It's really getting on my nerves now...

[mrlipring]

Originally Posted by monkeybreath

ok this is getting boring now....

You're telling me!

bung me the mac address of the modem by PM and i'll have a look at what is really going on....

oh and DarthYoda Tech Support do not read from a script.... there are often genuine reasons for asking people to reboot.... such as we have reprovisioned, or not to check that the modem is dropping offline properly when it is unplugged etc etc..

I'll pm you the mac address, but here's what happened with the latest saga.

Modem went offline at 15:55.

Called tech support and get Survip. (?)

Blah blah all the usual, then she decided to arrange an appointment because although the power levels look fine, she did another test that threw up an anomaly that nobody else had noticed. (why?)

She couldn't arrange an appointment as the queue was 15 minutes or something (LOTS of people with fux0red connections? lol), so wanted to get someone to call me back to arrange an appointment. Thing is, that could take up to 48 hours. Now, going by worst-case scenario, it could break many, many times in 48 hours. I insisted that she keep trying.

She came back and offered to put me through into the queue, which is better than nothing, and having call centre experience myself i know what supervisors can be like with call handling time, so it's fair enough. Personally, i'd have gone for the skive option, but that's me.

Got through to book an appointment after another 10 minutes or so (just got off the phone to 'em there) and another guy's coming round tomorrow morning.

Monkeybreath, you have a PM.

[mrlipring]

Ok, Tommy the technician came round half an hour ago. Checked the signals. Went outside and did whatever he did there. Came back.

Told me there's nothing wrong with the signal levels etc, and that there's not much he can do unless he can be here when it breaks. Excellent.

To be fair to him, he's left me his mobile number, so's i can phone him next time it breaks. I think he means so he can come round and check it while it's broken. Either that or he's just going to laugh at me for having a broken internet connection... MAYBE because of my hayfever he thought i was winking at him. Nah, doesn't look the sort. :P

I guess whatever fiddling Monkeybreath did last night could've fixed it, but if not, i've got Tommy's phone number. Good old Tommy. lol

[mrlipring]

Nah, MB's fiddling didn't work.

I phoned Tommy and he did suggest something none of us had thought of before - dodgy PSU.

He's dropped off another one (2 visits in a day. Above and beyond, eh?) so hopefully it'll be fine now.

[IanGuy]

Hmm, in theory a dodgy psu would cause a full reboot of the sacm really, not a lack of signal.

[Ignition]

Originally Posted by IanGuy

Hmm, in theory a dodgy psu would cause a full reboot of the sacm really, not a lack of signal.

Wanna bet?

Google 'AC hum'.

[mrlipring]

is this 5 pages yet?

It broke again sometime between 8am and 9am. Buggers.

Back on the phone...
__________________

Ok, apparently there's a known problem in the area, and there are engineers working on it just now. Any staff around that can confirm this and possibly shed more light on it?

If it IS a known problem, it must've been discovered sometime in the last 24 hours, because nobody knew a thing about it before this afternoon...

CSA's given me the number for faults to call "in a couple of hours"...

just make sure you get at least a full refund for a coupole of months...

[ViLLaN]

I am experiencing the same symptoms as mrlipring and I am not looking forward to ringing TS for the 3rd time this week.

The call center in India promised me an appointment for an engineer would be arranged within 48 hours but that hasn't happened.

So my plan basically is that if I get no joy from TS then I ask for the Call Center Manager and give him some grief.

I did check my signal levels last night, the downstream power was fluctuating between +6 and -14, when it steadied for a few seconds the modem locked and then dropped it when the signal went wanging around again. The upstream was +65 and fairly stable. I'm guessing it isn't the modem?

Also on the scheduled maintenance, some work was scheduled for last night in Farnborough, does anybody know what sort of thing would have been done, and is it likely to improve my signal?

Cheers

ViLLaN

[mrlipring]

Originally Posted by bontrager

just make sure you get at least a full refund for a coupole of months...

I wish mate. To be fair to them, i only made them aware of the problem just over a week ago. You'd think that 3 tech visits and god knows how many phone calls they'd be closer to fixing it...

Originally Posted by ViLLaN

I am experiencing the same symptoms as mrlipring and I am not looking forward to ringing TS for the 3rd time this week.

The call center in India promised me an appointment for an engineer would be arranged within 48 hours but that hasn't happened.

You didn't let them tell you they'd get someone to call you back to arrange an appointment, did you?

I told 'em i wasn't getting off the phone until i got an appointment. They tried, but eventually just put me through into the queue to arrange my own appointment.

So my plan basically is that if I get no joy from TS then I ask for the Call Center Manager and give him some grief.

Good luck.

I did check my signal levels last night, the downstream power was fluctuating between +6 and -14, when it steadied for a few seconds the modem locked and then dropped it when the signal went wanging around again. The upstream was +65 and fairly stable. I'm guessing it isn't the modem?

tech support can, from what they've told me, check the power levels for the last 24 (?) hours for fluctuations. They should be able to spot that no bother.

I'm off to phone faults now...

[Ramrod]

Welcome to the site ViLLaN

[ViLLaN]

Well things have moved quickly since I posted earlier today. Got an appointment this afternoon, the engineer has been and gone!

He changed the connectors at the box end, replaced the 13 year old splitter at the house end and re-made all the connectors there.

He did say that if it goes again, then it isn't the modem or the connections but will probably be the amp in the network box.

Here's hoping that things are sorted......


And thanks for the welcome Ramrod

[mrlipring]

Yeah, that dude earlier was fobbing me off with the faults number. It was the number for network maintenance updates. Lots of stuff going on, nothing today near me, and it's all done between midnight and 6am anyway...

I'm getting really bloody sick of this now.

A year with freedom2surf in my last flat, and there was, iirc, one outage of around 10 minutes.

This connection i have just now breaks several times a day...

Perhaps the information line is wrong. IS There any work going on just now to fix this alleged area problem the CSA told me about?

Please? Anyone? I'm losing the will to live.

Oh, and gaining the will to cancel my direct debit...

[Stephen]

Originally Posted by mrlipring

Yeah, that dude earlier was fobbing me off with the faults number. It was the number for network maintenance updates. Lots of stuff going on, nothing today near me, and it's all done between midnight and 6am anyway...

I'm getting really bloody sick of this now.

A year with freedom2surf in my last flat, and there was, iirc, one outage of around 10 minutes.

This connection i have just now breaks several times a day...

Perhaps the information line is wrong. IS There any work going on just now to fix this alleged area problem the CSA told me about?

Please? Anyone? I'm losing the will to live.

Oh, and gaining the will to cancel my direct debit...

Don't cancel your DD that will end up giving you even more problems.

I know a dropped connection is really annoying. I have since realised that my connection only drops while using bit torrent or playing online games for any length of time so for me I think the upstream is getting fully used and it is causing the modem to lose the connection.

[mrlipring]

I know, i know, but i really grudge paying £120PM (well, £38 for the broken bit) that doesn't do what it's supposed to.

Mine happens when maxing the upstream too, but not all the time. It'm sure it's happened when the connection's been sitting idle too though.

It's so frustrating. It's easy enough to fix, but i don't want a temperamental connection. I don't WANT it to drop out in the middle of the night when i'm downloading, or in the evening when i'm playing H2, or.. Ever, really.

Often i'm not around TO reset the modem (out or in bed) so i lose several hours' connection.

Right now, though, i want to know WHAT work is going on in the area, if any, and what it is.

Just had a phone call from Tommy the technician again, checking if the connection's been ok. Talk about customer service! The guy (probably?) won't have been paid for two callouts yesterday, because one of them was off his own back, and several phone calls off his own back... that's going the extra mile.

[Neil]

Originally Posted by mrlipring

Yeah, that dude earlier was fobbing me off with the faults number. It was the number for network maintenance updates. Lots of stuff going on, nothing today near me, and it's all done between midnight and 6am anyway...

I'm getting really bloody sick of this now.

A year with freedom2surf in my last flat, and there was, iirc, one outage of around 10 minutes.

This connection i have just now breaks several times a day...

Perhaps the information line is wrong. IS There any work going on just now to fix this alleged area problem the CSA told me about?

Please? Anyone? I'm losing the will to live.

Oh, and gaining the will to cancel my direct debit...

After all the brown stuff you have been through with this issue, I'm surprised you don't just cancel the whole thing.

ntl customer 'service' at it's finest.....

In fact-why don't you tell them direct?

http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/ntl.php