PlusNet - Billing system woes

Most ISPs it seems to me provide adequate connectivity, but why do they
all seem to make such heavy weather of customer service?

Whilst my Plusnet Internet connectivity has never had any issues, the Accounts
department seems to stumble from one cock-up to another. My major
complaint here is the effort required to get anything fixed and the fact
that I then have to raise another request, because they haven't really
fixed it, just said they have.

Some recent experiences:

A friend recently quoted me as a referrer, but unfortunately spelt my
hostname wrong - even more unfortunately the mis-spelling was also a
valid hostname. To sort that one: 6 Support Tickets raised, spread
across 2 accounts totalling 17 messages.

When the dust settled on that, I received an email telling me of my 25p
discount and invoice for £21.74. Good, but they actually billed me for
£21.99 Another ticket, with apparently the onus on me to prove that my
credit card was billed the incorrect amount (hard to believe their system
didn't have a record of this), result: 6 messages exchanged, only 1
Support Ticket raised, but considerable waste of my time.

Now the current saga:
In August, I changed my billing credit card. There is strangely no
record of this in my ticket list, but nonetheless, Plus successfully
billed my new credit card in September (albeit for the wrong amount - see
above). In October, billing has mysteriously reverted to my old credit
card - once again no record in my ticket list of anyone changing
anything. This Support Ticket is only up to 5 messages so far, but that's
because they haven't grasped the issue yet, just telling me what I already
knew - that they're billing the [wrong] credit card that's registered on
their system.

On the up side, Plus have at least got some kind of system with tracking
-
but it's not perfect and crikey, it can still be hard work.

Anyone got a perfectly satisfactory record of issues dealt with in under
6 messages? Would someone like to beat 17 messages for a typing mistake?

Regards

Eric Lee

Tickets:
12848894,12926159,13122175,13325054,13230321,13325 055,13655418,14121963

I think I typed them correctly...

In article <4170d528$0$59451$(E-Mail Removed)>,
(E-Mail Removed), a.k.a Eric Lee says...

[...]

> Most ISPs it seems to me provide adequate connectivity, but why do they
> all seem to make such heavy weather of customer service?

Plusnet's connectivity is the *only* reason i continue to use them. It
cannot be denied that this side of Plusnet is pretty near 100%

However, their customer service is complete shit, and said dept is
riddled with incompetence, IME.

YMMV

On 16 Oct 2004 in uk.telecom.broadband, Tx2 wrote:

>customer service is complete shit

Come on Mr Taylor, say what you mean !
How to win friends and influence people...
I guess they're off your Christmas card list then !
Shouldn't that have been posted from your Plus.Net account ?

cross-posted to plusnet.service.customer-feedback
(so everyone at Plus.Net sees how you feel!)

"Eric Lee" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:4170d528$0$59451$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Most ISPs it seems to me provide adequate connectivity, but why do they
> all seem to make such heavy weather of customer service?
>
> Whilst my Plusnet Internet connectivity has never had any issues, the
Accounts
> department seems to stumble from one cock-up to another. My major

snip

Could be lucky but no billing probs for the 3 years I've been with plusnet,
or the 5 years prior with f9

Connection good, any tickets raised answered quickly. This NG monitored and
advice/answers given.

On Sat, 16 Oct 2004 09:00:40 +0100, Eric Lee
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>Most ISPs it seems to me provide adequate connectivity, but why do they
>all seem to make such heavy weather of customer service?
>
>Whilst my Plusnet Internet connectivity has never had any issues, the Accounts
>department seems to stumble from one cock-up to another. My major
>complaint here is the effort required to get anything fixed and the fact
>that I then have to raise another request, because they haven't really
>fixed it, just said they have.
>
>Some recent experiences:
>
>A friend recently quoted me as a referrer, but unfortunately spelt my
>hostname wrong - even more unfortunately the mis-spelling was also a
>valid hostname. To sort that one: 6 Support Tickets raised, spread
>across 2 accounts totalling 17 messages.
>
>When the dust settled on that, I received an email telling me of my 25p
>discount and invoice for £21.74. Good, but they actually billed me for
>£21.99 Another ticket, with apparently the onus on me to prove that my
>credit card was billed the incorrect amount (hard to believe their system
>didn't have a record of this), result: 6 messages exchanged, only 1
>Support Ticket raised, but considerable waste of my time.
>
>Now the current saga:
>In August, I changed my billing credit card. There is strangely no
>record of this in my ticket list, but nonetheless, Plus successfully
>billed my new credit card in September (albeit for the wrong amount - see
>above). In October, billing has mysteriously reverted to my old credit
>card - once again no record in my ticket list of anyone changing
>anything. This Support Ticket is only up to 5 messages so far, but that's
>because they haven't grasped the issue yet, just telling me what I already
>knew - that they're billing the [wrong] credit card that's registered on
>their system.
>
>On the up side, Plus have at least got some kind of system with tracking
>-
>but it's not perfect and crikey, it can still be hard work.
>
>Anyone got a perfectly satisfactory record of issues dealt with in under
>6 messages? Would someone like to beat 17 messages for a typing mistake?
>
>Regards
>
>Eric Lee
>
>Tickets:
>12848894,12926159,13122175,13325054,13230321,1332 5055,13655418,14121963
>
>I think I typed them correctly...

Hi Eric,

Quite simply it is not acceptable how we have dealt with your tickets
and for that I do apologise. I have raised a training issue with every
single agent who I felt did not deal with your issues in the correct
manner and this will be taken up on an individual basis.

Your current issue I have raised for further investigation.

Again, please accept our apologies.

Kind regards

Luke
--
| Luke Horwath Broadband Solutions
| Comms team for Home & Business
| PlusNet Plc @ http://www.plus.net
+ ----- My Referrals - It pays to recommend PlusNet -----+

In article <(E-Mail Removed) t>,
(E-Mail Removed), a.k.a Peter Morgan says...

[group corrected]

> On 16 Oct 2004 in uk.telecom.broadband, Tx2 wrote:
>
> >customer service is complete shit
>
> Come on Mr Taylor, say what you mean !

I thought i had made it perfectly clear?
I speak as i find, and to date PN CS has been shit, IME.

YMMV

> How to win friends and influence people...

Friends i have enough of.
Clearly you felt "influenced" enough to respond.

> I guess they're off your Christmas card list then !

They were never on it.

> Shouldn't that have been posted from your Plus.Net account ?

No.

> cross-posted to plusnet.service.customer-feedback
> (so everyone at Plus.Net sees how you feel!)

Isn't that a little bit childish?

None the less, YHM.

In article <(E-Mail Removed)> ,
(E-Mail Removed), a.k.a Tx2 says...


> None the less, YHM

Scrub that ... i changed my mind ;-)