Have M600 but Retentions can only offer M350

[Eeeps]

I'm in my last month of my 18 months Ultimate Oomph so I thought I'd call retentions to see what was on offer.

I was expecting the usual shenanigans over price but what I wasn't expecting was to be told the fastest speed available in my area is M350.
It's true, however, that I rarely get full speeds (typical example below).

What's more, if I signed up to a new 18month contract, my M600 would be reduced to M350.

I'm in the SK10 5 area (Bollington) and got the e-mail back in November informing me that 1Gb/s services were available.

"We wanted to let you know that Gig1 Fibre Broadband is now available where you are, offering gigabit speeds straight to your Hub."

Clearly not.

So, is it true that 1Gb/s services have been withdrawn from certain areas?
(Even M500 and M600!)

@VMO2:- I assume there is a fault in my area; could I have the fault reference and fix deadline?
I don't want to tie into another 18 months if this is not going to be resolved quickly.

[Kath_F]

Hi Eeeps, 

Thanks for your post and apologies to hear about your issues when contacting the team. 

Checking your postcode, it is showing as the maximum speed available is M350 currently for new customers. It's possible this has been rolled back depending on capacity in your area and means you won't be able to increase your speeds just yet. 

As it stands there is no fault open affecting you so no reference number to offer. Your service tier is showing correct for receiving the M600 speeds so there is no reason why you shouldn't get them. 

Are you running the speed test through a wired connection direct to the Hub? You will need to disconnect your own router, connect the ethernet cable from your hub to your PC / Laptop and reboot the hub. Once you do this, let us know the results. 

Thanks, 

[Eeeps]

Thanks for the reply Kath.

All speed tests are done with a wired connection to a i5 laptop.

Typical speed tests in the evening...

And at night...

Are there plans to increase capacity?
If so, when?
If not, then why not?

I'll put my Hub3 into router mode and continue the speed tests.

Thanks.

[Zach_R]

Hi @Eeeps,

We're always working to improve on our services and products, but at this moment I wouldn't be able to offer you a definitive date or timeframe as to when available speeds and capacity in your area will increase. Apologies.

Regarding the speeds, do you have any other devices you can test the speeds on to see if they're also impacted? Can you also confirm any other troubleshooting and diagnostics you've performed thus far in an effort to remedy this?
 

Thanks,
 

[Eeeps]

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@Zach_R wrote:

Hi @Eeeps,

We're always working to improve on our services and products, but at this moment I wouldn't be able to offer you a definitive date or timeframe as to when available speeds and capacity in your area will increase. Apologies.
 

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Thanks for your response, Zach.

Of course, it is disappointing to hear that VMO2 can't even put a date to when this fault can be resolved especially since your CEO was making a big point about the speed increases in the area back in November.

Virginmediao2 connects Macclesfield to gigabit broadband 
I note the specific references to Bollington in the article

• Bollington and Prestbury all now gigabit ready
  As part of today’s gigabit switch-on, Virgin Media O2 has upgraded thousands of homes in Bollington and Prestbury to gigabit speeds.

As you can probably understand, I can't commit to another 18 month tie in without some equivalent commitment from VMO2.

In any case, recent announcements from Openreach would seem to make this a moot point since Bollington has been specifically targeted for FTTP rollout in the next year or so.

Ultrafast Full Fibre broadband Build Programme January 2022 

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@Zach_R wrote:

Hi @Eeeps,

Regarding the speeds, do you have any other devices you can test the speeds on to see if they're also impacted? Can you also confirm any other troubleshooting and diagnostics you've performed thus far in an effort to remedy this?
 

---

I have one high powered gaming desktop and two other laptops with gigabit cable ethernet interfaces that all show similar results...

400-600Mb/s during the day
200-400Mb/s during the evening
620-650Mb/s at night.

I have done the usual Hub3 reboots, factory resets, switch to and from modem/router mode but as you probably realise this won't have any impact on the wider issues in the are, which are out of my control.
It's also more that a little disingenuous to suggest that problems with my equipment or test methods are the cause of the M350 restrictions in my area.

Finally, a simple acknowledgment that there is a fault on my local network segment would go someway to make me consider staying with (or even ever returning to) VMO2.

[Paulina_Z]

Hi @Eeeps,

Thank you for coming back to us. As my colleague previously advised, at the moment, there is no listed fault in your area that is impacting your services. 

I do apologise if we had to roll back the speed upgrade in your area for the time being, we do not want to provide a sub-par connection for our customers. We want to ensure that our connections provide the speeds you're paying for.

Apologies that we do not have a timeframe for when higher speeds will be available to you. Our Network team will be working hard in expanding our services to ensure you get the best speeds available.

You can take a look at our Minimum Speeds page for more information about what speeds you should be expecting from your package.

Let us know if you need any more support in the meantime.

I can see that the speeds you're receiving are within the regular expected speeds you should be receiving from us on a wired connection.

Thank you.