Problems in Neath South Wales
 

A mate of mine has lost his broadband connection now 4 times in the past 3 weeks in the evenings. The past 3 times Virgin claimed it as an area outage and now today again same problem yet virgin claim theres no problem this time.

Just wondering if anyone else has been experiencing problems within this area?

Re: Problems in Neath South Wales
 

Well Virgin changed my mates Modem today and the modem STILL! hasnt been activated on his account....

The Tech that came out rang to get it changed over and was told the system had crashed and couldnt do it but took the details and was told would do it when the system would be back online in around an hour and that was at 6:45pm.

My mate rang back Faults at just before 9 and was told they still couldnt do it.

FFS!!

Re: Problems in Neath South Wales
 

Oh I dunno Chris. I'm moving soon and won't be able to get cable and THAT will make me miserable. My connection has been consistently good for years and although I know problems are annoying, just be thankful you still have the cable option mate :)

Re: Problems in Neath South Wales
 

I just wish they will hurry and sort the BSR issue out lol.

Re: Problems in Neath South Wales
 

Well they found out why my mates modem wont lock on.

They have upgraded him to the 50mb package even tho its not supposed to be installed until 8th March and left him with a 20mb modem and now trying to say he will just have to wait till march 8th.

What a joke of a company, couldnt even get a simple modem swap right!

Re: Problems in Neath South Wales
 

The real joke is how keen you are to stick with a company you so clearly despise.

Re: Problems in Neath South Wales
 

the clear joke is the fact they tricked be into a new contract by telling me they would contact me after christmas if the coding had FAILED and i had no contact therefore i thought the problem had been completed and signed a new contract.

Re: Problems in Neath South Wales
 

I don't know the exact clauses of the contract but I am pretty sure if you are not receiving the service that you should be that you can cancel, assuming that you reported all your issues.

Re: Problems in Neath South Wales
 

Then sue them for breach of contract. Do something, anything - just stop bitching about it on the internet all the time!

Re: Problems in Neath South Wales
 

Ok seriously mate, you upgraded to 50Mb so the service can't be that bad, you have a right to cancel of 28 days then you are in a contract VM don't send new contract out just a notice of the new contract but you can cancel within 28 days, so they didn't trick as you would know the issue wasn't sorted if you internet was crap, I have tried for so long to give you the benefit of the doubt but was is your issue Chris you 50Mb seems fine.

Re: Problems in Neath South Wales
 

Its not as bad as what it has been but it has its moments where it will freak out usually evenings or weekends or holidays when load is greater online.

My modem STILL gets T3 timeouts which are to do with the ongoing BSR problems and thats what causes modem reboots.

Re: Problems in Neath South Wales
 

In the nicest possible way, you have been given your options, seems to me people are more than a little bored of your moaning about it... guess it has got to the put up or shut up stage. No offence intended but it just seems to be going round in an ever lasting circle. :shrug:

Re: Problems in Neath South Wales
 

quite frankly i couldnt care what people think im entitled to my own opinions as much as the next person on here.

Re: Problems in Neath South Wales
 

Having to reboot your modem 4 times in 3 weeks, oh its a hard life :erm:

Re: Problems in Neath South Wales
 

I refer you to this post.

http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/34937361-post45.html

Re: Problems in Neath South Wales
 

I live in Bristol and I and a few friends suffer a similar problem. I am gathering additional information to present to VM to get it resolved.

Do you need to do a Power Off and restart to get your service back?
Have you looked at the modem error file? if so could you post it to my thread CPE (Cable Modems) Crash.

Thanks
Rick

Re: Problems in Neath South Wales
 

Yeah but its usually just a lot of T3 errors the modem log shows.

Re: Problems in Neath South Wales
 

He is using a VMNG300 modem on 50Mb which runs with 4 downstreams and on a completely different Docsis to you so his fault is in no way similar to yours at all.

Re: Problems in Neath South Wales
 

Maldova, I am not suggesting that his and my problem are the same, I am suggesting that no one seems to collect this fault data and attempts to use it to assist in resolving the issues that exist.

What does confuse me is your negativity...

Re: Problems in Neath South Wales
 

No be at all negative as what happens is that you collate all this data from seemingly similar issues from opposite ends of the country that cannot be in anyway related.

You need to collate data say from your neighbours or from other people in your area and if the fault is the same then you have a better argument to put across to your ISP.

You start hitting them with a mishmash of unrelated data then they will have nothing to base any real investigation of your issue.

If you read what I have said above you know it makes sense.:)

Re: Problems in Neath South Wales
 

What would make sense would be for VM to set up a database with some predefined fields for CUSTOMERS (The people that pay the wages) to fill in a fault report. Then intelligent engineers could use that to look for similar
issues like same modem firmware on same ubr port for example.

Maybe the blinkered view is why VM can't see the wood for the trees and why issues take so long (if ever) to get resolved.

Re: Problems in Neath South Wales
 

That would be customers raising faults via technical support, automated systems note when there have been a certain amount of reports and raise an area fault which is then investigated. VM have access to every modem on the network and can derive any data that they think may assist with troubleshooting from there. All modems of each type are identifiable by OID and should be on whichever firmware VM are most recently offering.

Allowing customers to start randomly pumping data into a database would just throw more trees into the mix.

Re: Problems in Neath South Wales
 

SQL is a wonderful thing, it allows you to sort and filter lots of raw data very quickly given that you have collected the raw data in the first place and therein lies the problem.
As you have stated above VM have the ability to access all their modems and get all the raw data they require, I guess the real question is why don't they seem to?

Re: Problems in Neath South Wales
 

Because people paying between 12 and 38 pounds a month for service aren't really profitable to serve if you start throwing proactive and ongoing monitoring of every modem into the mix.

SQL is used to sort data when looking at multiple customer fault reports. It is not up to customers to report this information it can be derived from their original fault reports and account information anyway.

Re: Problems in Neath South Wales
 

Ignitionnet,
I guess you are also aware of snmp and wondered if you know if VM network management is centralised or regional?

Re: Problems in Neath South Wales
 

Centralised.

Re: Problems in Neath South Wales
 

So let me get this straight in my mind, -
1) Broadband services are not profitable if they work faultlessly.

Re: Problems in Neath South Wales
 

You could gget a job as a Spin Doctor twisting words like this!:D

Re: Problems in Neath South Wales
 

Well what is not spin is the realisation that I have been overcharged for my XL service for goodness knows how long and than VM won't say for how long and won't refund any overcharges.


BBC Oneshow here I come

Re: Problems in Neath South Wales
 

Excess formatting removed.

No, ensuring that broadband services work faultlessly isn't profitable which is why the services are not advertised with an SLA. Reasonable steps are taken to ensure they work as close to flawlessly as reasonably possible within the business model to provide them.

To try and give you a faultless service would involve having sufficient staff to monitor the status of every cable modem on the network and then have engineers respond to each and every single user fault, having resilient cable feeds into every home, resilient coaxial and fibre optic lines with battery and generator backed up active components throughout connecting to two different resilient headends with an optical switch to a secondary feed should the primary fail.

Do you really think your subscription comes even close to covering that?

You may wish to try Watchdog instead of the One Show regarding the billing issues, or mail the CEO's office. Before you do just make sure that you are reading the bill appropriately as VM's bills aren't the clearest.

Re: Problems in Neath South Wales
 

You are in intelligent person and probably aware of "HP Openview" network management software or similar. It can automate the monitoring of devices on a network and email/page alerts to support when faults exist.

I am sure that the VM network is as resilient as it can be taking into account the financial constraints. But there is no excuse for shoddy coding of the .cm files. No excuse for poor customer support. No excuse for being overcharged.

I started this in an attempt to improve thing, for the benefit of VM as well as the customer only to get negativity, and then to suggest that I can't understand the VM bill is an insult.

VM accounts have reduced my monthly payment for the XL service from £37.00 to £30.00 after I contacted them earlier today. Had I not contacted them I would still be paying £37.00 which is close to the XXL service cost.
No apology for overcharging me. No refund for the period of overcharging.
No idea how long I have been overcharged for because VM won't tell me when they changed the contract pricing.

Re: Problems in Neath South Wales
 

They weren't overcharging you. Distasteful as it is they are under no obligation to drop your price.

The .cm files are not shoddily coded - they are just the DOCSIS configuration files, a series of parameters that detail to the modems the conditions under which they operate and access the network.

If you're referring to modem firmware files those are written by the manufacturers, not Virgin, and there's nothing to indicate that is the cause of your fault.

If you are referring to CMTS firmware / software those are also written by the manufacturers.

Re: Problems in Neath South Wales
 

Thanks for reply,

I note that you are quite adept at deflecting the blame onto the modem and CMTS manufactures who can not defend themselves here.

I am also very concerned that your defence of VM Customer Support seems to be missing, or are you admitting that its poor?

Distasteful you say! Being invoiced £84.00 per annum above the current price is more than distasteful it dishonest, I suspect you have MP's or bankers working in the accounts depart.

Maybe my £84.00 and that of many thousands of others in the same boat is going to pay the BONUSES.

Re: Problems in Neath South Wales
 

Excuse me? I am telling the truth. I am giving blame for your issues nowhere merely stating the obvious, that manufacturers are responsible for the software on their products not end users. I am unsure where you worked in IT but did your company rewrite the firmware on everything you used? If my factual statements are contrary to your view of the world I can only apologise.

If you actually read what I wrote rather than huffing and puffing you'll note I specifically said there is nothing to indicate that modem firmware is to blame for your issues.

What 'defence'? Again I was impassive and factual with no judgement made. If I somehow offend you by not agreeing with you I can, again, only apologise.

FYI Virgin staff haven't had much joy as far as bonuses and pay rises go recently despite the company now being profitable. I have no idea where your 84GBP per year went, maybe into Richard Branson's personal retirement fund who knows either way Virgin Media would have been profitable and able to pay bonuses this year with or without it. Most bonuses received by staff are relatively modest anyway.

May I suggest that you sue Virgin Media for your money back if you feel you have a case. Either way please grind your axe with them rather than accusing me of being some big Virgin fan because I don't use the adjectives you want me to or jump on your band wagon that Virgin are to blame for things they have no direct control over. Just for clarity:

1) No company is, nor have they ever been, required to reduce pricing on contracts if the current price changes. It is not illegal for them to not do so.
2) Virgin Media are not responsible for writing modem firmware.
3) Virgin Media are not responsible for writing CMTS firmware.
4) Virgin Media, in common with every other customer of the modem and CMTS vendors, and indeed every vendor customer in the world from routers to firewalls to IP telephones, submit bug reports and harass the vendor for fixes.

If you find Virgin so dishonest and generally hopeless may I suggest a trip to http://www.samknows.com to check for alternatives that are available to you.