud"

A note to customers switching from Plusnet too, Plusnet told me I would be switching on the 16th Sept, however it was 15th and before Zen had taken control of the line Plusnet had already ceased my connection at the strike of midnight!

I have been a customer of Plusnet for around 12mths & have a FTTC 80/20 unlimited service,

There is frequent congestion Low. throughput speeds and high jitter and increased latency from 7.30pm thru till 12 midnight isn't uncommon,
Some of their tech support staff although polite are,not knowledgeable enough and do give out some incorrect information

Their copy IP profile and their traffic prioritisation/management,Don't benefit me in anyway, infact they just hinder, I chose Plusnet For FTTC because it was cheaper than other providers and as i did not know how well a FTTC service would work on my line,

As someone who plays online games, low, stable latency is of significant importance to me,At first latency was quite low to some gaming servers ,
Sadly not any more due to their choice of peering, and plusnot obviously don't care,

The VDSL2 FTTC service it's self which plusnet don't have control of Has worked reasonably well, although for how much longer i don't know (crosstalk levels ect,as the FTTC cab is populated)and of course line faults

Update: Since i wrote above i have left plusnet,the evening peak time congestion issues became more frequent and further impacted performance Since migrating i have found that as a result of their traffic management and use of a secondary IP profile that my throughput had been restricted by around 3mbps not a lot i know, but never the less they throttled my connection
Also since moving the regular peak time issues have gone

Joined Plusnet for its wired broadband in 2009. Pay £9.99 a month for 2Gb and can add 1Gb increments for £1.25 if we go over the basic 2Gb. Have the phone with them too and that is very satisfactory.

Over the 6 years they've generally given a good service. Initial download speeds were ~3 Mbps but gradually rose to ~6Mbps until 10 June when we hit a serious connectivity problem.

In 2009 one could get through to a Plusnet technician in less than 10 minutes. Now it seems to be 15-45 minutes.

Written questions via their 'Help Assistant'are answered fairly quickly.

Plusnet tested the line promptly and said it was OK. We substitution tested the router and splitter/filter, and disconnected the phone. That made no difference. We replaced the 10 metre ADSL cable from the BT socket to the router. That largely cured the problem.

Their technical supporters vary somewhat in how knowledgeable they are about the technicalities.

I recently (reluctantly) signed up for fibre broadband with Plusnet, having previously been a customer. Last time round I experienced long delays getting connected and was left for weeks without phone and broadband. No compensation was offered and I experienced extremely poor customer service.

I thought I'd give them another chance but really wish I hadn't. I took a day off work to wait for an engineer to install the new service. However, despite their written confirmation, it transpired that my order had not been processed owing to a problem with their automated system. I only found this out when I contacted them online the evening before to double check the engineer was booked. (Also, my address on their system was incorrect but I was told they could not update it.)

Again I was not offered any compensation for the inconvenience and time off work and again I experienced dire customer service. Eventually, I managed to get my initial costs refunded and my account cancelled having phoned them at my expense.

My advice would be to avoid this company. They simply cannot handle it when things go wrong and their customer service is appalling. DO NOT BELIEVE THEIR ADVERTISING!

but their fibre offering requires a separate modem and router according to their website and I don't want more wires in the house (or more particularly through the walls). So BT Home Hub 5 seems to be the answer if I can ever get BT to install it.

I have been with Plusnet for four months and for 25% of that period I have been without wifi !! Now my phone line isn't working & hasn't been for four days so far with no resolution in site.
Please do not consider this bunch, they certainly will not do you proud !!!