[maff101]

I've been with VM/Telewest for 10+ years and aside from the occasional glitch I've been pretty satisfied. That all changed this month, to such a degree that I'm wondering if I can really chalk this up to sheer incompetence or if something else is going on.

I'm on the 20mb package, and for a last few months I've noticed YouTube videos are increasingly difficult to stream, opening web pages are somewhat hit-and-miss, and downloading over HTTP seems to be perpetually capped. It wasn't until early December when NTTP connections suddenly started dropping to 300kbs and below for several days that I contacted support.

I phoned support to request a technician and got the Indian call centre. I was refused a booking and was told that there was a known issue in my area, which would be solved within a week. I checked the service status page and found nothing reported, so I can only assume support have access to service status information that isn't posted publicly? For days at a time? Hmm.

After a couple of days of waiting my connection was alternating between sub-dial up speeds and no connection at all. Still nothing was listed on the service status page for my area, so I again called support. Once again the Indian call centre refused point blank to send out a technician, and I was told that my problem was actually down to utilisation issues in my area that would not be fixed until 25th January 2012.

So, in between looking for another ISP - because 25th January 2012 is freaking ridiculous - I posted on the VM Help and Support forums. After a few days someone from the Support Forum Team determined that my modem, which by now could not establish any connection at all, was probably borked and finally offered to book a technician.

After a week of waiting, the technician which I had been trying to book for nearly three weeks turned up. After telling me that there were no utilisation issues in my area, and that utilisation shouldn't affect 20mb customers anyway, he agreed that I did indeed need a new modem. Unfortunately, despite being called out on a job specifically to fix a broadband issue which support had already determined would probably require a new modem, he hadn't actually brought any new modems with him. Do the different support departments in VM even talk to each other?

Assuring me that he would be back by the end of the day, he left to collect the new modem. That was yesterday. So far he hasn't returned.

I tried the Support Forums again today, only to be told the job had been closed. Do VM really close jobs without confirming that they are acutally resolved? I guess so! Thankfully, a member of the Support Forum team has sent an email to the Principal Technician for my area. He sounds important, so who knowns, maybe I'll find out something in the New Year?

So, I've been without service for weeks and VM appear to have stalled and misdirected me at every turn. Problems are assigned to issues that mysteriously aren't on the service status pages. Support staff refuse to book technicians. When technicians are booked, they turn up without the equipment required to fix problems. Jobs are closed without the issues actually being resolved. I can't help but feel I'm being deliberately sent around in circles.