VM Community board replies now a week in arrears - Page 5

Nopanic · 20-10-2011, 15:13

Try and get a ref for it, we can check for you then.

kwikbreaks · 20-10-2011, 15:45

Thanks for the offer.
Most of the time when they mention utilisation and networks they do give a fault reference but on this occasion the text was...

Quote:

I've checked your connection and can see that the UBR which handles your connection is experiencing very high utilisation at peak times. I have raised this to our Network teams to investigate best methods to alleviate the load. As soon as we have some more information on this issue, we'll let you know.

A number of the things I've seen in the TBB monitor lead me to believe that the problem is caused by a single new user on 50 or 100 hammering torrents. It may be that now they apparently can't send out letters asking such people to move their downloads or get their shaping to work if active measures are taken to evade it so are lost on what to do.

Digital Fanatic · 20-10-2011, 16:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by kwikbreaks

Thanks for the offer.
Most of the time when they mention utilisation and networks they do give a fault reference but on this occasion the text was...

A number of the things I've seen in the TBB monitor lead me to believe that the problem is caused by a single new user on 50 or 100 hammering torrents. It may be that now they apparently can't send out letters asking such people to move their downloads or get their shaping to work if active measures are taken to evade it so are lost on what to do.

The UBR (CMTS) will probably need upgrading, if you get the ref, as NP says, we can check for you and get any updates.

It usually takes a week or so before networks can get any information in the ticket though.

kwikbreaks · 20-10-2011, 17:05

I'll ask for follow up info in a weeks time then. That should give a couple of weeks total which will hopefully at least produce a number if they are going to upgrade.

I still get good days though and can see random periods of punk hair in the TBB trace which start quickly last an hour or so then drop back pretty much immediately to what is far from perfect but still gives good speedtest results - that plus the abysmal upstream I see when it's bad is why I blame one torrent freak.

Chrysalis · 20-10-2011, 20:51

Well they have escalated it which is good, when i complained I was told its high but not high enough to escalate, which is the answer a customer doesnt want to hear. I would rather hear its low and there is a fault elsewhere causng it or its high and been escalated.

Peter_ · 21-10-2011, 14:17

Quote:

Originally Posted by kwikbreaks

Thank you for that extremely useful contribution. I shall bear it in mind. Have you ever considered going into manufacturing? Chocolate fire-guards should suit your talents perfectly.

That is the whole point though the is no SLA as this is a classed as a self help forum with back up from 2nd line support if no help is forthcoming and they usually man them for a full shift rather than an hour at the end.

This is what Virgin Media have specified as their requirements for the forum and therefore unlikely to be altered significantly in any way as they are happy with the results.

Since my last post on here on Tuesday the have been over 1824 posts just in the broadband section of the community forum and they are around 7/8 days behind at present, when I logged into this forum the were just over 1600 posts unread throughout every section so the is no real comparison statistic wise.

Mick Fisher · 21-10-2011, 16:20

Nice to know VM are happy with the results.

Nopanic · 21-10-2011, 16:51

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mick Fisher

Nice to know VM are happy with the results.

I think that's a Tongue in cheek comment .. Happy by the assumption they haven't made anything else known.

I see a lot of the work behind the scenes and Mark the forum manager is very loyal to his customer base and very quick to defend/address issues.

He's certainly well suited to his role and if you believe there is an issue with support I'm sure he'd be interested to hear about it.

Chrysalis · 21-10-2011, 19:33

I got no issue with mark he seems to do his job well.

The VM staff who work on there are also polite and sometimes quite open in their results, posting things like utilisation percentages. The support is certianly higher quality then the phones. The only issue really is as kwikbreaks stated the wait times. When it was down to 2-3 days that was a lot more reasonable and its a shame its increased again.

Sephiroth · 21-10-2011, 21:41

When I got fed up with the first engineer (arranged through the Community Forum) not getting networks to sort out the underlying problem, and noting that the Community Forum was taking too long to respond, I called the 50 meg support line. I've no idea whether or not the agent I spoke to was in India or UK, but they checked my line, agreed with my diagnosis and arranged a senior engineer for the following Monday (it was a Thursday).

The Senior Engineer indeed did know his stuff. And was working into the evening. He swapped out the VMNG300 and put a SH on (which I quickly set int Modem Mode). The problem remained (but the VMNG300 didn't). He said he'd get Networks out to the cabinet (reslope or new amplifier).

A few days later, job done and everything perfect. So the Community Forum wasn't the best route in this case.

The new self-book -an-engineer functions (when they work) ought to reduce the wait, though.

Peter_ · 21-10-2011, 21:43

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chrysalis

I got no issue with mark he seems to do his job well.

The VM staff who work on there are also polite and sometimes quite open in their results, posting things like utilisation percentages. The support is certianly higher quality then the phones.

Well they are 2nd line agents so you are getting the best at least until April.

BenJSmyth · 21-10-2011, 22:09

I have to agree, the community forum support is usually pretty top notch. Something that can take 30-40 minutes on the phone can be answered on the forum. I don't mind if it takes a little longer to respond.

I think for those of us who experience problems where it requires an urgent response, the phone is always going to be the best choice. I hope any changes in April don't reduce the effectiveness of the forum.

Nopanic · 22-10-2011, 07:58

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chrysalis

I got no issue with mark he seems to do his job well.

The VM staff who work on there are also polite and sometimes quite open in their results, posting things like utilisation percentages. The support is certianly higher quality then the phones. The only issue really is as kwikbreaks stated the wait times. When it was down to 2-3 days that was a lot more reasonable and its a shame its increased again.

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!

kwikbreaks · 22-10-2011, 08:46

They are pulling back slightly from the 8 days it stretched to back to the 7 when I first started this thread - response on 21st to my post of the 14th reporting a high upstream power level. Response as I expected is an offer to book an engineer and no comment on my complaint that if their engineer hadn't randomly altered my tap this callout wouldn't be needed (and more importantly for me I wouldn't need to wait in on an engineer).

---------- Post added at 09:46 ---------- Previous post was at 09:36 ----------

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nopanic

Moaning here doesn't help.. Mark very likely will!

I suspect they are doing their best with the resources devoted to the forum and moaning would likely just bring the response to phone if the problem is urgent rather than allocating more time to the board.

I was more drawing attention to the extended response time than actually complaining about it. Of course I'd prefer that they answer within 10 minutes of posting but that just isn't going to happen.

I'd rather wait a week on the board than waste a load of my time going through pointless tests and checks with a tech on the phone when I already know what the outcome of those is going to be. Nothing I do can fix congestion or incorrect power levels but I can guarantee if I'd called in with those two I'd have been asked to do download speed tests plus what we now know is part of the front-end repertoire of time wasters - flush the browser cache. Plus of course the obligatory reboot the modem and connect directly to it which is a bit of a problem when you are using VOIP to call.

Nopanic · 22-10-2011, 08:53

Quote:

Originally Posted by kwikbreaks

They are pulling back slightly from the 8 days it stretched to back to the 7 when I first started this thread - response on 21st to my post of the 14th reporting a high upstream power level. Response as I expected is an offer to book an engineer and no comment on my complaint that if their engineer hadn't randomly altered my tap this callout wouldn't be needed (and more importantly for me I wouldn't need to wait in on an engineer).

---------- Post added at 09:46 ---------- Previous post was at 09:36 ----------

I suspect they are doing their best with the resources devoted to the forum and moaning would likely just bring the response to phone if the problem is urgent rather than allocating more time to the board.

I was more drawing attention to the extended response time than actually complaining about it. Of course I'd prefer that they answer within 10 minutes of posting but that just isn't going to happen.

I'd rather wait a week on the board than waste a load of my time going through pointless tests and checks with a tech on the phone when I already know what the outcome of those is going to be. Nothing I do can fix congestion or incorrect power levels but I can guarantee if I'd called in with those two I'd have been asked to do download speed tests plus what we now know is part of the front-end repertoire of time wasters - flush the browser cache. Plus of course the obligatory reboot the modem and connect directly to it which is a bit of a problem when you are using VOIP to call.

I can't say it any other way .. if your not happy tell someone in VM about it .. they can't fix or address it, if no one makes it known.