VM Community board replies now a week in arrears

[kwikbreaks]

So are you suggesting I complain to the CEO office about the engineer? I've already mentioned the issue on the VM community board which as far as I'm concerned is an official channel.

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For the utilisation I've now been given F001774579

[Nopanic]

Originally Posted by kwikbreaks

So are you suggesting I complain to the CEO office about the engineer? I've already mentioned the issue on the VM community board which as far as I'm concerned is an official channel.

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For the utilisation I've now been given F001774579

I was still talking about the slow replies from the forums, but as a rule in general, I feel that all feedback needs to be given. Nothing to do with where I work ..

I'll log on a check the ref later if no one gets to it before me.

[kwikbreaks]

TIA for checking the fault reference. I don't expect to see much done for a while especially as things have improved a little since I felt I had to complain.

From JB66's response earlier in the thread it seems it's common practice for the engineers to just swap connections around to fix the one they are working on without bothering too much if they are screwing up another one. IMO that should become obvious to local management and it's up to them to control. If it happens again though I will complain as it wastes my time as well as VM's own.

[Nopanic]

Originally Posted by kwikbreaks

TIA for checking the fault reference. I don't expect to see much done for a while especially as things have improved a little since I felt I had to complain.

From JB66's response earlier in the thread it seems it's common practice for the engineers to just swap connections around to fix the one they are working on without bothering too much if they are screwing up another one. IMO that should become obvious to local management and it's up to them to control. If it happens again though I will complain as it wastes my time as well as VM's own.

If that's what's happened then it's more than unacceptable. Can you keep us informed with this please.

[horseman]

Some observations:

1. Forum /= Call Logging System
…anyone that has used a structured Problem Recording/Call Tracking system like IBM's Retain, Computer Associates Infoman, Lotus Notes, Utopia et al and a myriad of more recent packages will know what I mean.
Informal Forum/Bulletin Board Style software is simply not designed with necessary security/RDBMS services, hierarchical escalation, audit controls and structure technical progression to accommodate the more formalised expectations that now appear to be discussed here.

2. VM do "Semi-publish" stats for response times of various board categories but clearly have their own very valid reasons for limiting it's circulation to a subset of VM H&S users. However as pointed out previously it's not difficult to work out these stats yourself anyway and as already posted here come to the same figure! . Why they just don't have a Bus/Underground/National Rail type display banner reflecting the latest delay is as per item 1 - probably more a feature of reduced highlevel "scripting limitations" of trying to retrofit a Call Logging Design into a Forum product never intended to support that feature!

[Peter_]

Originally Posted by horseman

Some observations:

1. Forum /= Call Logging System
…anyone that has used a structured Problem Recording/Call Tracking system like IBM's Retain, Computer Associates Infoman, Lotus Notes, Utopia et al and a myriad of more recent packages will know what I mean.
Informal Forum/Bulletin Board Style software is simply not designed with necessary security/RDBMS services, hierarchical escalation, audit controls and structure technical progression to accommodate the more formalised expectations that now appear to be discussed here.

As I have posted above it would have to be a one to one type of forum where only the person posting can see their question and they then get answered personally by a member of the forum team, this would probably cause the forum to very quickly go under as many questions can and are answered by other members without the team becoming involved.

Originally Posted by horseman

2. VM do "Semi-publish" stats for response times of various board categories but clearly have their own very valid reasons for limiting it's circulation to a subset of VM H&S users. However as pointed out previously it's not difficult to work out these stats yourself anyway and as already posted here come to the same figure! . Why they just don't have a Bus/Underground/National Rail type display banner reflecting the latest delay is as per item 1 - probably more a feature of reduced highlevel "scripting limitations" of trying to retrofit a Call Logging Design into a Forum product never intended to support that feature!

I doubt that either Virgin Media or lithium would ever contemplate adding such a banner to the forum as again it would stop people from posting or even replying and the forum would fall over through lack of members or anyone asking questions because they would see an SLA rather than the possibility that their query may be answered by another member.

Remember that the majority of questions are not answered by the forum team but by the members themselves using their own knowledge and experience.

I am just using your post to answer some questions and not detracting from your valid post.

[kwikbreaks]

Originally Posted by Nopanic

If that's what's happened then it's more than unacceptable. Can you keep us informed with this please.

Well you look at the evidence and tell me what you think happened...

12/10/2011 - posted when complaining about congestion
Cable Modem Downstream
DS-1 DS-2 DS-3 DS-4
Frequency 435000000 443000000 451000000 459000000
Lock Status
(QAM Lock/FEC Sync/MPEG Lock) Y/Y/Y Y/Y/Y Y/Y/Y Y/Y/Y
Channel Id 25 26 27 28
Modulation 256QAM 256QAM 256QAM 256QAM
Symbol Rate
(Msym/sec) 6.952 6.952 6.952 6.952
Interleave Depth I=12
J=17 I=12
J=17 I=12
J=17 I=12
J=17
Power Level
(dBmV) 1.78 1.70 1.92 1.18
RxMER
(dB) 37.36 37.64 37.94 37.94
Correctable
Codewords 13810 18957 2832 2859
Uncorrectable
Codewords 4741 6276 9226 9405



Cable Modem Upstream
US-1 US-2 US-3 US-4
Channel Type 2.0 N/A N/A N/A
Channel ID 4 N/A N/A N/A
Frequency
(Hz) 35800000 N/A N/A N/A
Ranging Status Success N/A N/A N/A
Modulation 16QAM N/A N/A N/A
Symbol Rate
(KSym/sec) 5120 N/A N/A N/A
Mini-Slot Size 4 N/A N/A N/A
Power Level
(dBmV) 51.75 N/A N/A N/A
T1 Timeouts 0 0 0 0
T2 Timeouts 0 0 0 0
T3 Timeouts 11 0 0 0
T4 Timeouts 0 0 0 0

Snip from event log...
Thu Oct 13 12:23:55 2011 Thu Oct 13 12:23:56 2011 Critical (3) SYNC Timing Synchronization failure - Loss of Sync;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
Thu Oct 13 12:24:01 2011 Thu Oct 13 12:24:01 2011 Warning (5) Lost MDD Timeout;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;

Power levels as spotted on 14/10/2011
Cable Modem Downstream
DS-1 DS-2 DS-3 DS-4
Frequency 435000000 443000000 451000000 459000000
Lock Status
(QAM Lock/FEC Sync/MPEG Lock) Y/Y/Y Y/Y/Y Y/Y/Y Y/Y/Y
Channel Id 25 26 27 28
Modulation 256QAM 256QAM 256QAM 256QAM
Symbol Rate
(Msym/sec) 6.952 6.952 6.952 6.952
Interleave Depth I=12
J=17 I=12
J=17 I=12
J=17 I=12
J=17
Power Level
(dBmV) -3.67 -3.80 -3.59 -4.22
RxMER
(dB) 36.17 36.61 36.84 36.84
Correctable
Codewords 21262 24670 8301 8146
Uncorrectable
Codewords 19598 20994 21746 19471



Cable Modem Upstream
US-1 US-2 US-3 US-4
Channel Type 2.0 N/A N/A N/A
Channel ID 4 N/A N/A N/A
Frequency
(Hz) 35800000 N/A N/A N/A
Ranging Status Success N/A N/A N/A
Modulation 16QAM N/A N/A N/A
Symbol Rate
(KSym/sec) 5120 N/A N/A N/A
Mini-Slot Size 4 N/A N/A N/A
Power Level
(dBmV) 57.71 N/A N/A N/A
T1 Timeouts 0 0 0 0
T2 Timeouts 0 0 0 0
T3 Timeouts 11 0 0 0
T4 Timeouts 0 0 0 0

Now just what would you say happened?

I suppose I could take out the 6dB FP attenuator to see if it stems the mounting uncorrectable errors but there is now a tech visit booked for Friday anyway.

[jb66]

Originally Posted by kwikbreaks

TIA for checking the fault reference. I don't expect to see much done for a while especially as things have improved a little since I felt I had to complain.

From JB66's response earlier in the thread it seems it's common practice for the engineers to just swap connections around to fix the one they are working on without bothering too much if they are screwing up another one. IMO that should become obvious to local management and it's up to them to control. If it happens again though I will complain as it wastes my time as well as VM's own.

Now your just putting words in my mouth, I never said it was common practice. Its more complicated than that. I was just giving an opinion on what I think may have happened.


Somtimes you have to move drops on taps, Its a little bit of guesswork but mostly common sense, its more than likely a mistake and bad luck.

You dont know what equipment is on which drop. What I do if I have to move a customers power band up and all the taps are in use is I look for the oldest most rusty connector and pull it out. If the stinger is green/white I know its a customer who is no longer with us (or if they are the'll have no return path) and use that tap. If there are no taps available then I do a shuffle and move a few customers down one row. Whats unacceptable is moving a low attenuated tap customer to a high attenuated tap. Thats just making a fault to fix another.

[kwikbreaks]

You know how it all hangs together and I don't but that just sounds very hit and miss to me. Sorry if it sounded like I was putting words in your mouth but your response sounded to me like it was obvious what had happened (and imo it was) and it was nothing remarkable (which to me it should be).

Surely if there is no vacant tap at the correct level needed then it should be a case of connecting to a lower attenuation and fitting bigger attenuators. Are there no records indicating which taps are in use by which customer and which are live and which aren't?

Net effect of this is that the engineer got one job done and made another wasting VMs time and mine and making me think that maybe BT should get another chance when Infinity comes my way - although the current line back to the exchange has a problem in my old house there was never a problem yet on cable I had several already with at least one being caused by a sloppy engineer and another by over enthusiastic sales selling more capacity than was available locally.

[Chrysalis]

Originally Posted by Nopanic

Either the support is fine or it's not.. You start your post saying you have no issues with support then go on tonto your only issue is ...

If it's too slow in your opinion tell them.. Give feedback.. Get a response.. Moaning here doesn't help.. Mark very likely will!

The support is fine but the wait isnt.

I didnt start this thread I am merely taking part. Dont assume what I say on here hasnt also been said on the VM forums.

[Nopanic]

Originally Posted by Chrysalis

The support is fine but the wait isnt.

I didnt start this thread I am merely taking part. Dont assume what I say on here hasnt also been said on the VM forums.

Why do I need to make any assumptions, I just reply based on your post here.

You make a comment, I reply to it.