Slow speed

[#1]

Hi,
From 1:00 am today (07/03/2008), I have been experiencing slow speeds. The BT Speed Test show a max download speed of ~450 Kbps, whilst I'm in Option 4 (up to 8 Mbps); I've checked my gateway and it says that my max download should be at 7.5 Mbps. Finally, in the Member Centre, when checking on the High-Speed Broadband section (under Connection Settings) of my account, it states that "Your current broadband speed is 500 Kbps". This means that the one limiting my download speeds is Plus.Net (not anything in my LAN, or the BT phone line), and I know there must be a reason for this: maybe something about the IP profile and such...
The problem is that not only are my speeds down from what I'm paying for (or that this happened before just a week ago), but that I haven't received any email or information regarding the reason for this behaviour in any of these two cases. You would think that when something important to a customer (like download speeds) is about to change dramatically like this, Plus.Net would at least email the customer informing them of the situation; not make him/her go out and have to learn about IP Profiling and line training, which is the technician's job, not the customer's.
Even more so, I have no idea of *why* my download speed is down. I can raise a fault, yes, but that would take time (because of the testing involved in different times of the day), which I know that Plus.Net would not refund for experiencing speeds below the ones that are being payed for during that time; and remember this would be the second time I would have raised it for something like this. The last time the issue resolved itself, but the team did not explained me what happened to trigger it (basically, just went off and said "oh, so it's working now? good riddance, bye!"). So right now I'm left wondering if it was something I did that made it happen again, or is there something really wrong with Plus.Net "training" methodologies.
Sorry for the rant, but I hope you understand my frustration in this whole matter. Can anybody clue me in what's going on? Thanks.
Caleb

[#2]

Well, that's made me think a bit as I think that boils down to 2 basic questions:
1. You're running slow - why and what can be done about it?
2. When speed changes (down) what can PlusNet do to warn you and maybe trigger an investigation?
I think PN, in common with the rest of the Broadband industry tend to take a reactive approach to these sorts of things, not least because:
a) Mostly it's out of their control (i.e. it's BT's or the users kit causing the problem)
b) It often gets better in due course anyway
c) People often don't notice unless it's a major change for a long time
d) Responding to every little change would cause a huge workload (and cost)
e) PN probably can't detect (or be informed of) all the situations that cause you a problem
As to 1 above, there are lots of basic steps to narrowing it down. I think most people would say run the BT Speed Tester first and report back. Plus what if anything have you changed recently?
As for 2 maybe that should start another thread. What can PlusNet do to be proactive and spot and warn people about unexpected changes? This could include (but not be limited to) being throttled due to exceeding quota, a change in IP profile or interleaving, etc.

[#3]

I am also having the same problem with speed. I've done a check and the download speed is 131 Kbps and upload speed is 379 kbps. Now I'm no expert but isn't the download speed well below dial-up speed?  It's been like this for three days now and is very frustrating when the pages take an age to load.
I joined Plusnet when the cost was £21.99 for unlimited broadband however, a fair usage policy of 100gb applied and I knew I would never reach anywhere near that so this package was ideal for me. I am still paying £21.99 and have no idea what my usage is because none of the options correspond! All I can think of is I've used up my allowance and am being punished with this dreadful download speed
Anyway I will get my husband to make a phone call today and see what is going on, maybe we will have to think about upgrading our Broadband package.

[#4]

If you are still on the old premier package these are the usage levels and expected speeds http://www.plus.net/support/broadband/products/archive/bb_premier1.shtml

[#5]

Quote

Anyway I will get my husband to make a phone call today and see what is going on, maybe we will have to think about upgrading our Broadband package.

I would establish the exact package you have and the details of it before you "upgrade"

[#6]

Hi Glittery,
You are indeed on the old premier option 1 package, but it's nothing to do with usage - I suspect you have a fault on the line. I can see you've started raising a fault but before we can investigate it you need to go back to http://faults.plus.net and answer the questions there - if you let me know when this is done I can make sure it's picked up by the faults team this afternoon.
With regard to your usage, I'd recommend upgrading to BBYW Option 2 (details here) - this does have an increased peak time (from 8am to midnight) but has an included usage of 8gb per month with usage between midnight and 8am not counted to your totals. If you don't mind scheduling any downloading you might want to do between these times (I can see that you have some usenet usage on the account) you won't have any problems at all and it will save you a bit of money as it's £14.99 a month.
Also if you don't like it we can quite happily move you back if you wish.
Hope that helps,