Shocking service for months L18

Nanor · 12-01-2010, 20:45

This has now been going on for months. Downloads that vary wildly between 20Mb and 1Mb (on 20Mb package), uploads that seem to vary between 0.5Kb and 550kb (it used to max out but that hasn't happened in a long time), severe issues when browsing the internet, packet loss hovering around the 20% mark and not being able to use iPlayer or game online (haven't managed a decent session online since October due to connection issues).

The periods of poor to woeful connection speed briefly lessened but have now come back worse than ever. Issues are across the board on all devices (PS3, XBox, iPhone and PC) and do not improve when connected directly to the modem.

Over the last few days I've also found webmail to be virtually unusable with either timeouts or extremely lengthy loading times on any click, this has also been a problem with most of our browsing. Online gaming has been impossible.

I've reported this to support several times and the current fault reference is F001150576 but i can get no idea of when a fix is due. I've been speaking to a few friends in the area and they have all complained about this as well. I'm getting really annoyed by this and am seriously considering jumping ship. I've had a great run with Virgin with only a few issues over the last few years but three months to sort out a problem that's seriously affecting the connection in L18

That is totally unacceptable. Am I alone in experiencing a brick wall when trying to get a service I'm paying for or have I just been extremely unlucky?

---------- Post added at 19:45 ---------- Previous post was at 19:44 ----------

It took 45 seconds to submit the post above, and will probably be the same for this (but I won't comment on that

)

xxxxxx · 12-01-2010, 21:24

I'm in the L7 area, and it's just as bad. I've cancelled VM; I'll be going with O2 or Sky in February.

Digital Fanatic · 13-01-2010, 01:42

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nanor

This has now been going on for months. Downloads that vary wildly between 20Mb and 1Mb (on 20Mb package), uploads that seem to vary between 0.5Kb and 550kb (it used to max out but that hasn't happened in a long time), severe issues when browsing the internet, packet loss hovering around the 20% mark and not being able to use iPlayer or game online (haven't managed a decent session online since October due to connection issues).

The periods of poor to woeful connection speed briefly lessened but have now come back worse than ever. Issues are across the board on all devices (PS3, XBox, iPhone and PC) and do not improve when connected directly to the modem.

Over the last few days I've also found webmail to be virtually unusable with either timeouts or extremely lengthy loading times on any click, this has also been a problem with most of our browsing. Online gaming has been impossible.

I've reported this to support several times and the current fault reference is F001150576 but i can get no idea of when a fix is due. I've been speaking to a few friends in the area and they have all complained about this as well. I'm getting really annoyed by this and am seriously considering jumping ship. I've had a great run with Virgin with only a few issues over the last few years but three months to sort out a problem that's seriously affecting the connection in L18

That is totally unacceptable. Am I alone in experiencing a brick wall when trying to get a service I'm paying for or have I just been extremely unlucky?

---------- Post added at 19:45 ---------- Previous post was at 19:44 ----------

It took 45 seconds to submit the post above, and will probably be the same for this (but I won't comment on that

)

I'll have a look at that ticket for you when I'm next in work in a few days.. have you been told what the issue is? Is it utilisation?

HTH

Nanor · 13-01-2010, 18:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by Digital Fanatic

I'll have a look at that ticket for you when I'm next in work in a few days.. have you been told what the issue is? Is it utilisation?

Cheers, any help is very much appreciated

I was told it is due to high upstream utilisation. I've been on to newsgroup support again today and they want to send an engineer out as power levels are fine and when I was last in touch I was told there is no reason to explain the high packet loss I'm experiencing. Will have to wait what the engineer says. I do know that a friend just a few streets away is experiencing exactly the same issues as I am.

I'm hoping this will lead to a fix as I've been on to support several times since October and have always been told it's a network issue which was being investigated.

I really don't want to leave Virgin as up until October I was generally extremely happy with the service and, in fact, recommended it to several friends. This current issue has really annoyed due to the length of time it's been going on despite repeatedly contacting support. I need a resolution as it's driving me and the wife nuts, I've done all I can but am still waiting for a solution....

(it's just taken 95s to download a 780kB file

)

g0mit · 13-01-2010, 19:03

Hi I had this problem in L18 last year waited 6 months got reduction of £10 in the end whent to 50 meg

George L18

Nanor · 13-01-2010, 19:39

Quote:

Originally Posted by g0mit

Hi I had this problem in L18 last year waited 6 months got reduction of £10 in the end whent to 50 meg

George L18

I'll be cancelling VM if this drags on much longer, 3 months is bad but no way I could put up with this for six! Hope it doesn't come to that though.

Digital Fanatic · 14-01-2010, 01:10

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nanor

I'll be cancelling VM if this drags on much longer, 3 months is bad but no way I could put up with this for six! Hope it doesn't come to that though.

A colleague has looked at that ticket for me and it looks like the relief date has passed (should have been upgraded in late December) sometimes the dates are moved slightly due to other network issues.

Will post back once I've had time to look at the ticket myself and get some more info... I don't think we are looking at 6 months.

HTH

Nanor · 14-01-2010, 12:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by Digital Fanatic

A colleague has looked at that ticket for me and it looks like the relief date has passed (should have been upgraded in late December) sometimes the dates are moved slightly due to other network issues.

Will post back once I've had time to look at the ticket myself and get some more info... I don't think we are looking at 6 months.

Thanks for that, much appreciated. I'm hoping it's now an issue with my local connection, what worries me is, as I mentioned, one of my mates who lives close by is having similar issues. He started downloading a trailer last night and it stabilised at 20kB/s! He's also having the same issues with general browsing and upload.

Will post back once the engineer has been on Saturday. If he manages to sort it I'll be made up to have it working but peeved that it's taken this long to get it sorted after repeatedly reporting the fault. Fingers crossed that it's sorted soon one way or the other, want to try out some of my Christmas pressies with a bit of multiplayer on XBox Live, it's been sooooo long since I was last able to get on.

Digital Fanatic · 14-01-2010, 14:12

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nanor

Thanks for that, much appreciated. I'm hoping it's now an issue with my local connection, what worries me is, as I mentioned, one of my mates who lives close by is having similar issues. He started downloading a trailer last night and it stabilised at 20kB/s! He's also having the same issues with general browsing and upload.

Will post back once the engineer has been on Saturday. If he manages to sort it I'll be made up to have it working but peeved that it's taken this long to get it sorted after repeatedly reporting the fault. Fingers crossed that it's sorted soon one way or the other, want to try out some of my Christmas pressies with a bit of multiplayer on XBox Live, it's been sooooo long since I was last able to get on.

Sorry, what I mean is the work was scheduled for late December but was postponed.. ticket is still open.. will update you tomorrow evening. HTH

Nanor · 14-01-2010, 21:19

Quote:

Originally Posted by Digital Fanatic

Sorry, what I mean is the work was scheduled for late December but was postponed.. ticket is still open.. will update you tomorrow evening.

Thanks any info much appreciated.

caph · 14-01-2010, 22:43

Quote:

Originally Posted by Digital Fanatic

sometimes the dates are moved slightly due to other network issues.

The relief date for BASF3 was November 2008. As far as I am aware it still hasn't happened.

Sometimes the dates are moved to another dimension!

Peter_ · 15-01-2010, 01:33

Quote:

Originally Posted by caph

The relief date for BASF3 was November 2008. As far as I am aware it still hasn't happened.

Sometimes the dates are moved to another dimension!

That is a Nottingham uBR not a Liverpool uBR which is the issue here, I know where your coming from but that can cause confusion.

Nanor · 15-01-2010, 14:49

Is there anything in particular I should ensure the engineer checks or can I just leave him to it? I'm reasonably IT savvy but definitely no expert.

I noticed last night that the router lost connection to the modem several times throughout the evening but when I checked the modem event logs there was nothing of note. I did try connecting directly to the modem a few times in case the router was failing intermittently but the same issues persisted with high packet loss and general browsing issues.

Digital Fanatic · 15-01-2010, 17:49

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nanor

Is there anything in particular I should ensure the engineer checks or can I just leave him to it? I'm reasonably IT savvy but definitely no expert.

I noticed last night that the router lost connection to the modem several times throughout the evening but when I checked the modem event logs there was nothing of note. I did try connecting directly to the modem a few times in case the router was failing intermittently but the same issues persisted with high packet loss and general browsing issues.

Engineer will know what he's looking for... just checked the ticket and it is still ongoing. I've asked a colleague to request an update for me.

Will post back when I get a responce... let us know what the tech finds. Thanks

Did you say you've had months of issues? This ticket was raised on 15th December?

Nanor · 15-01-2010, 18:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by Digital Fanatic

Engineer will know what he's looking for... just checked the ticket and it is still ongoing. I've asked a colleague to request an update for me.

Will post back when I get a responce... let us know what the tech finds. Thanks

Did you say you've had months of issues? This ticket was raised on 15th December?

Thanks, again much appreciated.

I've been having issues since October. First reported it to support mid October, issues were intermittent at that time ranging from usable with a few issues with page loading to short periods of next to no download/upload. At this time XBox Live became extremely problematic. Reported a degradation in service in November, the frequency of problematic download/uploads increased dramatically and then in December reported again as the service was simply shocking and bordering on the unusable, at this time I was given the fault reference, been in touch with support frequently since then.

I also noticed that in October my upload speed dropped dramatically, I used to max out at 750Kbps but since October I've barely managed to hit 500Kbps with it more commonly hovering around the 100Kbps (peaking around 250Kbps and bottoming out around 20Kbps). It's marginally better tonight with packet loss around 12% but it's generally been around 33% for the last couple of weeks.

If there are issues in the area that's fine if it just means lower speeds until it's sorted but all I've had is a shocking connection. It's simply not acceptable to have to wait 30s for a page to load (if it doesn't time out) on a 20Mb connection. Not expecting the tech to solve everything but if he can at least find the problem or stabilise the connection I'll be happy.