71 down to 55Mb

[#1]

Hi all,

I know this is 1st world problems stuff but I would appreciate some advice please.

I joined Plusnet last year and my service was great. I was syncing at 71Mb consistently and everything was super stable and worked really well. Then in March 2020 the line became unstable. Speeds dropped to 63Mb -ish and there were lots of errors reported on the line. 1000s of CRC errors, lots of ES and SES and my line would drop once or twice per day randomly due to Loss of Signal.

I logged a ticket with Support and the remote testing came out all clean but an OR engineering was sent anyway as they could see the frequent line drops. OR guy arrived  but couldn't find a fault but did noticed my line had been banded and performed a DLM reset.Things stabilised a bit and my line settled at 65Mb....but things were stable so I was happy.

By May the sync speed was down to 60Mb and the instability returned. By June it was in the 50s. By July it was in the late 40s. I opened another ticket and the Agent confirmed my line had been banded again forcing my connection speed down to restore stability....which it did. I tried to work with Support who I can understand were swamped and very busy. I would wait 1-2 weeks for a response to my online updates as their telephone support was offline. Happy to be patience as there were other customers I'm sure that had no service and so should be prioritised.

This continued into August where my speed slowed still to 40Mb. Now I was below hand back threshold. An OpenReach engineer appointment was made. Never showed up. A second OR appointment was made for the following week. Engineer never showed. A 3rd appoint was made 1st week in Sept, Engineer never showed.

Cutting to today, my line speed has risen to 55Mb and seems stuck there despite my attainable rate reporting 65Mb is possible. (I appreciate the attainable rate can be a bit hocus pocus). Support assure me my line isn't banded but as my speed is now back inside the estimated range they consider the issue resolved and say there is nothing further that can be done.

I have tried to argue that I don't believe the underlying issue is resolved as I'm still ~20% slower than I was during the first 6 months of service....but that seems to be party line now.

Could anyone at Plusnet review the case history and advice on the next steps.....and what do you guys think?

Many thanks!

[#2]

@Phar 

Hi, welcome to the forums.

When I first got FTTC/VDSL, I got 31 Mb, but after a month or so it dropped to 27.6Mb and has dropped further since sadly. Some of this is due to more people moving over to Fibre from ADSL and increasing possible Cross talk on the lines and obviously more uses on the total fibre bandwidth. This has become more noticeable since March 2020 after lockdown started.

Have you tried connecting the router to the inside of the master socket to check any internal property wiring is not causing issues.

[#3]

Thanks for the welcome 😀

I only have a master socket and i have tried the test socket, no change. I've tried the supplied Plusnet router and even the old OpenReach modem, no change. I even replaced the modem cable with a twisted pair one, no improvement. I'm using a Draytek 2860 which is a wonderful bit of networking kit. I do understand cross talk can be an issue but I was under the impression that vectoring has been implemented to mitigate that.

The stance that Plusnet support has taken so far is even though I have dropped 20Mb since March, as my sync speed is now back within estimates (now right at the bottom of the estimate I might add), there is nothing further that can be done despite the evidence I have supplied via line stats. Personally I believe the underlying issues hasn't been resolved and its a little frustrating not being able to talk to someone that understands the situation beyond running automated line tests that come back with a 'green tick, no problem found'.

[#4]

@Phar 

The problem Plusnet will have is that if they pass it to Openreach they will say its above minimum guaranteed speed and if they have carried out the line test and it comes back as OK.

I think vectoring is not applied to users connected to an ECI cabinet, but your good quality  Draytek 2860 should have that info in its support pages.

You could add a snapshot of your stats (blank out any personal info) to this thread as it might help Plusnet etc.

[#5]

Sure, here's a copy of the line stats I attached to my current open ticket with Support. The only difference between this screenshot (taken a week or so ago) is the current sync speed which is now 54,999kbs.

[#6]

This is what BT Wholesale DSL checker says about my line. I used to get these speeds before March 2020. Now I'm stuck below the low threshold but above the handback threshold.

Is anyone from Plusnet able to review my open ticket please and comment on the content I have provided included the above expectation from BTW for my line please?

Many thanks

[#7]

A week later and my speed have dropped from 71Mb to 48Mb now and my line resets once or twice every 24hrs. My Router says a loss of signal is the cause.

Can someone from Plusnet please pick up my ticket that has been open since 31st July? After 4 no-shows by OpenReach on my speed fault and no one from Plusnet responding to the updates in my ticket, I don't know what else I can do other than raise a formal complaint for just being completely ignored.

Please help.

[#8]

hi @Phar 

Do you have a phone on the line, is it noisy ? If it is then you might have a line fault, you try the 17070 quiet test number to check.

You might need to raise a new speed fault call, via faults.plus.net or maybe put your outstanding ticket number in your message and add a tag to your message, it might speed up your chase.

You could also add a note on your open ticket asking for an update.

[#9]

Hi @Phar,

I'm sorry for the inconvenience that this has caused and for the lack of updates on the fault ticket. I've looked into this now and have added an update to the ticket here.

[#10]

Thanks for looking at my ticket Emily but you've basically told me that despite my speed drop from 71Mb in Jan 2020 down to 45Mb in Sept 2020 (a 36.6% drop), its not a fault as its 1Mb above the handback threshold....and because its above the handback threshold Plusnet or OpenReach won't do anything anything about it.

Wow!

[#11]

The hand back threshold is nothing to do with fixing faults it is the level at which you can leave an ISP without being charged should you be below it and Openreach is unable to increase the speed back over.

An engineer should be sent to take a look at the fault.

[#12]

Hi there @Phar I am sorry to hear you're not happy about the outcome of your speed fault, it is in your package what your minimum line speed is and if your line is performing at that speed or above we are unable to raise this with our Suppliers. If your speeds do fall below that on a lined connection please get back in touch so we can arrange an engineer to investigate. 

[#13]

My response to this post which was constructive critism of how Plusnet are handling speed faults was siliently deleted. Unbelieveable.

What an appaling company.