(Ceredigion / Cardigan) Slow Speeds Since Last Thursday Night / Vodafone In Denial

[ryan_anthony]

Last Thursday night my speed dropped to 2mb by Friday morning I was back to 73mb, by Friday night 10mb and all weekend was 10-20mb when I decided to phone Vodafone to report the issue and the following is beyond a joke lol.

First they asked me to go through all the usual system checks blah blah, but here I have 2 modems, the one in use is the Vodafone and the other is a spare (ASUS) both showed same speeds so its not the modems. Next I changed the Ethernet cable and still slow speeds, I then changed the phone cable and still slow speeds.

I was then escalated to a BASIC engineer,, again same questions (bang head on wall), he told me there is nothing much they can do about it as the fault is probably in my home, erm.... did they miss the part I have spares of everything, tried different modem and cables? But anyway he told me to send PROOF, so I am treated like a criminal now that makes poop up and I am a very long time customer, ok... so I was asked to send photos morning / afternoon and evening of the speeds. I send the photos over a period of 3 days and the same pattern emerged that during the day besides Tuesday my speeds remain around 70ish-mb and by 8pm I am at a standstill as more people are obviously using the net. 

TODAY.... (lol), I get a phone call from another engineer apparently the next level up that told me they will be monitoring my line for 24 hours, I then get a text 1 hour later saying they cant find a fault and the fault is probably with my home set up. WOULD U FORGIVE ME IF I BANG MY HEAD AGAINST THE WALL RIGHT NOW, I had already explained I used 2 different modems and cables which ELIMINATES my set up, its like I am talking to a bunch of robots using pre selected responses lol.

I have seen this problem before around 2 years ago, it turned out that there were too many people on the same PHYSICAL line at the LOCAL cabinet which caused terrible slow downs in the evening.

I only have 2 months left on the contract but this situation is crippling me, with all the evidence I have gathered surly I should now be allowed to leave my contract so that I can sign up with BT or someone COMPETENT?

UPDATE: after looking at the forum others in my area are having the same problem, I am in Ceredigion in the town of Cardigan, others have reported issues over the last 4 days, is this a coincidence?

Peace

Ryan

[Amanda]

Hey there @ryan_anthony - thanks for explaining what's been happening, I'm sorry you're experiencing these drops in your speeds. 

It could be related to the same issue where I've posted a reply here, it could also be a variety of other things which our Technical team will be checking when they monitor your line. They'll be back in touch once they've finished completing all their checks. 

[ryan_anthony]

Hi there, yes I posted on that forum post as we are all in the same area, everyone is reporting the same issue starting few days ago. My mate used to work for BT and coincidentally the last time this happened he was the engineer called out to the local cabinet which turned out to be too many people on the same line.

Also these were major thunderstorms in Wales several days ago, whether that had caused problems and BT shifted people onto other lines heaven knows.

[Pauljbl]

Hi I am in same area too getting same problem as you slow in the evenings fine in the day.  Have you had any progress on this?

[ryan_anthony]

No progress Paul, just a brick wall, they are trying to say the problem is with my equipment and I stated to 1 support and 2 different engineers I used 2 different modems / routers and cables eliminating my equipment before contacting them Saturday just gone. I mean common sense would dictate even if I did not have spares of everything if there were a problem with the equipment why would I be getting 73mb during the day and anything between 2mb-30mb in the evenings since last Thursday. Voda are in complete denial, I understand why they are shifting blame, it is an attempt to prevent you from leaving your contract via early termination, they think they are clever, but as a PC builder and a very tech savvy person I think not. I am fortunate my contract ends next month but others are not so lucky and it is beyond a coincidence now that we are all within a stone throw away experiencing the same exact problems that started over the last week or so, one does not have to be Sherlock Holmes to work out something is going on and it is not a fault with the customer it is external, but I am also betting they already know this

[Mark]

I'm sorry it's taking longer than expected to get the problems with your connection sorted @ryan_anthony and @Pauljbl. As this is affecting numerous services in a small area, it does sound like this has more to do with the infrastructure than your equipment. I'm sure our Tech team were just asking you to test different routers, cables etc to rule this out. I can see this is now being looked into. As part of this we will be in touch with Openreach and ask them to check everything their side. As @Amanda advised in her post, we'll be in touch as soon as we have an update for you. Thanks again for your patience while we complete our investigations into this.

[ryan_anthony]

Well Mark, I have been with Vodafone for a very long time, this has happened before around a year and a half or so ago and it was the local cabinet at fault EVEN WITH THE SYNC SPEED not showing any issues. I know this because the BT engineer at the time was my mate sorting it out having been sent to my house first to test my equipment which....SURPRISE was working fine.
So u can imagine how frustrating it is when I speak to support and 2 other engineers that cant seem to sink in what I am saying as if they are stuck what to say as the answers on screen don't match. I have spares of everything here, I eliminated my equipment plus everything works fine during the day at 73mb but still it was not sinking in, even with all the photo evidence I sent.
I am not a customer that complains at everything, the problem started Thursday night, it was not until Saturday when I was at 2mb after doing all my own tests, cable swapping, router swapping at home enough was enough to then contact Vodafone. I have had speed drops in the past, so be it, that happens, but a constant pattern is emerging since Thursday night and I am being talked too like I have just moved from using a calculator to a computer, gee wiz... lol.... time for a cup of tea...