Service outages for the last month

[svcWhatSvc]

Posting the details here because I'm getting fed up, and despite thinking numerous times that someone would escalate the issue, I'm still getting numerous dropouts every day.

Package is gig1. No issues with the speed. I get/exceed the 1130/52 (the cabinet is ~10 metres from the house). Everything is as advertised... while connected.

It's a Volt bundle too, so I signed up for internet, phone, TV, mobile (O2) as part of the deal. Mobile signal is 1 to 2 bars of Edge/3G at home (same for any carrier). If you lean out of the window, you might see a bar of 4G. Calls are terrible, so Wi-Fi calling is the only way.

I've tried all sorts of different network settings/options (including modem-only mode, separate router/APs). I've reverted to the default VM router/Wi-Fi at the moment to stop the 'we can't support that's. I've also checked during a disconnect to make sure the hub doesn't make any weird noises or overheat.

Common with every dropout: all wired and wireless devices lose internet simultaneously. During dropout, I can access the router web page and other devices on the local network via ethernet and Wi-Fi (local pings don't miss a beat).

• Issue reported 20th September 2022 via webchat. Engineer booked.
• Engineer attended 22nd September, said there was a known issue with Hub4s in the area getting bad software updates, causing them to boot-loop. Went back to the office, and came back, installed a Hub5.
• In the meantime had notice about a fault in the area
• 3rd October, called phone support, explained I was still having dropouts. Spoke to 4 different people. Total call time was just over 2 hours. Asked each rep to call back if the line dropped because that day it was about a drop every 30-90 minutes.
  • First person: Checked the details, checked the router, could see 10 disconnects for the day so far (this was late morning). Went through the basic troubleshooting, explained that the hub had been replaced. Call disconnected. Waited for a bit, but no call back, so I rang again.
  • Second person: Explained where we'd got to, and asked them to check the notes from the previous call. I asked for an engineer, but they couldn't book it unless I wanted to pay £25 for it. Alternatively, I was offered Wi-Fi boosting pods. I declined both options and asked to escalate the issue because I didn't believe I should pay to fix a service fault. They couldn't escalate the call so I asked how we can proceed short of cancelling the service.
  • Third person: waited on hold again, went through security again, very friendly rep agreed that I shouldn't have to pay for an engineer, asked for another chance to rectify the situation, but they were the cancellations dept. so couldn't assist.
  • Fourth person: transferred, waited on hold again, seemed to be making progress in getting an engineer arranged. call dropped, waited but no call back. We're were just about at the end of the call (short of confirming an engineer) so I had to assume a visit had been booked.
• Web chat 5th (possibly 6th) October. Very helpful person, applied some credit to the account for the inconvenience because the outages so far hadn't been detected by whatever applies the auto-ofcom compensation. Upon further chatting, it seems the service has to be hard down, not just completely unusable, for this to be applied. Engineer was also booked for Sat 8th.
• Engineer attended 8th October and tested the external cable. Saw noise/interference on it and said it needed replacing. He said that even though the old ntlworld cable should work, the fact it was above ground in the green conduit meant it was more susceptible to damage/foxes over time. Also said that even though it pre-dated the contract, it should've been replaced/re-installed, buried or at least pinned to something rather than running loose along the driveway.
• WhatsApp support chat 11th October, asking for an update/installation date for the new cable. There didn't seem to be details of a new cable installation being booked, but I was told the Wi-Fi super pods had been ordered and were on the way.
• Friday 14th. VM contractor arrived to run a coil of cable from the cabinet to the end of the driveway
• Tuesday 18th October. VM contractor team arrived to install the new cable. These guys were great actually, really helpful, fast work and tidy, and bearing in mind they had to channel through concrete, they were finished really quickly. They said they couldn't run any other tests because they're not allowed to enter properties to test further. They were the first people however, to point out I can see disconnect logs in the VM hub (which given they're not even VM employees, made me chuckle).
• We've made it to today. 19th October. A month since reporting the fault. After all of this, I'm still getting outages. If I had to put a positive spin on it, I'd say that it seems like there were only 2 today, (although the first one took ages to come back and means a rearranged work zoom call - it's getting pretty embarrassing). Knowing where to look now on the hub, I can see errors.

Based on other threads, and requested information, Downstream, Upstream and Network Log info below...

[Ashleigh_C]

Hi there @svcWhatSvc

Thank you so much for popping back to us and we are glad the engineer was able to attend and make some changes. 

Now it's been a few days, how are things looking? 

Thanks again.

[svcWhatSvc]

Just a quick update on this case: the internet is overall significantly better than it was. I don't know if the up/downstream power levels are generally automatically set... it seemed to take a significant adjustment on both to stabilise the connection, so either someone forgot, or the defaults were particularly bad in this case.

Weirdly, I'm seeing far more signal strength errors following the last visit than before, yet the service is much better.

Still seeing a few latency spikes every day, and getting a disconnect every 2-3 days. I'll reset the logs again and post them again in a day or so, but overall, I can use the internet for work and gaming far more reliably now.

[Kath_F]

Hi scvWhatSvc, 

Thanks for coming back and updating us on how things are. 

We're glad to hear that things seem to be working much better for you. 

If you start to have further issues or you find the disconnections become more frequent, please pop back and let us know so we can help further. 

Many thanks, 

[svcWhatSvc]

I realised I never came back to update this.

I was seeing/still see disconnects, but normally one every couple of days, and that hasn't occurred very often when I'm actively using the service (work calls, online gaming etc.). If I was at the beginning of my contract, I'd still be pushing for another fix, but it took so much effort to convince anyone to attend previously, I figure it's just not worth fighting when a company doesn't want to prioritise the service of existing customers over signing up new customers.

I'm almost at the end of my 18 months, and Community Fibre have been rolling through, so I'll save my myself the stress and just move when I can.

[John_GS]

Hi svcWhatSvc

Thanks for coming back to the thread.

I have done a system check and no issues/outages. All levels are in spec as well. No issues with congestion or SNR (signal to noise ratio).

Can you post your Hub status and logs? How to do this;
• Please go to http://192.168.0.1 (or http://192.168.100.1 - if in modem mode), 
• Don't log in, click on 'router status' 
• Copy/paste the data from each of the tabs as text into a 'REPLY' as opposed to 'QUICK REPLY'. Please do not include your MAC address.
Also, set up a 'Broadband Quality Monitor'. This will monitor the state of your connection and record any network dropouts etc - You can do this at https://www.thinkbroadband.com/broadband/monitoring/quality
Give it a while to gather data and then click 'Share Live graph' and paste the 'Direct Link' into the forum 🙂

[svcWhatSvc]

Sorry John_GS, I didn't see this before.

I've had the BQM running ever since the issue started, and while the previous work (fixing up and downstream power levels) cut the outages from multiple daily to multiple weekly, I was still experiencing latency spikes (noticing them, i.e. Work From Home RDP showing the reconnecting message, and seeing them on the BQM) a few times a day. This wasn't a huge deal as I was planning on leaving when my contract is up (beginning of May).

However, while speaking to the retentions team (declining the price hike and giving my 30 days notice), explaining that whatever they offered wouldn't make any difference if I can't reliably use the service, they booked an engineer to pay another visit anyway.

Engineer checked the amplifier in the cabinet, all good. Checked with colleagues for issues in the area (running perfectly), ran a noise test back to the network (no noise seen). He ended up replacing the router and has said to call him directly if I'm still having issues.

The hub4 I originally had was replaced with a hub5 from one of the early batches, which he said they have seen some issues with. It's too early to really see a difference but here are a couple of days from last week:

vs over the last 24 hours:

too early to make any real comparisons, but latency spikes seem to fall within acceptable levels since replacing the router. Of course, powering off the old router for a couple of hours might also show temporary improvement too.

Speaking of the retentions team (this is going slightly off piste now, but I think it sums up my frustrations with VM): I understand that enticing customers in with deals is a practice that it's very hard to get out of, and that they must make so much money from the people who forget to do anything once they reach the end of their contract, but it doesn't make it any easier to like Virgin Media as a provider (the only people who have helped the overall impression are the forum staff, some of the tech support staff, and all of the engineers who have been out).

The price hike coming at the end of my contract means my monthly price would be going up by over 110% (112.838% - from £74 to £157.50). The 'new customer deal' practice is bad enough, but to then have a team that can still magically give some discount, making you feel like you're winning (and somehow find more discount the more sure you are of leaving) prevents any possibility of future brand loyalty.

Given that the cabling from the cabinet all the way to my house has been replaced in the last 6 months or so, the router replaced (for the second time), the fact I already have the equipment (including 2 TV boxes). Why not offer the same monthly rate but with a longer tie in? My concern then would be seeing if the issues had now been fixed, but as it stands, I'll send all of the equipment back. Maybe I'll be back in a few months, and they'll have to ship equipment back out to me when I'm on a fresh 'new customer' deal, or maybe Community Fibre will be running on my road by then.

TL;DR: Wasn't going to do more troubleshooting, but retentions booked an engineer. Router replaced, service possibly better now? Too early to say. Can't consider renewing as price jumping from £74 to £157.50. Will I rejoin as a new customer? Depends, but not likely.

[Robert_P]

Thanks for the update svcWhatSvc, please continue to monitor the connection going forward and let us know how it is.

Every customer receives an individual price rise specific to them, if you wish to discuss your increase further then you can discuss this with us either by chatting to us online, calling 0345 454 1111 or 150 from your landline. We aren't able to make package changes via the forums so please call the team.

Rob