How do I speak to someone about my complaint - I keep being told someone will call but not happening

[AngryViking]

The joining process to ordinary Superfast broadband was a mess. I eventually got connected but there were a load of issues which weren't being solved. I raised a complaint.

The first agent who took it on was very helpful and identified that there was indeed a problem. It wasn't getting fixed so I asked for it to be escalated. Since then nothing - I was told I had to do three speed tests (it wasn't the correct issue) and the email response was there wasn't a fault and so there was nothing to fix. 

I have tried the call centre - both chat and phone (hours wasted) but the problem (already acknowledged) is far beyond their understanding and it seems there is no way to talk to the person handling the case.

It's dreadful, I just need to speak to someone - I really want it resolved.... HOW???

[Jayach]

I don't believe bandwidth management could be the issue in this case. By swapping from an "up to 40" contract to an "up to 80" one, (those descriptions are no longer used, it's now "average download speeds") the difference is controlled by the product purchased from Openreach. You will get the speed dictated by your line, up to the possible maximum. (40 or 80)

It's possible you have been put on the wrong product, but in that case the router sync speed would be reduced, not your throughput.

You can see your sync speed by logging into the router at 192.168.1.1 like this:

I think yours will be very similar to mine.

[Jayach]

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@AngryViking wrote:

Your idea for fixed IP appeals.

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It should be very easy, just use live chat: https://www.vodafone.co.uk/bbservcd/ and request one. As they all seem to be WFH at the moment it takes a bit longer than usual, but should be operational within 48 hours.

[AngryViking]

@JayachThe fixed IP was simple and quick! But it made very little difference. Maybe a slight improvement in throughput but not the 40Mbps that I'm looking for!

AAMOI, what isp connection do you have (VF?) and what results do you get from speedof.me relative to your connection speed?

[Jayach]

I am on Vodafone, Superfast 2.  Line stats:

  Downstream Upstream

Current Rate	77222 kbps	20000 kbps
Maximum Rate	79161 kbps	26944 kbps
Signal-to-Noise Ratio	5.4 dB	10.3 dB

Yesterday when I ran speedof.me the results were all over the place, today they are very consistent (and surprising). I ran it 3 times, and then did 3 on speedtest.net

Speedof.me

Download	Upload	Ping
75.09	20.1	51
75.13	20.25	53
75.12	20.52	23

Speedtest.net

Download	Upload	Ping
68.59	18.64	11
68.55	18.17	13
68.58	18.7	12

Both on a wired connection

[AngryViking]

Very interesting. I'll share the same when I'm home

[AngryViking]

@Jayach 

I am also on Superfast 2 so this should be directly comparable. This was after the fixed IP was started.

Line Rate 19.99 Mbps  74.14 Mbps

Noise Margin 15.5 dB  6.1 dB

Speedof.me

DN 25.7 UP 20.2 Latency 66mS -these are NOT typos!

Speedtest.net Bracknell VF server, multi thread.

DN 68 UP 18.7 Latency 8mS

Also on wired connection.

When you run speedof.me in a laptop browser, it shows the instantaneous speed of each block.

My download is flat at around 25Mbps unless I run through a VPN when with same server it's flat around 68Mbps!

Your figures are what I expect to see not 25Mbps. If you have read the methodology of speedof.me, their test data is held on a CDN server, so it is very close to backbone and totally realistic for normal web services which are extensively served from CDN platforms.

WHY won't VF accept there is potentially an issue here???

[Jayach]

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@AngryViking wrote:

@Jayach 

WHY won't VF accept there is potentially an issue here???

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Because your sync speed is fine, your Speedtest.net speeds are fine., and to be honest I don't think Vodafone has anyone who can diagnose things much further than that. Network engineers are rarer than hen's teeth at Vodafone. (I used a different phrase, but apparently I'm not allowed to say the name of a certain child's toy)

This is my speedtest.me test this evening, a bit slower than earlier.

What results do you get from speedtest.net if you choose a distant server, it should then be travelling over more of the internet.

Do you actually notice the lack of speed in normal use, for instance is it particularly slow if you're downloading large files? Is streaming of 4K (if you do) affected?

Are you using Vodafone's router?

 

[AngryViking]

I have recreated this on speedtes.net using hosts outside VF network and a single thread (bolting lots of bits of string together doesn't really tell you a lot other than saturating the DSL). Same issue but fine when using VPN tunnel. I've done the tests with and without the VF router. I choose not to use their router because it's all locked down and doesn't do what I want. It works OK as a modem!!

Tell me, does anyone from VF participate on this forum or is it just a place for helpful people to do VF's job for them?

[Jayach]

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@AngryViking wrote:

Tell me, does anyone from VF participate on this forum or is it just a place for helpful people to do VF's job for them?

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Definitely the latter. See my earlier comment about Vodafone's broadband knowledge.

[AngryViking]

Found the speedtest.net results - Truespeed Bath server, single thread.

Ping 17mS, download 10.5Mbps, upload 16.6Mbps

with VPN

Ping 30mS, download 48.7Mbps, upload 17.6Mbps

It's a joke and yes, streaming video I do get issues but who cares??