Outages since 14th December !!

[Croftie]

Hi, I have been experiencing some slow speeds and minor outages since mid-December. But have been able to manage, except till today, when the whole network went down. The website said there was nothing wrong, so rebooted my Hub. It wouldn't reconnect. So rang the helpline where I was told that there is a national outrage since 14th December, which is intermittent and engineers are still working on it! I was told I would have no connection until at least 18th January! Why is this information not on Virgin website. This is appalling service and totally unlike what we have experienced since being a Virgin customer since the 1990s!! I will be seeking a refund for this poor service. 

But what exactly is the problem that has caused such a national outage? 

[goslow]

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@Croftie wrote:

Hi, I have been experiencing some slow speeds and minor outages since mid-December. But have been able to manage, except till today, when the whole network went down. The website said there was nothing wrong, so rebooted my Hub. It wouldn't reconnect. So rang the helpline where I was told that there is a national outrage since 14th December, which is intermittent and engineers are still working on it! I was told I would have no connection until at least 18th January! Why is this information not on Virgin website. This is appalling service and totally unlike what we have experienced since being a Virgin customer since the 1990s!! I will be seeking a refund for this poor service. 

But what exactly is the problem that has caused such a national outage? 

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There is an automated service status number - 0800 561 0061 to check for any faults in your area which is reportedly more accurate and localised.

Compensation is described here

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0026/216962/Industry-Code-of-Practice-for-Automatic-...

and updated rates here

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-telecoms-and-internet/advice-for-consumers/costs-and-billing/automat...

but it applies to a 'total loss of service' (as per para 23 in the PDF) and VM gets two clear working days to fix a fault before any compo is applied. This makes it hard to get this for short term intermittent faults. You need to phone in to report the TLS or use VM's online automated tests to log the fault.

I think a 'national outage' of VM would have made national news! The explanation sounds like a get-you-off-the-phone line from the offshore telephone support.

If the service status phone number tells you nothing useful, post back on here and someone will help you through getting some info from your hub for diagnosing the problem.

[jem101]

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@Croftie wrote:

Hi, I have been experiencing some slow speeds and minor outages since mid-December. But have been able to manage, except till today, when the whole network went down. The website said there was nothing wrong, so rebooted my Hub. It wouldn't reconnect. So rang the helpline where I was told that there is a national outrage since 14th December, which is intermittent and engineers are still working on it! I was told I would have no connection until at least 18th January! Why is this information not on Virgin website. This is appalling service and totally unlike what we have experienced since being a Virgin customer since the 1990s!! I will be seeking a refund for this poor service. 

But what exactly is the problem that has caused such a national outage? 

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A ‘national outage’? Really?

No, you were outright LIED TO! There is no national outage, mine has been working just fine!

What you need to be aware of is that VM’s call centre staff, do have a degree of, well, form, for making sh*t up if they don’t know anything better. Something you might want to take into account when and if you decide to continue giving VM your custom.

[Kain_W]

Hi Croftie,

Thanks for your post and welcome to the community.

Many apologies for the issues faced, to clarify there wouldn't be a national outage currently ongoing however within your local area I can see that you are currently affected by a SNR outage.

The estimated fix time seems to be set for the 24th January at 9AM.

Our team will try to resolve this matter as soon as they can.

Regards,

[Croftie]

Thanks, What is an SNR outage? 

I was told that it would be sorted on the 19th - not the 24th? 

Also we have been suffering intermittent outages, although on the day I posted we had an outage of several hours.

In addition I have been looking at the Virgin Media website and as far as I can see everything appears to be normal, so where are you seeing information about the SNR outage? 

Thanks 

[Nathan_B · Accepted solution]

Thanks for your reply, an SNR(Signal Noise Ratio) is where the signal dips too low below a certain threshold. When this happens it requires an engineer visit to the cabinet in the area to help boost the signal to bring them above the threshold again.

Usually these issues do not show via our service page, we can however check our systems to identify a known SNR issue in the area.

If you need any further information, please let us know. We will be happy to assist.

Regards

Nathan

[Croftie]

Thanks Nathan, that is very useful information to have. But I am a bit surprised that this information isn't readily available on the website so that when we have problems of slow loading that I can't check that we have a low SNR.

I am going to have a word with the virgin billing people about this, as this problem falls below what I have been promised in terms of service.