Line drops and confusion from Service Centre

[Gliwmaeden2]

Yesterday my internet dropped c 1pm, but came back up after a few minutes. 

Today it went down earlier, during the morning, and was long enough for me to bother to run a test to check it. Though the connection was back, it was below the minimum guaranteed speed:

 

Also, since last weekend you have indicated a phone fault, but I hadn't noticed problems with the phone:

 

You'll notice that the report above says that you are unable to load necessary network status information.

I ran a test and it appeared to be coming up with no problem, but the next moment they say they are "working on it", and to check back in a few days' time. 

Currently speeds are normal. 

 

Could you check what's going on?

Are they working at the exchange or something?

I need a reliable functioning line to give an online lesson later today as I am not yet fully back on my feet from Covid.

It's been reliable since last summer when the engineer came, so this is quite a sudden change to faults over the past week. 

[Debbie-TalkTalk]

Hi Gliwmaeden2

Please let us know once the engineer has attended, we can then check the engineers notes.

Thanks

Debbie

[Gliwmaeden2]

Thanks for confirming that, @Debbie-TalkTalk.

[Debbie-TalkTalk]

Hi Gliwmaeden2

I have checked and I can see that the Openreach engineer visit has been arranged for 14/06 AM (8am -1pm)

[Gliwmaeden2]

@Michelle-TalkTalk, this chart of speeds in recent days is very confusing. What do the strange symbols signify, instead of the normal graph line?

 

I have not had the usual flurry of texts ahead of the engineer's appointment - could you possibly check that all is in order for that going ahead?

[Michelle-TalkTalk]

Morning,

Good idea and yes I agree as it appears to be an intermittent fault so I'd agree that an engineer investigation is still required. Thanks for the update 🙂

Thanks

[Gliwmaeden2]

Strangely, it's been fine Wednesday evening and today, for teaching,  though speed to the device is 9 rather than 10.

I have taken a screenshot of the recorded speeds in Speed Centre up to Tuesday, however, and I will show that to the engineer in case he wonders why he's been called out at all.

I was getting this:

 

So, as last month, I get a series of days below the minimum guaranteed speed, plus disconnections. 

We book an engineer and all of a sudden the line improves, as though by magic, before the appointment has taken place!

Last time I therefore cancelled, but, despite the engineer nevertheless appearing, the line didn't remain stable for long.

So it's any customer's guess as to what actually goes on behind the scenes!

This time, I won't cancel, and I will show him some of the statistics illustrated in this thread, so that he understands why he's being called out. 

If it's a good day, he might otherwise log it as an unnecessary visit....!

[Michelle-TalkTalk]

Morning,

Great thank you. We will check back in with you then.

Thanks

[Gliwmaeden2]

Thanks - I will make sure that I am in!

[Chris-TalkTalk]

I've booked the engineer for June 14 2022 AM, please let us know how you get on

Chris

[Gliwmaeden2]

Thanks!

[Chris-TalkTalk]

Hi Gliwmaeden2,

I'll book the engineer and get back to you with the details

Chris

[Gliwmaeden2]

Either Tuesday 14th or Thursday 16th mornings only for an engineer, @Michelle-TalkTalk.

We might as well give it one more go so that I can decide whether to renew or look into other products (as now might be the time to install full Fibre, over the summer holidays) and it looks as though that would involve leaving, if Talktalk has not got it available in my area. 

[Michelle-TalkTalk]

Hi,

Ok thanks for confirming. It may be worth raising this with Arne to see if he can advise on this. In regards to the engineer, would you like to go ahead with this? It sounds like you've tried everything you can to resolve the instability?

Thanks

[Gliwmaeden2]

@Michelle-TalkTalk, nothing at all, other than offering the Supersafe software which I don't want!

[Michelle-TalkTalk]

Morning,

Can I just confirm, does it show any upgrade options in My Account under offers and upgrades?

Thanks

[Gliwmaeden2]

Will an engineer find anything if the line doesn't happen to disconnect at the time, @Debbie-TalkTalk?

That was a dreadful hour between 2pm and 3pm yesterday and then I can seem to have no drops when I am just pottering around, but I don't potter continuously so may miss little drops when they are nevertheless happening later on. Hard to know. 

It's the fact that it needs to be pretty much perfect to sustain the connection during Skype or Zoom that means this is matters.

So I need a service that meets a higher standard of reliability. Are there any other products now available from my exchange?

The last time we looked, I couldn't get FTTC, and I think Future Fibre is only available through Vodafone in my area.

I can't remember what the link is to look these things up, and am not confident reading the results!

Could we possibly have a look at this first?

I definitely need to do occasional lessons still online - some people get Covid still, and others have got used to having the choice. 

Very busy with 3 concerts this fortnight plus pupil exams so timing an engineer visit will be a challenge. 

Could you possibly check the other options at my exchange first?

Many thanks.

[Debbie-TalkTalk]

Hi Gliwmaeden2

Would you like me to arrange another engineer visit?

[Gliwmaeden2]

@Chris-TalkTalk, the speed is holding up OK, but the disconnections let me down badly in a lesson just now.

The main one is recorded here:

 I kept having to *@#][!![]'#[@#]!* up to my bedroom to get my feeble data signal from Three by the window there whenever the wifi failed. No way to be giving a lesson like that....! Over all we must have missed a full 5 minutes that she had paid for.

Probably at least 3 times within the hour, and you will get an idea of the time frame to look at from the Skype image above.

It's really not good enough  - we wouldn't put up with our electricity  / gas / water supply being on the blink, stop, start like this. This is such an important utility these days - we are not given any options about that!

I really don't know what to do next. 

Edit: No idea why one word was censored up above! Try "scoot" or "rush" or some such replacement. Silly algorithm appears to have no grasp of English. Or it has a darker mind than mine!

[Chris-TalkTalk]

Hi Gliwmaeden2,

Hope you had a good break. DLM changed your profile in the early hours of this morning, there have been some disconnections since but looks more stable than before the profile change.

If you could bump the thread in a couple of days we can check again to see if there have been any further profile changes and disconnections

Yes if you could monitor the noise on the line that would be great as it could be related to the disconnections

Chris

[Gliwmaeden2]

@Chris-TalkTalk, back now from my break. I switched the router back on on Saturday evening. 

Speeds disappointing to start with, but probably because of it being off for a week.

This morning it seems to be the right side of 10Mbps (which is well below the best we had last year, but tolerable).

Service Centre is taking a while to fully catch up!

 

Could we start monitoring the line for disconnections again?

There is a slight fuzz resonating on the phone line when I am in conversation with my mum  - haven't made other calls yet to see if this is happening generally. 

I need to monitor this for a bit for reliability, and start making decisions about my options as the time for renewal or changing service etc comes up within the next 6 weeks.

Thanks!