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erik

58 posts

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#201789 3-Sep-2016 23:01
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Let me first state that I had been a very satisfied Snap ADSL customer for over 7 years before they were bought out by 2 Degrees. 
Sure, the connection may not always have been the fastest, but I always had good speeds and most of all, I always felt that Snap cared about its customers and provided the best possible customer support of any ISP in New Zealand. 

 

Whenever I needed to contact support, I always had someone on the phone within 5 rings. And the person always provided quality support.  Over the years, I had modems go weird, only to be replaced by better models at no charge.  I had line termination issues in our previous house, which was a tricky problem and not an obvious one to solve. Snap got a Chorus technician over and helped resolve the problem at no charge. Whenever someone at work asked about my internet connection or provider, I would sing Snap's praises and highly recommended them to others. And I am pretty sure that I assisted Snap in acquiring a number of customers solely by word of mouth.

Fast forward to 2015.  Snap becomes 2 Degrees and in their communications they enable existing Snap ADSL customers to go unlimited VDSL as that's their standard offering, all I had to is to convert my Snap contract to 2 Degrees.  I call 2 Degrees, they ran the address checks on my home address and give me the all clear. I was told I was in a "good zone for VDSL".  Awesome. I double check the Chorus website and it shows pretty much the same.  So I say, let's do this. Fritzbox arrives, connection gets swapped at the exchange and I hook it all up and we're all good.  I know that the line may need some adjusting over time so I leave it two weeks before starting to run any speed checks, or rather before I started to notice that things weren't as they should have been.

 

While my download speed is okay, my upload speed has plonked from 768 kb/s on ADSL to .... 512 kb/s. On VDSL.  That's not right?
I look at the line spectrum in my Frtizbox and it shows no activity in the VDSL spectrum so it appears my line is acting like it's an ADSL connection, albeit with a high download speed.

 

So I ring 2 Degrees support. It takes well over an hour before I get through. The person will get some line checks done and promises me to call me back in two days. (Yes, I got him to confirm that I was going to get called back.)  Of course, that never happened so I once again spend around 50 minutes in queue waiting to get through to the support desk.

 

The person at the other end then tells me that I'm too far from the exchange, that there is nothing they can do and that they won't open a call with Chorus because of this.
I confront this person with the fact that I was told by 2 Degrees that I was "in a good zone for VDSL" and that I was therefore sold a product that they cannot deliver. I also offer to PAY for a technician to come check things out, if it turns out that the wiring at my house is at fault. 

All I want is good, proper upload speed as that it was I need for my work. I do not care so much about the download speed as I do not download movies, or any large files really. But I do need to upload files and greater upload speed also makes working on remote systems a lot smoother.

So the person, who is now starting to give me attitude, is telling me that there is nothing they can do and asks me what I want. (A decent connection would be nice, or at least taking this problem serious would be a start.)  I remained remarkably polite during this awkward conversation.

 

So nothing happened.  I logged a complaint with 2 Degrees as I was unsatisfied with the support provided and the lack of any tangible effort to resolve my problems.  Nothing. Not a single response. Nada. 

 

Of late, my upload speed decline down to 230 kb/s. Turning my Fritzbox on and off seems to help and the upload has crawled back to 538 kb/s now but it's nowhere near where it should be for VDSL. 

At this stage, I am rather stuck because I do not see the point of logging repeated support calls if 2 Degrees is obviously not interested in providing any support.  I could install a master filter, which unfortunately is easier said than done as it's located externally at the roof line of the phone rather than near the ground, but I really do not see much of a point in that unless I get confirmed from Chorus/2 Degrees that others in the immediate vicinity actually do achieve reasonable speeds. (again, I'm not expecting the world here.)  And again, I have no issue with paying for technican support if the issue lies solely within the boundaries of my property. 

 

What would be the best way forward? Is there a local technician in the Wellington area that is recommended?  Could the Fritzbox be faulty? Did someone make a mistake at the Chorus end when switching my connection?

At this stage, I am considering cancelling 2 Degrees all together and switch to one of the smaller providers - just to get some decent support.  Like Snap. Before it was bought out and had it's customer focussed culture assassinated.


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hio77
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  #1622175 3-Sep-2016 23:03
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768 on a adsl2 connection is a pretty clear note for your line.

 

VDSL is less resilient to line faults than adsl, even more so with the lower SNR profile on 8b lines now. 

 

 

 

Get the filter installed, thats not 2degrees fault at all.





#include <std_disclaimer>

 

Any comments made are personal opinion and do not reflect directly on the position my current or past employers may have.

 

 




michaelmurfy
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  #1622176 3-Sep-2016 23:08
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The person at the other end then tells me that I'm too far from the exchange, that there is nothing they can do and that they won't open a call with Chorus because of this. 


I believe 2degrees don't do master filters and it sounds like you need one. If you're in a "Good" VDSL coverage area (as in, not near the edge) and don't have a master filter then you'll need to get one installed.





Michael Murphy | https://murfy.nz
Referral Links: Quic Broadband (use R122101E7CV7Q for free setup)

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RunningMan
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  #1622222 4-Sep-2016 08:24
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VDSL without a master filter combined with dodgy internal dwelling wiring will tank the upload sync rate. If this is the case, the issue is all yours!

 

Post the VDSL line stats from the Fritzbox, and the spectrum graph, and that will help with the diagnosis.




thecatsgoolies
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  #1622250 4-Sep-2016 09:30
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@Erik fix the house wiring and I am sure the VDSL performance will improve upload and download

  #1622254 4-Sep-2016 09:38
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you make a huge post like that and dont include any line stats or graphs from the modem?


erik

58 posts

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  #1622751 4-Sep-2016 21:41
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No one at 2 Degrees even mentioned the need for a master filter.  Now I'm not arguing that it wouldn't help, but why wouldn't this even be asked or raised by the support person?
Instead, they blame the distance from the exchange.  And if that is true, wouldn't that make installing a master filter a moot point?  But I agree, it would be a good place to start.

 

However, who would I call to have one installed? I have a master filter sitting right in front of me, but I'm not able to install it myself. Is this something an electrician does in NZ?
While I'm technically able to install it,  the telecom entry point is six meters above ground, against the roof line of the house and over the porch roof.

 

Here are the stats from the modem:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I hope this provides some more insight into the cause of the problem. 


hio77
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  #1622764 4-Sep-2016 22:08
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This is often a problem you have with front line support.

 

 

 

They dont have all the options to offer, and to be honest the idea of a filter installation before other options is often a point nobody likes to swallow - $200! your insane!

 

 

 

An electrician could do it, however it is a question of if they actually know what they are doing when it comes to data. Often they do not sadly.

 

As for your stats itself, It actually doesn't look too bad error wise, but obviously is not healthy.  A filter will clean that up a fair bit.





#include <std_disclaimer>

 

Any comments made are personal opinion and do not reflect directly on the position my current or past employers may have.

 

 


 
 
 

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michaelmurfy
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  #1622766 4-Sep-2016 22:31
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Where are you based? @coffeebaron should be able to help if you're Auckland based.





Michael Murphy | https://murfy.nz
Referral Links: Quic Broadband (use R122101E7CV7Q for free setup)

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erik

58 posts

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  #1622767 4-Sep-2016 22:47
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hio77:

 

This is often a problem you have with front line support.

 

 They dont have all the options to offer, and to be honest the idea of a filter installation before other options is often a point nobody likes to swallow - $200! your insane!

 

 

That's what really annoyed me, and still does. Snap provided great support and I also made it very clear to 2 Degrees that I was more than happy to pay for any technician to sort out my wiring - if the fault was at my end.
Paying a few hundred bucks to get that all sorted is well worth the money in my book.

 

 

 

An electrician could do it, however it is a question of if they actually know what they are doing when it comes to data. Often they do not sadly.

 

As for your stats itself, It actually doesn't look too bad error wise, but obviously is not healthy.  A filter will clean that up a fair bit.

 

 

Are there any dedicated folks that do such installs and know what they're doing? That's my biggest issue - I wouldn't know who to call really.

 

 


erik

58 posts

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#1622768 4-Sep-2016 22:48
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michaelmurfy:

 

Where are you based? @coffeebaron should be able to help if you're Auckland based.

 

 

 

 

Wellington - funny that, with a nick like that one would assume he should be based down here :)


michaelmurfy
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  #1622770 4-Sep-2016 23:17
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erik:

 

michaelmurfy:

 

Where are you based? @coffeebaron should be able to help if you're Auckland based.

 

 

Wellington - funny that, with a nick like that one would assume he should be based down here :)

 

 

Ahh - @cyril7 should be able to assist you. I would do it but don't have the tools :)





Michael Murphy | https://murfy.nz
Referral Links: Quic Broadband (use R122101E7CV7Q for free setup)

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UHD

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  #1622773 5-Sep-2016 03:58
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Have the filter installed then switch over to BigPipe for a decent ISP. ;)


2degreesCare
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  #1622965 5-Sep-2016 11:54
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Hi all,

 

By the sounds of things, the line is pretty borderline for VDSL service, which explains the issues you are experiencing. Having a master filter installed may help things a bit in terms of tidying up the line from interference which might boost the sync rates a bit, but if the line is long/suffers from having multiples/cable is longer than estimated in the street, it may not make too much of a difference.

 

Erik, I'm more than happy to look in to your line stats if you like, please PM me your customer number and we'll take a look. If you'd like for us to arrange for a master filer install, this is $199 through Chorus.

 

Thanks,

 

Ralph ^JOB


erik

58 posts

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  #1624320 5-Sep-2016 23:48
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Thanks Ralph, I've just PM'ed you.


erik

58 posts

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  #1636793 20-Sep-2016 19:35
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Here's a quick update. Today the Chorus technician came by to install the master filter - although I had originally made an appointment for Friday 23/09.
I wasn't at home and this caught my wife out unaware but we managed to make it all work nevertheless.

I wasn't around to see the install happening but from the looks of it, it was all nice and tidy. 

So here are the new specs of our connection, now with filter installed:

 

 

 




 

 

 

Download speed has nearly doubled and upload speed has increased with 400%. It's still on the low-end for VDSL but I believe this is as good as it is going to get, considering the distance we're at.
It's definitely an improvement over ADSL and that was the whole purpose of switching to VDSL in the first place.

 

I would like to thank Ralph for the excellent communication and service. Once Ralph contacted me, it was very easy to get this all arranged.

Ralph was awesome and gets high marks from me. However I cannot escape the feeling that had the service desk made mention of the Chorus filter install service, this whole problem would have been solved right there and then!
Great job from Chorus too, as climbing in the roof space and then underneath our house isn't a fun job by any means - and yet the whole thing only costs $199.

 

 

 

 


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