Multiple drops per day

[#1]

After a bit of advice.

After a few months of good service, we're now back in our second stage of multiple drops per day.

First stage

This happened to us last year for a few months. An engineer came out, fiddled with some cables coming into the house, declared it all to be working. It wasn't. The drops last year continued for a couple of weeks, then for a few months, we had solid connections with very few (if any drops).

Second stage

For the last couple of months though, the drops are back with a vengeance. On average, we're seeing 3-4 a day. Driving the family mad.

• We had an engineer visit who tested the line and said all was well.
• The router has been replaced.
• We've been plugged into the test socket for over a week.

I've now got a second BT engineer coming on Monday but I'm unsure as to how to push this to get resolved. I'm fully expecting him to test the line and say all is well. But clearly, something is up, somewhere.

1. What advice do you have to get this resolved?
2. My Plusnet contract is up in the next month. Is there any benefit in moving provider at this stage? I'm guessing not but wondered if the process of moving requires a different level of testing as services get transferred.

Thanks for reading.

[#2]

It might be worth trying a different ISP if there's an LLU option open to you, it depends where the fault is. Obviously if there's a cable option then that will fix the problem. There's little point in moving to another ISP that uses the same BT infrastructure as they're already on the case so you just need to keep up the pressure to get it fixed.

[#3]

Hi.

Sky are in my exchange. I'm toying with moving to them.

[#4]

My ongoing fault followed me when I migrated on the 1st May. However, it has now been identified and fixed in less than two weeks. I was informed of progress, by text and phone, throughout. A far superior handling of it than was ever offered by PN.

Yes, you will still be at the mercy of Openreach, as are PN, but it's the i.s.p. who is still ultimately responsible to look after their paying customer and ensure the fault is corrected.

I am obviously biased and never worn rose tinted glasses but would say move, you have a better chance of things being resolved to your satisfaction.

[#5]

Thought it time for an update.

This is a brief history of my recent connection problems with Plusnet. 

So, I don't know what I'm meant to do next. I guess I'm waiting for someone on the faults team to give me a call. Does that happen?

Date	Notes	Time on phone	Drops
25/04/2018			1
26/04/2018			5
27/04/2018			6
28/04/2018			2
29/04/2018	Getting lots of drops. Logged a fault using broadband checker.		4
30/04/2018	BT Openreach engineer turned up unnanounced. Suggested line was fine and problem was with router. 1hr 15 mins on PN support hold. Suggesting I was uploading a lot and that uploading too much can cause interference with download. Ordered me a new router. Temporarily switched to my old BT Homehub 5 router, but drops continued into the evening despite no computers/tablets using internet.	89	6
01/05/2018	Lots of drops today. Contacted Support but they wouldn't do anything until the new router arrived.	4	Lots
02/05/2018	Drops around 5am		2+
07/05/2018	Lots of drops today. Contaxts PN on chat. They confirmed there had been a 5 day connection but lots of drops today.		Lots
09/05/2018	New router arrived. Plugged in using new cables. Drop at 7:45. Called PN. They say it's all showing green there end but they will keep the fault open.	44	1+
10/05/2018	Contacted PN over chat as I noticed a drop. Their systems for checking faults went down during chat and they told me to try again later. Called Support. They confirmed drop. Told me to plug into master socket. I did this despite not thinking this would make any difference due to having the dual socket master faceplate.		1
11/05/2018			5
12/05/2018			2
13/05/2018			5
14/05/2018			1
18/05/2018	Noticed drop. Called Support. 1 hour on hold. Put through to faults team. They've arranged an engineer for 21/05/2018.	67	1
20/05/2018	Many drops today.		Lots
21/05/2018	Engineer visit. He's reset the line and replaced the face plate of the master socket to the latest version. He didn't think that would be the problem but thought it best to eliminate everything. He said the SNR was set to 3 which could cause more drops so he set it back to 6.		1+
22/05/2018	Didn't notice any drops. Speed test showed my line speed has dropped to no more than 35 (from around 45)		0
23/05/2018	12 drops. Noticed speed had increased to around 40. Wondering whether the SNR has been reduced to try to bring my speed up to the fibre unlimited extra speed (66) Online chat with support. They said the line test they were going to run might affect the chat but if we got disconnected they would send an email. No email received.		12
24/05/2018	4 drops by 9am. Spoke to support. She must have been quite tired cos she yawned. Claimed not to be able to put me through to faults team and that the time I had been connected directly to the faults team on 18/05/2018 I must have been mistaken and it was actually another technican. She promised to leave a message on the desk of one of the fault team's desk so they could ring me back. She couldn't find a pen. I asked her whether my increased drops might be a result of them lowering the SNR again in an attempt to get my speed back up to the max. She didn't know because she had to access to the SNR for fibre. I asked whether they could reduce my fibre package to the basic fibre unlimited in an attempt to stop them increasing my line speed. She put me through to Customer Options. The guy there would happily drop my package down but I'd have to sign a new contract. I passed and said I'd wait for the faults team to call me back.	32	4+
		236	4.2 hours

[#6]

Hello,

A warm welcome to the forums. Let’s clear away one myth here - changing to a LLU provider is not going to change any aspect of the house to exchange connectivity. It would though change the in-exchange connection.

Fttc connection issues such as you describe are most likely to be related to the last 1km of copper wires to your home, so beyond the possibility that one ISP might be able to get the same BTOR engineers to do a better job, I doubt that changing ISPs will make much of a difference here. NAT does not indicate the nature of the fault / final resolution - intermittent faults are hard to locate and fix - they tend to be resolved by good luck arising out of ‘enough’ visits.

Is your phone line quiet? Have you dialled 17070 option 2? Do you do it often, particularly when the connection drops? Have PlusNET confirmed a line fault? Bad joint issues can be hard to find as they are typically caused by dampness - there when you report them ... gone when the engineer visits.

Would you know if a d-side swap has been requested / made?

[#7]

I had the EXACT same problem, and it was sending me crazy.

PlusNet went through all the steps off the sheet they have in front of them, including sending a new router.

No solution.

They eventually sent out OpenReach to look at the problem.

The first time, they just replaced a few wires and the fault came back.

Openreach came again, and a very savvy engineer  found the fault.

The fault was in the fibre cabinet itself. They spent a good 3 hours doing it, but they rectified the fault.

[#8]

Thanks everyone.

So, I’m hearing that it pays to be politely insistent with Plusnet and to encourage more openreach engineer visits.