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.

[Effie]

Hey @Lynxthecat I hope you're well and having a lovely week so far! 

I have sent you a message on the Facebook thread with an update from the engineers regarding the network case that was raised for you 🙂 

[Lynxthecat]

Thank you for pursuing this and for posting the update. So Engineer states no throttling and that this is signal or device related. But this does not account for what I am experiencing. Please let me explain.

Please see the original poster on this thread and his story. I am experiencing exactly the same issue. Demonstrable throttling and VPN can circumvent it. VPN off: you see 10Mbit/s throttling. VPN on: you see speeds go back up to 60-70Mbit/s. This means it is unrelated to device or signal strength specifics, or congestion. This test confirms it:

Downloading a test file from: https://ams-nl-ping.vultr.com/ is throttled at 10Mbit/s.

[this uses https port 443]

Downloading a test file from: https://kb.leaseweb.com/network/link-speeds is unthrottled and speed normal at 60-70Mbit/s.

[this uses http port 80]

As further evidence, Google's internet speed test consistently shows 10Mbit/s (as that uses https port 443). 

Again, if I use a VPN, the throttling is circumvented and the speed shoots up to 60-70Mbit/s. 

Please can you direct the Engineer to this specific information - the throttling is port specific and circumventable using a VPN. It affects all my devices (Google Pixel 3A, IPhone,  Huawei router, etc.).

The service that I am paying for it supposedly unthrottled, and yet I am being provided a service with very easily demonstrable 10Mbit/s throttling. This is entirely unacceptable. 

As for the original poster on this thread, I have created a video using my phone demonstrating beyond any doubt whatsoever that 10Mbit/s throttling is being applied without VPN, and can be circumvented with VPN. The speed with the VPN activated is over 3 times the throttled level. The same is the case for downloads - download over port 80 - no throttling. Download over https port 443 - 10Mbit/s throttling. 

Here is the video I put together with evidence of the 10Mbit/s throttling that I am seeing on an 'unlimited MAX' account:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/M7dsFpkmvcPVZwb59

Please can this information and ideally this post on this thread be conveyed to the Engineer for investigation? There can be no question that there is 10Mbit/s throttling being applied on my 'unlimited MAX' account.

[Effie]

You're welcome @Lynxthecat I know it's not the answer you were expecting but I wanted to make sure you were updated on what has been advised as of right now. 

Thank you for taking the time to collate all of that information and perform the tests that you have, that is incredibly useful! 

I really am keen to get this issue resolved for you.

Could you please pop a message back to the Facebook thread so we can re-raise the ticket with all of the data you have? We will need a new set of screenshots over a 24 hour period though as we can't raise a case without them. I know you've previously done this so I apologise for having to have you repeat this step. 

I'll personally monitor the Facebook chat and as soon as I have those screenshots, I'll get the case re-raised and ensure that every bit of information you've provided is in there for the engineers to go through. 

[Lynxthecat]

I made screenshots throughout the course of yesterday so I will put those on. The video showing VPN action (and information about download rate being dependent upon port) is much more relevant. This is extremely frustrating and I feel like I am having to jump through an absurd number of hoops to get this issue addressed. And it is serious because I am paying for a service that I am not receiving. Vodafone have some way to go to improve its customer service.

That stated, I am not blaming any specific individual here, and I am grateful for your help with getting this resolved using the existing processes that Vodafone has in place.

[Effie]

I fully appreciate and understand your frustration with this @Lynxthecat and I genuinely am very sorry for this whole issue. 

Thanks so much, those screenshots will be great. I know it seems like we're making you jump through hoops to get a resolution and I promise you that isn't the case. I want to make sure we follow every step of the correct process to avoid information being missed and the case being rejected.

I'll make sure every bit of information I can include, is included in the new network case. I can't guarantee that the engineers will advise anything different to their previous findings but I'll make sure they understand the severity of the situation. 

[Lynxthecat]

Thanks - please do link in my detailed post above on this thread if you can. The fact that VPN circumvents throttling and that throttling only occurs on https port 443 is solid proof that this is the 10Mbit/s throttling. The original poster on this thread had exactly the same issue, and it turned out to be a faulty security board on the mast. 

[Effie]

I've copied everything you've said into the case notes @Lynxthecat and included all links so the engineers will have all of the information they need. Thank you for being so extensive with your testing, this really does help. I've requested a new case be raised for you now and updated the notes on the Facebook thread so we can check for an update for you over the next few days. 

[Lynxthecat]

Many thanks indeed - I am extremely grateful that you have taken the time to follow this up.

[Effie]

You're very welcome @Lynxthecat 😊 Please feel free to drop a message to the Facebook thread anytime if you need help with anything else at all and of course, you can always post on the Community. 

[vinod]

Hi L,

Please could you let the forum  know the handset you originally experienced this issue. Is it an iphone 8?

The reason why I ask is, iphone 8 has a known issue with setting incorrect baud rate on client buffer transfer rate when attached to 4G.

Thanks,

V