Breakdowns - how often is often?
 

I had an area-wide loss of TV and broadband today that lasted about eight hours. I get about three similar breakdowns a year. Of course, breakdowns are a fact of life but I was wondering what other's experience on this forum was. Are three breakdowns of eight hours or more a year about average or should I consider myself especially lucky or unlucky?

Re: Breakdowns - how often is often?
 

I have had one broadband outage overnight in the last 3 years. I have been with VM 20 years and things have improved so much over that time.
Up to about 2010 we had terrible problems with on demand caused by an over heating problem in the cabinet in the street, that was rectified by a change in equipment in the cabinet, but since then outages have been at a minimum.
However, my cousin lives in Sawbridgeworth, Herts and she has had regular outages particularly last summer.
I am in ex Telewest area and she is ex NTL, don't know if that has any bearing.

Re: Breakdowns - how often is often?
 

Interesting. Looking like I might be in the 'unlucky' bracket. I am in an ex-NTL area.

Re: Breakdowns - how often is often?
 

As am I, but I have found outages to be rare, although I haven't been keeping a tally!

Re: Breakdowns - how often is often?
 

Consider yourself very unlucky.

I dont think Ive had more than 5 in the last few years.
The last one was actually a couple of days ago, but only for about 90 mins max.

Re: Breakdowns - how often is often?
 

I don't think I've had that many in ages. Had one outage for probably (like you) several hours and a few DNS outages over the years. I think, looking back, maybe 1 semi-serious and maybe 4/5 minor issues. Not bad for nearly 20 years.

Re: Breakdowns - how often is often?
 

All of the outages I suffer turn out to be area-wide. I live in London. The most recent loss of service coincided with a Virgin Media engineer doing some work under the pavement and next to a green box opposite where I live the day before.

Re: Breakdowns - how often is often?
 

Admittedly we work full time but of the ones I know of (so could be happening when I am not at home to notice them) I can only think of 2 in the 10 years we have been with Virgin.

1 was over 24 hours and was complete outage of everything Virgin related over a weekend which made it even worse.
Another was broadband only for several hours which had a knock on effect to the tv with the On Demand side of things.

Re: Breakdowns - how often is often?
 

I live right next to Sawbridgeworth, in Harlow which is also in Essex.

I have had very few disruptions, having a Fingbox this tells me when conection to the box and the internet is lost.

Re: Breakdowns - how often is often?
 

Similar here - we've had a complete outage from early evening a while ago which took a few hours to resolve, and then had short 5minute blips for a couple of days. But I've also spent the past few years working almost exclusively from home so totally reliant on our broadband. I would certainly struggle to count on one hand the number of total outages we've had that haven't been pre-notified.

Re: Breakdowns - how often is often?
 

Thanks to everyone for your replies. It's looking like I might live in an area (21) that is prone to outages. I, too, work from home and any loss of service makes things tricky.

Re: Breakdowns - how often is often?
 

"area 21" is actually the billing system you are on, and covers a large part of London and Southampton.

If you are served by the Acton, Brentford or Finchley hubsites, there has been a lot of network engineering work in these areas recently which will have caused outages.

Re: Breakdowns - how often is often?
 

I believe I am served from Lewisham. I live in SE London. I did mention in an earlier post on this thread that a Virgin Media engineer was working opposite my place the day before the latest loss of service. I assumed, rightly or wrongly, that the two events might be linked. Either way it is annoying and, judging by the replies, seems to happen more frequently in my area than elsewhere.

Re: Breakdowns - how often is often?
 

I had a period of 2-3 weeks where the broadband kept dropping out - unacceptable.

Apart from that there have been 3 occasions where it has been out for a number of hours at a time.

I have been with Virgin for 17 months.

Not a great start?

Re: Breakdowns - how often is often?
 

I had a very rare broadband outage yesterday which started around 11:30.
A call to Virgin Media advised that there was an ongoing issue which was expected to be resolved by 6:15.
Asked if I wanted updates, I gave my mobile number.
I was texted at 4:30 to say that the issue had been resolved, which indeed it had.
For me, this was a good response on a residential service.