I've just moved back to the UK and got a Plusnet broadband connection
at a rented house, pending the move to our new house. In preparation
I got another Plusnet connection installed at our new house, and it
tested fine on several occasions.

Last Friday we moved from the rented place to our new house. Set up
the same equipment that had worked perfectly before but this time it
didn't work and five days later it still hasn't synchronised. Our IT
guy has checked the ADSL modem and filter on his own home line and it
works fine. We've run through all the normal stuff of removing other
equipment from the phone system at the new house, to no avail.

I've been in frequent contact with Plusnet, who seem to have dropped
the ball a few times over the last five days. Once they've done their
whoosh test they can pass the problem to BT. Not much I can do except
sit and fume and wonder whether this problem will be resolved:
A) This week
B) This month
C) This year

Any suggestions, witty comments and interesting curses will be much
appreciated

In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
Stuart Harris <Stuhar@despammed.com> wrote:

Are you absolutely *certain* it's an external problem? Have you removed the
faceplate from the master socket and plugged your ADSL kit directly into the
test socket (using a BT to RJ11 adapter)? This is the only way to make
*sure* that none of your extension wiring - or phones you've forgotten to
unplug - are interfering with the ADSL signal.
--
Cheers,
Tim
______
Please reply to newsgroup. Reply address is invalid.

On Tue, 5 Oct 2004 16:16:55 +0100, in uk.telecom.broadband,
"Tiscali Tim" <tele@privacy.net> wrote:

(if it needs an adapter - some routers I've bought came with a BT plug :-)

If so, there's a possibility of DACS on the line... I see the OP says 'new
house' and I'm assuming it is new to him, rather than on a new estate, as a
DACS is perhaps less likely if it is a new estate... Peter M.

On 5 Oct 2004 07:39:24 -0700, Stuart Harris <Stuhar@despammed.com> wrote:

Hi,

If you want to let me have your username or a ticket number from your
account I can take a look at what's happening for you.

With Regards,

Dave,
--
| Dave Tomlinson Broadband Solutions For
| Customer Support for Home & Business
| PlusNet plc @ http://www.plus.net
+ ----- My Referrals - It pays to recommend PlusNet -----

In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
poster <us-mail@rocketmail.com> wrote:

Except that he said that he had tested it before moving in and it was ok.
Surely, BT wouldn't stick a DACS on an ADSL-enabled line, would they?!
--
Cheers,
Tim
______
Please reply to newsgroup. Reply address is invalid.

In article <vof5m09geesbcojfc8ki2a0322c0rvhvi4@4ax.com>, us-
mail@rocketmail.com says...

As a rule, a DACS would be removed during activation so the OP would see
a delay getting their account provisioned rather than a fault.

Regards,
--
| Josh Berry.................Unmetered & ADSL solutions
| Customer Support..................for Home & Business
| PlusNet plc.....................@ http://www.plus.net
+ ---- My Referrals - It pays to recommend PlusNet ---+

PlusNet Support Team wrote:
Got to be honest here & say that sometimes (thankfully very rarely) they do
get lost in the records, as for the likelyhood of a dacs being used on a new
estate, you may be unpleasantly suprised how often it happens...

PlusNet Support Team <dtomlinson@plus.net> wrote in message news:<opsfel68066ihwnk@usenet.plus.net>...
is more recent. The previous owner had broadband here, no problem,
and so did I for a few days after September 21st.

At this point I reckon I'm royally screwed for the foreseeable future
on the broadband front. Unless I switch ADSL ISP, Plusnet have got my
ADSL subscription money without the hassle of me using their ADSL
bandwidth. They just have to put up with my griping. And once they
hand the problem over to BT, I can't imagine BT exactly busting a gut
to fix a problem for somebody else's customer. Especially since they
make plenty from me having to use dial-up.

Maybe the solution is to switch ISP, since it will be in the interests
of a new ISP to get the thing working again.

On 5 Oct 2004 in uk.telecom.broadband, "Tiscali Tim" wrote:

I wonder if someone out adding a second line for a nearby home, seeing a
'Sold' sign, would even consider the line might have ADSL enabled (since
presumably the exchange kit would be sitting quietly waiting for a modem
to get into sync, and he may hear nothing on the line but dialtone!).

On 5 Oct 2004 in uk.telecom.broadband, PlusNet Support Team wrote:

I've known the opposite to happen, where the ISP was told all was well
yet it took BT a further 10 days to get around to removing the DACS.

On 6 Oct 2004 in uk.telecom.broadband, Stuart Harris wrote:

presumably you did take up the offer to let Dave Tomlinson have some
way to check on your line problems, else these comments are rather
critical without giving 'them' a chance to redeem themselves. I
know it is frustrating to have no connection (one reason I use
a couple of ISPs) but there's little can be done to help if you
won't at least follow-up offers such as the one that was made...

poster <us-mail@rocketmail.com> wrote in message news:<n3p7m09cck2epm7eq6o2g0l8oo6hi13gp4@4ax.com>. ..
Yup, I immediately responded privately to Dave's kind offer - I
presume he received it....

Ultimately it comes to gaining trust and keeping customers informed.
Do I trust Plusnet? Well they came recommended by my IT guy and I've
was pleased for the first 5/6 weeks, so I trusted them enough to go
for the 32 quid a month option, but there again there weren't any
hitches until last week. I have no previous experience of how well or
otherwise they deal with problems, so I'm looking for signs of
trustworthiness. It was only when I had called several times that one
of the CSC people realized one of his colleagues had put the fault in
the wrong "pool", so that chipped away at my trust. As it is I have
no idea whether my problem has been put in the wrong "pool" again, or
is sitting near the top or the middle or the bottom of the queue or
what.

I too have several ISPs but as far as I know current technology only
allows one broadband ISP per subscriber line, but maybe I'm wrong
there?

On 6 Oct 2004, in uk.telecom.broadband, Stuart Harris wrote:

correct, one needs two lines to be able to use two ISPs.

On 6 Oct 2004 03:30:21 -0700, Stuhar@despammed.com (Stuart Harris)
wrote:

In that case, advise Plusnet you intend to stop paying if they can't
provide the service. Be sure first that it /isn't/ a problem with your
own equipment.

But you're not BT's customer, plusnet are.

Its in plusnets interest too. If they fail to deliver the goods, you
can fail to deliver the cash.

Stuart Harris wrote:
This, in the maiin, is not true. Whilst there are limits the BT engineer
should do (& indeed most do) all he can to get your DSL working, remember
that although you are not BT's direct customer, the DSL service is supplied
by them & that they are getting paid for it.

It doesn't happen over night & it can take up to a week for an engineer to
get to you just be patient (yes i know from experience it is painful & is
like watching paint dry, very slowly on a damp wall).

Have you tried taking the faceplate off your NTE5 & seeing if you can get it
to work on the test socket there? You may be suprised how often the
endusers private wiring causes the main problem.

Sure, whatever. It's now Day 7 of Broadband Black Hole. I had my IT
guy out two days ago to check my equipment. He's an MSc with 30 years
of IT experience, very very thorough and pronounced the equipment
fine. That cost near enough 70 quid on his invoice, plus my lost
working time which is very expensive, plus all the dialing up I have
to do since ALL of my work is commissioned and delivered via the
Internet.

Quite frankly withholding the 32 quid Plusnet subscription per month
is neither here nor there. It will probably cost Plusnet more than 32
quid of engineer's time to fix the problem, so it may well be cheaper
for them to let it lie. This problem has already cost me the
equivalent of 6-7 months subscription money. Say I'm without BB for a
month, which wouldn't surprise me at all, the dial-up and wasted time
costs alone would far outweight their 32 quid.

I haven't tried the "faceplate" approach yet, not least because I
don't want to create new problems. I leave the more technical things
to my IT specialist who has successfully installed dozens of ADSLs,
and he is satisfied that it's not the equipment that's the problem. I
have two BT sockets and I get sync failure with both of them.

The ADSL worked perfectly well with all the current equipment for a
week. I was away from the house for several days and next time I came
to use the equipment, there was no ADSL sync. There may have been a
sudden spontaneous wiring problem in the house while no-one was here,
but unless I'm advised otherwise I don't want to fiddle around myself
and risk further problems, nor to spend another hundred quid or more
getting a specialist to check the private wiring again when all the
indications point elsewhere.

Update on 8/10 - BT have assigned an engineer to the fault and expect
it to be attended to by 13/10.

On 8 Oct 2004 05:32:32 -0700, Stuhar@despammed.com (Stuart Harris)
wrote:

You're lucky. My Plusnet BB has been out of action -- no sync about
95% of the time -- for two weeks. Plusnet found a fault on the line on
Sunday and contacted BT, since when I've had no more info. If any
Plusnet bod wants to check, Ticket ID: 13769098.

Just today I rang BT faults to tell them I'd noticed an overhead cable
joint has its cover missing, a hundred yards down the road. After I
managed to make the foreign-sounding lady understand what I was saying
-- I think -- she said she'd inform the relevant department. Maybe
they'll send somebody out now, but I'm not holding my breath.