Lots of interruptions to the service, particularly during evenings

[#1]

Can anyone help us please? I'm writing here because no-one has been answering the Twitter help chat over the last three hours.

On Unlimited Fibre, we're getting download speeds of around 20-25Mb/s when our Internet supply is working but we're also getting a lot of interruptions. We had many stutters and stops for several seconds at a time during the evening yesterday.

Our Zoom meetings with friends on Sunday night was badly disrupted by service interruptions, and yesterday I set up a broadband quality that appears to show lost packets from about 4pm in the afternoon.

Obviously we're not very happy about the interruptions, which have been taking place for weeks, but have now become more of a nuisance. Can you please tell me what we can do to improve this situation? I have restarted the router.

I'd really like to sort this out if possible before our next Zoom meeting with friends this coming Sunday!

Thanks, Gavin Atkin

[#2]

I've tried ringing too... No answer. Is this because Sheffield is in Tier 3?

Thanks, Gavin Atkin

[#3]

Talking to a nice gentleman now, after quite a wait.

[#4]

How did you get on? All sorted?

[#5]

We're supposed to get 30Mb/s, so it's still not working well.

[#6]

I gather we have an intermittent connection. I guess it'll be a few days before we can expect to see an improvement in that, but the halved speed we've seen this morning wasn't what we'd hoped for! 

Gavin 

[#7]

Hey there @gmatkin, thanks for reaching out to us here. 

I'm sorry to read you're having some trouble with your connection, if you're seeing the speed below the minimum guaranteed speeds I'd suggest raising a speed fault with us.  Together with our network partners at Openreach we will try to provide you with the best speeds possible. If you feel this is not the case, please raise your speed fault online at faults.plus.net

Thanks. 

[#8]

This isn't getting any better, despite talking helpful helpline chap the other day.

I'll go to the page you mentioned, and see how that works

Gavin Atkin 

[#9]

I've been taking records. Typically, we're getting about a third of the guaranteed speed, or a little more, though once got about half. Pings range from 12ms to 79ms.

I was told this issue was referred to the engineers on Wednesday. How log do these kinds of things typically take, does anyone know please?

Thanks, Gavin Atkin

[#10]

@gmatkin 

Request a GEA test from Plusnet (its free), and post the results here.

Hopefully someone will popup with an assessment of your line.

[#11]

Who do I ask? Can I have a GEA test please Plusnet?

Thanks, Gavin Atkin

[#12]

@gmatkin 

You can ask on here, or to ensure PN response and you have a record for legal purposes , a ticket via the support system.

https://www.plus.net/wizard/?p=wizard

You will need to login in with your Plusnet username/password (the one you access the billing system with, which should be different to the one you use to access this community board)

[#13]

Thanks for the advice, which I've followed.

Gavin

[#14]

No word from PlusNet yet. Some faster performance yesterday evening (up to 2/3rds of the guarantee speed instead of hovering just above 1/3rd) but just as last Sunday evening and evenings since, there were lots of interruptions during yesterday evening once again.

I've had a bill though!

How long do these things take, I wonder? (I last asked this on Saturday, and put in my initial complaint on Wednesday, having tried more basic advice first.)

Thanks, Gavin  

[#15]

@gmatkin 

I have requested a few of these, typically between two to five days, but this was pre Covid.

I do not know if they need to go to their supplier (Openreach in all probability), or they are able to do it themselves.

While you are waiting you could do a quiet line test (details here somewhere) to see if there is any noise.

In addition any statistics you can get out of your router could help, again details in the documentation for the router.

Finally https://www.broadbandchecker.btwholesale.com/#/ADSL will give information about the speeds expected on the line, and also there should be a test result showing the speeds when last checked by BT 

Don't include your phone number , or the cabinet location (Toytown cabinet 11 for example!!) on anything you publish here.