Plusnet Reviews for Broadband & Customer Service

Thinking of switching to Plusnet broadband? One of the most important things to take into consideration before you sign up is how they’re going to treat you as a customer after you’re locked in. Is its service going to be reliable? When problems arise (as they inevitably will), are they dealt with quickly and without fuss? The only way to find this out is by reading what current and past customers have thought about Plusnet.

With this in mind, we’ve trawled through online reviews to see what people are saying about Plusnet. Here you’ll find out whether or not it gets a bad rap and what people’s most common complaints are amongst other key details. Let’s get straight to it:

Plusnet reviews: an overview

To see just what current and past customers think of Plusnet, we went straight to the source - online customer reviews. Since reviewers give out a star rating (out of five) and can leave a review detailing their experience, it’s easy to get an overall understanding of how people feel about Plusnet. Online review sites do tend to attract more negative reviews than positive ones, as people tend to only visit in the heat of a terrible experience, but the volume of complaints and repeated complaints of the same kind will be useful in seeing where Plusnet is going wrong.

What we found was not a pretty sight: Plusnet’s ‘TrustScore’ is a disappointing 1.4 out of 5 stars.

The numbers don’t get any prettierOut of a total of over 5,000 reviews, 83% give it the worst possible score of Bad (one star). Less than 10% of customers reported a positive experience with Plusnet, which leads us to believe that there is something very wrong with its service.

So what is Plusnet doing to put so many of its own customers’ noses out of joint? We’re going to take you through all the aspects of its service and give you a sense of what people are saying about each one, and then you can decide for yourself whether Plusnet’s cheap broadband deals are worth the savings.

Plusnet broadband service review

This is the first thing you’ll want to know - how smoothly does Plusnet broadband run? No one wants to sign up to internet that’s going to cut out or run at a snail’s pace, for obvious reasons. The thing you ask of your internet connection is that it works consistently and at the speed you’re paying for. Is this what’s being said in Plusnet broadband reviews?

We were promised 25 Mbps we have never ever had this! … The speed in the house at the moment is 8 Mb, totally unacceptable…

Uh oh. Looks like there are some customers having issues with the speed of their service. We will say, however, that these seem to be small in number compared to complaints of other kinds, so these are just an unlucky few.

This is backed up to some extent by data from Ofcom’s most recent report into broadband providers’ quality of service, which found that 86% of Plusnet customers were satisfied with the service they were receiving - coming just behind EE, who performed best in this category with 87%. Only 12% of Plusnet customers had had a reason to complain about their home broadband, a fraction less than the market average of 13%, so it would seem that Plusnet is doing comparatively well in terms of service.

Overall, then, we would conclude that the quality of your broadband service itself is not likely to be your biggest issue as a Plusnet customer.

Plusnet customer service reviews

Sadly, the above is where the (rather thin) silver lining ends. The same Ofcom report to exonerate Plusnet’s broadband service is damning in equal measure of its customer services. The report states that of those customers who did have a reason to complain, just 49% were satisfied with the way it was handled. Unfortunately, this is on par with the overall average across the whole market - only two providers recorded percentages above half in this category: EE and Sky with 53% and 54% respectively.

The really disappointing figure is the average call waiting time recorded by Plusnet. At six minutes and 47 seconds, Plusnet’s response time lags well over five minutes behind the average time providers were able to answer their customers. Unlike in other areas, where providers are very much sharing the shame around more, Plusnet doesn’t really have a competitor for worst-in-class in this category - the next-slowest provider is KCOM, which is over four minutes quicker to answer…

Biggest issue is when you call their 0845 number from your mobile and get charged £100 whilst you wait for them to answer!

As you might expect, the above is one of several reviewers frustrated with the time spent waiting to get through to someone to get their issue resolved. This might (almost) be forgivable if, when an agent eventually gets around to answering, they are understanding and effective in dealing with your problem - this is not the general experience:

Have just had a shockingly bad experience with this crowd. DO NOT SIGN WITH THEM. That the customer service is rude just adds insult to injury…

Several complainants describe agents they’ve been on the phone with as unhelpful, often causing them more problems than the one they’re trying to solve or being focused on selling or extending their deal instead. It does not make for comforting reading, with many feeling conned by people they contacted looking for help - which, for us, is an awful sign.

Looking to cancel Plusnet broadband?Do not expect it to go smoothly. Several reviewers point to problems with Plusnet after they’ve cancelled their deal - be it continued mistaken charges or their service being cut before they’re set up with their new provider. What’s the opposite of a gift that keeps on giving? Whatever it is, Plusnet is doing a great job imitating it.

Plusnet reviews for pricing

One of the main draws to sign up to Plusnet broadband is its cheap prices, so of course, customers will at least have good things to say about the price, right? Unfortunately, not even here are things quite so straightforward. While it is true that Plusnet’s broadband deals are cheap and stay at a fixed price, there are still ways it misleads customers and plays tricks like the ones we’ve grown used to from the big ISPs.

...all the TV adverts promising no price rises during contract are very cleverly worded, the broadband price is set but they increased my phone line charges.

Plusnet’s association with the word “honest” is stretched to its limit here, as it seems to be drawing customers into broadband deals with the words “fixed price” and then hiking up the price of line rental once they’re under contract. These aren’t exactly the sort of sales tactics that instil a huge amount of trust in us. It may be that it’s still worth getting the Plusnet broadband package you were eyeing up even if the price of line rental does creep up, but it would give us pause if the first interaction we had with a provider was to be misled like this.

Bills & account management

In terms of account management, Plusnet immediately loses points because it doesn’t seem to have an app to let users manage their broadband easily and at their own leisure. It’s all a bit of a faff, with the only option for managing things yourself being to go to its website, which you can only really use if you’re sat down at a computer or laptop. This being said, those who do log into their account online do not seem to find much fault with it.

Looking for info about managing your Plusnet Mobile account?For this, there is an app you can use. For information on the Plusnet Mobile app, plus all the info on Plusnet’s mobile offer, head to our Plusnet Mobile page.

We think that part of the problem with its customer services is that customers are encouraged by the friendly face Plusnet put on in adverts to get in touch with an agent to take care of their issues. This results in agents who are rushed off their feet (which explains the ridiculous call waiting times) and less than willing to help out when you need it. If you’re a Plusnet customer, we would recommend grabbing a laptop and trying to solve any issue that comes up online via your account first, and call only as a last resort - this should help to minimise the stress reported by other users.

Plusnet reviews: the verdict

On the whole, things look pretty bad for those signed up or thinking of signing up to Plusnet broadband. Granted, there will be many customers who don’t experience a lot of drops in their service or slower speeds - 86% of Plusnet customers are, after all, satisfied with their service, and this is not to be ignored. What’s less encouraging, however, is that those who do have problems are often left dissatisfied and feeling cheated by a provider which promised them a “good, honest” service.

On balance, even taking into consideration the rate of customer satisfaction, the way Plusnet is dealing with customers at the moment doesn’t allow us to consider giving it more than two stars.