Really bad service from VM

Ive never ever dealt with a company so unprofessional and dire.

For weeks now Ive had unstable, useless internet. I play games, so when the quality of my connection is so erratic, with pings spiking to 200ms and beyond every other second, gaming is impossible.

And yet I am paying for VM's premium internet! The 50mb package!

And for 3 weeks Ive been battling with support for them to at least work out what is wrong and to then fix it. Constant lies, constant broken promises. Even the apparent "head" engineer doesnt have the decency to phone me up and tell me he isnt coming. Appointments missed like they mean nothing, like I mean nothing, like my time taken off work to wait for him means nothing. Who cares if a customer is getting a bad service? VM dont care, as long as they are getting the 100 quid per month on average that Im paying them now.

Most of my story can be found here: http://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Up-to-50Mb-broad...

Even tonight, after phoning support, I was promised a manager would call me tonight within an hour as he was apparently in a meeting (at 8.30pm, thats right, managers are really dedicated like that to even work at such hours!. Oh but wait, its been over 2 hours now, and no phone call.

Im so furious at this and I feel frustrated, feel like I have my hands tied.

just out of interest,what phone no do you call when talking to support regarding your issues..??

cheers

edit: also just had a look at your post on the vm forums..

your downstream power levels need checking .they should be slightly higher on the + side
(dBmV) -0.04 0.89 -0.62 N/A


edit: also noticed the forum rep said quote:Work on the area issue is due to begin on 15th November. The estimated fix date is showing as 06/12/2010 09:00:00.

although i do agree with you..they could inform you when you were on the phone support rather than just ignoring you

Edited by djfunkdup (Fri 12-Nov-10 23:02:52)

I dial 151 from my home phone.

No one on that forum post, and the engineer who came out, none of them said there were problems with the power levels. And they were the same power levels before all this problem started.

The forum rep did mention they were going to do some work but I dont believe her. No one on support knows what she is talking about. It was also the first time anyone mentioned an "area issue". Its no coincidence that the "fix" is in over 3 weeks time. So Im just meant to sit here and put up with this pathetic service until that date? And given that every single promise support have made, be they managers or whatever, they have broken them. The only promise they kept was to send an engineer, and, no offence to the engineer, but I knew more about my internet connection than he did. He tried to convince me that this broken service was "normal" and "ok" and didnt really understand what ping was. He had to phone his boss twice. In the end he told me he didnt know, and that his boss was coming the next day.

ok first mistake...you are calling the wrong support number..

50Mb has a 24/7 dedicated freephone uk support no.. 0800 052 0431

give them a call and see how they can help you....

downstream power levels should be on the + and as close to zero

your power levels are sitting on the -

your power levels = (dBmV) -0.04 0.89 -0.62 N/A

for example my power levels =(dBmV) +5.65 +4.43 +4.47 +4.98

mine could be slightly lower,but are within the accepted levels,,
.
.
.
.
.
as far as the work needing done that support mentioned to you....

http://forums.thinkbroadband.com/virgin_cable/t/3926...

have a look at the above post..myself and other 50Mb users are aware of an on going network issue regarding upload bandwidth and upload power levels ..


hope this helps and puts your mind at ease that there is a network issue thats getting fixed....

touch wood iv not really been affected by it although i have had an increase in upstream power levels..

Edited by djfunkdup (Sat 13-Nov-10 03:46:36)

I always ask to be transferred to the 50mb support team and they say thats who they are. So now it sounds like they were lieing some more.

Anyway I will try that number later today.

The fact that some people arent affected by this network problem but I am doesnt really reassure me. And why they couldnt just tell me there was a problem and blame it on that I dont know. Why did I have to play these games for 3 weeks with them and the engineer and the head engineer and the manager when it was as simple as a network problem?

Also is it true there was a modem firmware update on 1 Nov for the 50mb modems? Support also denies this, but there is this post on the VM forums: http://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Up-to-50Mb-broad...

Support completely denies there was a firmware update. So Im not sure. The version number on my modem is the same as the one in that post though.

Just spoken to VM again (using the number you gave). I asked to speak to a manager straight away and I think it may have paid off.

He gave me details of a fault on my line that is going to be fixed (he mentioned high utilisation), with the reference number 6412018

He said the fix is due by 6th December.

He also refunded me £15 without me asking for this (my problem isnt a money issue, its more a time issue, I want a working internet now and not in 3 weeks time when I will be perhaps too busy to really do much online gaming).

Anyway I have to now sit and wait. I asked him to put my connection onto a server with less load (someone on a forum said he asked them to do this and it fixed his problems), he said he didnt know how to do that.

Im starting to get a picture of what may have happened - students may have recently moved to my area, recently had their net installed, and so now my area is being overloaded and they need to upgrade their wires/hardware. Damn students.

Now I play the waiting game, lets hope that their alleged fix is actually going to make a difference!

just wanted to say I notice your in leicester LE2 area. Im not too surprised your having issues if you check this forum people such as my self in LE3 were suffering big problems...

I would ring up and get a discount on your bill until the problem is resolved thats what I did. Many dates were thrown around with regards to a fix for LE3. Im not even sure if the fix has been done. What they did for me was move me on to the 'overlay network' all seems okay now for me

Edited by j112 (Mon 15-Nov-10 20:39:58)

Who do I have to ask to get moved to this overlay network?

ignition confirmed there was a reseg in LE3 in early autumn, it seems there is only 1 UBR in LE3. To me that seems quite low given that LE3 is quite highly populated and has high VM takeup.

Around the time you and philce got improvement my service took a sharp decline. My port now has congested overlay and legacy.

In all honesty I never expect this to be fixed, VM are constantly playing catchup. Most likely what will happen is a nother reseg will be completed probably next spring, it will still be congested then due to growth between now and then and the fact I think more than 1 is needed. They probably wont do another reseg until more complaints (reactive rather than proactive), and it will probably be adequate between june and sept when no students.

1 - they sell a product that is marketed at heavy users
2 - they make it attractive to students. eg. 9 month contracts.
3 - they have deployed a broken protocol shaping.
4 - STM is ineffective, takes too long to kick in etc.
5 - they have no standards on jitter it would seem.
6 - they have thresholds on port utilisation but they appear to be too high.

The service now has gone backwards from when I last used it about 4 or 5 years back. Back then on the top 10mbit product I could get 2-6mbit in the evenings (20 to 60%) and was jitter but not as severe as I have now. Now I get under 1mbit right after midnight (when shaping turned off) which indicates the bw available per end user is less than 5 years back, this is made even worse by the fact I am on the overlay network designed to handle 50mbit speeds. I have never personally seen a VM service with no jitter either, by seen I mean in real life not read about on the internet.

Maybe i am on the worst VM port they have I dont know, it shouldnt matter as ultimately this is the service I have experienced.

So right now I am looking for a replacment to my ukonline adsl and may cancel VM in early 2011. Even if I wasnt on a congested port the protocol shaping has severely damaged the service as well since I do a lot of activity on non standard ports.

probably the ceo office, email neil berkett with your complaint and it will be forwarded on to them.