Deteriorating VF cable performance - is it worth complaining?

Forums › One New Zealand (including Vodafone, WxC, Farmside) › Deteriorating VF cable performance - is it worth complaining?

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#167451 14-Mar-2015 08:48

I have been using VF cable at the same Wellington address for more than two years.
I am a geek and a heavy user and check my cable speeds several times every day (via ethernet, using the VF Wellington speed test).
For the first two years my (100/10Mbps) connection has worked perfectly, with local speeds of at least 95Mbps, 24 hours a day - with NO dipping at peak times.
Over the last 3 months peak-hour performance has declined badly - off-peak speeds are still OK. Upload speeds are also OK.

9pm downstream speeds have slowly trended down from 95 Mbps to 5 Mbps (I have a backup ADSL connection that runs faster at 9pm!)
Hardware and house wiring are unchanged.

If I contact Vodafone, will they just tell me that cable is a "best effort service" - or should I expect my cable connection to work as well as it did last year?

Advice please

9pm last night (IP erased)

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#1258242 14-Mar-2015 09:01

Yes log a fault with them, Even if they do nothing imediately it means they have it on record so if a bunch of your neighbours are having the same issues it will be noticed and something can be done about it.

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nutbugs

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#1258243 14-Mar-2015 09:02

Personally I would call and lodge it as a fault (I have done so as per kapiti cable congestion thread).
In theory "work is in progress" - no indication of what or when though.
The more noise made about these ongoing issues the better in my view. Might get some useful feedback or a resolution even! 😄

johnr

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#1258251 14-Mar-2015 09:34

Yes call and log a fault, Make sure you get a fault ticket number (don't hang up till you have it)

mattbush

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#1258253 14-Mar-2015 09:37

I am still waiting and its been well over a month....but on a 130/10 my speeds at peak are closer to 30.

Perhaps yours isn't congestion...so yes you should find a spare 2 hours and call them.

It irks me no end that they can advertise a service as 100/10 and have no intention to deliver it. You would think a technology company could monitor congestion and upgrade hardware before service gets so bad.

But then Vodafone likes to upset as many customers as possible.

If they managed their networks better they would have less support calls and happier customers.

If you get no where, call the Commerce Commission as I believe they are gathering info on Vodafones services.

MikeB4

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#1258267 14-Mar-2015 10:19

I am on the 100/10 service in Hutt City. 90% of the time my service is as advertised when it does deteriorate I reboot the Routers etc and the service is restored. I have found that a reboot is needed about monthly which is not so bad and take about a minute.

johnr

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#1258269 14-Mar-2015 10:28

nutbugs: Personally I would call and lodge it as a fault (I have done so as per kapiti cable congestion thread).
In theory "work is in progress" - no indication of what or when though.
The more noise made about these ongoing issues the better in my view. Might get some useful feedback or a resolution even! 😄

Yes I have indicated in the coming weeks in the other thread

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#1258299 14-Mar-2015 11:22

KiwiNZ: I am on the 100/10 service in Hutt City. 90% of the time my service is as advertised when it does deteriorate I reboot the Routers etc and the service is restored. I have found that a reboot is needed about monthly which is not so bad and take about a minute.

I've rebooting everything, many times.
Unfortunately, it makes absolutely no difference.

I will call VF when I have an hour to spare, and will request a fault ticket number, as advised by johnr.

Thanks to everybody for your advice

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#1258301 14-Mar-2015 11:47

mattbush: ... It irks me no end that they can advertise a service as 100/10 and have no intention to deliver it. ...

It irks me that VF once delivered a very good 100/10 cable service, which now appears to be dying.

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Hammerer

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#1259329 14-Mar-2015 14:15

I've noticed that I have more intermittent problems since before Christmas. I reported a different problem in about September last year and Vodafone said they were upgrading over the next couple of months which would have been October/November. I'm unsure if the current problems are related to that but the timing was coincidental.

The bigger problem for us is the long route to some Australian game hosts. In that situation we get more lag than playing on US hosts.

johnr

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#1259344 14-Mar-2015 15:00

noticed The long route to some Australian game hosts. In that situation we get more lag than playing on US hosts.

Post some info and we can get this changed

Hammerer

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#1259395 14-Mar-2015 16:58

johnr:
noticed The long route to some Australian game hosts. In that situation we get more lag than playing on US hosts.

Post some info and we can get this changed

For these particular games the hosts can be any player's machine, i.e. the games don't use dedicated servers. So would you actually want a long list of IP addresses?

mattbush

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#1259452 14-Mar-2015 19:16

johnr:
noticed The long route to some Australian game hosts. In that situation we get more lag than playing on US hosts.

Post some info and we can get this changed

JohnR is right sadly....if faults dont get logged they dont get fixed. For a while I was the only person who logged Kapiti fault and VF didnt take me seriously.

Just real sad it is so difficult to log a fault.

nutbugs

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#1259453 14-Mar-2015 19:20

mattbush: Just real sad it is so difficult to log a fault.

+1 to that!
Especially when there is a huge reluctance to actually lodge a formal ticket.

yitz

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#1259454 14-Mar-2015 19:22

Hammerer: For these particular games the hosts can be any player's machine, i.e. the games don't use dedicated servers. So would you actually want a long list of IP addresses?

Post up some traceroutes, omit the destination hops on these forums if you want but to make routing changes will need to provide VF with first 3 parts of the IP address

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#1259689 15-Mar-2015 15:54

An update re my dying "100/10Mbps" cable connection.
At my second attempt I managed to get onto VF faults after "only" 35 minutes.
The CSR was helpful and friendly and advised me that I should ring before 7am to avoid a long wait <<< Geekzoners, take note

I was talked through connecting my PC directly to my modem, in case my router was the cause of the slow connection (it wasn't).
I've been asked to record my "routerless" speeds for 2 days and then ring back.

So far my speeds are even slower than yesterday - by 3pm I was already down to 10Mbps - this does not "normally" happen until after 6pm - I await 9pm with interest.

Will keep you posted ...

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