2 Months of T3 Errors - Virgin refusing to investigate.

[WorstISP]

Like many others in this forum, I've been getting disconnected from the internet several times a day, and looking at the logs on the Hub there's T3 errors logged around the time of each disconnection.

I complained about this 2 months ago, and Virgin are refusing to investigate the source of the issue.

1st engineer showed up and replaced the hub & attenuator. Told me if the issue continued they'd send a more senior engineer.

2nd engineer showed up and checked the signal strength, couldn't see the issue, and told me they'd send out a more senior engineer.

3rd engineer showed up and was decent enough, said that the issue was obviously in the cabinet, but we couldn't get access that day (building manager was out sick). Rescheduled the visit.

4th engineer showed up completely oblivious to any of the previous visits or notes about the fact that this issue was affecting the entire building and that everything inside my apartment had already been checked & tested, and that the issue was in the cabinet.

Now virgin are refusing to reply to my emails and ignoring this complaint. So from day 1 I've told them "you need to look at the cabinet", and the one engineer who was there to look at the cabinet was the unlucky sod who came around when there was no access available. I should mention that the 1st engineer told me that Virgin had the details to organise a visit with the building management without me needing to organise it, but apparently not.

So what do I do from here? The issue is affecting the entire apartment block, anyone on Virgin is planning to switch to Sky, while the Sky customers are happy. It's not just the apartment block, loads of people around the area are having the same issue.

[Anonymous]

Hybrid Fiber Optic and Coaxial - this issue may only be resolved by replacing the coaxial within the infrastructure to Fiber to reduce upstream/downstream noise. It's possible noise from the Fiber Optic to Coaxial terminations within the cabinet as you mentioned above. Slow speeds can cause timeouts the TCP/IP handshakes/connectivity get interupted and then fail to reconnect. I have the same issue here. (My assumption's are only my view, I could be completley wrong)  -  Keep a log of the time and date when this happens so VM can check their logs, also if it happens when another device or application on your network/devices require more bandwidth.

[Client62]

Wi-Fi disconnections are often caused by having "Smart Wi-Fi"  and or "Auto Channel" selection enabled on the Hub, disable both for better Wi-Fi stability - the effect it to stop the Hub from randomly jumping Wi-Fi channels.

T3 errors - is there an issue with the Upstream signal level or modulation modes ?

Hub Signal Level Checks

Via http://192.168.0.1/ connect to the Hub in Router mode, do not login in, scroll down to "Check router status"     Use http://192.168.100.1/ for a Hub in Modem mode

Using the Hub's "Check router status" tabs check the Downstream and Upstream power levels are in spec.

( If already logged in to the Hub menu, the same info is available at : Advanced settings >>> Tools >>> Network status )

Downstream Power Levels of -7 to +7 dBmV are preferred, +10dBmV is the max acceptable, with a SNR of 33dB or higher across all DOCSIS 3.0 channels. Rising error counts across many channels is a current service noise fault.

Upstream Power Levels of 35 to 49 dBmV are preferred, with QAM 64 Modulation mode across all four to six DOCSIS 3.0 channels.  Seeing QAM 32/16/QPSK is a current service noise fault.  Seeing less than four DOCSIS 3.0 channels is usually a signal level fault.

[Kain_W]

Hi WorstISP,

Thanks for your post and welcome back to the community.

Sincere apologies for the issues faced with your broadband during this time.

I can see however from checking our threads that our team has invited yourself into a PM.

To avoid confusion I'll allow responses to occur from there.

Regards,

[WorstISP]

Currently getting 1mbps down on an ethernet link. I'm paying for over 1Gig.

Virgin are outright scamming me at this point by billing me for a service they clearly can't provide.

[riso · Accepted solution]

I may have missed it, as I'm tired, but are you getting the issue with both wired and wireless?

You have a contract clause which states if VM can't provide a consistent connection over a specific speed for a specific time within any given month period, then you can cancel your contract without penalty.

You need to email the "CEO" email address found online. Outline you are putting them on notice on their beach of contract and are activating the clause from the date of the email. Tell them they have by a specific date within the contracted period to fix the issue, otherwise you're leaving without penalty.

Firstly - doing this, for me at least, got a response from a more intuitive team and a form of case worker against my problem.

Secondly - if they don't fix it within the time period, you then terminate the contract as it's your right.

[WorstISP]

Thanks Riso, this is the most useful advice. I'm tired of dealing with them.

Yes, it's wired and wireless. This is specifically an issue with me being disconnected from WAN. Recently the speed is terrible on top of that. It fluctuates.

[riso]

I had similar and did what I said above, got a new hub and ask was good.

Sounds like your issue is more complex than the hub though. Hopefully if you follow the above you may be able to get it sorted.

[WorstISP]

Just to clarify Kain, I was posting to get help from the users of the forum since Virgin have failed to resolve this ongoing issue, and refuse to share any information with me on what they are doing to resolve it. All Virgin have done so far is send engineers out who I suspect are marking the faults as "resolved" without actually checking with me to confirm.

If this is not the case, then there is no reason for why Virgin should be refusing my requests for information on the status of these tickets and the notes recorded by engineers investigating the issue. I am not getting the service I am paying for. It is absolutely unacceptable that I should pay for a 1130Mbps package, with an unfair contract term penalising me for exiting the contract when my speeds are dropping as low as 1Mbps in the evening.

Do you think it's acceptable that I get 0.1% of the advertised speed during the evenings? Do you think it's acceptable that I'm kicked offline by T3 errors between my hub and the access layer, several times a day? Do you think it's acceptable that Virgin are refusing to share the status of the service fault investigation with me after forcing me to take days off work to wait for engineers who should be dealing with the building management or investigating the access layer?

I have asked multiple Virgin employees for notes on the service fault and logs relating to my service, I have even opened DSARs. Every time, Virgin has refused to share any relevant information with me without any explanation.

Based on this awful experience with Virgin Media, I have come to suspect that this issue is not being investigated at all. I suspect that Virgin Media know how inconvenient it is to wait around for engineers, and are using this as a way to punish customers for raising complaints.

If you wish to dispute this, then please, share the history and status of the service faults I have reported to Virgin Media, and prove to me that these ongoing issues are actually being investigated, and prove to me that Virgin actually intends on fixing these faults.

The fact that Virgin is continuing to charge me for a service they are not providing is absolutely despicable.

[WorstISP]

Just want to update so people on the forum can see:

- The forum staff I'm messaging is refusing to share the ticket references for the engineer visits, which I need to open a DSAR. They are also refusing to share the status of these tickets (ie: open or resolved)

- They have refused my request for a replacement Hub. I had one Hub replacement 2 months ago which was before this new issue (Download speeds degrading from restart, dropping down to 1 Mbps, on a 1 Gig contract).

- They are only now offering to monitor the speed, even though I've had a complaint open since the 10th of August. This implies that they were never monitoring my connection.

- My previous DSAR requests for information on fault monitoring of my connection, and logs/notes on tickets related to service faults were both refused without any explanation.

Virgin Media is scamming me and lying to me. They are refusing to provide explanations for why they have failed to provide me with the service I paid for. They are refusing to release me from the minimum duration of my contract.

I want this visible because I'm sick of the forum staff dragging people into DMs to hide the fact that they are not fixing anything. Look around the forum and you will see these are not isolated issues, there is a clear pattern showing that Virgin Media is selling bandwidth that it cannot actually provide. If you are having issues with Virgin Media, please start the complaint process as soon as possible, and make a separate complaint to OfCom while you go through Virgin's complaint process that will eventually lead you to the Ombudsman.