Gigafast 900 poor speeds and help required

[laneyweb]

Hi All, I’m looking for some help/advice/shoulder to cry on from the community😉
I have been a Gigafast 900 user (in Milton Keynes) for nearly a year. In that time I have been very happy with the service. Generally it’s stable and I get good speeds. I don’t always get 900 down but I cant complain, nor do I expect to get that. There have been days where I found some downloads or speedtests to be <500 but the next day, it’s better. I’m OK with that too.
However, for the last few weeks, I have been having very poor speeds to some sites/services and good speeds to others.
Over the past 2 weeks, I have contacted Support via Chat, spoken to Level 2, and sent in 3 lots of screen shots from speedtest.net at different days and I’m getting nowhere. During this time, I have been told I will only be helped if I use the VF router (I usually use a 3rd party one as the Wifi on the VF router is terrible) so I have to disconnect and plug in the VF router for the tests, disabled wifi and disconnected LAN ports. I have been asked to leave it plugged in so they can remotely monitor. All this time it means I have poor wifi in my home but I’m willing to test however I’m asked. I get no difference in speeds download or up from the VF or my own router.
The last time I was asked for screenshots from speedtest.net (from morning, midday & eventing), I captured 4 different speedtest results for 4 different servers, each at morning, noon, evening and late night. I also provided some video of the example sites I know to be good and able to download better than I am getting showing the poor speeds. I was then told that was too much and all 3rd line will help with is 3 screenshots of one server! I have resent just 3 shots.
My problem:
The good: I can get around 900 from a Google Drive or Microsoft.com download. I also consistently get 900down / 900 up from a speedtest.net to Vodafone Watford. This is proving to me that my cabling, PC and router can support these speeds.
The bad: I get less than 50% of the 900 from my usenet provider that for the last 10 months has been able to get at or close to 8/900. My friend in the same city with GF 900 gets +800 at least from the same usenet provider.
I get awful speedtests to any (other than Vodafone Watford) speedtest.net server. Some <50,some 250 down but none faster. Servers I have tried are: Vodafone Watford, Vodafone Manchester, Vodafone Bracknell + many others! 😊 However, nearly all upload speeds are 900+
My ping had always been around 5-8 is now 10-16.
I get shocking download speeds at these example sites. I use these as I knew that they gave close to 900 previously for me. My friends on non Gigafast get generally close to their max. These are just examples.
https://www.raspberrypi.org/software/operating-systems/ - any download from here gets a max of 2mb/sec where I had previously seen near max and friends get high speeds.

http://xcal1.vodafone.co.uk/ advised to use this site as a simple download test. I get 1mb/sec!

https://www.azurespeed.com/Azure/Download - a test site. I get approx. 1mb/sec! from the UK servers.
https://projectstream.google.com/speedtest – I get 15.215 Mbps! A friend on BT 80 gets hight 70s.
During my testing, I have been asking my colleagues and friends to test and where I see v poor speeds, they get much better proving the site is capable and it’s between me and the site where the issue is. I’d like to ask for some help from you.
Are you able to run any of these tests and see if you get the same or better please? It will help me with evidence showing I have a speed issue.
Are you able to do a speed test to any of the above speedtest.net servers? Do you get these types of speeds? Do you have a speedtest.net server that gives you 900 down or close other than Watford VF?
Are you able to see what speeds you get to the sites I linked to? Do you get the same poor speeds to these?
Any other advice welcomed. I’m getting a bit fed up with the lack of response from support. I did call 08080034515 thinking it was a dedicated Gigafast support but they just suggested I got put through to the level 2 teams I had been speaking to who have not been able to help. Is there a number I am better off calling for some Gigafast help?
Thanks and sorry for the long post!

[Anonymous]

If you can get a 900Mbps download from some sites but not from others then it's more than likely that it's not your connection that is limiting the speed.  The bottleneck could be anywhere between your router and the server that you are connecting to.  That, if indeed it is the problem is just the way the internet works.

[laneyweb]

Thanks so much for your reply, I appreciate your view.

I understand the nature of the internet is such that I cant expect 900 down from everywhere, all the time. I also get that the issue may not be with my router connection to Vodafone. Howerver, my issue is that I should expect a much better quality of route/bandwidth than I am currently to many sites. Did you try the links I posted? If you were getting 1-2mbps from sites working much faster for non Gigafast connections, would you just accept it as how the internet works? 

I think I should expect support from Vodafone on why the route to these sites is so very poor in relation to my friends connections. If other ISPs can get high speed routes and I cannot on Vodafone, their service is not providing value for money. I cant accept that for nearly a year, I had very good ping and speeds and now for the last few weeks (it's been sustained now for over 2 weeks) I get such a lower download capability. 

I'd be interested to see what some other folks think and get to those links I posted, just as a comparison.

[laneyweb]

After 4 weeks of shocking responses and delays and cancelled tickets from Vodafone Support, I am forced to cancel my service and go elsewhere. I am being told that I will not be helped any further and that if I can get 900 down from one Speedtest.net site (even though nearly all others are only 10% of the speed they should be) they are not able to fix the terrible download speeds I have been experiencing. I can reproduce the issue constantly and not once have Support been prepared to discuss of help me with that. I am repetitively asked to screen shot Speedtest.net. We have proved the site and devices are 900 capable so it's certainly after the ONT where the issue is.

Now today, I am told they cant help as one site on Speedtest.net is OK, they are not prepared to discuss any other "real" site speed issues or other Speedtest.net terrible results, even if they are all OK for other properties/colleagues. I am still being asked about what browser I am using! 

I am left with no choice than to leave and have now been told I will have to pay a termination fee! Customer relations will not waive the exit fees event though the service is not fit for purpose and I am told I now have to wait 14-21 days for an internal process to see if I will have to go to CSAS ombudsman. 

What a terrible way to end a conversation with a customer. I am not sure I have any options left. Shame.