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[FAB]

Hi,

No to 0845  telephone numbers.

Yes to Geographical telephone numbers.

Most of us are on telephone accounts which provides for free local and national calls or cheap calls.

It now costs 1/2p per minute to call USA.

So it is about time that Plusnet provided a geographical telephone number for customer service.


0845 and 0870 numbers are a rip-off now.

And 090 numbers are a scandal.

Customers are incurring huge telephone charges for these calls.

So we need a change ASAP.


Here is a useful link :

http://www.saynoto0870.com

If as a customer you agree please say  " Yes Please "



Thanks



 

[kitz]

I think that most customers will agree with you, and its something that PUG have been asking for for a long time.
At one point we were hopeful, but the new phone system seems to have scuppered that idea.

By all means Im quite happy for this to raise its head again for review.

[biondani]

I would like to see a Plustalk number assigned to the CSC too so that you can call free via VOiP.

Ian

[MauriceB]

I'd support the use of VoIP to get access to the CSC - but not via PlusTalk?

Maurice

[lmartin]

Okay guys... I've got some answers as to why we don't actually employ geographical numbers at the moment.

One factor here is that our telephone system is based in London and managed by BT.  Internal DDI numbers to staff members here are all 0870 numbers.  We don't have 0114 number ranges to point at it.

We're in the middle of moving buildings at the moment and the building move has been on the horizon for a long time.  Non-Geographical numbers are a lot easier to move with us.

It's no secret that our support team are very busy at the moment.  It doesn't make sense as a business for us to be advertising a geographical number to allow customers to contact us as it encourages people to call the CSC instead of looking on our website or raising a ticket.  We've got a self-service model and we'd rather allocate resources to automating processes allowing customers full control of their own account rather than having to contact us for minor issues.

When we're back on top of things, however, and the wait times and ticket levels are back to where we want them; plenty of ideas are being considered for contacting support if you really need to, including live-chat support, VoIP number support and geographical numbers.

I hope this goes some way to explaining why we don't have this as a top priority right now.

Thanks.

[fenlandbroadband]

One factor here is that our telephone system is based in London and managed by BT.  Internal DDI numbers to staff members here are all 0870 numbers.  We don't have 0114 number ranges to point at it.

Maybe that highlights one of the reasons why internal communications at PlusNet doesn't seem to be as good as it once used to be...?

When we're back on top of things, however, and the wait times and ticket levels are back to where we want them;

What exactly are these levels? PlusNet keep saying they want to get them back to the level where they want them, so PlusNet must surely know what that level is... so how abouts telling us what the level is.

I hope this goes some way to explaining why we don't have this as a top priority right now.

What is PlusNet's top priority right now?

[FAB]

Okay guys... I've got some answers as to why we don't actually employ geographical numbers at the moment.

One factor here is that our telephone system is based in London and managed by BT.  Internal DDI numbers to staff members here are all 0870 numbers.  We don't have 0114 number ranges to point at it.

We're in the middle of moving buildings at the moment and the building move has been on the horizon for a long time.  Geographical numbers are a lot easier to move with us.

It's no secret that our support team are very busy at the moment.  It doesn't make sense as a business for us to be advertising a geographical number to allow customers to contact us as it encourages people to call the CSC instead of looking on our website or raising a ticket.  We've got a self-service model and we'd rather allocate resources to automating processes allowing customers full control of their own account rather than having to contact us for minor issues.

When we're back on top of things, however, and the wait times and ticket levels are back to where we want them; plenty of ideas are being considered for contacting support if you really need to, including live-chat support, VoIP number support and geographical numbers.

I hope this goes some way to explaining why we don't have this as a top priority right now.

Thanks.

-------------------------------------------------------

Customers come last it seems !

It is Plusnet's  blunders that has caused the havoc.

It is at time like these that customers should not have to suffer cost of heavy telephone bills.

Why should customers have to spend their valuable time waiting on the phone and pay for it.

Every time this subject comes up Plusnet will have an excuse.

Surely if Plusnet is moving buildings, then  geographical number should be implemented at the same time.

Plusnet really don't want to talk to customers.

Perhaps less customers will solve Plusnet's problems.





 

[michaels]

The customer support website does not meet my requirement for an account problem. Plusnet is charging me for something I understood was part of the package I purchased. I want to talk to the person that raises the bill!!

[ianwild]

The customer support website does not meet my requirement for an account problem. Plusnet is charging me for something I understood was part of the package I purchased. I want to talk to the person that raises the bill!!

A machine raises the bills

I definately take this seriously, and we want to find something that works for everyone - Voip is on the cards at some point, as is live chat. We can look at all the suggestions we have and 0845 revenue has never been our motivation for using this sort of number.

As Liam has said, right now we don't want to encourage people to call support, and while that may not be a brilliant reason, we've always had 0845 and I don't think we're very different from most other ISPs here.

That said, I'm very keen we make changes that set us apart, and it's just this sort of discussion we want to be having.

Regards,

Ian

[Pendragon]

This was posted by Liam Martin;

One factor here is that our telephone system is based in London and managed by BT.  Internal DDI numbers to staff members here are all 0870 numbers.  We don't have 0114 number ranges to point at it.

And this was posted by Ian Wild

That said, I'm very keen we make changes that set us apart, and it's just this sort of discussion we want to be having.

I have said this a couple of times on the Force 9 forums and I’ll say it again here, no disrespect to BT but don’t let a third party run your telephone system, take the system ‘in house’ and run it yourself.

I ran a Meridian and Symposium system for 6 years and am a qualified administrator and script writer for Symposium and I have personal experience of BT script writers. They are good but don’t always program for the most efficient running of your business.

Your telephone system has experienced far to much ‘downtime’, in fact so much downtime that I would have been given my marching orders long before your system was up and running if it had happened to me.  Your IVR is rubbish and as for cutting callers off, that is rudeness in the extreme and I would be in front of the director and questioned as to why long ago.

Meridian systems usually have at least 4 hours backup by UPS and system changes take only seconds to perform, Symposium can and does cause problems if the scripts are incorrect and the server becomes overloaded but a quick re-boot only takes a couple of minutes and can easily be completed remotely. While the re-boot is taking place the underlying ACD software of the Meridian should seamlessly handle the calls without the caller even knowing your system has a problem.

So get a couple of guys to Stone and get them up to speed then take over scripting remotely yourself and give your customers the call experience they deserve.

End of rant, regards, Colin.

[Colin]

I think I have to agree with Colin on what he's said...

The system seems far too unstable at the moment, as is, and seems to have been down much more than I recall the other one being down.

[mikeb]

... we've always had 0845 and I don't think we're very different from most other ISPs here.   

Really ?  I seem to remember one of the big marketing things being "free technical support on an 0800 number" as well as there being a 'real' phone number that also worked when the 0800 number was eventually dropped.  Most likely back in Worksop times tho   Other ISPs also had 0800 and/or 'real' numbers also but no doubt they don't either now seeing that it's not in their interest to do so.

Apart from the general charging issues, the BIG issue for me is sitting in some d@mn long queue at my expense when using call centres. It simply reeks of revenue generation more so than poor management. Having 5 million phone lines answered/queued immediately but only having one person answering calls is totally outrageous !! (might be some slightly exagerated numbers stated there )  By all means have a queue system but the number of calls queued should be in proportion to the number of operatives and average call length.  Although TBH, I generally fail to see what the benefit of a queue is as far as the customer is concerned.  Having some 'fancy' phone system totally outside of your control rather than a good old fashioned in-house system clearly has it's major drawbacks as demonstrated by all the problems to date.

[FAB]

I recently had to call BT, as a friend was moving house.

It was an 0800 freephone number.

There was a queue and it was busy.  So I hung up. 

I called few minutes later and it was still busy.  This time it asked if the customer service can call me back.

Within about 15 minutes I got a call back from BT.

Now if BT can call back customers : Why can't Plusnet call back their customers.


 

[bud]

... we've always had 0845 and I don't think we're very different from most other ISPs here.   

Really ?  I seem to remember one of the big marketing things being "free technical support on an 0800 number" as well as there being a 'real' phone number that also worked when the 0800 number was eventually dropped.  Most likely back in Worksop times tho   Other ISPs also had 0800 and/or 'real' numbers also but no doubt they don't either now seeing that it's not in their interest to do so.

Yes, I remember the Worksop times and their being geographic numbers for support and dial in, then it was 0800 support which was replaced with 0845 so clearly there has not always been 0845 support.

[portmoak]

I'm very keen we make changes that set us apart, and it's just this sort of discussion we want to be having.

The changes you've made have already set PlusNet apart. Maybe that's not what you intended? 

More seriously (and as strongly hinted at above) just what is the advantage to a customer in sitting in an hour-long queue at his cost over listening to only a ringing tone at no cost? Why not limit the number in the queue to something sensible?