traffic management or virgin fault ?

[DJ_Nik_Gnashers]

I posted here a few weeks ago about my extremely slow upload speeds, and after 20 phone calls to VM and an engineers visit with no resolution, I decided to leave VM.
I wrote a hand written letter to VM complaints outlining my past 6 weeks of problems and asked for a reply with information about cancelling my contract (as I had upgraded to 20MB cable which you cannot cancel for 3 months according the VM site).
As if by magic, the following day my upload speed was back to normal 700+ kilobits per second, even tho I had no reply from VM to my letter.
It has remained constantly over 700 kilobits per second 24/7 for the past four weeks.
On friday night I noticed websites suddenly v slow to load, so did a couple of speedtests from various sites, and although my downspeed was normal, my upspeed had dropped to an average of 15kilobits per second. It has remained like this since.
My enquiery to the technical bods here: would you place a guess that this is traffic management or a service fault ?
I am a DJ who sends a 192 kilobits per second mp3 stream out from my PC, to a shoutcast server in germany, and that supplies the audio for the internet radio station I play on. I only stream for 2 hours 3 times per week. The total bandwidth I use does not come close to the limits at which traffic shaping is introduced as per the fair use policy on VM website. I am confused because it is only upload speed which is drastically cut, my downspeed is unaffected.
Do VM think my mp3 stream is file-sharing ?

id get on the phone to technical support and ask for a techie to be sent out asap...and while you do ring them tell that you did receive the full upload speed...the tech department are really helpful...also ring up cancellations and ask for a reimbursement of the months you did not have the service or threaten to leave...but i personally wouldn't leave but use it as a tool to get things sorted

[DJ_Nik_Gnashers]

Thankyou for your speedy response, unfortunately I phoned up TS 20 times when the problem affected me for 6 weeks before, and they would not send out another engineer. They sent an engineer out when I was on the 10MB service and he gave me a new modem, which did not rectify the problem, and that was what made me upgrade to 20MB as a last resort.
When I phone TS they just tell me that my downspeed is fine so there is no problem and they cannot test upload speed, and there are no problems in my area. I do not have a VM phone so I am reluctant to phone up TS yet again to be told the same thing for the 21st time, and see my mobile phone credit diminish yet again, I must have spent £100 phoning up VM now
Myabe I need to write a handwritten letter every 3 weeks saying I wish to cancel my service, in order to get more than 50 kilobits per second upload speed on XL ?
What I would really like is somebody to give me an honest opinion to my enquiries in my 1st post please.

[Ignitionnet]

You aren't being shaped, you've a fault on your service somewhere.

If they won't fix it go elsewhere, or alternatively if you don't wish to or are unable to do this you could try mailing the CEO, or taking your issue to the ISPA.

CEO: neil.burkett@virginmedia.co.uk
ISPA: http://www.ispa.org.uk/

You've a fault and you're being blagged by tech support that's either too incompetent to or can't be bothered to do their job properly. Sadly it's as simple as that.

[joglynne]

@ Broadbandings. Would the OP have a better chance at getting his problem taken seriously if he took it up on the newsgroups?

http://www.virginmedia.com/customers...setting-up.php

virginmedia.support.broadband.cable

[Ignitionnet]

Hopefully Jo, worth a shot.

[DJ_Nik_Gnashers]

Thankyou both for your help !

I registered on the newsgroups, and WOW !!!!!
I got a reply in 30 mins saying it was a problem with the UBR/cable my modem is connected to and it cannot resolve the errors. Unbelievable, 1 email on there and a proper answer, unlike the 20 phone calls to TS.
Respect to the newsgroup staff I am amazed.

Originally Posted by DJ_Nik_Gnashers

Thankyou both for your help !

I registered on the newsgroups, and WOW !!!!!
I got a reply in 30 mins saying it was a problem with the UBR/cable my modem is connected to and it cannot resolve the errors. Unbelievable, 1 email on there and a proper answer, unlike the 20 phone calls to TS.
Respect to the newsgroup staff I am amazed.

The Techs you spoke to should have been able to diagnose the problems you have been having with the tools we have at our disposal, its just sad that you have to resort to the Newsgroups before anyone actually does their job properly.

[DJ_Nik_Gnashers]

The reply from newsgroup was :

*the fault lies with the UBR/cable to which your modem is attached. The error
correction system is unable to rectify all errors it encounters. I have
raised this to our outage team and will have a fault reference shortly.*

I am a little confused as to why this is only affecting me, but another customer who lives 4 houses away on my street has full up/down speeds even when mine are so bad.
Surely we would both be on the same UBR ?
He is on only 2MB while I am on 20MB, are we connected to different UBR because of this ?
Ironik that he is getting 190kbps upload speed on his 2MB, and im paying £37 a month for less than 50kbps LOL gotta laugh or i'd cry !

Originally Posted by DJ_Nik_Gnashers

The reply from newsgroup was :

*the fault lies with the UBR/cable to which your modem is attached. The error
correction system is unable to rectify all errors it encounters. I have
raised this to our outage team and will have a fault reference shortly.*

I am a little confused as to why this is only affecting me, but another customer who lives 4 houses away on my street has full up/down speeds even when mine are so bad.
Surely we would both be on the same UBR ?
He is on only 2MB while I am on 20MB, are we connected to different UBR because of this ?
Ironik that he is getting 190kbps upload speed on his 2MB, and im paying £37 a month for less than 50kbps LOL gotta laugh or i'd cry !

You might be a different cable and therefore he is not affected.

[Ignitionnet]

There could be one upstream which is broken, and you're stuck on it.