Forum Discussion

weekesd's avatar
weekesd
Tuning in
4 days ago

Rant incoming - appalling service

I have been trying to get VM to fix intermittent connection issues on the hub recently (DBC-ACK errors, following by T3/T4 errors - indicative of noisy signal I believe), usually around the same time I get picture break-up with the TV as well.

Had engineers out 3 time so far (maybe 4? I forget) ... they replaced the hub in the first visit with a superhub 5, which quite frankly makes the issue more apparent as it takes longer to reconnect when I get an issue and my VPN drops. They have tried changing plugs and connectors in the house and added an attenuator to the router and tell me the "signal is fine", today they came back and changed the 3db attenuator to  2db attenuator and again said they cant see anything wrong the signal is fine - I'm fully expecting more problems in a day or two's time.

The engineer said they can see the disconnects on my hub and its about 60 a month and that is "normal". Anyone else been told that having the hub disconnect on average twice a day is "normal"? Also I suspect that figure is not telling the whole picture as some days it can happen 4 or 5 times. Sounds very abnormal to me, like its not able to reliably hold a connection. The disconnects are VERY annoying when working as the VPN drops and I have to wait 5 or 10 minutes for the hub to return to service and they log into the VPN again.

Also noticed on the weekend that my phone was no longer connected, the engineer today said, "oh the last engineer probably snipped your cable, you are supposed to use the socket on the hub now" ... if that is the case, why didn't he tell me that last week? Phone was in the bedroom, I now have to move it to the lounge ... I have no spare power sockets near the router to plug the phone into, so with a few extension cables cables I have tonight just plugged the phone back in and connected to the router and guess what? Yes, no phone signal! GRRRRRR

The engineer blamed it on me today, saying because I have the router behind the TV (where its been for the last decade) that it will suffer from interference from the TV and that's the problem, so just purchasing a load of cat6 cable to rewire everything so I can move the router, but not expecting it to fix the issue - that sounded like  "fob off" to me - but I want to remove ALL there opportunities for excuses.

What do I do next? Suggestions welcome - wondering if they would be willing to cancel my contract, otherwise I am going to keep calling engineers to come out all year until they fix it or admit they can't.

8 Replies

    • weekesd's avatar
      weekesd
      Tuning in
      3 days ago

      I used to have one set-up a while back ... it seems to have stopped ... I set-one up again. Thank you for the reminder about that

      • David_Bn's avatar
        David_Bn
        Icon for Forum Team rankForum Team
        14 hours ago

        Thanks for reaching out to us weekesd, and welcome back to our Community Forums!

        Sorry to hear of the issues you've been experiencing with our services, on both the landline service and the drops with the services.

        We understand that there is a plan of action in place for you to have this matter resolved.

        Do however feel free to report back to us if you have ay further questions or concerns.

        Thanks,

        David_Bn

  • Adduxi's avatar
    Adduxi
    Very Insightful Person
    3 days ago

    VPN's are not supported by VM btw.  Yes, having a Hub behind a TV, or anything will impair the WIFI signal, it should be in the open.  This is true of any Wifi kit.  As for the phone, VM should have done the necessary wiring to sort your phone out, as it was VM who told you to move to the Hub socket.

    As well as the BQM above, can you post the power levels and network log from the Hub please, so we can comment on the state of your circuit.

    • Nednats's avatar
      Nednats
      Just browsing
      3 days ago

      I understand your point about Wi-Fi placement, and yes keeping the hub in an open space is definitely best practice for signal strength. That said, I think it’s important to distinguish between Wi-Fi performance issues and modem-level faults that show up in the logs; such as high upstream power, T3/T4 timeouts. These aren't caused by hub placement behind a TV or a VPN in use they point to signal quality or provisioning issues between the modem and CMTS.

      Regarding VPNs, while VM may not officially support them, customers absolutely can use them and it doesn’t invalidate a fault report, especially when the VPN isn’t even in use during testing.

    • weekesd's avatar
      weekesd
      Tuning in
      3 days ago

      The VPN is the most annoying aspect, but having streaming movies or youtube interrupted for 5 minutes while I wait for the hub to reconnect is also a pain when it happens many times a week. As far as I know, I pay VM for an internet connection, and what I may or may not send over it is up to me, its just IP traffic ... I am sure there are a multitude of services they don't "support" (e.g. access to my AWS S3 buckets, or sFTP, etc), I am not asking them to make my VPN work, I am asking them to give me a connection that is reliable enough that I can use a VPN or stream media if I want. 

      Also, I don't really care about wifi signal, most of my devices (TV, V6 box, computers and laptops) are connected via ethernet cables. I have been clear distinguishing this to the engineers, they do not seem clear on it.

  • Nednats's avatar
    Nednats
    Just browsing
    3 days ago

    Just wanted to say I totally relate to your frustration here. I'm going through something very similar: high upstream power, repeated T3/T4 timeouts, logs showing DOCSIS 3.1 fallback, and all the while support keeps focusing on my internal setup, sending out hubs, or offering technician visits that don’t address the root issue. I've seen a number of cases now where the problem turns out to be upstream or in the cabinet not the customer’s Wi-Fi or wiring. If you're stuck in a loop of “it must be your setup,” you’re not alone.If you haven’t already, it might help to set up a ThinkBroadband BQM and grab some Hub logs these have really helped me make my case more clearly. Stay persistent

  • weekesd's avatar
    weekesd
    Tuning in
    3 days ago

    Interesting update about the phone being disconnected.

    Yesterdays engineer said that the previous engineer had probably cut my phone line and I now had to use the socket on the hub (and left me with an adapter) ... I then found out it was not working thru the hub, so I called VM today. VM said, "no, you should be on the copper cable, not digital. I'll send an engineer out tomorrow to reconnect that. You wont be on digital until we let you know its your time to switch".

    Jeez!