100% proof that Vodafone is doing something with the services.

[GreatBritian]

Hello.

Unforunately after speaking to multiple departments within Vodafone it appears no-one is able to take my concerns seriously in regards to the Unlimited Max Plan, and I have found no real way of sending proof of what is actually happening to your agents so I have had to as a last resort record a video of what is happening in my area and uploaded it to YouTube in hope that the Social Media Team members will look at this and liaise with the Technical Department to investigate this.

Please see the below YouTube video URL for proof that something is 100% going on with the connection.

https://youtu.be/Oy6zoV5_HlU

(The device in question is a Note 10 Plus 5G)

In this video you will see me performing a speedtest made using the SpeedTest App available on the PlayStore showing what appears to be throttled speed without the use of a VPN (Speeds of usually up to 10Mb/s although this test got slightly more) and then performing the test again using a VPN (ExpressVPN) which will significantly increase the speeds.

Please understand that this is taken in the exact same place and the only difference is the fact that i'm connected to a VPN.

I appreciate that I have been dealing with the Vodafone's Directors Office (They themselves admitted they are not technically trained) and I appreciate the steps which my complaint handler has performed to my account in a attempt to resolve the issue and the discount provided to me, however I do feel that Vodafone hasn't properly taken into account my concerns and raised a full investigation to figure out what is actually going on and made no attempt at actually investigating the issues raised with them. I do feel like I have been brushed off with a Discount which I admit is appreciated everyone loves a discount but I think someone from the Technical Team would be more ideal to conduct a full investigation into what is actually happening.

I have no idea what is going on with the service and why this is the way it is. I have had a browse through the Vodafone Forum and have noticed multiple people posting near enough the same issue on Vodafone's Broadband Package users, whilst I don't see this mentioned much for Mobile Devices or Mobile Plans. I appear to of read a potential Routing Issue with Vodafone or something along those lines not that long ago.

I will say that I am located within the Kingston Upon Hull area which I am believing that CityFibre have something to do with it, but the same happened in Manchester which is confusing. I have used every major Mobile Network in this area such as O2, Three and EE and I have never experienced this kind of issue with them.

It's also worth noting that I do like Vodafone, I've been on Voxi before and loved them. All I ask is that Vodafone takes my concerns seriously and notice there's a major issue rather than just dismissing them with a Discount or a Account refresh (Disabling Sim and Re-enabling) which has been performed twice now. I want Vodafone to take this message seriously and conduct a full investigation into the concerns raised and speak to the people who deal with the Masts and figure out what is actually going on.

Tried and tested activies in a attempt to resolve the issues include.

- Connecting to a VPN - Worked and made a massive difference as shown in the Video above

- Changing the device - This made no difference

- Changing the Sim Card - This made no difference

- Changing the DNS to 1.1.1.1/8.8.4.4 - This made no difference

- Manually selecting another network and then back to Vodafone - This made no difference

- Refreshing the APN settings - This made no difference

- Having my account Refreshed - This made no difference

I have done a Traceroute test to try and help Vodafone locate the issues with which server address's my requests are going through.

(On all the Traceroute tests I have completed numbers 2, 5 and 6 have timed out regardless of where it's going to).

Tracing route to google.co.uk [216.58.213.3]

over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1     1 ms     1 ms    <1 ms  192.168.42.129

  2     *        *        *     Request timed out.

  3    71 ms     *        *     192.168.213.21

  4    39 ms    40 ms    38 ms  192.168.213.22

  5     *        *        *     Request timed out.

  6     *        *        *     Request timed out.

  7    41 ms    38 ms    41 ms  63.130.127.221

  8    60 ms    40 ms    37 ms  90.255.251.18

  9    38 ms    39 ms    40 ms  108.170.246.161

 10    46 ms    40 ms    40 ms  172.253.65.211

 11    57 ms    42 ms    38 ms  ber01s14-in-f3.1e100.net [216.58.213.3]

I would love other people to share their input on this forum post if they have had the same kind of issue and if Vodafone was able to resolve the issue how and what actions where taken to the account to resolve the issue.

I would appreciate it if the Social Media Team members could forward this to someone in the Technical Team within Vodafone who can take a look at this video and information presented through the Traceroute and figure out what is going on and investigate to come up with a solution for this issue.

[Lynxthecat]

This occurs on any device connected to my local mast (Google Pixel 3a, Huawei router; iPhone 11). 

Here is yet further video evidence recorded today of the throttling Vodafone impose over the 4G network on my unlimited MAX account:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/mv1NTgBi3VTxAJUC8

Here my Google Pixel 3a is connected via Wi-Fi to my Huawei 4G router. My Google Pixel 3a permits easy screen recording. . The same results are demonstrable via a direct ethernet connection to my router (and see earlier posts about throttled downloads over port 443, but not port 80). 

Without VPN: 10Mbit/s (throttling).

With VPN: 50Mbit/s.

[Lynxthecat]

Dear Vodafone, 

Please can I have an update in terms of removing the 10Mbit/s throttling on my unlimited MAX account?

https://photos.app.goo.gl/mv1NTgBi3VTxAJUC8

[MarkD]

Hi @Lynxthecat, if you can drop us a message on Facebook, one of the team would love to check for any updates 🙂

[Lynxthecat]

Dear Vodafone,

I raised this issue with Vodafone a month ago by way of Live Chat. I have also spent hours writing detailed messages on this forum and on the phone with various Vodafone agents. I have been given all sorts of inappropriate findings and suggestions such as: 'it is congestion related'; 'it is signal related'; 'have you checked you Wi-Fi', etc. Or asked to take screenshots at different points in the day. In short, I have been asked to jump through hundreds of hoops and all the meanwhile my issue remains and our business has been detrimentally affected.

We are still experiencing 10Mbit/s throttling on our unlimited MAX account. This throttling is circumventable through the use of a VPN. The throttling affects downloads over port 443, but not over port 80.

Our business is paying over £70/month (over £840/year) for connected services included an unthrottled, unlimited MAX service, and we are not receiving an unthrottled service. Instead we are receiving a selectively 10Mbit/s throttled service. This is unacceptable.

In response to the message above, I messaged on the Facebook Messenger service, only to be informed 'no update'. 

Please can someone actually pursue this issue with Vodafone so that this issue is resolved without further delay - as in: identify the cause of this 10Mbit/s throttling issue and the technical fix to remove the throttling? I would be very grateful, and I feel that Vodafone absolutely has enough information to get this issue sorted without further delay. 

The efficacy of this forum is surely limited to the extent to which issues that users raise are actually taken up, investigated and resolved, in an efficient manner.

If the fix for the throttling issue means adding our connected accounts to a whitelist of unthrottled users, then fine. But we want the throttling removed now. This would appear to be a breach of contract., We are obviously due compensation. 

By the way, I see already that these throttling threads are receiving media and Ofcom attention. ISP-based throttling is a hot topic a the moment.

[Lynxthecat]

Still no update? I have already messaged on the Facebook Messenger app.

[Effie]

Hey @Lynxthecat I hope you're well. 

The case is currently with our engineers and they are still performing testing which is why we have no update for you at the moment. As soon as they have finished their work we can let you know the results. 

[Lynxthecat]

Thank you for the update. I think aside form the video evidence the key thing for the Engineers to have visibility of is:

without VPN: 10Mbit/s throttling on port 443;

with VPN: unthrottled connection vastly exceeding 10Mbit/s. 

[Effie]

You're welcome @Lynxthecat. I agree and I made sure that information was highlighted when the case was raised so the engineers wouldn't miss it.  

[Lynxthecat]

I was supposed to receive a call today: Thursday, May 20, 2021, concerning my complaint, but I did not. This is despite being promised on two occasions by two separate Vodafone agents (firstly I was called earlier this week and informed that I would be given update on the Thursday, and secondly I spoke with another representative yesterday and was again informed I would be called on Thursday), and this will be reflected in the notes against the pending complaint(s). What is the point in promising to give an update and then not delivering? 

Naturally it is frustrating that over a month has passed since I raised this issue and our data connection, which we rely upon for our business, is still being throttled at 10Mbit/s on port 443, requiring VPN to circumvent. 

This is less than ideal and hardly reflective of good customer service. My confidence in the service offered by Vodafone has been detrimentally affected by this experience, and look forward to seeing what steps Vodafone see fit to rectify this.

Throttling is a hot topic at the moment!

[BilboBaggins]

I've found the google speedtest very misleading before due to the use of only a single thread. Do you get the same results on other devices directly (rather than through a 4g router) with a more reliable test like on speedtest.net? At least then you can see if the routing is to another server just in case warp is doing some crazy traffic optimisation or has a more direct pipe to google

Performed some checks here and couldn't reproduce your results, but I've only got a 4G handset to test with so a bit restricted compared to all your equipment.

Just finished reading all your posts Lynxthecat, very interesting if they are throttling port 443, but no idea why they would do that and not port 80. You haven't got the dreaded securenet enabled still have you?