Broadband dropping out and down/up load speeds poor

[MarkSC]

Hi,

Ever since Virgin carried out "improvements" on 31/1/22 our broadband has been dropping out several times each day and the download and upload speeds are significantly less than we are supposed to be getting with the M500 Fibre Broadband package. It's infuriating that several of our neighbours wifi signals appear to be very strong whilst our router searches to reconnect to our own network.

The VirginMedia website reports no issues in our area. I have tried rebooting the router on a few occasions and there is no improvement. To exacerbate matters, I largely work from home and the constant wifi drop outs during online meetings, etc. is causing me issues. My Employer has lost patience and told me to get the problem sorted or relocate to the nearest office 25 miles away and commute at my own expense. 

I can't find any way to obtain live support from the VirginMedia website either via an online chatline or via the phone. Clearly, this issue needs sorting out quickly or I will have no option other than to find another broadband provider after several years of loyal custom.

[MarkSC]

That date should read 31/10/22.

[John_GS]

Hi MarkSC

Thanks for posting and welcome to the community.

I am sorry for the broadband issues - have done a system check and your downstream power levels are out of spec. This means a tech is needed, so I will PM you now to book this in.

Best wishes,

[John_GS]

Hi MarkSC

Thanks for joining me on PM and allowing me to book in the tech for the downstream channel issue. This appointment will be viewable in your online account - virg.in/myVM - in a few hours, where you can amend/cancel if needed.

There will be no charge for this visit unless:
• The technician diagnoses the faults as not being caused by our network/equipment 
• The technician discovers that the fault or problem relates to your equipment
• The technician discovers that the fault or problem relates to any system that we are not responsible for
The technician will confirm during their visit if any of these instances apply, and if so, a £25 charge will be applied to your account. 
Please ensure there is someone over the age of 18 present at the time of the visit. If you need to change or cancel your appointment you can do this online or via the MyVM app by 4pm the day before the appointment.
If you do miss an agreed appointment for any reason, a £25 missed appointment charge will be applied to your account on the day of the appointment
Let us know how the visit goes or if you need further assistance. 
Best,

[MarkSC]

Hi John,

Many thanks for your previous support and apologies for the belated update, but I have only just returned from having surgery in hospital.

The technician did not resolve our broadband problems. He simply changed all the splitter connections and left. He did not attempt to find out the cause of our intermittent connections and erratic download and upload speeds because he said the broadband was performing within acceptable tolerances when he visited. Therefore, he did not see the point of carrying out any investigations such as checking connections in the road, etc. He informed me that the work carried out on 31/10/22 was to upgrade those customers' packages with slower download and upload speeds and that this was probably only coincidental with the start of our issues. I suggested that perhaps the router was several years old and perhaps needed replacing, but he said it was a current model and would not try changing it. 

We have continued to suffer broadband outages several times each day and this morning we were without any connection for a couple of hours. I finally resolved this by rebooting the router. Again, it was interesting to see that whilst our computer searched for a network connection, there were very strong signals present from several of our neighbours including some Virginmedia networks. We have now got very poor broadband speeds and connections in the further parts of the house including no signal at all from late evening until next morning where as prior to 31/10/22 we had a strong signal with excellent download and upload speeds. Several of our devices report an unstable network when trying to reconnect following broadband outages.

Just before I was admitted to hospital, I was on a Teams call for work with my directors and I lost connectivity three times. I cannot continue like this. 

Please can you arrange for something to be done to get to the bottom of this? If it involves another engineer visit, please avoid Thursday 26 January as I am back in hospital on that day.

Many thanks & kind regards,

Mark

[John_GS]

Thanks for coming back to us, Mark. 

I hope the surgery went well.

I am sorry it's continued to happen. I will send another tech for you

Will PM you the date

[MarkSC]

Hi John,

Many thanks. Wifi just went down again.

Kind regards,

Mark

[Chris_W1]

Hi MarkSC, thanks for the message and welcome back to the forums. 

I can see that you have a PM with John and this is on the  way to becoming resolved. 

Please let us know how it goes with the engineer. 

Kind regards Chris