Extremely slow broadband connection

pctech · Apr 25, 2011, 16:53:40

As you say it does all depend on the size of the customer base plus operating costs.

IDNet is much smaller than Zen but Zen have supplied products such as Ethernet longer than IDNet so may have garnered more of the Corporate business market at this stage.

As these products gain traction it is likely that support arrangements will have to be reconsidered as those type of customers will probably want extended support hours and possibly formal weekend cover so am sure things will improve.

Rik · Apr 25, 2011, 17:01:00

I think Joe Public now wants broadband to work as reliably as gas, water or electricity, Mitch, and it never will. However, the aspiration needs to be addressed.

pctech · Apr 25, 2011, 17:08:50

The only way it will be that reliable is when FTTP becomes ubiquitous, ADSL no matter who the ISP is has been disappointing for most people.

I really don't want to put the boot in here but it does seem that IDNet are falling behind regarding support.

.Griff. · Apr 25, 2011, 17:15:47

Quote from: Glenn on Apr 25, 2011, 16:06:48
From the website FAQ http://www.idnet.net/support/faq.jsp#content23

8am – 6.30pm Monday to Thursday
8am – 6pm Friday
Support via email is available 24/7 at support@idnet.com

Aah that makes everything ok then.

On the actual product page where you purchase the product it says one thing but as long as the truth is buried away in the FAQ's that's fine.

Rik · Apr 25, 2011, 17:17:08

We have drawn IDNet's attention to this thread, Griff, so I would hope the error will be corrected tomorrow.

.Griff. · Apr 25, 2011, 17:19:31

Cheers Rik.

Steve · Apr 25, 2011, 17:23:20

This is not a dig at you or Zen or a defence of IDNET,OK Mitch as a ZEN customer what are your options if you have line fault yesterday or indeed Friday, looking at their website your nearly in the same boat as us, admittedly any other weekend ZEN support office is open, also do you know whether there is any out of hours support which IDNet claim on their website that they provide.

http://status.zensupport.co.uk/index.php?serviceid=17&incidentid=2201

Please be aware that Zen Internet will be closed over the upcoming Easter and English Bank Holiday dates as follows:
Good Friday (22nd April): Closed
Easter Sunday (24th April): Closed
Easter Monday (25th April): Closed
Royal Wedding (29th April): Closed
May Day (2nd May): Closed

My point is unless you with one of the big players , you ain't going to get 24/7 support but conversely I accept advertised obligations to be fulfilled.

sobranie · Apr 25, 2011, 17:23:54

I've been a customer of IDNet for over 5 years and have received good quality support . However, if IDNet staff can't be bothered to get off their fat ar*es and explain they're total ignorance in respect of this thread, then I shall (sadly) vote with my feet.

pctech · Apr 25, 2011, 18:00:37

Quote from: Steve on Apr 25, 2011, 17:23:20
This is not a dig at you or Zen or a defence of IDNET,OK Mitch as a ZEN customer what are your options if you have line fault yesterday or indeed Friday, looking at their website your nearly in the same boat as us, admittedly any other weekend ZEN support office is open, also do you know whether there is any out of hours support which IDNet claim on their website that they provide.

http://status.zensupport.co.uk/index.php?serviceid=17&incidentid=2201

Please be aware that Zen Internet will be closed over the upcoming Easter and English Bank Holiday dates as follows:
Good Friday (22nd April): Closed
Easter Sunday (24th April): Closed
Easter Monday (25th April): Closed
Royal Wedding (29th April): Closed
May Day (2nd May): Closed

My point is unless you with one of the big players , you ain't going to get 24/7 support but conversely I accept advertised obligations to be fulfilled.

Support is indeed closed and if my connection clapped out there wouldn't be anything I could do until tomorrow.

However on a normal weekday they are open till 8 p.m. so can log an issue and at weekends open till 5.

In addition though they have a 24/7 Network Operations Centre (thats people on site) that monitor the network including the BT hostlinks (and they have more than two)

In reality though even the big boys cant really do much at 11 p.m. if your ADSL circuit goes down unless you are a business and have paid for Enhanced care.

Niall · Apr 25, 2011, 18:01:12

Quote from: sobranie on Apr 25, 2011, 17:23:54
I've been a customer of IDNet for over 5 years and have received good quality support . However, if IDNet staff can't be bothered to get off their fat ar*es and explain they're total ignorance in respect of this thread, then I shall (sadly) vote with my feet.

Bit harsh considering they're not actually in work this weekend to be looking for things like this, on an UNOFFICIAL forum, plus the thread was only started during the holidays, so again they wouldn't have seen it yet.

pctech · Apr 25, 2011, 18:30:06

On the contrary Niall, I'd have thought that in order to set themselves apart that someone from IDNet would have popped into the forum at least a few times today as Bank Holidays are when most folks are likely to be at home and wanting to use the connection they pay for.

Technical Ben · Apr 25, 2011, 18:33:16

Quote from: Rik on Apr 25, 2011, 17:01:00
I think Joe Public now wants broadband to work as reliably as gas, water or electricity, Mitch, and it never will. However, the aspiration needs to be addressed.

Who do you hear getting their electric cut off when using "too much"? Granted, they have to pay for it, but broadband is managed totally different.

Rik · Apr 25, 2011, 18:37:26

I think maybe I haven't made my point clearly, Ben. I'm simply saying that broadband has come to be seen in the same light as other utilities and people just expect it to be working 24/7.

pctech · Apr 25, 2011, 18:41:12

The only that will happen is people pay a lot more and BT starts offering broadband enhanced care to ISPs for them to sell onto consumers.

T_M_D · Apr 25, 2011, 19:04:30

It has taken me an absolute age to get to this reply box and to read all the posts to-date. I have only achieved it by highlighting the urls in the browser address bar and constantly pressing return on them until eventually, bit by little bit all the comments have been revealed (around an hour) and then doing the same to get to this reply box.

My view on OOH support is this: There should at least be some kind of skeleton and/or remote support where there is loss of service - if I could access web sites, even slowly, as long as I could access them I would accept that support had to wait until office hours.

The type of OOH support I expect for an issue such as mine is basic diags to check that the problem is not with the IDNet network. If it is with the IDNet network then I expect a temporary back up service being in place that at least gives me some measure of internet access until the service can be fully reinstated.

I also expect IDNet to have a minimum OOH level of support from BT where they could at least talk to someone at BT who is knowledgeable and in-the-know enough to find out whether maintenance was being undertaken in my area or at my exchange that was causing this issue, I also expect that a line test be done and a check on my exchange for faults. I especially expect this of IDNet because they are happy enough to take on my line rental and so with that comes a measure of responsibility to get my line checked as early as possible when a loss of service issue arises.

I do appreciate and accept that the support in some of the bigger companies leaves a lot to be desired - indeed I have had many a frustrating and unhappy experience in this respect - that is one of the major reasons why I left both BT and 02 and came to IDNet. I had found out good things about IDNet - technically adept support staff, a pride in their company, etc, in particular, I had heard, that even though they strictly speaking do not do OOH support, there will always be someone available in the background who will respond to issues such as mine.

I was not expecting an immediate response and a day without service is one thing, but to be without it for two and a half days + without the least bit of support, without even basic diags is not acceptable - whether it is Christmas or bank holiday or whatever the holiday is.

On the issue of cost - of course none of us wants (or can afford it) to pay too much for better support, but I personally, would be happy to pay an extra £5 per month for some OOH support rather than be faced with complete loss of service for such an extended period of time.

I will be expecting a reduction in my bill commensurate with my loss of service and I have now lost confidence in IDNet that they will help me when I need it the most, which reduces somewhat my reasons for staying with them.

I hope that they can find some middle ground on this issue of support OOH for serious loss of service issues. I am dreading this up and coming bank holiday weekend in case I suffer more of the same.

I will not try and post any more here tonight as I have expended more than enough energy on it now, but I will read all posts and update with news as soon as I am able, probably in my lunch break at work tomorrow.

One last thing - I even left a message on the 'enhanced/business support' option as I assumed someone would listen to that as the service level for that support is that someone 'will contact back as soon as possible', but that message has been ignored as well. The recorded message makes it clear that anyone leaving a message who is a basic residential customer on that option will not get a response until the next working day, which is fair enough and usually I would not even dream of leaving a message on it, but I made it clear that I had done so because of my total loss of service.

I will not try and post any more here tonight as I have expended more than enough energy on this issue for now, but I will read all posts and update with news as soon as I am able, probably in my lunch break at work tomorrow.

Gary · Apr 25, 2011, 19:05:27

All I know is things are not the same way now as they were when I joined, its slower, has more outages and if bandwidth was reduced to help pay for support I would be off straight away as on adslmax I already am penalised by BT and therefore have less to play with for the same money as people on adsl2+ etc. I get fed up of "its your router, it may be your exchange have you checked your cabling we cant see a problem" Its like being told 'have you tried jumping though hoops backwards with a blindfold on while money falls out of your pocket to pay us' then to add insult to injury it turns out to be a issue that IDNet have not noticed, like a few weeks back when Cogent played up and we could see it but support could not, that's basically not what I pay for, I want them to fault find, not users on a forum to have to do it for them! Things have changed and many of us do notice it, and I cant say its not IDNets fault anymore because sometimes it appears it was and they just either ignored it hoping it would go away or seriously could not see the issue, that's NOT the way to run a business supplying Broadband to consumers, because in the end the consumer will go elsewhere. Looking at AAISP's pages they seem more 'network aware' than IDNet do these days

wdforte · Apr 25, 2011, 19:13:21

Quote from: Steve on Apr 24, 2011, 22:07:06
Tina, there is no mention of you having phoned IDNet in the thread, Sobraine is only trying to be helpful and I feel your response towards him is unwarranted.

Totally disagree. If you are going to reply to a sensitive thread such as this one then make sure that you have got your facts right. Two of you, including yourself got it wrong, badly! Getting it wrong can make the problem far worse.

Contributors here must not be so, so protective of IDNet in the first instance. Listen to and read what the poster has to say and give a fair and truthful assessment of the situation. This 'protective' stance is not useful and we again should address this position when a cry for help is received as in this particular case.

We can, rightly, praise IDNet for their overall excellent service but when a genuine problem arises we should look at it with a non 'protective' view.

I am aware that this may upset some 'protective' thinking contributors but I feel it has to be said.

Steve · Apr 25, 2011, 19:25:00

Perhaps Q you would like to put the hours in that the admins do on here for free. Perhaps then you might not be so perfect.

Simon · Apr 25, 2011, 19:26:45

I fail to see the point in bringing up again a mistake which has been acknowledged and apologised for a good number of posts previous to now, other than to stir. You wouldn't do that, would you, Q?

pctech · Apr 25, 2011, 19:27:04

Thank goodness the admins do.

T_M_D · Apr 25, 2011, 22:29:20

My broadband connection has been going up steadily since 8.30pm. Just like last night until it crashed down again at around 10.15am this morning.

The last BT speed test I did at 8.45pm tonight my speed was 1.2mbps - an hour earlier it was under 500kbps, I bet it will have gone up quite a bit more by the next one I will do at 10:50pm.

Not my router, not noise, not my cabling - if BT maintenance then it is some pretty heavy maintenance that has been going on since Saturday and it's now Monday evening? If BT maintenance is to blame, then does this mean that they incrementally restore service little by little until full service is restored when they are winding up their maintenance for the day and then reduce it little by little the next day until it is gone altogether for the rest of the day until the evening comes around again? If so, just exactly what kind of maintenance would this be? Pretty intensive maintenance to be going on so long on one little exchange.

Anyway, as expected, zilch heard from IDNet.

I will keep you all posted - as long as I don't get banned from here that is for being a trouble maker.

Simon · Apr 25, 2011, 22:43:44

You won't get banned if you observe the forum rules, which you may wish to be reminded of, in particular, the part in bold:

QuoteThese rules apply to public posts, personal messages, signatures, profiles and any other comments you make on our forum. Please note that the content of any personal message you receive is confidential and may not be revealed to a third-party, or posted in the forums (however, if you consider a message to be offensive or in other ways against the rules of the forum, you may forward it to a member of staff for action to be considered against the sender).

http://www.idnetters.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,25539.0.html

T_M_D · Apr 25, 2011, 22:50:49

Righto - message received loud and clear.

Simon · Apr 25, 2011, 22:53:52

Hopefully IDNet will say the same tomorrow.

wecpcs · Apr 25, 2011, 22:56:54

Quote from: pctech on Apr 25, 2011, 18:00:37
Support is indeed closed and if my connection clapped out there wouldn't be anything I could do until tomorrow.

However on a normal weekday they are open till 8 p.m. so can log an issue and at weekends open till 5.

In addition though they have a 24/7 Network Operations Centre (thats people on site) that monitor the network including the BT hostlinks (and they have more than two)

In reality though even the big boys cant really do much at 11 p.m. if your ADSL circuit goes down unless you are a business and have paid for Enhanced care.

Because of this thread, I have now started to look at going back to ZEN as their support hours are longer and do cover the weekends for exactly the same price I am currently paying with Idnet (£25.52) and for that I would get a 50Gb allowance instead of 30Gb which is more than adequate for me, but I would loose of course the generous off-peak allowance of 60Gb which I have only had to use once after having to do several installs with all the MS updates etc. Zen's phone service is not so attractive as Idnet's though.

Colin