Community home

davidg77 · ‎30-10-2022

I'm posting this because I'm required to do so prior to contacting support on social media as per instructions from a moderator elsewhere on this forum.

I am on an unlimited fibre + phone package @£30 per month. I am based in Tenby, Pembrokeshire. For the last four days I've had extremely slow download speeds in the evenings, from around 6pm till midnight. I have a guaranteed minimum rate of 51.5mbps; currently in the evenings I am lucky to get 3-4mbps.

This has been tested each evening at various times using the Ookla speedtest site on a MacBook Pro connected directly to the router via ethernet cable. Each day the initial reading shows 15mbps, rapidly slowing to 3-4mpbs. Subsequent readings just show the slower speed.

I am also connected to the router via WPS / Android app, and have run the 'Broadband Service Test' that reports no issues. Clicking on 'Further Support' generates an error.

I have logged into the router management page on my Macbook and completed a factory reset and restart - this made no difference.

It is clear that there is either congestion on the line or Vodafone are throttling the speed at their end. Please could Vodafone recitify this ASAP.

Jmindham · ‎02-11-2022

@Amanda as set out in my post, I've already been through hours of online chat (initially via social media) with no useful help. I'm still waiting for the tech team call 2 days after I was promised it would be sorted within 24 hours

Swine · ‎31-10-2022

Hello mate, I've just registered to post on your comment.

I'm also in Wales. But in Ceredigion and my father lives in Carmarthenshire.

Both of us on Vodafone broadband. Without much trouble for 9 months I guess.

For the past 4+ days the internet is absolutely unusable at night. On every device.

I spoke to support who were clueless. Then called on behalf of my father who turns out to be on a pro package. I ended up getting one of their so called Xperts. Well 4 and a half hours I think I was speaking to them...... Never have I dealt with such clueless incompetent staff in all my life. Literally everything they said and tested made absolutely no sense.

They wouldn't take into account the issue affected two separate properties. At the same time. When they are miles apart. They wouldn't consider any of the links on the web, third party or their own forum , that have the same issues at exactly the same time as we did. And to think people pay additional money to get one of these so called Xperts is unbelievable. What an absolute rip off!!!!!!

How the so called Xpert ended it was this. He ended up connected to the router. And you know what he said..... Your devices are too far from the router........ Well the router is bolted on position, and as far as I can tell no one has taken my TV off the wall either....... Nothing in either property has changed. But no, they will still turn around and blame me and my father instead of taking ownership of the issue.

I don't think they have the skills or technology to assist. They certainly just run through a stupid little script and then at the end they blame you for having devices too far from the router..... Strange they have worked ok for 9+ months and are all basically bolted in place. The router and TVs are anyway.

A true shambles of a company and absolutely useless support. And I can't emphasise that enough. Never have I ever dealt with such incompetent support. I might as well have called Mc Donald's to report my internet was broken........

I've put a complaint in for both properties and demand that they remove early exit fees. That's me done with them. Liars and incompetent.

El_Capitan · ‎01-11-2022

Like @Swine, I too have signed up just to post about this. I also live in Wales and have been experiencing significantly slower speeds since Thursday evening (Oct 27th).

I have spent hours on the phone/chat with support trying to explain the problem and the steps I've tried to troubleshoot it. My efforts are met with lies and misdirection. I have managed to get a 2nd line support ticket opened, but when I got a call back about that this morning, I was told to "move my router". Moments before I had explained that I have wired my laptop to the router and that it was the only device connected. The router is connected to the master phone socket (with a filter). Nothing else is connected.

Eventually, if you push hard enough the support person will miraculously find an issue. Then you'll be told that they have "reconfigured things on their end" and you should "wait a few hours". The "changes need to settle". It's all [Removed].

There's an issue in the Vodafone network, but I have so far been unable to communicate this to the support staff I have spoken to. They just ignore me when I explain it and tell me to move the router.

I'm no expert, but I'm also not a novice. I welcome anyone who would like to correct the following:

The issue appears to be packet loss in the Vodafone network. I think this is the case because then I run a tool called 'mtr' (which sends pings to each network hop on the journey to a given destination) I see packet loss starting when I reach the gateway all the way to the destination. Some packet loss is to be expected, but not a significant amount, and not always. See attached screenshot. The same test on a neighbours connection through a different ISP yields no packet loss. The same test through my phone's 4G connection yields no packet loss.

On Saturday, the loss was as high as 70%. My speeds were at about 0.4Mbps. On Sunday, I did 25 tests, averaging 4.13Mbps.

I'm not upset that there is a fault. Faults happen, and they can take time to fix. I'm upset because of the lies and because at no point have Vodafone actually acknowledged that there is a fault. The solution always appears to be "move the router".

I work from home, so I will take the hit and pay the exit fee. I cannot accept Vodafone's attitude toward this issue. They are treating their customers with nothing but contempt. I have called the complaints line to argue that the exit charge is unfair, but today I was redirected to yet another support session. The conclusion was that I should provide screenshots of my tests, then move the router 🤣

[MOD EDIT: This post has been edited to remove off topic/personal information/inappropriate content please see Community Guidelines]

Swine · ‎01-11-2022

Hello mate.

It is literally the worst experience talking to them isn't it. I've never been treated like such an imbecile by their condescending lies.

I also had a call today from their 2nd line. I was about to hang up but thought I'd let it go and see what they have to say.. the end of the conversation was this.

She says she's connected to the router and can see some issues with connected devices and she is going to make a change to fix it.

So I was like ok.

She confirms the change is done and to restart the router and then send them some screenshots from speed tests.

So I asked what she changed on the router. She started stuttering when I pushed again for what she updated on the router. She said there was a problem with my Samsung phone.... Odd that as I have a Huawei and Lenovo and no other devices connected at the time. I've never even owned a samsung before in my life.

I know she never changed anything at all on the router. More lies.

I have the phone calls recorded and will be taking it further. No way I'm paying an exit fee for my house or my father's.

We are literally paying these idiots to talk to us like this. It is absolutely unbelievable.

If they had the balls to say we messed up and it will be 2 weeks and you'll be back to normal, then fair enough. But to treat us like idiots for their problem is just disgusting.

Good luck mate!

Swine · ‎01-11-2022

I'm currently getting 2mb down and 13mb up.

Like we have gone back in time to 2002 🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯

davidg77 · ‎01-11-2022

@Swine and El_Capitan

Thanks for sharing your experiences. I also work at home, sometimes in the evening, so it's a major pain at the moment. I agree, it's not a problem when things ocassionally go wrong; I just need to know roughly how long it'll take to be sorted out.

I know a fair bit about networking and tech, and have tried everything from switching DNS servers to using VPNs; El_Capitan's packet loss explanation makes sense to me.

I've been liaising with 'support' on Twitter for several days. A different person responds once a day asking one question per response; it's clear they are a) hugely overstretched (implying something's gone majorly wrong) and/or b) trying to drag this out whilst they fix the issue (rather than simply telling me what the problem is).

I think I'm probably going to switch suppliers also. The cancellation fee shouldn't be charged in this instance, due to breach of contract, but snowball's chance of them actually upholding this (or even replying) so debatable as to whether I'll pursue it.

Keep me posted on how things go on your side.