topic Re: One arm tied? in Plusnet Feedback

One arm tied?

exporters — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 07:57:20 GMT

I may be one in a thousand BUT in spite of PN’s efforts and the pleasant people I have had contact with, I still have an inconsistent B/b service.
When pressed, the reply is ‘your fault is still being investigated by our supplier’. What, since 15/12/09 ? In this time I can only recall two periods of 5/6 days, when the service was adequate.
Having experienced briefly what I expected when signing up last August, it is more than disappointing to be on, yet again, 400kbps downloads & IP profiles of 500 for the last four days. Constant drop outs & noise.
On enquiring about BTw’s sense of urgency or willingness to respond to anything that could be their equipment/line, one is left with the distinct impression that PN is operating with one arm tied.

Re: One arm tied?

orbrey — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 09:46:55 GMT

Hi exporters,
I've picked this up and referred it back to our suppliers with some additional notes. As the ticket update says I'm hopeful there'll be an update this afternoon - I'll keep my eyes open and let you know when we've got that.

Re: One arm tied?

sharpyuk — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 09:51:47 GMT

@Exporters
You are so right.. In these situations it can be so easy to point the finger at the service provider when actually it can be down to the slow response and sense of urgency that BT operates. Must be even more frustrating for PN, they are getting grilled by customers but unable to do anything.
Apparently BT are suppose to ensure fairness when it comes to dealing with issues, but you can't help feeling that they either do it on purpose so you move to BT or that as a BT customer they move a little faster.

Re: One arm tied?

mrmarkus1981 — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 10:24:02 GMT

I appreciate what you guys are saying but at the end of the day we are PAYING Plusnet, so as far as consumers faults go, the buck stops with them.
If someones fault has been ongoing for some time (which in this case it has) i can only think there are 3 reasons why it isnt fixed:-
1. The ticket is at the bottom of the pile.
2. Plusnet arent putting the pressure on BTW to look at the issue.
3. Other people are shouting louder about their problems (see no.1)

Re: One arm tied?

exporters — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 10:55:45 GMT

Matt, thanks for pushing this. Also for the quick response from the PN team this morning.
I'll hold my breath for BT's skills to identify/sort.

Re: One arm tied?

sharpyuk — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 11:23:49 GMT

@mrmarkus1981
Your point is valid and i do not expect anybody would just sit back and let things happen because its out of PN's control. Its like when your car needs fixing but the part is not available.. its not the garage who sold you the car, its the the car makers who hold it all up.
It is not acceptable when the level gets to a stupid time scale and yes in those instances it will not doubt be due to the points you raised. Having worked with BT before, it a huge company with a lot of request and although they do their best every day, i do feel they are not that worried about customers that are not their own or providers such as PlusNET.
So PN are the supplier of the boardband... but the broadband will not work without the phone line.. Its ok to supply you with water, but if there is no pipe do you blame the guy at the end pumping it
I am in no way making excuses for PN, i am sure they are far from perfect and from what i read on here they do need to start pulling the finger out re support times. But i do find that a lot of people are quick to blame them without giving reasonable time to gain a solution or await a fix which is out of their hands.

Re: One arm tied?

exporters — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 14:55:57 GMT

In the hope that Matt/Chris may see this, I posted on my open ticket a report on the BT Engineer's visit earlier today.
Having been absent from house for a week, I came back y'day to find an even worse state of affairs. BT speedtester d'loads 74kbps & IP profile 135. Ok, patience I told myself, the BT engineer is due Thursday.
He was thorough, give him his due. But nothing revealed as to why the line was dropping out & ALL tests showed up perfect, he said. He inspected BT wiring, replaced their in coming cable junction bx, put an additional filter on it, replaced on Master socket my NationADSL with a BT equivalent face plate, went down the road to check BT cabinet - ALL OK. Prognosis, "if this does not fix the problem, it is down to BTw, their xchange & your line to the cabinet."
Well, I did not expect to see an immediate rise in speeds but with SNR seemingly stable @ 21/15, bandwidth 448/5404, Attenuation 23/41 [all as BT guys meters & my Thomson] it looks/looked promising. Oh dear, two drops showing on RouterStats since he left.
Q's what next, please.

Re: One arm tied?

orbrey — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 11:56:24 GMT

Hi exporters,
Sorry I didn't pick this up yesterday. It looks like you've been online since the engineer left yesterday though I'm not sure if this is down to the extremely low line profile giving a stable connection - I'm trying line tests to check this out but they're failing for some reason which makes me wonder seriously about an exchange fault.
I'll update you as soon as I know what's happening there, should be shortly after lunch.

Re: One arm tied?

exporters — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 18:02:15 GMT

Matt, assume you do not know as yet what is happening? I keep wondering why BTw are so slow in responding, when it seems clearly to be an exchange problem.
In the meantime, can someone bump up the PN line speed please, which is stuck on 1000 [BT IP shows 4000 since early hours of this morning] and my d/load has been on 860 for three days now.
May just experience some faster speeds for the w/end.
Many thanks

Re: One arm tied?

exporters — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 20:37:32 GMT

Well, THANK YOU, whoever @ PN has pushed the button.
At least d/loads are now back to 3.5megs. BUT for how long, with drops indicated by RouterStats as below. This is the worst day I can recall for some time.
What is the next step? An exchange problem?

Re: One arm tied?

spraxyt — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 02:05:55 GMT

Are you sure all of those are actually line jobs, did the router re-sync? Some of them look more like transients where routerstats failed to collect the information from the router (because the router was busy).

Re: One arm tied?

exporters — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 10:15:55 GMT

Spraxyt, I'm not certain.
During the period on Friday, whilst Thomson router & l'top were operational on the desk, no one was in the house using them when these drops were recorded.
I have included another router shot this morning - steady SNR all through from last evening [RouterStats, everything else l'top etc deliberately left on] but seems coincidental, when I opened Firefox @ 7.20am the whole thing goes haywire. Of interest maybe, Firefox opens with a number of tabs from previous session. Lost DSL from 5152 down to 1344.
Funny figs on router stats as well; atten. 29/51, SNR 13/15.5 Normally these would be 21/44 & 12/25.
Do you think the Thomson router is playing up & should replace with Belkin?

Re: One arm tied?

exporters — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 10:41:07 GMT

PS
Sraxyt, within last 5 mins system has recovered itself & d/load 3.4meg [was <1meg]. Very weird and something somewhere is upsetting things. Detail below.

Re: One arm tied?

exporters — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 12:44:03 GMT

Very unstable - back down again!

Re: One arm tied?

spraxyt — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 13:53:35 GMT

With things changing so quickly one would expect detailed monitoring of the connection by BT to identify something within the two-hour slot I believe they allocate. I guess that needs to be initiated by the faults team. However it does seem suspicious that the problems started to occur when your PC became active again. I wonder if the router/cable is not performing as well as it should?
Trying your Belkin and a different Ethernet cable could be helpful. I think your target noise margin is already on maximum so can't make that worse.
David

Re: One arm tied?

exporters — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 23:47:40 GMT

Good to have your input David & thank you.
I've swapped to the Belkin N+ & different cable. Stats below for interest.
I'll raise this once again on Monday with Faults team. In the meantime will monitor results over w/end to see if dropping is to do with router etc. & if stats improve.
Just got back from daughter & family this afternoon; last year I recommended she changed to PN & get rid of TTalk since all she seemed to be getting was grief. At same time I ran new cabling plus ADSL Nation faceplate on BT master, to her computer as a safe guard. She is delighted with PN & completely trouble free. I ran some speed tests earlier [BBC iplayer diagnostics & ThinkBB] out of interest & she is enjoying 5/6megs. Pretty good on a £5.99 package. Glad for her and some consolation as I continue to fume at all the mucking around I'm having!

Re: One arm tied?

spraxyt — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 02:19:21 GMT

Speedtest results will be poor (<1000kbps) until the IP _Profile increases to 3500kbps, appropriate for the 4032kbps sync speed. Of course that is assuming the present sync speed is maintained (no drop outs).
Fingers crossed.
David

Re: One arm tied?

exporters — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 09:43:03 GMT

Spraxyt, abandoned the Belkin; I bottled & reverted to Thomson.
SRN after starting off Sunday steady for 4hrs @ 15, dropped to 10, then went hay wire. Disconnected on/off for about half hour, then from 16 to a steady climb o/night to18 by early this morning. Did the change & I now have Thomson in place; over last 2hrs. it's settled @ 16. What all this means I am not experienced enough to know. Have shown the BT & router stats below for morbid interest.
Will try & contact the powers that be to get something moving. It's ridiculous.

Re: One arm tied?

Mand — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 10:26:16 GMT

Hi there,
I've got one of our faults guys looking at this for you now.

Re: One arm tied?

exporters — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 12:06:21 GMT

Mand, thank you.
Had a +ve conversation with the 'fault guy'; assuming he can hold on to it as we agreed, [just one of the 'balls in the air' as I've mentioned elsewhere] it may prove much more satisfactory in resolving an issue in the long run for both parties. Let's hope so.
Interesting that when my back was turned [getting a cup of coffee], I came back to find @ 11.40 a burst of cut off/reconnects - the most I have experienced for some time - it's continued for last 30 mins. Guess somebody is just trying to identify something?