This must be the worst broadband customer support

[AlabasterLyn]

I'm really getting to the end of my tether with VM and our broadband connection. For quite a few years now we've had daily problems with the connection dropping out and it's got worse the last 6mths since we upgraded to 20Mb. Wouldn't be so bad if we ever got anywhere near to 20Mb but the highest speed we get is 13Mb and last night it was less than 2Mb.

I posted on the VM forum about the upstream figures we had on our modem as they were too high. Had an engineer come round to fix it and got the upstream down to 49. He also managed to disconnect our phone line and that was on Tuesday and they can't fix it till Friday which is a joke.

Did an event log check earlier and still getting the T3 thing which I assume is when the internet, for whatever reason, is timing out.

It's pointless phoning Customer Support as they don't understand anything you say to them and obviously having an engineer round hasn't helped at all.

[arcimedes]

I am amazed at your tolerance as I would have dumped them long ago unless the opposition would be worse (speed wise).

[AlabasterLyn]

I am amazed at your tolerance as I would have dumped them long ago unless the opposition would be worse (speed wise).

I guess we just keep hoping it will get better, which doesn't seem to be happening.

I just bought my OH a new iMac for his birthday last week and he isn't really able to make full use of it due to a combination of low speeds and the internet dropping out all the time.

[clumsymum]

In your shoes I would ring and tell them that they are not fulfilling the terms of the contract, they are not providing you with the services you are paying for.

Tell them you are cancelling your payments, and will take your business elsewhere.

In my experience, you will then get a call back from retensions, who will try to persuade you to stay. You then tell them that you want the problems solved, and some recompense for the lack of services you have paid for so far.
In the past this has worked for me (this was regarding faulty V+ services which went on for 3 months), and they suddenly got their finger out, put an engineer onto the problem until it was solved and credited our bill for a couple of months payments.

If they don't do this, then seriously, you must go elsewhere.

[Mick Fisher]

Sorry to hear about your BB issue Lyn. I have just had a month of the same so I know where you are coming from. Keep getting Techs out, eventually you will get someone with enough experience and know how, to either fix the problem or escalate it to the appropriate people.

Failing that Be Unlimited are very good if you live within a reasonable distance from your local BT Exchange, assuming they are available in your area of course.

[AlabasterLyn]

We don't have a BT landline and I can't see any evidence in the house to suggest there ever has been one, although as our house is 40yrs old I'm sure there must have been one at some point. We also have no wire from the house to the nearest telegraph pole, so to get a BT line, which I would imagine we would need for any other type of internet, we would have to pay out to get one installed. Don't have a problem with that, but wouldn't be too happy to pay out a lot of money and still have internet issues :shocked:

[Mick Fisher]

Looks like you will have to persevere with VM broadband Tech Support then. :(

[Maggy]

You may get more help if you actually publish some of the info you have on your connection speeds etc.

Well that's usually the request from our helpful VM employees who give some of their time to offer advice.;)

[AlabasterLyn]

I've already done that and was then advised to post on the VM forum.

I joined their forum and posted my upstream and downstream stats and also my event log. From that they told me that my upstream was too high and I was getting a lot of T3 timeouts, so they arranged for an engineer to come and fix it.

The engineer said he had fixed it, but it's still dropping out and although the upstream level is now at 49 I am still getting a lot of T3 timeouts.

I have posted two separate posts on the VM forum in the hope of getting a response, but no one has bothered to reply to my post. Can't phone Customer Support as I still have no phone line and I'm just getting really fed up of this :rolleyes:

[Maggy]

I've already done that and was then advised to post on the VM forum.

I joined their forum and posted my upstream and downstream stats and also my event log. From that they told me that my upstream was too high and I was getting a lot of T3 timeouts, so they arranged for an engineer to come and fix it.

The engineer said he had fixed it, but it's still dropping out and although the upstream level is now at 49 I am still getting a lot of T3 timeouts.

I have posted two separate posts on the VM forum in the hope of getting a response, but no one has bothered to reply to my post. Can't phone Customer Support as I still have no phone line and I'm just getting really fed up of this :rolleyes:

Well be patient with us please. :hugs:

We still need the info because we don't all visit the VM forums..;)

Without it it hard for us to offer advice and help that is suitable.

If the evidence you supply is awful enough we may be able to use contacts of our own to escalate your issue further.But detail is what we need now..:)

[AlabasterLyn]

Here you are :)

Cable Modem Downstream
Downstream Lock : Locked
Downstream Channel Id : 4
Downstream Frequency : 586750000 Hz
Downstream Modulation : QAM64
Downstream Symbol Rate : 6952 Ksym/sec
Downstream Interleave Depth : taps12Increment17
Downstream Receive Power Level : 4.8 dBmV
Downstream SNR : 40.4 dB

Cable Modem Upstream
Upstream Lock : Locked
Upstream Channel ID : 3
Upstream Frequency : 25800000 Hz
Upstream Modulation : QAM16
Upstream Symbol Rate : 2560 Ksym/sec
Upstream transmit Power Level : 49.0 dBmV
Upstream Mini-Slot Size : 2

Last Time Priority Description
Fri Sep 10 05:31:02 2010 Fri Sep 10 05:31:02 2010 Information (7) The s/w filename specified in the config file is the same as ...
Fri Sep 10 05:31:02 2010 Fri Sep 10 05:31:02 2010 Information (7) A software upgrade filename was specified in the config file.
Fri Sep 10 05:31:02 2010 Fri Sep 10 05:31:02 2010 Information (7) Authorized
Fri Sep 10 05:31:02 2010 Fri Sep 10 05:31:02 2010 Information (7) Registration complete!
Fri Sep 10 05:31:02 2010 Fri Sep 10 05:31:02 2010 Information (7) We registered with a DOCSIS 1.1 config file!
Fri Sep 10 05:31:02 2010 Fri Sep 10 05:31:02 2010 Information (7) Received a REG-RSP message from the CMTS...
Fri Sep 10 05:31:01 2010 Fri Sep 10 05:31:01 2010 Information (7) Sending a REG-REQ to the CMTS...
Fri Sep 10 05:31:01 2010 Fri Sep 10 05:31:01 2010 Information (7) CableModem SNMP configure complete
Fri Sep 10 05:31:01 2010 Fri Sep 10 05:31:01 2010 Information (7) IP init completed ok
Fri Sep 10 05:31:01 2010 Fri Sep 10 05:31:01 2010 Information (7) CableModem TFTP init ok
Fri Sep 10 05:31:01 2010 Fri Sep 10 05:31:01 2010 Information (7) CableModem DHCP client init ok
Fri Sep 10 05:31:01 2010 Fri Sep 10 05:31:01 2010 Critical (3) DHCP WARNING - Non-critical field invalid in response.
Time Not Established Time Not Established Information (7) MAP w/initial maintenance region received
Time Not Established Time Not Established Critical (3) No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out
Time Not Established Time Not Established Information (7) MAP w/initial maintenance region received
Time Not Established Time Not Established Information (7) Downstream sync ok
Time Not Established Time Not Established Information (7) Beginning initial ranging...
Time Not Established Time Not Established Information (7) downstream time sync acquired...
Time Not Established Time Not Established Information (7) Downstream sync ok
Time Not Established Time Not Established Information (7) starting ds time sync acquisition...
Time Not Established Time Not Established Information (7) Locked on the downstream. Waiting for UCDs...
Time Not Established Time Not Established Information (7) Downstream lock ok
Time Not Established Time Not Established Information (7) Sync Start
Thu Sep 09 12:09:58 2010 Thu Sep 09 12:09:58 2010 Critical (3) DHCP WARNING - Non-critical field invalid in response.
Time Not Established Time Not Established Critical (3) No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out
Thu Sep 09 07:13:31 2010 Thu Sep 09 07:13:31 2010 Critical (3) DHCP WARNING - Non-critical field invalid in response.
Time Not Established Time Not Established Critical (3) Received Response to Broadcast Maintenance Request, But no Un...
Time Not Established Time Not Established Critical (3) No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out
Wed Sep 08 20:14:28 2010 Wed Sep 08 20:14:28 2010 Critical (3) DHCP WARNING - Non-critical field invalid in response.
Time Not Established Time Not Established Critical (3) Received Response to Broadcast Maintenance Request, But no Un...
Time Not Established Time Not Established Critical (3) No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out
Wed Sep 08 15:03:21 2010 Wed Sep 08 15:03:21 2010 Critical (3) DHCP WARNING - Non-critical field invalid in response.

I have now emailed the CEO as was advised to someone else on here as I'm getting really stressed out with having no phone and a dodgy internet connection :shocked:

[Mick Fisher]

Not having access to a landline can be a PITA when having to phone CS generally and VM TS in particular.

IIRC VM were doing an offer on a phoneline by discounting the £37 pm charge for 20meg down to £28 pm so you actually get the line rental for nix.

Calls to 150 and 151 are free so ..........

Just a thought.........

[Peter_]

I have now emailed the CEO as was advised to someone else on here as I'm getting really stressed out with having no phone and a dodgy internet connection :shocked:
Did you send a mail to this address below Lyn.

neil.berkett@virginmedia.com

[Sephiroth]

Did you send a mail to this address below Lyn.

neil.berkett@virginmedia.com

... because if you did it won't reach his office!:erm:

AFAIK, the virgin media email domain is .co.uk. :LOL:

[Peter_]

... because if you did it won't reach his office!:erm:

AFAIK, the virgin media email domain is .co.uk. :LOL:
Yes it is and I put the wrong ending as I was a bit rushed and never came back to check.:dunce:

It should have been neil.berkett@virginmedia.co.uk which is the Corporate email domain.:)

[AlabasterLyn]

I send my email to the correct address yes. I had an engineer round within about 2hrs and the phone was reconnected, a new modem installed, tv set top boxes checked and the splitters in the box outside the house changed as we had too many of them. Also had to get a new router today as that was causing some of the dropouts, but touch wood seems to be okay at the moment. Have to say could not fault the service we had from VM yesterday :)

[Maggy]

I'm pleased you eventually got the service you should have had from the outset. :tu:

[Digital Fanatic]

I send my email to the correct address yes. I had an engineer round within about 2hrs and the phone was reconnected, a new modem installed, tv set top boxes checked and the splitters in the box outside the house changed as we had too many of them. Also had to get a new router today as that was causing some of the dropouts, but touch wood seems to be okay at the moment. Have to say could not fault the service we had from VM yesterday :)

Good to hear Lyn :tu: sorry it took contacting our CEO's office to get things sorted :)

[snowey]

Good to hear Lyn :tu: sorry it took contacting our CEO's office to get things sorted :)

There is a something to be learnt from these posts,... :erm:

[Peter_]

I send my email to the correct address yes. I had an engineer round within about 2hrs and the phone was reconnected, a new modem installed, tv set top boxes checked and the splitters in the box outside the house changed as we had too many of them. Also had to get a new router today as that was causing some of the dropouts, but touch wood seems to be okay at the moment. Have to say could not fault the service we had from VM yesterday :)
Good to see that you got it sorted.:)

[Mick Fisher]

:tu:

[clumsymum]

There is a something to be learnt from these posts,... :erm:


I shall certainly remember this next time I get recurrent service problems.

When the services work, they work well, but if it goes wrong it seems you have to move hell and earth to get VM to actually solve the problem.