Speed well below guarantee, support is not helping

[En3]

I have been with Virgin for over 3 years with their fastest home broadband package (1Gig) and was so happy with their performance that I decided to bring them to my new address after moving to a new flat.

Right after finishing my move, I had to log a complain because the internet did not come on after Virgin confirmed that the line had been activated. Virgin sent an engineer out after several unnecessary back and forths with their first line technicians. The engineer found that the previous tenants of the new property had cut the outside coaxial cable leading into the inside of the flat. He patched up the cable in a few minutes and left. This restored the internet line to the inside of the premises, but it runs nowhere near the speed it is supposed to.

With the exact same network setup as my previous address, where all multiple devices could regularly reach 900-1000 Mbps speed simultaneously, I now struggle to reach 250 Mbps, which is nearly half the minimum guarantee (565 Mbps). The average speed is closer to 180 Mbps.

I logged several complaints with Virgin and two engineers came out to replace the filter box and the router respectively which didn't have any effect on the speed, as I suspect that the coaxial cable leading into the property wasn't repaired properly and would need to be fully replaced instead.

I have run several tests using a single device wired in via Cat7 and no other devices on the network with the router on factory settings, and the max speed I can reach is around 450 Mbps outside of peak times.

I know my LAN setup is not the problem because I literally am an IT engineer with 8 years of experience and know what I am doing. Hate to repeat myelf but I literally had the exact same network setup (same cables, same devices) at my previous address and never had any issues. Virgin's help line is basically useless as the 1st line technicians clearly have no experience and keep suggesting basic troubleshooting steps like restarting the router or moving my device closer to the router to get better signal even when explicitly told that I am wired in via cable.

One of the technicians on the help line pointed me towards www.samknows.com/realspeed and used it as proof that the issue is in my LAN setup because the site showed that my router is receiving 1140 Mbps speed. This is beyond suspicious for several reasons: firstly, as an IT engineer myself, I had never even heard of this website before (fast.com, speedtest.net, and speed.cloudflare.com are more common options); secondly, a quick search shows that samknows.com is partnered with Virgin Media; lastly, I have confirmed with colleagues and friends who are not with Virgin that samknows.com does not work for them at all. The tests feel biased and rigged to show whatever speed Virgin says on the contract.

At this point I am beyond frustrated as I am paying for one of the most expensive packages and receiving less than a quarter of the speed I am supposed to. I have raised so many tickets and complaints with Virgin that my account has been soft-locked and I can no longer raise new ones. Attempts at doing so brings me to an automated self-help loop constantly asking me to factory reset my router.

The issue has been ongoing for months now and is whittling down at my patience, to the point where I am considering to cancel the contract altogether and dropping Virgin as my provider.

[carl_pearce]

http://www.samknows.com/realspeed runs directly from the HUB, so it wouldn't work with other ISPs.

Have VM swapped out the HUB at any point since the move?

[En3]

Yes, Virgin sent 2 different engineers to replace the Hub, the indoor coax cable for it, and the isolation box.

Neither of them bothered to test the speed before leaving and said "that's all we can do, we replaced everything in here so the speed should get better now". The speed did not improve at all, which if anything should indicate that the issue is coming from the outside.

Regarding samknows.com, the fact that it "runs from the Hub" reinforces my suspicions towards it. If it cannot be used with any other provider, how can it even be tested to ensure its accuracy? There is an obvious benefit to Virgin enforcing the results of samknows.com as gospel since it lifts any liability from their end. If it was a truthful result, there is no reason why a single laptop connected via Cat7 cable (which supports up to 40 Gbps speeds) directly into the router would only manage to reach 400-450 Mbps when samknows.com displays 1140 on the router's speed.

[carl_pearce]

Unless the HUB is faulty.

I'm pretty sure SamKnows wouldn't knowingly allow VM to create false results.

Do you get similar results over wireless and wired?

Do you have a Wi-Fi 6 device you can try close to the HUB?

[newapollo]

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@En3 wrote:

Regarding samknows.com, the fact that it "runs from the Hub" reinforces my suspicions towards it. If it cannot be used with any other provider, how can it even be tested to ensure its accuracy? There is an obvious benefit to Virgin enforcing the results of samknows.com as gospel since it lifts any liability from their end. If it was a truthful result, there is no reason why a single laptop connected via Cat7 cable (which supports up to 40 Gbps speeds) directly into the router would only manage to reach 400-450 Mbps when samknows.com displays 1140 on the router's speed.

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Samknows is a British company that has been acquired by /cisco.com and is now used globally.

It can be used with other providers.  In the past I've used a Samknows Whitebox for monitoring/testing speed with my BT and Sky connections. 

According to /samknows.com/blog/old-house-new-home-better-wi-fi  this /eero-mesh-wi-fi-system has the SamKnows software running inside it because eero use SamKnows for speed testing.

The info below is from https://samknows.com/technology/agents 

The SamKnows Router Agent is already installed in many home hubs supplied by ISPs such as BT, Bell Canada and Virgin. Also used by many popular router manufacturers and Wi-Fi mesh systems such as eero.

[Client62]

"literally am an IT engineer with 8 years of experience"  ... when you progress to Team Manager,
start writing your weeky highlight report by lunch time on Wednesday !

[cje85]

Over the years there have been plenty of people who have posted SamKnows results showing a poor speed to the hub, which in their case helped to prove the fault is at Virgin's end, so I don't think it's fake/rigged/suspicious in any way. 

[En3]

It's very unlikely that the old Hub (which worked perfectly fine at my old address) and the new one are both faulty, but I guess that's still a possibility.

Even when testing with my iPhone 14 while being within 10 feet of the router and all other devices disconnected, the download speed struggles to reach 300 Mbps.

[En3]

Thanks for the info, it's good to know that samknows has a decent reputation.

Regardless, Virgin is using the results as an unbeatable way to say "our end is fine - it's your problem, suck it up". I have lost count of how many hours I have spent contacting Virgin's support and it feels like it's all been wasted time. 2 out of 3 times the technician on the line will try to cut the call short by claiming that they have "found the issue" on their end and that they "ran a command" that will restore the speed within 48 hours. This closes the ticket without even waiting for a confirmation or feedback from my end, meaning the next time I call to report that the speed has indeed not improved, I will have a big chance to be told the same things again.

[En3]

As some other people here have mentioned, it sounds like samknows is a reputable company after all.

Still, for each person who has received helpful support from Virgin by using samknows, there are a dozen who have been refused any kind of support because "samknows says that your line is fine", which is a terrible way to dismiss a customer's concern.