Curiously tech2 have booked an engineer for me as well - Friday morning.

Routing seems to have improved, but is still a bit questionable at time, download performance (multi) is limited to about 48Mbps, and single is just a couple of Mbps.

The chap I spoke to said "they will discuss various options if they can't fix it: ie. dropping me to 40/10 (which would be a shame as as the 20 up is handy for work), or allowing me to leave penalty free".

Leaving would be an option, but who to switch too. I came from Sky, and had no issues with them, but if I want to avoid all the connection changes it seems like BT/Plusnet/etc and bounce around those ISPs each time the introductory pricing expires, or stay and hope that Vodafone improve (which could be a gamble!).

C:\Users\matth>tracert www.reddit.com

Tracing route to reddit.map.fastly.net [151.101.1.140]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 192.168.100.254
2 5 ms 5 ms 5 ms host-212-158-250-33.dslgb.com [212.158.250.33]
3 8 ms 7 ms 9 ms 63.130.127.221
4 8 ms 7 ms 8 ms ae15-xcr1.slo.cw.net [195.2.2.217]
5 9 ms 8 ms 9 ms ae21-xcr1.hex.cw.net [195.2.8.233]
6 * 8 ms 9 ms lag-10.ear1.London1.Level3.net [4.68.72.93]
7 9 ms 10 ms 9 ms ae-1-3112.edge6.London1.Level3.net [4.69.141.246]
8 38 ms 9 ms 10 ms FASTLY-INC.edge6.London1.Level3.net [212.113.9.202]
9 9 ms 10 ms 9 ms 151.101.1.140

Trace complete.

C:\Users\matth>tracert bbc.co.uk

Tracing route to bbc.co.uk [151.101.0.81]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 192.168.100.254
2 5 ms 5 ms 5 ms host-212-158-250-33.dslgb.com [212.158.250.33]
3 7 ms 8 ms 7 ms 63.130.127.221
4 45 ms 10 ms 8 ms ae15-xcr1.slo.cw.net [195.2.2.217]
5 59 ms 9 ms 9 ms ae21-xcr1.hex.cw.net [195.2.8.233]
6 9 ms 9 ms 8 ms lag-10.ear1.London1.Level3.net [4.68.72.93]
7 8 ms 9 ms 9 ms ae-2-3212.edge6.London1.Level3.net [4.69.141.250]
8 9 ms 9 ms 9 ms FASTLY-INC.edge6.London1.Level3.net [212.113.9.202]
9 9 ms 9 ms 9 ms 151.101.0.81

Trace complete.

Must be frustrating! But if you have a line fault surely another ISP will still be dependent upon Openreach to fix it? You could end up stuck in the same situation with your new ISP.

Very true, however the Vodafone tech support team, appear on the surface to have next to no knowledge of the product and how it works.

The only way I've managed to get it escalated to Level 2, was to go through the Social Media team. Level 1 could find a fault.

Level 2 took 20 minutes to find it, book an engineer and resolved within 3 days. I had been waiting 8 weeks!

In reply to a post by Bryer:

some resistance on the line and low voltage.

In reply to a post by Bryer:

Went to the cabinet, changed out the battery

I suspect you misunderstood the engineer as the low battery is a line condition just like high resistance (aka HR) rather than a physical battery in the cabinet.

An Openreach engineer popped around this morning. Lovely friendly gentleman.

He did a few tests and confirmed 80/20 sync and said the line was perfect (1.8km in total length) and about 150m to the cab. All speedtests were poor - my equipment, VF router, test socket/ different filter, etc.

Was going to do a port swap in the cab, but he phoned VF and they then said "We shouldn't have requested OR for a throughput issue. Stand down & we'll phone the customer in the next 48 working hours".

OR have confirmed there are no line issues between the house & cab, so it seems as if we knew it all along - the issue is with VF, and has been since November #clowns

and the result....

VF (aka Clown Central) closed the ticket as "no fault found". They left me a VM saying the engineer reported no fault, therefore we are closing the ticket, even though he told them the performance was below spec.

I've now phoned 191 and they have said they will sent me another router.... :facepalm:

Edited by mbames (Sat 19-Jan-19 12:57:29)

In reply to a post by j0hn83:

Even a 200m run has multiple joints.

The entire length being replaced to the cabinet isn't gong to happen.

While I was at work today, the wife reported issues using the broadband. She stated that there was a Openreach van outside the house with some cable reels and the manhole cover to the chamber up. Further down the road was another Openreach crew, pulling cables of some sort through, the first crew then went the cabinet and pulled the cable through the final run.

Shortly after they had disappeared, the broadband came back up with speeds of 80/20. Which had been at 65/19.

Either I've had a new run of cable to replace the 1960's stuff, or it's a massive coincidence.

Under the terms and conditions previously mentioned, 4.2 and 7.*, you've given them ample time to resolve, which they haven't been able to do. So you should be able to leave without penalty.

I would personally jump ship (I have and leave on the 23rd), they've not sent me any letters to notify me of the cancellation charges or that someone is attempting to take my line away from them, so again they seem to be incompetent at retaining customers as well.

I'm looking forward to getting away from them, paying a bit extra and getting UK based support from a dedicated business grade provider.

Who are you switching too - seems like most ISPs have customer support which is non UK based. I'm not overly interested in a phone package....

I've gone over to Ghost Gamer Broadband.