Huge drop in speed after my contract ends - 1.4mbps! :-(

[#1]

Hi Everyone,

I do hope someone can help please.

I was on a 12 month deal with Plusnet which finished just a few days ago.  

Since then the broadband speed has been appallingly low!  I checked it today and on 2 different sites and it measured 1.4mbps and 1mbps and on the third one it wouldn't register anything at all!  (even when trying to register on the community it took so long to load the page that a pop up came up saying it couldn't even connect to the 'Re-Captcha' to confirm I wasn't a robot!) lol 

The speed hasn't ever really been great, but since there was only me using it it was ok, but my adult so Is home again now so I was thinking about upgrading to the Plusnet Ultra Fast Broadband but I am loathe to do that if the speeds have been 'turned down' on me?

Would appreciate any advice you can offer - at the moment a single page is taking about 30 seconds to load - literally!  (slower than dialup used to be!)  😞

Thanks everyone,

Maizie xx

[#2]

Why do you think your speeds have been reduced after your 12 month deal has finished? There is no evidence that PlusNet would deliberately slow you down, there would be an awful lot of complaints on this forum if they actually did this.

I think you need to look elsewhere for a reason, a line fault perhaps or some other problem. Why not raise a fault with customer service and get them to investigate.

[#3]

Am hoping it is just a coincidence but will speak to them tomorrow  - thank you RealAleMadrid x

[#4]

Welcome tothe forum, @MAIZIE. Just to add to what @RealAleMadrid has said:-

Without a few more details, it is difficult to advise you with regards to the broadband quality. Sight of your router statistics and the results of the other tests as outlined in this thread: https://community.plus.net/t5/Broadband/ADSL-Speed-faults/m-p/1270245#M297501 would maybe give us a chance to suggest possible improvements'.

[#5]

I find this interesting.  When I was with BT the first time I renewed my contract the man I spoke to asked what speed I was getting, and I told him the highest reading I'd got.  He said he'd improve that for me and sure enough my speed went up by about 1.5Mbps (over 20%).  Since then my speed dropped every time I renewed my contract.  Then the first time I renewed my contract with PN the speed dropped from 7.25Mbps to less than 5Mbps.

[#6]

Strange, @Jonpe - mine has gone UP - and Friday was my 3rd re-contract,

[#7]

@jab1  Ah so that's where my speed has gone!

[#8]

Yes @Jonpe - but I've been here longer than you.

[#9]

@MAIZIE

Is it possible that your reduced speed also coincides with your son’s return? If he has equipment running in the background then that could be the cause. Even if he is only uploading rather than downloading files then this can absolutely kill the download speed, especially if you have a Hub Zero, which suffers from ‘buffer bloat’.

If you think about it, with your contract finished you are paying the full published price and are free to go elsewhere. It is inconceivable that Plusnet would respond by deliberately slowing your connection.

[#10]

Thank you so much for the replies so far - they are all much appreciated 😊

My son was not in all day today and everything on the room was switched off - the broadband speed test gave less than 1.4 - that was a very good thought though! 😁

I was wondering if maybe the speeds were slowed at end of contract to prompt a call into the provider where they could then try to sell you a new package in order to keep you - just a thought of course 😋

I will definitely check the router etc tomorrow and will bring the info back.

Thank you everyone xx

[#11]

@MAIZIE - Re the third paragraph in your last post. As @Baldrick1 says, that is highly unlikely, and in any case, from my understanding, ISPs cannot rate -limit individual connections in that manner.

[#12]

That’s great to hear - thanks John 👍