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Sales/Oversubscription/Customer Service
Normally I am a supporter of Vm and can see through some of the glitches, after all I have been a cable customer since Nynex. I have recently moved house, in my old house I paid for, and got, a good 150Mb connection. I have moved recently, about 3 miles, and was told by VM there would be no issues.
Utter garbage, paying for 150Mb getting between 3Mb and 10Mb between 16:00 and 22:00, it peaks at around 45Mb between 23:00 and 01:30. cant be bothered staying up any longer. This is with an ethernet cable direct to the superHub2. I called faults who did a few tests and said I was lucky to be getting anything over 40Mb due to congestion in my area, this was a known fault and will be around for weeks if not months. When I moved I could have gone to BT or SKY as the area is Infinity enabled, but I stayed with VM on the basis of past performance. I am disgusted that VM know there is a capacity / oversubscription issue but they still choose to sell packages their own tech staff say they can't deliver. To me this is miss selling at best if not fraud. So after six weeks of getting less tham 30% of what Vm are supposed to provide I managed to haggle a one off £30 payment, I only got this after almost an hour on the phone to cutomer services. I have been emailed to say I am being upgraded to 200Mb in January. i dont care/ 150Mb is enough for the six of us in this house. VM need to spend a bit less cash on advertising and sales and a lot more cash on maintaining their infrastructure. Annoyed of Warrington.... |
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If you've got a fault reference for the congestion, you should be able to get a monthly credit until that's resolved. That's what some people on here have done, myself included.
I'd much rather VM fix the congestion, but it at least makes it a bit more bearable in the meantime! |
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VM sales team don't know about congestion so they are selling you a product they assume will work fine, as for the congestion there should be a date for it been resolved but again take that date with a pinch of salt, they only issue with VM is they will always have congestion due to demand increasing and there speed upgrades.
As you stated the upgrade to 200Mb is due in your area shortly which could mean there will be some upgrades going on soon which might sort your connection out. |
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Sales teams should be able to check existing known issues in an area and as such shouldn't confirm a quality of service until they check known issues in that area, anything else is just deceit.
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As with all sales people all they are interested in is meeting their targets.
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I find it disreputable that VM don't tell customers the real peak timne speed they can expect.
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Does anyone else?
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---------- Post added at 20:10 ---------- Previous post was at 19:57 ---------- http://store.virginmedia.com/broadband/speeds.html http://bt.custhelp.com/app/answers/d...a_id/37257/346 ---------- Post added at 20:16 ---------- Previous post was at 20:10 ---------- And Like BT, when you ring and complain they will quote all the issues affecting the speed and as i found with MY bt Infinity 2 BB, that as long as the speed is between 50-68Mb, they DO NOT SEE AN ISSUE. So I pay for 76Mb, line is capable of 68Mb, router connects at 54Mb.... Unlike VM where the customer sees a massive reduction of 20Mb on there service and the Engineers are running around trying fix the issue. |
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When you, or I, order a service from an xDSL ISP they will quote a speed range. That is what we are paying for and what they commit to provide. Indeed Ofcom regulate this and if the speeds fall below estimate too much we can leave free of charge. At least we have a low end and a high end, and if we don't like it there are usually 40Mb products available. For a VM customer 'up to' can mean less than 10Mb/s during peak periods for several months on a 152Mb service. xDSL has distance limitations that are outside of the ISP's control, it's a symptom of the technology. Cable has issues that are most definitely within the cable operator's control. VM do not make any attempt to ensure that services are congestion free, and will openly admit to this. Incidentally the speed ranges are intentionally wide. They don't mean that your line is definitely capable of the higher end speed at all. If that were the case you'd have a single figure given. The estimates are based on the line length between the cabinet and the distribution point that serves your, and other, properties. If you are further away than most from that distribution point your speeds will be at the lower end. If uptake of FTTC in your area is high that'll also have an impact on the speeds due to crosstalk. You were given an estimated speed range, your line performs within that speed range. The laws of physics are pretty unforgiving and they are what govern these speeds. This is in contrast to speeds on VM, which are entirely down to the laws of profitability. |
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Nice one Igni!
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Deceit is fraud. Do the banks regret selling ppi? Probably not, but they would if people where sent to jail for it. Fraud is a jailable offence and should be treated as such. |
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I think most customers will not know this so as far as they are concerned are paying for a service of either 40Mb or 76Mb. My point is BT will say upto and gives some reason of distance from exchange ect for the reason your speed not being where it should be but its not until you look for yourself and then question why the speed is so low and could it be improved your again hit with the reasons why its slow is because of distance from cab...so your not getting anywhere near what you thought you would. I accept that there will be a loss, but How much? Which is what the OP was complaining about the,"miss selling at best if not fraud" So what's the difference? I'm fully aware of the reasons why but should this be an excuse for having such a dramatic loss of speed?? Your saying it's down to the technology limitations and distance but i'm paying for a 76Mb service, your saying well you don't get that because of the reasons given as somehow thats ok for BT and not for VM? astonishing thought. And yes they do run around trying to get speeds and service resolved i can vouch for that. |
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Or this. September 2015, VM-recorded download speeds via SamKnows panel, 8-10pm weekdays: 152Mb: 109.8Mb. 100Mb: 83.28Mb. 50Mb: 46.68Mb. September 2014, VM-recorded download speeds via SamKnows panel, 8-10pm weekdays: 152Mb: 115.91Mb 100Mb: 88.39Mb 50Mb: 49.40Mb Or how about this guy. Issue reported 12th May. 2014. Due for review 16th December. Quote:
BT give you this before you can even click 'order': https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2015/10/7.png Quote:
If you're interested in how to advertise it properly - excuse the Google Translate:: https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2015/10/8.png Quote:
Might be tough for VM that one, there seem to be a fair few areas capable of the non-advertised 'S' tier and not much else at peak times. |
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http://community.virginmedia.com/t5/...d/td-p/2543859
Reported in November. Took until June to add new channels, by which time even without any new customers demand would have gone up 20-30%. Unsurprisingly these didn't resolve the issue, so end of this month is a new review date. My idea of running around is splitting nodes, this doubling capacity instantly, not taking 7 months to drip-feed apparently insufficient capacity to keep up with growth in demand, let alone relieve the oversubscription issue. This knowing, too, that an uplift was planned for October. |
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That's changed recently... Since when did they have a minimum guaranteed speed? |
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I know what it means, it just hasn't ever been shown. At least it wasn't shown two months ago.
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Yes, it is only recently that it has happened but offshore have been fully briefed and are using it.
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---------- Post added at 19:26 ---------- Previous post was at 19:23 ---------- It looks like you’ve already got BT Infinity, but you can still upgrade your speed or usage limit FIBRE BROADBAND You could get 51Mb-70Mb Estimated download speed range* You currently get 51Mb-70Mb Estimated download speed range* 40Mb Minimum guaranteed speed This speed is an estimate, but it should be accurate to within 1 or 2Mb * So now they are saying they will only guarantee 40Mb!! Get any lower and i might as well go for 40Mb. So i won't get a discount unless it's below 40Mb, you seem to think thats ok, at least with VM you can complain to get the speed where it should be, maybe take a while for it to happen but at least they will do something about it unlike BT |
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I offered to help you here but you obviously don't want any. When you're ready head over to HERE where either I or one of the others will advise. |
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... where you can also read some my own wise musings!
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You can always click on my name and see the occasional musings - particularly in respect of the wretched HH5, the stupid HH5 advertising campaign, the aluminium cable situation and, whenever I can get away with it, the holier-than-though "Sages" who pontificate there worse than I do here!
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I'm not a "Sage" and I do know where your musings are hence the grins at the end of my post.
I do agree that some of the "Sages" do have a "holier than thou" attitude but I just tend to ignore them most of the time. They can be "used" though as they are so gullible. Both I and a few others who are helpful have direct means of contact with the Mods so we don't need the "Sages". |
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You know me, Pip. I love a bit of fun. The BT forums are the same as the VM forums in terms of people with the same class of problems; rubbish Homehubs; poor speed, poor SNR margin; rubbish offshore call centre. But those "sages" - they inspire the pixie in me.
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You aren't entitled to a discount if your speeds drop below 40Mb, you are entitled, if they can't bring it back into range, to break contract and go elsewhere. This is as regulated by Ofcom, as is the need to provide speed estimates. If you could show me the equivalent speed guarantee from VM that'd be appreciated. As far as I'm aware there isn't one; VM can sell incredibly congested services with no fear unless customers pursue legal remedies for failing to provide services that are fit for purpose. VM are indeed upgrading constantly, however if the money is being spent and the work being done so completely why are there any speed issues, let alone ones that take several months and even upwards of a year to resolve? There are areas that have had issues for over two years bar a 3 month period. It is, frankly, crap that customers get sub-5Mb/s at peak periods, VM take months to do the cheapest capacity upgrade they can, then a few months more to do the same again, and only spend any real money addressing the issues a year down the line. I am aware there have been issues with deploying new Arris CMTS and downstream ports on Cisco kit, and it's run behind schedule in some cases. So why weren't nodes being split in advance, so that when the ports became available nodes could just be decombined ensuring that the capacity was there to relieve the issue in one hit? I've read another couple of instances on the VM forum today where VM did nothing with issues for months waiting for ports to become available. They could have been planning and implementing node splits. There should've been no areas waiting an age for extra channels, then having to wait again for a Cat C because there should've been no Cat C required as the node had already been split and recombined. You can't on the one hand point out that VM can deliver maximum speed to all customers regardless of distance from the cabinet, unlike BT, that they are constantly upgrading their network, then excuse their failure to keep pace with customer demands to the point where areas spend upwards of a year delivering less than 10% of customer's paid-for speeds at peak times. Sadly you seem to want to ignore that there are valid reasons why your service isn't 76Mb, that the speeds you would get were made very clear to you at sign-up time, and that you are within that range, hence you are getting exactly what you were told you would get. Virgin Media have one simple reason why they don't deliver full speed to all customers - they choose not to. They do not target full speed for all customers. The upgrades they undertake are not intended to achieve this aim, it's a pleasant bonus when it happens. I've shown you what I consider to be a better approach, how Comhem advertise services and how they operate. To me this is a more transparent, fair and reasonable way of operating. It makes clear that Comhem do not attempt to provide full speeds all the time, and gives a very clear delineation as to what they consider to be acceptable and the remedies the customer is entitled to. Per my earlier post, it's interesting that a company spending all this money and running around delivering capacity upgrades has lower peak speeds in September 2015 than in September 2014. Even more interesting that they see fit to do tier uplifts in this environment. VM need to plough serious cash into capacity, and they need to stop trying to avoid splitting the nodes and simply do it as the very first step in capacity relief, with additional channels only either where needed for a tier uplift or to relieve the congestion somewhat while the split is being planned and executed. You know, pretty much as the then-recently bankrupt ntl managed to in the early 2000s. |
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Sadly BT need to invest in there network to bring it antwhere closer to what VM are offering. The excuse of,"Thats the limitation of our service is frankly a rip off". I agree that only very recently they have now made it clearer when ordering the service what you actually get is not what is offered, this can then give an informed choice to the customer wanting to take up the service, but this has obviously come about due to the poor limitations of the BT network and must say is a smart move by BT. Now you have no room for complaint,(convenient). ---------- Post added at 20:24 ---------- Previous post was at 20:16 ---------- Quote:
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None of this is any consolation to those suffering or changes the fact that VM couldn't give a crap whether or not their customers can reach their tier's maximum speeds as it's simply not a metric they measure. The DOCSIS 3.1 upgrades don't, in themselves, add any extra capacity. That still needs nodes to be split and additional channels to be added. If the cash is being spent why are the average speeds at peak times lower than they were a year ago? I'll answer my own question - because the rebuild budget, the one the DOCSIS 3.1 upgrades come under, is not the same or has anything to do with the capacity budget. Those upgrades are worth nothing in terms of relieving congestion without extra fibre to split nodes, and extra CMTS ports to terminate those nodes on. VoC/VoIP does nothing, at all, to resolve these capacity issues. The voice services will run on UGS, unsolicited grant, so even when a node's broadband customers can't even manage a megabit voice calls will run perfectly. They need zero additional capacity. ---------- Post added at 21:56 ---------- Previous post was at 21:53 ---------- Quote:
Your comment on the lowering of the spec, given this is a comparison to VM, also doesn't take account of what the 'spec' of VM cable services is. Specifically that there isn't one, and people on 152Mb services can, and do, find themselves getting less than 1/20th of that performance at peak periods. Is 40Mb really 'such a low speed'? Admittedly it's not much good as a cock replacement when discussing broadband speeds with nerds but it's fine for everything, up to and including a 4k stream and some activity on the side. As far as investment in the network goes, all things being well BT will be delivering a gigabit to my property next year. Not that it's relevant of course. VM, and Liberty Global, don't care about their customers' speeds as long as they pass some quality of experience metrics. That is the point I've made over and over again and you've not contradicted it. They try and spend as little as possible doing the bare minimum in capacity upgrades to ensure marketing can release tiers. The symptoms of this are people spending months in oversubscribed areas, having received two sets of 'upgrades' and needing a third as the first two didn't cut it, and average speeds dropping 5% over the course of a year, just in time for a tier uplift. |
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There's obviously money being invested, I don't think anyone can genuinely claim that there isn't, but the questions are really "is enough money being invested?" and "is the money being invested in the right places?"
We all measure quality by different standards. Virgin sadly measures their peak throughput and for many of us, that's not a particularly great metric but it's one that sells. The only way the situation will change is to vote with your wallet. Sadly Virgin's average peak speeds are higher than what BT can offer me, though it's definitely getting worse in my area. I haven't seen 200mbit yet. |
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No sign of load rebalancing yet either? Carl's right though that without node splits up-front then even with the later expenditure of D3.1 line amps then there will still be ongoing "congestion" for some considerable time. :( Even re-aligning every new amp with diplex D3.1 compliant filters/padding may well generate home visits for legacy 8x4CPE customers that have retained inappropriate D3.0 line conditioning on their CPE hubs? Despite the investment there must be a limit to the pool of skilled resource which will also help prolong the D3.1 rollout over several years? Will be interesting to see how the D3.1 channel plans are mapped in each area to mitigate the effects on legacy CPE users in addition to (any) further utilisation relief. |
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Oh come on horse, VM don't need to do that anymore, They have MAGIC in their cables surely.
At least that's what their ad says.:D |
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Docsis 3.0 and 3.1 are be able to work side by side in fact 3.1 can work with 3.0 so really is down to the few Docsis 1.0-2.0 to be replaced. As for congestion i think there are many legacy factors,(and cash at present) holding this up, there are lots of reasons why they do not happen or are cancelled. |
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I'll let Igni repy to 3.0 and 3.1 can work together, he knows much more than me.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgxYoEnCUDY from 24mins |
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I see on the forums another case of congestion going on for a year. 6 months to add new channels and, surprise surprise, having taken that long to do it it not being adequate so, apparently reluctantly, going on to splitting the node. So it seems from what you've said that it's not about VM not having the money, more about them not being bothered enough about congestion on their network to prioritise resources towards relieving it. Good to know. ---------- Post added at 22:16 ---------- Previous post was at 22:15 ---------- Quote:
3.0 CPE cannot use 3.1 channels for obvious reasons. |
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Well not playing ping pong with you if in a few years time it dosent happen,(no doubt you be scouring around for examples).Then please re-ignite the thread. |
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I haven't argued that overbuild and hub upgrades have been going on. I have explicitly mentioned both here and on VM's forum. As far as the E6k goes these have been in for a while in many areas. The BSRs are an I-CMTS architecture and only capable of 12 downstreams. 'Upcoming' products VM want to install with 16 available, and I-CMTS are no good as VM are moving to a CCAP architecture. The VoC project is behind a bit due to issues with Packetcable. Writing in red doesn't change that without splitting nodes and adding extra channels all the work in the hubs does nothing to relieve congestion. Go and tell someone who had been waiting over a year for a split that all this investment is being done. The power and aircon upgrades had to be done as, without them, VM had Arris kit sitting there switched off. This isn't a good thing, someone missed that those were out of capacity and it put the E6k project a quarter and more behind. No E6k, no capacity increases. Trouble is, these went in, took an she to get them turned up, then in some cases areas were migrated to them and still had no capacity as they were just that, migrated, with no node split. Horseman has been moved to one but even with the advantage he had over others with test CPE he still sees congestion. Right now I would far rather see splitting nodes twice and recombining them than the plant upgrades for D3.1 and higher channel count 3.0. Ideally both at the same time while nodes are being swapped out and customers on downtime. 4 fibre in, 4 trunk out nodes are always cool. ---------- Post added at 00:54 ---------- Previous post was at 00:51 ---------- TL;DR a cock up was made, VM haven't caught up but released uplifts anyway, VM try to exhaust all cheaper options before splitting nodes despite usage projections indicating that will be inadequate, and VM still have a very relaxed attitude towards customer speeds at peak times. |
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I blame Ofcom here: they are not mandating any quality of service from VM. They should make VM reduce the service costs *automatically*, on a sliding scale, when baseline speed tests are not met over a rolling sample period. The pathetic advice "ring in and claim a rebate each month" is a joke. The rebate should be applied automatically until the associated fault ticket is resolved. That might give them some incentive to pull their finger out! VM are also disingenuous is their remedial estimates given to users. They deliberately lie to customers in assigning fault resolution dates. The dates they set are strategic: not too soon to get your hopes up and not too late to make you leave. The dates are in no way linked to the actual engineering works needs to fix the over utilisation. This information is deliberately hidden from the end user and in fact, hidden from VM support in the cases I have had. It is clear that with VM, the end user experience is not a priority. Their strategy is market led, not quality led. |
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Once more then, what you are saying is what will be happening as i have already stated, your repeating what i have been saying about investment, sure i haven't been so specific but it is happening and will continue to.
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I'll repeat what I have all along. The people who are experiencing congested services couldn't care less about upgrades for future services. Weirdly enough they just want their broadband to work decently at peak times and platitudes about massive investment are wasted on them. I'm not sure which department in VM you work for but have you considered a move to PR? |
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Hmm I don't have much of an option apart from VM looking at this lol :D
I don't fancy that guaranteed minimum speed much! :D https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2015/11/1.png |
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Well that was well worth resurrecting a thread silent for over a month for.
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I personally was quite impressed by the audacity of BT to guarantee a minimum speed of zero.
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