Plusnet for newbie

Just built a PC for a mate and he needs BB, line rental and evening+weekend
call.
Looked at the usual websites, checked with SamKnows etc. and Plusnet, at
about £20 for the lot seems OK (2Gb limit, but he's new to it and won't
really be downloading distros!).
What's the general opinion of Plusnet? Seems to get mixed reviews here, but
a good sign is that Tech. Support also post.
--
Peter.
You don't understand Newton's Third Law of Motion?
It's not rocket science, you know.

"PeterC" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> Just built a PC for a mate and he needs BB, line rental and
> evening+weekend
> call.
> Looked at the usual websites, checked with SamKnows etc. and Plusnet, at
> about £20 for the lot seems OK (2Gb limit, but he's new to it and won't
> really be downloading distros!).
> What's the general opinion of Plusnet? Seems to get mixed reviews here,
> but
> a good sign is that Tech. Support also post.
> --
> Peter.
> You don't understand Newton's Third Law of Motion?
> It's not rocket science, you know.

I've been with PlusNet since 2004. They did go through a rocky patch a while
ago where they lost users emails and other problems but have not had a
problem since.

I find the service to be reliable and easy to manage from a users point of
view.

A distinct advantage, I find, is that between Midnight and 8am (classed as
off peak) any usage does not count against your limit. So if your friend did
need to download something large he could just do it after off peak.

I would personally recomment them as I have had no problems. I'm sure that
there will be others who will post who have had problems. So you should be
able to make a balanced opinion of their potential service for your friend.

Cheers

TheDysk

On Fri, 19 Dec 2008 17:44:21 GMT, TheDysk wrote:

> "PeterC" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>> Just built a PC for a mate and he needs BB, line rental and
>> evening+weekend
>> call.
>> Looked at the usual websites, checked with SamKnows etc. and Plusnet, at
>> about £20 for the lot seems OK (2Gb limit, but he's new to it and won't
>> really be downloading distros!).
>> What's the general opinion of Plusnet? Seems to get mixed reviews here,
>> but
>> a good sign is that Tech. Support also post.
>> --
>> Peter.
>> You don't understand Newton's Third Law of Motion?
>> It's not rocket science, you know.
>
> I've been with PlusNet since 2004. They did go through a rocky patch a while
> ago where they lost users emails and other problems but have not had a
> problem since.
>
> I find the service to be reliable and easy to manage from a users point of
> view.
>
> A distinct advantage, I find, is that between Midnight and 8am (classed as
> off peak) any usage does not count against your limit. So if your friend did
> need to download something large he could just do it after off peak.
>
> I would personally recomment them as I have had no problems. I'm sure that
> there will be others who will post who have had problems. So you should be
> able to make a balanced opinion of their potential service for your friend.
>
> Cheers
>
> TheDysk

Thank you for this.
One aspect that is very important: how a company behaves when things go
wrong (I'm with Homecall-Pipex-Tiscali atm and although it's OK so far I'm
aprehensive about problems as I know what will (or won't!) happen).
--
Peter.
You don't understand Newton's Third Law of Motion?
It's not rocket science, you know.

(2Gb limit, but he's new to it and won't
> really be downloading distros!).

Now there's a euphemism if ever there was one!

--
Graham.

%Profound_observation%

"Mortimer" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed) et...

snip

>>
>> Thank you for this.
>> One aspect that is very important: how a company behaves when things go
>> wrong (I'm with Homecall-Pipex-Tiscali atm and although it's OK so far
>> I'm
>> aprehensive about problems as I know what will (or won't!) happen).
>
> Like TheDysk, I can recommend PlusNet.
>
> They have had their problems, but nothing major for a while now. And they
> are very good about keeping people informed about widespread problems or
> investigating individual problems. It is this visibility and open-ness
> about problems, with official logging that is visible to the customer,
> which sorts the good from the bad (a certain company that is a fruit and a
> colour springs to mind as being spectacularly bad!). That, and the fact
> that their support staff are British.
>

MOrtimer - A valid point about the support staff that I neglected to
mention.

The few times I have logged a call (usually to regrade my services, etc)
they have been very prompt in resolving the call and answering any queries I
have had.

TheDysk

On 19 Dec, 19:50, Howard Neil <hn...@REMOVETOREPLY.co.uk> wrote:
> PeterC wrote:
> > Thank you for this.
> > One aspect that is very important: how a company behaves when things go
> > wrong (I'm with Homecall-Pipex-Tiscali atm and although it's OK so far I'm
> > aprehensive about problems as I know what will (or won't!) happen).
>
> I have also been with Plusnet for a few years and echo what the other
I've been with them for yonks and can confirm they are Ok, even in
sticks where I live and have very useful forums too:

http://community.plus.net/forum/


> customers say.
>
> You ask about problems; that is the real strength of Plusnet. They are
> open and honest about faults. Let's face it, all ISPs get faults but
> Plusnet really let you know what is happening, even if the fault does
> not effect you. They will announce faults, giver very regular updates on
> what is being done to fix them and, when they are fixed, tell you what
> they intend to do to prevent such faults in the future (if relevant).
> This did, at one time, get them a reputation for being unreliable as
> other ISPs just try to hide their faults but word is now getting round.
>
> --
> Howard Neil

TheDysk wrote:

> "PeterC" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote
>
> > Just built a PC for a mate and he needs BB, line rental and
> > evening+weekend call.
> > Looked at the usual websites, checked with SamKnows etc. and Plusnet, at
> > about £20 for the lot seems OK (2Gb limit, but he's new to it and won't
> > really be downloading distros!).
> > What's the general opinion of Plusnet? Seems to get mixed reviews here,
> > but a good sign is that Tech. Support also post.
>
> I've been with PlusNet since 2004. They did go through a rocky patch a while
> ago where they lost users emails and other problems but have not had a
> problem since.

Add to the rocky patch migrating customers to LLU using Tiscali without
informing them !

Then try finding (at that time) another ISP that would accept an LLU MAC ! Most
people had to cease and re-rpvide at a cost of ~ £50. Luckily I found IDNet who
did take LLU MACs and the rest is history.

One happy bunny.

It seems PN may be OK now though. I hope they don't still have anyone on
Tiscali. My neighbour has Tiscali and I fancied googling something. He's getting
around 6Mbps theoretically but it hadn't reached Google some 15 mins later so I
gave up.

Graham

PeterC wrote:

> Thank you for this.
> One aspect that is very important: how a company behaves when things go
> wrong (I'm with Homecall-Pipex-Tiscali atm and although it's OK so far I'm
> aprehensive about problems as I know what will (or won't!) happen).

Don't touch anything involving Tiscali with a 10 mile bargepole.

A neighbour went to them for phone and LLU broadband (previously he'd had Tiscali
BB on his BT line and it was OK). It took TWO MONTHS before it was working
properly (both services). It cost him a fortune in mobile calls.

Graham

Mortimer wrote:

> It is this visibility and open-ness about
> problems, with official logging that is visible to the customer, which sorts
> the good from the bad (a certain company that is a fruit and a colour
> springs to mind as being spectacularly bad!). That, and the fact that their
> support staff are British.

Also
http://www.idnet.net/support/status.jsp

Simple but truthful.

Graham

Howard Neil wrote:

> PeterC wrote:
>
> > Thank you for this.
> > One aspect that is very important: how a company behaves when things go
> > wrong (I'm with Homecall-Pipex-Tiscali atm and although it's OK so far I'm
> > aprehensive about problems as I know what will (or won't!) happen).
>
> I have also been with Plusnet for a few years and echo what the other
> customers say.
>
> You ask about problems; that is the real strength of Plusnet. They are
> open and honest about faults.

They were anything but when I left. I gather it's improved though.

Graham