Multiple Router Restarts

[Haravikk]

I've always had some trouble with Virgin routers restarting, had multiple replacements but it's never fixed it, but normally it's infrequent (once a month at most) so I've just ignored it.

However today I've had the router inexplicably restart at least FIVE times today, as you can hopefully see in the Broadband Quality Monitor graph here.

It even happened again while trying to post this message (and make that twice while editing the post)!

What is it that causes the router to restart like this? There's nothing in the logs that points to any particular issue at the same times, so I don't know if it's power loss or what. I've already tried plugging it into a different mains socket connected using a different extension block to see if it was that that was the problem, though no other devices on the previous block/socket are restarting or losing power or such. Unfortunately I don't have a UPS I can move to the router's location to completely eliminate power as a cause, but if it was suffering power loss would it say so in the log? It's really not very helpful.

Is there anything I can do to stop this? Because like I say; I've tried multiple times to get support in the past and it's never been resolved, now it's worse than ever and not long after I've been told my bills are going up yet again, so I really am at the point where either it needs to get fixed or I'll be forced to switch providers.

Here are the Downstream/Upstream stats in case they are useful:

Downstream bonded channels

Channel Frequency (Hz) Power (dBmV) SNR (dB) Modulation Channel ID

1	331000000	1.2	40	256 qam	25
2	339000000	1.5	40	256 qam	26
3	347000000	0.2	40	256 qam	27
4	355000000	0.5	38	256 qam	28
5	363000000	0.5	40	256 qam	29
6	371000000	0	38	256 qam	30
7	379000000	-1	38	256 qam	31
8	387000000	-0.4	38	256 qam	32
9	395000000	0	40	256 qam	33
10	403000000	-0.5	40	256 qam	34
11	411000000	-0.7	40	256 qam	35
12	419000000	-0.2	40	256 qam	36
13	427000000	-0.7	40	256 qam	37
14	435000000	-2	38	256 qam	38
15	443000000	-2	38	256 qam	39
16	451000000	-1.5	38	256 qam	40
17	459000000	-2.4	38	256 qam	41
18	467000000	-3	38	256 qam	42
19	475000000	-2	40	256 qam	43
20	483000000	-1.7	40	256 qam	44
21	491000000	-2.7	38	256 qam	45
22	499000000	-2.9	38	256 qam	46
23	507000000	-1.9	38	256 qam	47
24	515000000	-2.5	38	256 qam	48

Downstream bonded channels

Channel Locked Status RxMER (dB) Pre RS Errors Post RS Errors

1	Locked	40.9	3	0
2	Locked	40.3	0	0
3	Locked	40.3	0	0
4	Locked	38.9	4	0
5	Locked	40.3	3	0
6	Locked	38.9	6	0
7	Locked	38.9	6	0
8	Locked	38.6	6	0
9	Locked	40.3	5	0
10	Locked	40.9	0	0
11	Locked	40.3	0	0
12	Locked	40.3	6	0
13	Locked	40.3	5	0
14	Locked	38.9	0	0
15	Locked	38.9	5	0
16	Locked	38.6	13	0
17	Locked	38.6	4	0
18	Locked	38.9	0	0
19	Locked	40.3	5	0
20	Locked	40.3	5	0
21	Locked	38.9	0	0
22	Locked	38.6	0	0
23	Locked	38.9	17	0
24	Locked	38.9	6	0

Upstream bonded channels

Channel Frequency (Hz) Power (dBmV) Symbol Rate (ksps) Modulation Channel ID

1	39399988	41.5	5120	64 qam	4
2	32600019	41.5	5120	64 qam	5
3	46199974	41.5	5120	64 qam	3
4	53699996	43	5120	64 qam	2

Upstream bonded channels

Channel Channel Type T1 Timeouts T2 Timeouts T3 Timeouts T4 Timeouts

1	ATDMA	0	0	0	0
2	ATDMA	0	0	0	0
3	ATDMA	0	0	0	0
4	ATDMA	0	0	0	0

[Akua_A]

We apologise for the delay in getting the issue resolved for you @Haravikk.

I can assure you, that we truly want to best help with this. I have chased this up for you. We will aim to get back to you as soon as possible with an update.

Thanks,

[Haravikk]

Six restarts in a single day:

I am transferring the last of my family members off the Virgin supplied e-mail addresses that have been keeping us shackled to your increasingly useless service. This is the last time I will ask for your help; either fix it, or we're cancelling our service after what has to be nearly two decades.

And don't you dare tell me you're passing me on or referring me to someone else; because either the person you keep referring me to is refusing to do their **bleep** job and needs to be fired immediately, or it has been a lie every single time.

[Carley_S]

Hi @Haravikk

Really sorry to hear you feel this way and that this ongoing issue has not been resolved for you yet. I can see that your downstream power levels are slightly out of spec, if the router is trying to constantly auto correct these levels, that can lead to the router rebooting itself, which might explain your disconnections and spikes seen on your BQM. We'll need a technician to attend to investigate the cause of this. 

Just to confirm you haven't made any personal customisations to your cabling or set up that might be causing these this, such as your own attenuator? If so, please remove these and monitor the connection as we have set it up. 

If not I'll be more than happy to book you an engineer to investigate further, please join me on private message so I can locate your account and pass account security. You can see your private messages at the top of the page, in the envelope icon. 

[Carley_S]

Thanks so much for your private message @Haravikk, I have now booked you a visit for broadband issue – you can check the date and time via your online account here. If you have any issues with accessing your online account or unable to see your visit, please do let us know and we’ll pop you a message to confirm.

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.

[Haravikk]

Issue still isn't fixed; the engineer said he'd book us in for a re-pull (to replace the exterior cable since it was patched a while ago which could be a possible cause of the problem). He estimated a couple of weeks to get the re-pull booked in but that was over a month ago and we've heard nothing at all.

Is it possible to make sure that this is still being done?

[Paul_DN]

Hi Haravikk,

Thank you for reaching back out to us, sorry to hear you haven't heard anything in regards to a re-pull, so I can help I will send you an invite into a private chat, once received please click on the purple envelope to accept.

Regards

Paul.

[Haravikk]

For anyone curious how this has been going, maybe to get an idea for themselves of what the Virgin Media support service is like; it has now been THREE MONTHS without a re-pull. That's right, it has taken Virgin Media three months to NOT fix a £70/month internet connection. Apparently booking a re-pull has nothing to do with whether one actually happens, and if they don't bother showing up you're just abandoned.

And this is our internet connection which has actually been having intermittent faults for years with dozens of call-outs, and the problem has been getting steadily worse this year; while I can appreciate that this has been hard to diagnose for the engineers, the conclusion that a re-pull needed to be tried was reached in October. There is simply no excuse for why after three booked re-pulls we haven't had a single visit.

Naturally we've been offered precisely zero compensation whatsoever for the inconvenience, because thankfully for Virgin Media the fact that our connection only goes down for 2-5 minutes at a time, 5-30 times a day means we haven't ever been a full 48 hours without any service. Because nothing says "customer service" quite like clinging to the flimsiest excuse you can find to not serve your increasingly angry customers.

But when there's an engineer call-out they're very quick to threaten you with charges if you aren't around, but when they don't bother turn up that's just fine? It's utterly hostile and utterly hypocritical.

And it went down three times just trying to post this!

[Ayisha_B]

Hi @Haravikk,

I can appreciate this is frustrating and I am very sorry for the time taken to get things progressed. Sometimes there's external factors beyond our control but please be assured our team are doing everything they can for you.

I have had a peek at our systems and I note you have spoken to our team yesterday who were able to update you further.

If we can help with anything else, do let us know.

Thanks

[Haravikk]

---

@Ayisha_B wrote:

I can appreciate this is frustrating and I am very sorry for the time taken to get things progressed. Sometimes there's external factors beyond our control but please be assured our team are doing everything they can for you.

---

I'm being expected to pay £70/month for a DEFECTIVE service each time that your re-pull teams cannot be bothered to turn up to do their jobs. They have now failed to appear FOUR TIMES, in three months, all three of which we have had to pay full price for, and this is to repair a service that has had intermittent faults for YEARS.

It is not merely frustrating, it is unacceptable that we are being asked to pay for the wilful, sustained, and relentless incompetence of your staff. We have now been given another new date of the 11th of January, fully FOUR MONTHS after the re-pull was requested. We have no reason whatsoever to expect that they will actually turn up this time, and in the meantime we continue to receive a service substantially below what has been promised, and yet are expected to pay for it in full. This isn't just bad customer service at this point, it is PERSONAL ABUSE.

Our connection was first installed under Telewest Broadband, we have been Virgin Media customers from the day they bought Telewest, we not WANT to change providers we are being FORCED TO, and frankly we have had it; we will have paid nearly £280 to NOT have our service fixed. Compensation at this point isn't merely the polite thing to offer, it is required if you want to retain us as customers; I don't care who has to pay for it, though I would suggest charging it to either the re-pull teams that can't be **bleep** to turn up, or to their managers who think it's fine to keep stringing us along like we're **bleep** idiots.

Because I am telling you now, you will not be receiving any further payments from us otherwise, and if you want any of your hardware back, there will be a £280 handling fee and an expected delivery time of four months.