Super Fast Broadband speed and connection issues?

[everson]

Hello, I have recently just joined vodafone from plusnet fibre and whilst the change over has been pretty seamless, I have been noticing some issues from in both connection and speed quality.  I have been carrying out tests for approx a week and hoping someone can help with my findings.  Household contains (1x Laptop, 1x Imac, & 2x phones).

My main issues are:

1) Minimum speeds are what they are meant to be on specific devices.

2) Connection issues: Fairly often on my devices main laptop and phones the internet will drop out and have to do the old school trick of turn wifi on and off on the devices to re-connect.

January 25th 2022: 8pm BB Speeds download / upload:

Latop: 42.67 mbs / 14.74 mbs

Imac: 42.28 mbs / 13.54 mbs

Phone: 33.41 mbps / 14.81 mbps : at 7:19pm phone apps were not connecting via wifi had to turn off and use mobile data to have them work for approx 10 minutes but internet was fine on my imac.

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January 26th 2022: 9:45am BB Speeds download / upload:

Latop: 41.01 mbs / 14.16 mbs @ 4pm loss of connections (see pictures

Imac: 41.97 mbs / 14.16 mbs

Phone: 3.34 mbps / 13.48 mbps

January 26th 2022: 7:45pm BB Speeds download / upload:

Latop: 38.9 mbs / 13.44 mbs

Imac: 27.92mbs / 13.47 mbs

Phone: 25.58 mbps / 13.44 mbps

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January 27th 2022: 10.46am BB Speeds download / upload:

Latop: 42.67 mbps / 14.74 mbps at 11:38am Laptop losses connection (2x in short space of time see pics)

Imac: 42.28 mbps / 13.54 mbps

Phone: 5.22 mbps / 12.75 mbps

January 27th 2022: 7:45pm BB Speeds download / upload

Latop: 8.65 mbps / 13.38 mbps 

Imac: 38.50 mbps / 14.43 mbps

Phone: 41.19 mbps / 12.02 mbps

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January 28th 2022: 9:25am BB Speeds download / upload:

Latop: 33.57 mbps / 14.74 mbps at 9:55am laptop losses connection (See pictures)

Imac: 40.86 mbps / 13.74mbps

Phone: 24.18 mbps / 10.34 mbps

January 28th 2022: 8pm BB Speeds download / upload

Latop: 42.58 mbps / 14.82 mbps 

Imac: 38.50 mbps / 14.43 mbps at 8:28pm Imac losses connection

Phone: 2.87 mbps / 11.43 mbps

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January 29th 2022: 12:56pm BB Speeds download / upload:

Latop: 42.23 mbps / 15.28 mbps 

Imac: 42.98 mbps / 14.14 mbps

Phone: 5.65 mbps / 12.15 mbps

January 29th 2022: 7:45pm BB Speeds download / upload

I forgot to take readings.

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January 30th 2022: 10:05am BB Speeds download / upload:

Latop: 41.24 mbps / 14.96 mbps 

Imac: 39.22 mbps / 13.34 mbps

Phone: 5.37 mbps / 11.91 mbps

January 30th 2022: 7:45pm BB Speeds download / upload

Will up date once i have the evening time slot for speed tests

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So as you can see from my findings, pretty much every day, somewhere on some device I am not getting my guaranteed speeds and also i am getting loss of connections.  What i am trying to find out is:

1) Is this a common vodafone broadband customer experience, as I have joined a 2 year contract and if this is my next two years i would rather leave and go back to plusnet as I never had one problem with them and they were supposedly slower.

2) Ive read about the routers for vodafone are not great, is it a hardware issue causing this.

Thanks any help appreciated.

[Jayach]

When you have one of these "drops", have you taken a look at the router? It may be that the router is rebooting fully, rather than just re-connecting. A full reboot will take a good few minutes, and that would account for the router not recording any cuts, as the counter will start again after each reboot.

[everson]

yes i i always run tot he router to check if its that and is always fine, solid white lights from what i see.

[Jayach]

Yes, they are not very obvious are they, especially if the router is in a bright place.

Doesn't sound like it is rebooting then. 

[everson]

March 17th 2022: @2:47pm INTERNET DROP OUT

[everson]

March 21st 2022:  So had a response from Chris at Vodafone relations: vodafone stating that: 

"Thank you again for letting us know about your recent experience.

Just to confirm, we've got all your details and there's nothing you need to do for the time being - we'll be back in touch shortly, as soon as we've taken a look into your case.  "

The issues i have with this, is that it leaves it very open ended, how long do i wait, a week, 2 weeks, a month before i find out whats going on. I notice they do have this type of policy, the tech 2 team adopts this, i.e when ever my problem is sent there, it just gets sent and then a few days later I get a txt saying "everything has been sorted" no explanation into what or how, which effectively causes issues for us both, because when said problem continues I have no infromation to relay back to them officially into what has been fixed  / repaired.  We will see how we get on before it may have to be taken further.

[Jayach]

The system is (should be), that the complaint shouldn't be closed without your agreement. If after 8 weeks it has not been resolved, you will be a given a deadlock letter and then you can take the case to an independent adjudicator. (CISAS) 

[everson]

March 21st 2022: Well I have had an 2nd email from chris at the relations team and in the email is a verification form i need to fill in.  Quite disheartening as this is showing to me for them to be asking me to provide physical id of who i am e.g driving license and also asking for my voda account number and landline number, is showing that these 2 weeks where i thought it was being worked on behind the scenes, i highly doubt it has been.  It seems they are that first point of call where they are simply verifying who i am but instead of it being by the phone which is quicker it is sent via this form.  Added salt into the wound, it is asking for a unique reference, which i assumed is the once that has been at the start of the last few emails, the form is saying its not correct. So simply had to email chris directly with screen shots and my id directly as i am hitting a brick wall with the form.

[Cynric]

So VF are asking for enough information to carry out identity theft.

I had this problem with trying to get help via social media in the past. I refused to work with the social media route because of this. I went to the Information Registrar (https://ico.org.uk/) and they told me not to give the information that was being requested. In the end I was given a UK telephone number and someone to speak to who actually seemed to care. It took ages but eventually I was allowed to leave at any time without penalty. It was hard work and plenty of obstacles.

[everson]

i did find it strange that voda want proof of identity, such as my driving license and also a 2nd piece of id such as a utility bill, which i did not provide, i may have to query if this is common place now because knowing my luck this something dodgey.

[Jayach]

When I was asked for proof of identity, it was nothing particularly personal, just thing like how many contracts did I have with Vodafone. Like this:

"Thanks for your PM, we can look into this for you and advise you further. If you can please confirm your last 2 digits of your sort code, registered email address, alternative contact number and how many numbers you have on the account"