UPC Rubbish Internet!!

Jonathanpbk

Ok, so the story is:

I am paying for the 30meg line now, started recently. I had the 20meg up till then. I've been having trouble with the connection dropping out completely. Especially when downloading large files. This could last 1 - 5mins or maybe until i reset my modem. Occasionally this has lasted up to hours and in 1 or 2 cases, days.

The second problem I am having now, after switching to 30meg, is that I am receiving about a 3rd of the speed that I am paying for.
All speedtests peak at approx 5 or 6 Mb/s when they should be reaching 30 and UPC's own speedtest peaks at a higher 13 (surprise surprise). Also well below the 30 I am paying for.

I was on to UPC for an hour the other day trying to sort this and dealt with an extremely rude man. He knew nothing about the technical side of things and argued with me that it was my problem and that he was showing full speed in his tests. He demanded I connect the modem directly to my computer as they "did not support" routers apparently and refused to go on until I did. My argument that it never caused a problem before fell on deaf ears and only caused him to be more rude. Eventually after him telling me that I would be charged 50 euro for a call-out, I completely lost the rag and demanded to speak to a manager.

This man was not much better I can tell you but he explained that the 50 quid would only be charged if they found that the problem was my end and I was pretty confident that I was right so I accepted. Of course 2 days later the connection was back up to full speed and I cancelled the call-out so as not to get charged. (yes, I had to wait 3 days for a technician!!!)

Anyway, long story short, Is anyone else having similar problems with their service? And is there any action I can take regarding breach of contract on their behalf with their failure to provide full service?

Sorry for the long post, wanted to get all the details across!

See screenshots of speedtests attached:

SPEEDTEST.NET



SPEEDTEST.UPC.IE



MYUPC

dub45

It would help with virtually every post if people gave details of their set ups. For example nowhere in your post do you mention if you are using wireless and you also mention a router at one stage so can you tell us exactly what your set up is?

Jonathanpbk

Sorry!

I have a Netgear WRG614 wireless router which my machine is wired into with a static IP.
And the UPC modem is a Scientific Atlanta EPC2203.

For the sake of argument I wired my computer directly to the modem while on the phone with the ignorant UPC guy which made zero difference.

yoyo

try also http://speedtest.magnet.ie/ , I've noticed that eircoms/digiwebs speedtest.net results can be inaccurate at times, eg magnets test gave me: 29554 kbps/1913 kbps just there and speedtest.net gave this: http://www.speedtest.net/result/879529365.png

Nick

Jonathanpbk

No joy there either I'm afraid.

yoyo

Jonathanpbk wrote: »

No joy there either I'm afraid.

Weird your getting much closer to 3 meg upload than I've ever got :pac: , I'd ring them and just say you arn't happy with the speed, despite all the people complaining about the horrors of UPCs support for the few times I've had queries I've got through either instantly or in about 5 mins on hold max, ring their freephone number 1908 and have your account number ready.
I had a problem with poor signal stats recently and suffered from disconnects/slow speeds and the girl sent a bloke out, he confirmed internal wireing was ok and it was probably outdoor wiring and then got on to first level support i think it was, anyways not been having problems since

Nick

CaSCaDe711

@ Jonathanpbk, what version is your router..? Read somewhere anything under V7 is incompatible with UPC. Own a V7 myself, decided to use that a few months back when originally getting UPC broadband in, worked grand, but about a month ago the wireless signal was constantly dropping. Have yet to make time to find what's causing it.

Jonathanpbk

You see, the problem with their serveice is not that I have to hold all the time or can't get through... It's that they won't sort out my problems!!

I found out recently that I had 2 seperate accounts set up in my house. One for internet and phone, the other for TV. Just because someone there was too lazy to merge the 2! I was getting charged a stand-alone "no tv" charge for 16 months because of their error! It was only because I was on to them about other problems that I found out! The recharged 136 euro onto my account! My mother who was paying the bill just didn't notice cause it was direct debit!

I'm really getting to the end of my tether with them now but it's hard to leave because nothing comes close to the 30Meg line for that price!

Jonathanpbk

CaSCaDe711 wrote: »

@ Jonathanpbk, what version is your router..? Read somewhere anything under V7 is incompatible with UPC. Own a V7 myself, decided to use that a few months back when originally getting UPC broadband in, worked grand, but about a month ago the wireless signal was constantly dropping. Have yet to make time to find what's causing it.

Sorry, but I don't know what the version is... Can you tell me where to find it?

CaSCaDe711

On the label under your router, just above the illustration of your router's ports

tazzzZ

he did say that he got the same dl and ul while connected directly to the modem so i doubt its a router issue.

I remember turning off the firewall on the porvided router used to do the trick for ppl. if its not a router issue i doubt thats the problem.

CaSCaDe711

You snapped your modem's label :rolleyes:

The Netgear router worked fine here for wired connections, similar speeds on speedtest.net for both wired and wireless, then when the wireless connection started dropping all the time, stopped using it altogether.

Will try mess with it before the week is out and see if there's any difference.

Jonathanpbk

CaSCaDe711 wrote: »

You snapped your modem's label :rolleyes:

The Netgear router worked fine here for wired connections, similar speeds on speedtest.net for both wired and wireless, then when the wireless connection started dropping all the time, stopped using it altogether.

Will try mess with it before the week is out and see if there's any difference.

LOL!!!

Completely did NOT read what you said initially! HAHA
Explains why I couldn't find it so!

Mine is a v9. Only used to have the connection dropping problem the odd time. And NEVER had this speed issue before recently!

Was talking to a man at Magnet cause I've been shopping around. He seems to think it's down to contention. Of course he would say that... I really doubt it.

CaSCaDe711

:eek:

Any friends / neighbours experiencing similar issues in your area..?

Jonathanpbk

not that i know of, but then i don't know many of the people in my area and those i do don't have upc!

jay93

that really sucks for a 30mb connection
its has happened alot of people who went for the 30mb upgrade
alot of them have reported after a while it does go upto 30mb
but all in all lets wait and see what the engineer says !!:):rolleyes:

Karmafaerie

I simply love how every week we have another of these threads.

My Eircom/UPC/Magnet/etc speeds are slow therefore Eircom/UPC/Magnet/etc Broadband is $hite.

No.
You are having a problem, the vast, vast, vast, majority of people don't.
Like me for instance.

Now I'm not saying that you don't have a problem, but a title like "UPC Rubbish Internet" is vastly misleading.



Now down to your problem, the reason that the UPC agent was stating that they can't support routers is.........that they can't support routers!
The argument of "it worked fine before" is possibly the most useless one out there.
Everything works before it stops working!!!
So saying last week my router worked, simply means that last week your router worked.
Not this week your router works!

The only, only, way to verify your connection is through a completely hard wired connection.

Turn off your computer, and unplug both modem and router.
Put the cable from the router directly into the computer and power back on the modem and computer, leaving the router off.

Then test your speed and I would suggest the magnet site as was suggested earlier.


Again, I'm not saying that there is no problem, but for you to get mad at the agent for suggesting that it could be your router, just because your router worked before is a bit much.

Somebody could have installed a new wireless device in your area on the channel you're using, your router could be set to auto channel, your router may need it's firmware updated, your network card may need it's drivers updated, etc, etc, etc...

There are lots of things that can cause slow speeds, so when the tech agent tests your line and sees that everything seems okay, then of course they're gonna want to check all possible issues.
They can't simply send a tech out for everything as it would solve nothing, and those service call waiting times you were complaining about would be pushed out even further.

Jonathanpbk

I'm sorry, but excuse me, get off your high horse before posting an unhelpful comment please.

I have stated in my previous posts that it was not that the tech support guy suggested it might be the router. It was that he threatened to hang up on my because I was using one. It was his attitude that got to me, not his standard, 1st line support questioning.

I also stated that for the sake of argument I did as he said and plugged it directly in, to no avail. I also clearly stated that I am WIRED in to my wireless router so the wireless channeling is clearly not an issue.

The fact that my problems are intermittent would suggest that obviously the problem is NOT on my end, also. And stating that "my router worked before" was just my response to his very rude, and I quote, "you must have done something wrong" statement.

The problem with boards is not my choice of title. It's people like you with a chip on your shoulder for no apparent reason.

If you're not going to reply with something helpful, then please don't reply at all pal

Karmafaerie

Jonathanpbk wrote: »

I'm sorry, but excuse me, get off your high horse before posting an unhelpful comment please.

I have stated in my previous posts that it was not that the tech support guy suggested it might be the router. It was that he threatened to hang up on my because I was using one. It was his attitude that got to me, not his standard, 1st line support questioning.

I also stated that for the sake of argument I did as he said and plugged it directly in, to no avail. I also clearly stated that I am WIRED in to my wireless router so the wireless channeling is clearly not an issue.

The fact that my problems are intermittent would suggest that obviously the problem is NOT on my end, also. And stating that "my router worked before" was just my response to his very rude, and I quote, "you must have done something wrong" statement.

The problem with boards is not my choice of title. It's people like you with a chip on your shoulder for no apparent reason.

If you're not going to reply with something helpful, then please don't reply at all pal

I sincerely, doubt that he threatened to hang up on you simply because you were using a router.
I'd imagine that he told you that unless you checked via cabled connection that he couldn't help you.
Maybe you should ring them and ask for a recording of the phone call.
Cause I've worked in call centers before, so I can tell you from personal experience, the conversation often didn't happen the way you remember it.

And I'm not on a high horse.
Did you, or did you not start a thread about UPC Broadband being rubbish, because you, one of their 150,000 or so customers have a problem, that you admit was cleared up after a few days?!

I simply pointed out that you having a problem means that you have a problem, not that the Broadband service has one!
Can you not comprehend this?!

I post regularly on boards, and like to think that I do help some people.
I go out of my way to do so, simply cause it's the nice thing to do.
You'll find three or four threads on this page alone where I'm trying to help people.
But you come in with an inflamatory title, for no reason, insulting an entire companies broadband service, simply cause you have a problem, and you say that I have a chip on my shoulder!

Wow.

And to let you know, the reason that I'm talking to you about this is that I have the exact same router that you have.
I no longer use it, but did for about 3 years.
I know it left, right, and center, and living in a few different apartment buildings, I know every little issue that it can have.

So no, a cabled connection through the router does not equate to a cabled connection through the modem, as your router can cause problems to cabled connections also.
No, the fact that the issue isn't intermitant means nothing, it can still be an issue with the router.

When did you last update your firmware?
When did you last reset your router?
When did you last scan your area for other wireless devices to compare the channels in use.

These are all things that I would do before calling in a call center, and if they told me that thee seemed to be no problem on their end, but that they would send somebody to check it out anyway, I sure as hell wouldn't post an attack on them on a public forum.


And for the third or fourth time, I'm not saying that there was no issue, just that you weer being unreasonable in your post.

Jonathanpbk wrote: »

If you're not going to post something relevant, then please don't reply at all pal

Oh, I fixed your post for you.

jor el

Jonathanpbk wrote: »

The fact that my problems are intermittent would suggest that obviously the problem is NOT on my end, also.

No, it wouldn't. There could be a problem with the router, and the only way to rule that out, and put the blame on UPC, would be to wire from the modem directly to the computer. You have your router in the middle, and UPC are not going to support any issues that might be caused by that.

Jonathanpbk wrote: »

If you're not going to reply with something helpful, then please don't reply at all pal

You should check that attitude before continuing.

Jonathanpbk

jor el wrote: »

You should check that attitude before continuing.

Ah here come on. I tried to be as fair as possible there. Is it just cause I put "pal" at the end that resulted in that warning? I really don't think a bold warning is warranted here.

@Karmafaerie:
I'm sorry if you took offense to my title... In fairness, i am having rubbish internet.

And both of you really don't seem to be reading my posts thoroughly because I have said multiple times now, how I have wired it directly to the modem and still have the problem.

I've also said how it went away and came back. Both while connected to the modem, and the router... How can that not suggest it's not at my end?

Karmafaerie

Jonathanpbk wrote: »

Ah here come on. I tried to be as fair as possible there. Is it just cause I put "pal" at the end that resulted in that warning? I really don't think a bold warning is warranted here.

@Karmafaerie:
I'm sorry if you took offense to my title... In fairness, i am having rubbish internet.

And both of you really don't seem to be reading my posts thoroughly because I have said multiple times now, how I have wired it directly to the modem and still have the problem.

I've also said how it went away and came back. Both while connected to the modem, and the router... How can that not suggest it's not at my end?

I wasn't taking offence at you man, just the way it ws portrayed.
As I said at first not a week goes by that there aren't threads in here where people say a service is terrible, just cause they're having problems.
It just grinds my gears.

I had problems with Eircom years ago, but that doesn't mean that I'd start a thread stating that Eircom is sh1t, because I know that most don't have this problem.

Also like I was saying, I'm not saying that you didn't have a service issue, just that the agent had to ask you to check without the router as they have to cut out all outside influences before they can say it's an issue with their service.

You have to understand that they get tonnes of calls a day from people who's routers are at fault so they have to take them out of the equation.

jay93

Well to be fair if i was getting speeds of 3mb/s on a 30mb/s line i would call it rubbish also as them speeds are rubbish fair enough for people that the service is ok but alot of people here have problems with UPC
and defending them does not help anyone
as for the guy about to hang up on the phone i wouldnt be suprised i have got some rude customer care reps from UPC in the past when we had tv with them which was a nightmare!!
the point is the op broadband was fine before the upgrade to 30mb now its gone to the dogs and is crawling along so its obviously a UPC problem and if you read the whole thread here on boards about problems with upgrading to UPC 30MB you will know UPC are just messing around with people why offer upgrades if its going to cause so many problems for people??
i can just imagine how bad their upgrades to 100mb+ will be if they can barely get 30mb working properly:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

jor el

Jonathanpbk wrote: »

I really don't think a bold warning is warranted here.

Bolding the text is done to distinguish between a moderation point, a a regular post. Not to make it loot like a serious warning. That's what the yellow and red cards are for.

CaSCaDe711

Mentioned earlier, my router started dropping connection nearly 2 months ago (also WGR614, but a V7), so after some frustration, unplugged that and left it on the shelf to be ignored. Was planning to try sort that problem this weekend as I miss using the laptop downstairs, but made time today. All working fine so far, after shutting down, disconnecting everything, blew into all the ports, relocated the router further away from the modem and pc, and ensured all cables were snuggly set with some slack. Not on a 30mb package like yourself Jonathanpbk, but mentioning because the deconstruct & rebuild approach can often achieve surprising results.

Jonathanpbk

Well guess what!

It's back to full whack, router and all.

Somehow, I doubt that will be the last of it...

It's irritating paying for a service and only receiving it half the time.

CaSCaDe711

That's good to hear, long may your connection stay