ISPs

[martint235]

After my falling out with Justhost.com which is still ongoing as they prove to be more unhelpful in closing my account than they were in running it (and boy they were bad at that), I'm now in a row with Plusnet.

Before I moved to Justhost, I had an account with a company called Freenetname. I was with this company for years and never had a single issue with them. And then they got bought by Madasafish. This has in turn become part of the BT/Plusnet empire.

I left Madasafish early last year and it was only when going through my finances that I realised that I'd left the direct debit on my account. Not a problem, no money has been taken or anything, so I just cancelled the direct debit. Then I got 3 emails from Plusnet complaining that I had no payment option attached to my account. Again no problem, I emailed them and asked them to close my account. "Oh we can't do that, you have to call our national rate number to do that". So email went back to query this and I got a reply confirming that the only possible way to close my account is effectively to pay for the privilege.

As part of my job, I deal with customer service depts all day and I've never come across an industry as unhelpful as the ISP one. They seem determined to offer service on their terms rather than the customers. Is it really just me that has this problem with them?

 

[nr.]

As part of my job, I deal with customer service depts all day and I've never come across an industry as unhelpful as the ISP one. They seem determined to offer service on their terms rather than the customers. Is it really just me that has this problem with them?

There are still good ISPs out there - one problem is that people want to pay as little as possible for internet access, and one of the obvious areas to cut costs is customer service. The way that internet usage has changed has also had an effect on customer service - I have absolutely no stats to back this up, so please feel free to shoot me down in flames, but I reckon that 10 years ago most people who wanted an internet service knew what a subnet mask was and the basics of how DNS works. These days, I'd say it was a minority [1] - and so the service desks don't need engineers working on them, they just need someone who can go through a script. When that helpdesk person happens to talk to someone who *does* know how things work, it quickly becomes the case where the customer is frustrated with the service providers lack of knowledge. Being stuck in a queue for 45 minutes to talk to someone who's sole method of troubleshooting is to reboot your router doesn't help either.

Try Andrews and Arnold as an ISP if you want good service. I'm happy to recommend them. No, I don't work for them

[1] That's not a criticism by the way - the internet is marketed as a commodity for all, and so it shouldn't need specialist knowledge to use it.

 

[Jezston]

I have these kind of problems with pretty much any kind of company over anything.

Most large companies haven't got a moral bone in their body, and routinely bend and break the law as much as they can get away with so to extract every penny out of their 'customers' as they can.

Unfortunately our globalised society has decided that 'that's business' and theft, extortion, fraud and harrassment is perfectly acceptable if it can be claimed to be good for our economy. We need Business Police going round to their offices and fining and jailing these organised crime cartels.

 

[marinyork]

"Oh we can't do that, you have to call our national rate number to do that". So email went back to query this and I got a reply confirming that the only possible way to close my account is effectively to pay for the privilege.

As part of my job, I deal with customer service depts all day and I've never come across an industry as unhelpful as the ISP one. They seem determined to offer service on their terms rather than the customers. Is it really just me that has this problem with them?

To be fair to plusnet (I don't like them), in true martint235 style there's one oversight you hadn't considered why it's not as totally unreasonable as you think it is from their point of view and merely a silly assumption on their part that hasn't been thought through and why they wouldn't regard it as a big deal (which is still inexcusable). Also national rate number is a semi-meaningless phrase, we've been in the partially unmetered era ten years now that did away with the regimented meaning.

 

[martint235]

To be fair to plusnet (I don't like them), in true martint235 style there's one oversight you hadn't considered why it's not as totally unreasonable as you think it is from their point of view and merely a silly assumption on their part that hasn't been thought through and why they wouldn't regard it as a big deal (which is still inexcusable). Also national rate number is a semi-meaningless phrase, we've been in the partially unmetered era ten years now that did away with the regimented meaning.

Ok it's a non-free number which means I have to pay to close my account. I did call them today from work and was informed that there was a ten minute queue, now I could be cynical and think that's artificially created.....

I know why they want me to call, they hope to use the personal contact to convince me not to leave. A lot of companies do this and I do understand it, however I've not used a plusnet service for around a year so it would be far easier for all concerned for them to just close the account.

 

[marinyork]

Ok it's a non-free number which means I have to pay to close my account. I did call them today from work and was informed that there was a ten minute queue, now I could be cynical and think that's artificially created.....

I know why they want me to call, they hope to use the personal contact to convince me not to leave. A lot of companies do this and I do understand it, however I've not used a plusnet service for around a year so it would be far easier for all concerned for them to just close the account.

Just because my previous post might have sounded a bit funny, the point I was getting at is that Plusnet telephone + broadband customers get 0845 for free at weekends. So what you might say? Well ISPs (and I've known people who work for plusnet as well as other ISPs) tend to get bogged down into this thing of thinking about 'typical' customers and it being 'their fault' if they don't fit in the box. Their typical customer gets 0845 for free at evenings and weekends (and it's only cancellations that isn't open within these hours) so they practice what they preach -ish. They probably know you aren't with them but the response in their mind is automatic. Of course it'd be much better if their numbers weren't 0845, but to an extent they do have a point over quite a few other ISPs. A similar thing happens with BT where some of their NGNs are much cheaper than other people's and a similar thing with all kinds of other telecoms and broadband.

As for calling, when I rang to leave years ago (used to be a good company, absolutely appalling now) you did get to speak to someone who noted down why you were leaving and changing your mind. I suspect some of it (going on past employees) is that they simply don't know how to do it, so it's easier to pass it on on a scripted procedure to someone else. Although pay for some of these places is pretty good at £8 p/h+ you still have a high turnover.

For the general point about ISPs, in the early days margins were so dodgy for ISPs. The market is funny, you have a considerable portion of the market that regard the internet as important yet at the same time want to spend no/little money on it - partially because their mind has been conditioned into paying for other things like mobile phones, tv, utility etc and that was the last to come along. I think customer service at all the utilities is pretty bad as a general rule. The real problem is the fiddles like traffic management.

I have the same problem at work where what people say is scripted to the nth degree and whenever things are audited you get complaints such as 'robotic responses' and 'lacks warmth'.

 

[ASC1951]

I have these kind of problems with pretty much any kind of company over anything.

That's terrible to hear.

Most large companies haven't got a moral bone in their body, and routinely bend and break the law as much as they can get away with so to extract every penny out of their 'customers' as they can.

Unfortunately our globalised society has decided that 'that's business' and theft, extortion, fraud and harrassment is perfectly acceptable if it can be claimed to be good for our economy. We need Business Police going round to their offices and fining and jailing these organised crime cartels.

Far fetched, I know - but maybe you get the treatment that your attitude deserves?