What's up with IBB?

MrPudding

I have had to call tem twice in the last week and on both occasions I got through in less than 10 minutes, less than five on one occasion.

Also, the people spoke to made commitments to either call or mail me back.....and they did.

Also, also, there was supposed to be a upgrade on my high site, Rochestown (sp?), since this has happend my connection has been unbelievebly good. By unbelievebly good I mean I am now actually getting what I have been paying for (and a bit more ofr uploads.) Three days now it has been like this. Could it be a permenant fix? I live in hope.

MrP

jor el

Maybe with the amount of píssed of customers leaving IBB you're the only one left. Hence no contention on the high site or delay getting through on the phone, since they're all sitting around waiting for the phone to ring.

Then again, maybe not.

MrPudding

jor el wrote:

Maybe with the amount of píssed of customers leaving IBB you're the only one left. Hence no contention on the high site or delay getting through on the phone, since they're all sitting around waiting for the phone to ring.

Then again, maybe not.

A distinct possibility that I never thought of!

MrP

Grayarea

I am on the same mast and have had the same great bandwidth for the last three days.

Hope it lasts!

Later,

cormac_byrne

MrPudding wrote:

I have had to call tem twice in the last week and on both occasions I got through in less than 10 minutes, less than five on one occasion.

Also, the people spoke to made commitments to either call or mail me back.....and they did.

Also, also, there was supposed to be a upgrade on my high site, Rochestown (sp?), since this has happend my connection has been unbelievebly good. By unbelievebly good I mean I am now actually getting what I have been paying for (and a bit more ofr uploads.) Three days now it has been like this. Could it be a permenant fix? I live in hope.

MrP

Don't worry it must have been a fluke, I emailed them and had an issue escalated over a week ago, not heard from them since.

And my service is truely woeful 228 kbps down / 4.36 kbps up
(yes only slightly more than carrier pigeon)

so sent them this:-

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Date: Sat, 11 Feb 2006 13:05:35 +0000 (GMT)
From: "Cormac Byrne" <cormac_byrne@#######.com> Add to Address BookAdd to Address Book
Subject: Re: [irishbroadband.ie #81834] Cormac Byrne ID-31122 Connection problem
To: support@irishbroadband.ie

It's been a week and still I've heard nothing.
I do not believe that Irish Broadband has any intention of correcting my problem.
Not do I believe you have the technical ability to fix it even if you did care.

I have given you ample opportunity on numerous occasions to fix the problems.
Your service has been sadly lacking in all departments.

Your Breeze connection has never worked properly.
It is not of merchandisable quality.
Therefore please cancel my account and refund all monies paid to date.

If I do not receive a full refund within the next 7 days,
then be assured that I will take all steps necessary to recover the funds by whatever means
available to me.



--- via RT <support@irishbroadband.ie> wrote:

> Hello Cormac,
> thanks for that results. I'm going to escalate this issue to 2nd line
> and as soon as we have more information we will let you know.
>
> Regards,
>
>
>
> Irish Broadband Support
> support@irishbroadband.ie
> 1890 56 44 56
>

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I wonder how many times you have to ring a company director's doorbell at 4am before he hands over the cash.

netwhizkid

Holy crap, IBB must be bad. I'm getting better than that on a Sat Broadband one-way coupled to dial-up.

Has anyone tried suing them for false advertising when they are not delivering what they are offering?

BrendanD

cormac_byrne wrote:

Don't worry it must have been a fluke, I emailed them and had an issue escalated over a week ago, not heard from them since.

And my service is truely woeful 228 kbps down / 4.36 kbps up
(yes only slightly more than carrier pigeon)

so sent them this:-

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Date: Sat, 11 Feb 2006 13:05:35 +0000 (GMT)
From: "Cormac Byrne" <cormac_byrne@#######.com> Add to Address BookAdd to Address Book
Subject: Re: [irishbroadband.ie #81834] Cormac Byrne ID-31122 Connection problem
To: support@irishbroadband.ie

It's been a week and still I've heard nothing.
I do not believe that Irish Broadband has any intention of correcting my problem.
Not do I believe you have the technical ability to fix it even if you did care.

I have given you ample opportunity on numerous occasions to fix the problems.
Your service has been sadly lacking in all departments.

Your Breeze connection has never worked properly.
It is not of merchandisable quality.
Therefore please cancel my account and refund all monies paid to date.

If I do not receive a full refund within the next 7 days,
then be assured that I will take all steps necessary to recover the funds by whatever means
available to me.



--- via RT <support@irishbroadband.ie> wrote:

> Hello Cormac,
> thanks for that results. I'm going to escalate this issue to 2nd line
> and as soon as we have more information we will let you know.
>
> Regards,
>
>
>
> Irish Broadband Support
> support@irishbroadband.ie
> 1890 56 44 56
>

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I wonder how many times you have to ring a company director's doorbell at 4am before he hands over the cash.

Going through the same ding dong myself when I emailed them a very similar letter they opened a new ticket without fixing the original ticket, looking at net meter now and am d/l at 51k from heatnet , ibb are rubbish anyone thinking of signing up with them STAY AWAY

Sesshoumaru

I phoned last week and got through fairly fast to a tech support guy. 7 minutes I think it was. My problem was I was consistantly only getting about 200kilobits of download bandwidth over the previous week. His Explanation to me was that the link from my routers WAN port to the antenna on my roof was only running at 10mbit. I hate when these tech support monkeys try to fob people off with cobbled together techno mumbo jumbo. Even if that link was running at 10mbit half duplex it would still have more than enough badwidth for my supposed 2mbit internet connection.

Then he wanted me to connect my PC directly into the Alvarion box. I aways laugh when they tell me to do this, they only ask people to do this cause they know most people will have a wireless router and their PC won't be anywhere near this box and it won't be possible to connect directly with a network cable. A convenient way for the tech support monkeys to get rid of a customer off the line quickly. Luckily I had two laptops to spare and was able to jump through more of these pointless hoops. When tech support monkey finally got the router and alvarion box talking at 100mbit he asked me to try my internet connection again. I was so shocked when it was still only running at 200kilobits per second :rolleyes: Then the cheeky bugger had the audacity to tell that this speed was fine when you consider contention ratio. I asked to speak to a manager and was given the usual bullcrap about none being there etc etc. Tech monkey took my details and said he would get a manager to call me back and here I am one week later without a call back.

But I'm not bitter anymore, I phoned NTL the next day and I am getting their 3mbit package installed on Tuesday. I get their basic TV package free for one year and they told me all 3mbit customers would be upgraded to 10mbit in 2 months. Happy days

BrendanD

if only NTL were in Limerick still magnet looks good

MrPudding

How long will it last?

MrP

cormac_byrne

MrPudding wrote:

How long will it last?

MrP

Hey some of that is my bandwidth, you robbing bastard

Out of curiosity, can anyone post a worse stat than mine?

Rattlehead_ie

Sesshoumaru :What product are you on breeze what?
Mr Puddin:Im on same mast as you and just getting under the speed you are, its great wonder how long itll last,till the monkies slip on the banana's again

MrPudding

Over the past 5 months I had worse than that plenty of times. DL were sometimes as bad a 3 to 9 kbps. Mostly it was round ISDN speed and up to 400 if I was lucky.

Grayarea wrote:

I am on the same mast and have had the same great bandwidth for the last three days.

Hope it lasts!

Later,

How was yours before the backhaul upgrade?

MrP

Rattlehead_ie

Mine b4 upgrade was terrible 3/4 of time once 1am came it was ok,average,Now its 99% perfect.

Sesshoumaru

Rattlehead_ie wrote:

Sesshoumaru :What product are you on breeze what?
Mr Puddin:Im on same mast as you and just getting under the speed you are, its great wonder how long itll last,till the monkies slip on the banana's again

I am paying for the 2mbit package. One week it works, the next it doesn't, then it works, then it doesnt work for a few weeks and so on and so forth. You ring them, you email them and sometimes they fix it for a little while and sometimes they go on ignoring you. So don't worry lads your connection will go to hell again in a week or two

Snaga

Sesshoumaru wrote:

Then he wanted me to connect my PC directly into the Alvarion box. I aways laugh when they tell me to do this, they only ask people to do this cause they know most people will have a wireless router and their PC won't be anywhere near this box and it won't be possible to connect directly with a network cable. A convenient way for the tech support monkeys to get rid of a customer off the line quickly.

This is the first thing anyone should do to while troubleshooting the problem or trying to duplicate your problems - in fact you should have done it yourself before you rang tech support and supplied them with the details.(Im assuming you have better technical experience from the names you are calling those on the other end of the phone).

They do not run your LAN, you do - they are not going to troubleshoot it for you. If you ring up for tech assistance on your internet circuit - then be ready to test your internet circuit without your LAN attached to it.

That said - Ive had an IBB circuit before and it was terrible, I prefer my broadband with wires But to suggest that a perfectly good troubleshooting step like the above is an 'excuse for the monkeys to get you off the phone' is a bit, well, stupid.

Sesshoumaru

Snaga wrote:

This is the first thing anyone should do to while troubleshooting the problem or trying to duplicate your problems - in fact you should have done it yourself before you rang tech support and supplied them with the details.(Im assuming you have better technical experience from the names you are calling those on the other end of the phone).

They do not run your LAN, you do - they are not going to troubleshoot it for you. If you ring up for tech assistance on your internet circuit - then be ready to test your internet circuit without your LAN attached to it.

That said - Ive had an IBB circuit before and it was terrible, I prefer my broadband with wires But to suggest that a perfectly good troubleshooting step like the above is an 'excuse for the monkeys to get you off the phone' is a bit, well, stupid.

Yes I do have more technical experience than the monkey in IBB tech support I was speaking to. When I plugged my laptop into the Alvarion box it connected at 10mbit same as my router. Then the guy tried to tell me my network card in the laptop was faulty. So I plugged it into the swith on the router and it connected at 100mbit. He kept trying to insist both my router and laptop were faulty, that he had set the IBB equipment to connect at 100mbit. So I unplugged the alvarion box against his advise to reboot it and plugged it back in and it magically worked at 100mbit. Not that it made a blind bit of difference to my internet connection.

As to plugging directly into the Alvarion box. Its not an IP device. It is a POE(power over ethernet) device. It simply supplies power to the kit they stick on your roof. Which can be completely controlled/analysed by them remotely. So unless you are getting no internet connectivity whatsoever its pointless to plug your PC into it and at the end of all those "tests" my speed was exactly the same as before. Then he told me that this speed was fine. So I just had to ask myself why did he get me to do all those tests in the first place? I had already told him what speed I was getting before he got me to run all those tests. They have the ability to see how busy the node I am connected to is as well. So before he got me do anything he knew he wasn't going to be able to do anything to fix my connection. Thats because the problem is simply that they are oversubscribed on their network. So he spent almost the entire telephone conversation trying to concoct bogus technical reasons as to why it was my fault the connection was so slow. Then when he couldn't do that he told me their was no longer a problem with the connection, that I'd just have to live with a connection that fluctuated between 70kbps and 200kbps. I hate tech support monkeys :P

*Oh and before you get more upset, I only refer to this type of tech support guy as a monkey. Its always a great pleasure when you get a tech support person who genuinely wants to help you. My own wife works fo Smart Telecom in technical support answering calls. So I know they can get alot of crap from customers. But I was at all times perfectly polite on the phone and it really pisses me off when I get treated like a moron in return by tech monkey.

watty

It's an insult to simians to call call centre people Monkeys. They have to follow a script. One place I know has 100% staff turnover. When asked why the contract is just for four weeks the staff are told that nobody lasts four weeks.

MrPudding

Sesshoumaru wrote:

Thats because the problem is simply that they are oversubscribed on their network.

This is something that really p1ssed me off. For the whole time this latest trouble ticket has been going they have denied the problem was with backhaul and they also said no one else on my high site had a problem.

If the problem was not a lack of backhaul then how come a backhaul upgrade fixed it?

Have any of you ever actually spoken to one of the 2nd level guys? Do they exist? The best I could ever get was the the 1st line guy going backwards and forwards between us.

Me: Can you find out what the problem actually is please?
2nd line guy via 1st line guy: It's technical?
Me: Wow, it's technical. Well could I get some more detail please? I am technical myself, I think I will be OK.
2nd line guy via 1st line guy: There seems to be a problem with your connection.

I sincerly hope I get a call from one of the directors, I have a lot of good stuff to tell him.

MrP

Rattlehead_ie

t was still only running at 200kilobits per second Then the cheeky bugger had the audacity to tell that this speed was fine when you consider contention ratio

Im not trying to b smart but I want to get this right.
You have a 2Mb line
2Mb = 2 megabits = 2048 kilobits

Grand all happy there????
Your contention ratio is 24:1 so at any one time you MAY have to share with 23 other ppl,correct?

2048 / 24 = 85.3 kilobits

So when you have 200kilobits, the "Monkey" is correct , you are within contention.

Sesshoumaru

Rattlehead_ie wrote:

Im not trying to pick a fight but I want to get this right.
You have a 2Mb line
2Mb = 2 megabits = 2048 kilobits

Grand all happy there????
Your contention ratio is 24:1 so at any one time you MAY have to share with 23 other ppl,correct?

2048 / 24 = 85.3 kilobits

So when you have 200kilobits, the "Monkey" is correct , you are within contention.

Thanks for that Rattlehead. I already did the sums. I suppose you would be happy to consistantly have a 200kbps connection for 48 euro per month? There' no line rental in that figure either since this is IBB's network. How can the other ISP's provide full speed at nearly all times? Where are the scores of users on other ISP's networks complaining about consistantly getting very slow speeds? I'm switching to NTL on Tuesday and from what I have seen on this BB, 3mbit means 3mbit on NTL's service. They have a 17:1 contention ratio on the contract. But they know that people still expect 3mbit at least most of the time. Oh and my connection has gone below 85kbps. Like I said earlier it has fluctuated between 70kbps and 200kbps.

Rattlehead_ie

u see thats where I have the problem.
Ok all the other wired ISP's have contention ratio's, but RARELY do they come into play, I know when using other ppls connection Ive never noticed it.
While with Wireless IBB and ClearWire, contention is a big part of it. Although alot of customers do have really bad connection with IBB I dont think alot of them realise they are getting whats advertised and seem to ignore the contention ratio part of the product. Oh well!

MrPudding

Rattlehead_ie wrote:

u see thats where I have the problem.
Ok all the other wired ISP's have contention ratio's, but RARELY do they come into play, I know when using other ppls connection Ive never noticed it.
While with Wireless IBB and ClearWire, contention is a big part of it. Although alot of customers do have really bad connection with IBB I dont think alot of them realise they are getting whats advertised and seem to ignore the contention ratio part of the product. Oh well!

Contention is contention whether wired or not. It is the number of people sharing a fixed amount of backhaul. IBB have obviously not purchased enough for the number of people they are serving.

The fact that my connection is suddenly fixed after a backhaul upgrade should be a hint as to what the problem was.

I, like many others, suffered from speeds similar to what you would get if you were sharing a 56k modem with 24:1 contention. I know very well what contention can mean but like has been pointed out to you the speeds under full contention should be the exception and not the rule.

MrP

GavinJCD

Contention on most ISP's doesn't work that way. If your contention ratio is 24:1 then you share a block with 23 other users. But you don't share your capped bandwidth, whether it be 2 mbit or 1 or whatever. You share the combined bandwidth of that block, as if you were plugged into a 24 port hub. Now obviously the bandwidth varies whether it be 10 meg total or 100. And some ISP's only bring contentions into issue when they run out of external bandwidth.

Gav

MrPudding

GavinJCD wrote:

Contention on most ISP's doesn't work that way. If your contention ratio is 24:1 then you share a block with 23 other users. But you don't share your capped bandwidth, whether it be 2 mbit or 1 or whatever. You share the combined bandwidth of that block, as if you were plugged into a 24 port hub. Now obviously the bandwidth varies whether it be 10 meg total or 100. And some ISP's only bring contentions into issue when they run out of external bandwidth.

Gav

If you speak to IBB they will tell you the contention is against your capped bandwith. I always questioned them on this, I always though it was as you explained on the backhaul, all you get then is ah, umm, ah.

MrP

Sesshoumaru

A cousin of mine is a wireless network engineer. Back when I was first signing up with IBB I asked him what did he think of their setup. He told me the equipment they were using was good and that the company he works for had in fact installed all the networking gear for IBB. He did tell me an interesting story about their site in Clondalkin, when they first started signing up customers in that area they only had a 64kbps ISDN line as the backhaul for users connected to that site. They weren't telling people that though. I am sure it probably wasn't for more than a couple of weeks at most. But that gives you an indication of the the kind of company you are dealing with in IBB.