Known fault in Ipswich area - can anyone help?

[BeckyD]

Hi folks, wondering if someone from VM (or any customers "in the know") can give me some insight. I live in Ipswich and there has been an ongoing local fault across IP1, IP2, and IP3 for nearly a week (I'm in IP1). The VM status page (ticket number 668341) is updated sporadically and only ever says that VM are aware of the problem and the Estimated Time is 4 hours. I've phoned tech support twice only to be told that the fault will be fixed within a matter of hours which never happens. The telephone status helpline doesn't appear to have been updated since the first day of the fault.

I understand that faults happen, but I'm feeling incredibly frustrated by the lack of progress and the fact that nobody will tell me what's going on. My internet connection regularly comes to a complete stop several times throughout the day and browsing is generally slow. Sorry to be a nag, I'm not generally a complainer, but can anyone shed some light on what's going on?

Many thanks.

[tt1]

Your not alone - ever since an complete outage on the evening of the 12th March the service has been hanging at various times and sometimes not available

Downloading is painful and Im just holding back on any downloads untils its fixed

I guess we just have to wait till they do

The 4 hour fix mentioned in the ticket way overdue now

Fingers crossed that its fixed in time for the Easter weekend at least

[Gizmo1]

Hi

I'm in IP4, we lost all services TV and Broadband last Wednesday (12/3) at about 22.10 hours and did not get it back until sometime later in the night. I then saw the note of problems in IP on the VM site.

Browsing (on 20mb) was very slow most of the time before the outage and seems much the same since.

I have been told by an engineer that the Ipswich UBR are heavily overloaded and so we are unlikely to full speed until these are upgraded, but no one knows when that will be.

I would love to know when they are going to sort things out!

Regards

G

[tt1]

Is this fixed now?

the Service status ticket has disappeared despite no "fixed" type update

and the speed as at Sunday night is as bad as before

Anyone in Ipswich confirm whether VM have tried to pull a fast one here?

[BeckyD]

tt1 - I can confirm that the problem hasn't been fixed for me either. It seems to be particularly bad during the evening, but is still slow thorughout the rest of the day. I actually experienced a complete loss of connection for severl minutes just now.

I hadn't actually looked at the ticket status for a couple of days as I assumed it hadn't been fixed. That's how bad things still are here.

I'll get my hubby to give TS a bell when he gets home in an hour and see if they admit a problem or try to fob us off.

---------- Post added at 23:40 ---------- Previous post was at 23:39 ----------

BTW, forgot to add that the ticket can still be accessed here, and it's considered closed:

http://status-cable.virginmedia.com/...?ticket=668341

[tt1]

Thanks for the confirmation LadyM!

That ticket link you gave mentions "A configuration issue in the area caused this outage"

What 10 days worth? Are they trying to be funny d'ya think?

Your right though - its exactly the same performance for me as on the 12th...waiting for connections, complete loss of connection and seriously bad downloads

I aint gonna pay for 20Smegs of this dire service..that ticket may just be reopened if enough people like us complain enough tomorrow

[BeckyD]

My thoughts exactly tt1, I was expecting something a bit more complex than a config issue. When my husband spoke to TS over a week ago, he was told they didn't know what the problem was, but that it was definitely something major.

I'll update here with any progress after contacting TS.

[mrk2y]

maybe i will wait before I get virgin BB
at least I get a reliable (if slow) connection with BT

[BeckyD]

mrk2y - can't say I blame you for being unsure. I know I'd stick with an ISP that was consistent compared to one that offered higher speeds but was up and down all over the place. Hence why I'm seriously deliberating moving to Sky....

I haven't called TS yet as *touch wood* the connection seems to be much better at the moment. I'm getting up to 19Mb at times, but it's the cutouts that annoy me most. I'll see how the evening goes, as that's when it's usually worst, and if I'm still having trouble I'll give them a bell.

[tt1]

Thanks for the update LadyM

I'll see how it fairs tonight when Im back from work before also contacting TS

[mrk2y]

Originally Posted by LadyMinion

mrk2y - can't say I blame you for being unsure. I know I'd stick with an ISP that was consistent compared to one that offered higher speeds but was up and down all over the place. Hence why I'm seriously deliberating moving to Sky....

I haven't called TS yet as *touch wood* the connection seems to be much better at the moment. I'm getting up to 19Mb at times, but it's the cutouts that annoy me most. I'll see how the evening goes, as that's when it's usually worst, and if I'm still having trouble I'll give them a bell.

I tried SKY, they have a good offer, but at the end of the day, you get what you pay for !
I was not happy with SKY at all. Slow connection speeds, some days I could not even get a connection and at times it was under 500kbs. They also promised the upto 24mb, but do to being over subscribed at the foxhall exchange, offered me the connect service (only £5 a month) but as I say, you get what you pay for

BT is much better, but now I have Virgin TV, i was looking at getting the broadband as well, please let me know if the connection issue gets resolved, I am still interested

[tt1]

There is absolutely NO way this problem is resolved

I've just waited 90 seconds for this cableforum page to finally load. A constant 'ping' gives me more 'Request Timed Out's than hits. Its exactly the same as a week ago

If its good performance during the day as LadyM gets, then this quite obviously has all the hallmarks of Oversubscribed UBR - which is exactly what someone tipped earlier in the thread was the problem

At this point I dont think it may get better unless we let them know - although i suspect they well know about it and just cant give a firm date when it may be fixed

The old IT support trick of closing a call and opening a new one (looks better for stats) aint fooling me...

Would be interested to know any other Ipswich performances - Im in IP1 district btw

[BeckyD]

tt1 - my service is awful as well this evening. The last hour or so has been particularly bad. I would suggest you call TS as I've done so and they've arranged an engineer to visit me tomorrow afternoon. I don't think they believe it's an area fault at this stage.

Unfortunately, because the problem presents itself in the evening and night, I'm concerned that the engineer won't find any problems when he visits. Hence the need for more people in the area to contact TS if possible.

I am certain this is still the same fault that's supposedly rectified, as my connection was pretty good up until the fault first happened. Something has definitly happened in the last fortnight and it's showing no sign of letting up.

BTW, I'm in IP1 as well - handford/london road area.

[tt1]

Will contact them to

The galling thing is that up until the 12th I can quite safely say my 20M had been fantastic for months and months. I would always hear the horror stories of BT and other ISP's and the myriad of problems friends and colleagues at work had

And often gloated at the rock solid performance I always had with VM

Until "the 12th of March" !!!!!

Anyway will let you know how it goes aswell

---------- Post added at 23:58 ---------- Previous post was at 23:33 ----------

Now I am abit peeved

Raised a call - they insist its likely a problem with my - and get this - virus software and/or PC but will send an engineer on Thursday which - I am also informed - if I miss will get charged £10

Despite all my attempts to tell him that the problem started exactly same time as the original ticket and the symptoms are exactly the same, he assures me the engineer will fix when he comes

Ah well - what can you do......???!!!

[BeckyD]

Looks like you spoke to a less helpful person than me. The woman I spoke to only checked that we were connected directly to the modem, then booked an engineer. No queries were made about whatever software we might be running. She did mention a £10 charge if we miss the engineer, but also said that we would be refunded the cost of the call regardless of the outcome.

I'll let you know what the engineer says tomorrow.