Vodafone has decreased my broadband speed 4x!

ihaveadarksoul

After one year of (18 months) contract with Vodafone they have decreased my speed from 7mbs to 1.7mbs! I was debating with technical support guy and that what he answered:

Hi there,
The line speed was set too high for stable service, so this was rectified as part of the revision of the services on your line.
Apologies - the packages are sold as 'up to' a certain speed, no minimum is guaranteed at point of sale, and the technology does have some restrictions on what can be delivered (line quality, equipment and distance from the exchange being major factors), sorry.
If you'd like to cancel, simply send an email confirming this to *** - please note that if you're still in contract, you'd be billed for any remaining months (currently, you're locked in until 22nd July).



How legal is it?

Xcellor

ihaveadarksoul wrote: »

After one year of (18 months) contract with Vodafone they have decreased my speed from 7mbs to 1.7mbs! I was debating with technical support guy and that what he answered:

Hi there,
The line speed was set too high for stable service, so this was rectified as part of the revision of the services on your line.
Apologies - the packages are sold as 'up to' a certain speed, no minimum is guaranteed at point of sale, and the technology does have some restrictions on what can be delivered (line quality, equipment and distance from the exchange being major factors), sorry.
If you'd like to cancel, simply send an email confirming this to *** - please note that if you're still in contract, you'd be billed for any remaining months (currently, you're locked in until 22nd July).



How legal is it?

If you cancel what broadband provider are you going to use then? You won't get a faster speed from any other reseller since they operate over the same phoneline.

It seems from your comment that the service was unstable so you were probably losing synch a lot of the time the only way to remedy this is to reduce the profile on your line.

I assume you have at this stage done all you can on your side to improve things. i.e. test the router plugged into the main master socket, remove any fax machines and other phones, sky box etc

ihaveadarksoul

Xcellor wrote: »

If you cancel what broadband provider are you going to use then? You won't get a faster speed from any other reseller since they operate over the same phoneline.

It seems from your comment that the service was unstable so you were probably losing synch a lot of the time the only way to remedy this is to reduce the profile on your line.

I assume you have at this stage done all you can on your side to improve things. i.e. test the router plugged into the main master socket, remove any fax machines and other phones, sky box etc

So regarding their policy they can decrease speed till 0.00001mb/s and this still would be legal? My speed was stable 7mbs for all year, but the point is I wouldnt sign a contract, knowing that my speed can go that low, noone would I presume. I think speed our days should only go UP, not DOWN. If they are getting new customers, they should upgrade their lines and etc as we keep paying same money for the service.

bk

ihaveadarksoul wrote: »

So regarding their policy they can decrease speed till 0.00001mb/s and this still would be legal? My speed was stable 7mbs for all year, but the point is I wouldnt sign a contract, knowing that my speed can go that low, noone would I presume. I think speed our days should only go UP, not DOWN. If they are getting new customers, they should upgrade their lines and etc as we keep paying same money for the service.

Yes, completely legal.

It really isn't in Vodafones or any companies interest to reduce your speed. They gain no economic benefit from doing that and just end up pissing off customers like yourself. Not good for business.

Unfortunately copper cables can suffer from rain and weather damage over time which can cause them to degrade and thus cause errors.

Having said all that there are potentially things you can do.

I assume you have checked if you can get UPC Broadband or eFibre services? And if not available yet, checked when eFibre might be coming to your area?

As Xcellor said, checked all the internal wiring in your home to make sure it isn't causing problems?

ihaveadarksoul

bk wrote: »

Yes, completely legal.

It really isn't in Vodafones or any companies interest to reduce your speed. They gain no economic benefit from doing that and just end up pissing off customers like yourself. Not good for business.

Unfortunately copper cables can suffer from rain and weather damage over time which can cause them to degrade and thus cause errors.

Having said all that there are potentially things you can do.

I assume you have checked if you can get UPC Broadband or eFibre services? And if not available yet, checked when eFibre might be coming to your area?

As Xcellor said, checked all the internal wiring in your home to make sure it isn't causing problems?

Thanks for the reply,
Yes I've checked everything and the technician just confirmed that speed was changed by Vodafone. Very sad situation.

ED E

This sounds like a bad prequal. Line degredation wont cause that much of a drop without a severe fault which the eircom techs should be able to fix.

Post your line stats (google how to do it) and we'll be better able to advise you.

ihaveadarksoul

ED E wrote: »

This sounds like a bad prequal. Line degredation wont cause that much of a drop without a severe fault which the eircom techs should be able to fix.

Post your line stats (google how to do it) and we'll be better able to advise you.

Ok will do it soon, thanks

dalta5billion

Pick up the phone and listen for any crackling. If there is they'll send out to Eircom for repair which should restore your original service (if you manage to get a hold of a good engineer and tell him what you used to get). Most likely the Vodafone guy was just following his script, and simply searched for the likeliest answer in his question and answer database.

I can understand your pain, as 2 Mbps puts you below the bar for lots of streaming services.

Was it a stable 7 Mbps before this? If you ran a speed test would it be all over the place?

Also post your line stats, including error rates (FEC etc). This will show if your line can handle a higher profile. Try rebooting the modem, plugging in and out as well.

If all else fails, go to Comreg or Small Claims to try get out of the contract.

ihaveadarksoul

dalta5billion wrote: »

Pick up the phone and listen for any crackling. If there is they'll send out to Eircom for repair which should restore your original service (if you manage to get a hold of a good engineer and tell him what you used to get). Most likely the Vodafone guy was just following his script, and simply searched for the likeliest answer in his question and answer database.

I can understand your pain, as 2 Mbps puts you below the bar for lots of streaming services.

Was it a stable 7 Mbps before this? If you ran a speed test would it be all over the place?

Also post your line stats, including error rates (FEC etc). This will show if your line can handle a higher profile. Try rebooting the modem, plugging in and out as well.

If all else fails, go to Comreg or Small Claims to try get out of the contract.

I've no phone, just broadband line, it's "Simply broadband" bandle.
Yes, I have had stable 7mbs every day for last year, now Im checking speed with OOKLA website and everytime it shows 1.7mbs which is too slow even for youtube.
If it's a line problem, should it be repeared I wonder?

ihaveadarksoul

Here some line stats:

Line Status
Help
Line standard G.dmt
Downstream line rate (kbit/s) 2048
Upstream line rate (kbit/s) 256
Downstream SNR (dB) 19
Upstream SNR (dB) 16
Downstream line attenuation (dB) 35
Upstream line attenuation (dB) 31.5
Downstream output power (dBmV) 18.8
Upstream output power (dBmV) 11.9
Downstream CRC 843
Upstream CRC 0
Downstream FEC 66241
Upstream FEC 0

ED E

What was the uptime when you copied that? In any case

Downstream line attenuation (dB)	35

Downstream SNR (dB) 19

these suggest your line is operating way under its max potential. Line should do 10Mb fine.

Theyve profiled you down to 2Mb and thats why you're getting consistently 1.7 on tests. Get on the blower and dont let up until they sort it. Its just a setting on their end.

ihaveadarksoul

ED E wrote: »

What was the uptime when you copied that? In any case

Downstream line attenuation (dB)	35

Downstream SNR (dB) 19

these suggest your line is operating way under its max potential. Line should do 10Mb fine.

Theyve profiled you down to 2Mb and thats why you're getting consistently 1.7 on tests. Get on the blower and dont let up until they sort it. Its just a setting on their end.

Hey, the test was done at 20:30

kaizersoze

ED E wrote: »

What was the uptime when you copied that? In any case

Downstream line attenuation (dB)	35

Downstream SNR (dB) 19

these suggest your line is operating way under its max potential. Line should do 10Mb fine.

Theyve profiled you down to 2Mb and thats why you're getting consistently 1.7 on tests. Get on the blower and dont let up until they sort it. Its just a setting on their end.

Agreed and probably a bit more.
I'm getting 13Mb with......
Line Attenuation: 35.1 dB
DSL Noise Margin: 7.4 dB

tvc15

kaizersoze wrote: »

Agreed and probably a bit more.
I'm getting 13Mb with......
Line Attenuation: 35.1 dB
DSL Noise Margin: 7.4 dB

Hold on, I have similar snr ratings and get less than 2meg broadband, is there no other technical limitations that might be possibly holding me back? All of my neighbours are on the same 3rd world broadband as me

Xcellor

Its my experience the higher the speed profile on the lower you SNR ratio will become when it falls below 6-7 you disconnect.

So someone with a SNR ratio of 10 who is synching at 15mb for example does NOT mean that someone with a SNR ratio of 10 and synching at 5 mb will be able to say "hey put me on 15mb because joe blogs down the street has 15mb and his SNR is the same as me".

itsallok

ihaveadarksoul wrote: »

After one year of (18 months) contract with Vodafone they have decreased my speed from 7mbs to 1.7mbs! I was debating with technical support guy and that what he answered:

Hi there,
The line speed was set too high for stable service, so this was rectified as part of the revision of the services on your line.
Apologies - the packages are sold as 'up to' a certain speed, no minimum is guaranteed at point of sale, and the technology does have some restrictions on what can be delivered (line quality, equipment and distance from the exchange being major factors), sorry.
If you'd like to cancel, simply send an email confirming this to *** - please note that if you're still in contract, you'd be billed for any remaining months (currently, you're locked in until 22nd July).
How legal is it?

There are 2 other possible reasons that your speed is affected apart from line degradation:

The line, and other lines in your area are fed to an eircom dslam or hub that is congested- this is a real issue that they are trying to fix in various parts of the country.

It is getting congested after eircom hand off to Vodafone.

I don't believe that 'the issue will be the same with all operators' is cut and dry, as these type of issues are widespread due to the increase in internet traffic.

ED E

Xcellor is correct.


Itsallock thats true, but he's been previously sync'd at 7Mb, now he's been profiled down to 2Mb, congestion wouldnt cause a profile change, just cause actual throughput to the net to nuke in the evenings.

OP did you change your bundle at all?

ihaveadarksoul

Actually Ive recieved message, that my vodafone plan is changed from simply broadband to unlimited, even i did not requested.
Here is an email:

We are pleased to let you know your Vodafone at Home upgrade request is now complete.

Here are the details of what you ordered:

Vodafone Unlimited Broadband (18 Month) €35.00 per month

Here are some of the great benefits you'll enjoy:

•Vodafone Unlimited Broadband
If you need to find out any additional information about your order, please visit our online self-care site at My Vodafone At Home.

After that Ive recieved one more message, that this was an system error and I should ignore it.

ED E

As above, call them. Only they can fix it.

ihaveadarksoul

Rang them twice around month ago, they promissed to check it for me, no changes so far.

weisses

ihaveadarksoul wrote: »

Rang them twice around month ago, they promissed to check it for me, no changes so far.

Why not post a message in the Vodafone forum here on boards ? Maybe they can help you further? Or ask one of the mods here to move your thread over

ihaveadarksoul

Didn't know about vodafone forum here. Actually I have discussed this topic allready with technical support on vodafone community forum (the first message is from that forum) and they didn't help. It's actually very sad, that so huge company says to its cuystomer "we can't help you, keep paying, cause you are on contract". Well, it's not about money even.

Sterling Archer

Most likely your on a non-enhanced exchange that pumps out 7.1m but has had more customers added and now is basically overloaded, given the db results you posted you should be able for higher speeds.

But you can only find out by ringing them and speaking to tech support,
Ask
If your exchange is enhanced? (check for yourself here http://irelandoffline.org/map/#/home)
What speed you are set to?
What is the max speed they theoretically could put you on?
What is the highest speed they will put you on - subject to intermittency

Oh, and try not to come off as aggressive ... being buddy buddy with the guy/girl on the phone can sometimes pay off