Kitz Forum
Broadband Related => ISPs => Topic started by: dod on September 21, 2007, 05:22:00 PM
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Hello
A few months ago I upgraded my AOL account fron 512 @ 9.99 to 2mb @14.99 after pluging my shiny new router in I waited 2 weeks and my speed was unchanged. When I phoned I was told, after 25 min, that 512 was all my line could handle, no explanation. I eventualy managed to explain I would not be paying 14.99 for a 512 service and I expected my 12 month contract to be canceled. All this was agreed and I was also allowed to keep my router. Trouble is I'm now being charged 14.99 for 512 and despite many emails I still can't persuade them to reduce my payments back to 9.99 in fact they tell me I'll have to wait 18 months !! untill I'm out of contract.
1) Any idea why I can only get 512, I'm only 1.5 km from a large exchange.
2) Can any one tell me the best way to get through to these people at AOL I've tried explaining several times but without any progress.
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Hi dod, and welcome
Can you tell us your router stats (connection speed, attenuation and noise margin)? If you're not sure how to do this, there's a page of information at http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/frogstats.htm . What router model is it?
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Hello. thanks for your help.
Here's the information you asked for.
Netgear DG834G
Down Up
Connection Speed 576 kbps 288 kbps
Line Attenuation 28 db 8 db
Noise Margin 27 db 31 db
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AOL have given you some totally incorrect information, but they are quite probably just repeating inaccurate information in the BT database. With those stats you could get a much higher connection speed. With BT ADSL Max you would probably get the full 8128 kbps, and more than that if your exchange is LLU enabled.
If you go to http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/adslchecker.php and enter your telephone number and postcode you will get just about all the information which is available for your line, including the BT assessment of your line's capability.
If you are stuck in a long contract with AOL then I suppose that you will have to fight with them to get moved over to ADSL Max. The figures you quoted from your router should give you the necessary ammunition.
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I used the link and the figures I got were
fixed adsl 2048 kbps
dsl max 6500 kbps
I guess it's back on the phone for hours until I can persuade aol to do some thing. As for being tide to a contract that's another battle as far as I'm concerned I canceled my contract when they told me they were unable to increase my speed.
Thanks for your help.
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Good luck! You have right on your side.
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Update
after e mailing AOL without any luck I saved up and phoned. I was told my speed would be increased by the end of October !!! I signed up to and have been paying for my speed upgrade since July. I see that formal complaints should be sent to a Jackie O leary at a Bristol address any one got a e mail address for her.
Latest email from AOL
Please be informed that I have checked your records twice and I saw that your line can support maximum 512kbps and that is because number of reason.
1. Distance of your house form the exchange.
2. BT phone line condition.
3. Plan that you are on (AOL Broadband Silver)
4. The maximum line speed that the line can support in your Area (512kbps )
AOL is under process of increasing the line speed for that area which will take next couple of month to do so. Our Engineers are already working on it and we will come up with some result very soon.
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They're probably wanting to put you on an LLU line, and waiting til their DSLAM is installed in your exchange. Incidentally is your due date for TalkTalk sometime around the end of October too? (Carphone Warehouse now own AOL UK in case you didn't know)
Have a look at kitz's ADSL checker (http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/adslchecker.php) and see if it says anything about TalkTalk.
I guess a formal complaint is the way to go, depends what you want the outcome to be. It should either get you a partial refund or be able to get you out of your contract should you wish to move to a different ISP. Good luck :)
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I thought I was making progress when I received this on thurs from aol.
I appreciate that you've taken the time to allow us an opportunity to handle this for you and thanks for your patience waiting for us to reply to your email.
We have checked your details and we would like to inform you that at present you are getting a speed upto 6.5 mbps .
When I pointed out my connection speed was still 576 I then received this the following day.
I would like to keep you informed that AOL is committed to provide speed upgrades for all the members where there line is capable for speed upgrade .
The re-speed timing depends on a number of factors and our network suppliers, so we are not able to give you a specific date at this time, but we will endeavour to upgrade connections as fast as possible. We will notify you as soon as your connection has been upgraded.
Over the next six months we will start upgrading the speeds of our AOL Broadband Silver and Gold packages. Subject to availability, we will aim to upgrade AOL Silver members to download speeds of up to 2Mbps, Gold to up to 4Mbps.
Confused ? I am. With this level of uncertainty and confusion I doubt if even a formal complaint will help but I can but try. The checker tells me talk talk llu is available aol llu unavailable.
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Confused? You will be!
Point is, you've been paying for more since July, and not receiving it. That kind of response makes it difficult to know where to go next though, doesn't it?!
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Duh! :wall: :wall: :wall: :wall:
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Another update. I forgot to mention I phoned the cancellation people on 26/09/07 the pleasant person promised my speed would increase in 24 hours and I would get a 15 pound refund. Needless to say my speed remained unchanged. This is the latest e mail after explaining my situation once again.
2/10/07
I would like to keep you informed that AOL is committed to provide speed upgrades for all the members where there line is capable for speed upgrade .
The re-speed timing depends on a number of factors and our network suppliers, so we are not able to give you a specific date at this time, but we will endeavour to upgrade connections as fast as possible. We will notify you as soon as your connection has been upgraded.
Over the next six months we will start upgrading the speeds of our AOL Broadband Silver and Gold packages. Subject to availability, we will aim to upgrade AOL Silver members to download speeds of up to 2Mbps, Gold to up to 4Mbps.
I’ve found my package name is AOL broadband silver (LLU) Is the LLU bit significant, I know AOL LLU is not available at my exchange.
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Sounds like they are trying to delay until they get around to unbundling your exchange.
If you put your details in the adsl checker (http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/adslchecker.php) does it return any info on the RH side under either AOL or TalkTalk?
TBH you have been given so many false promises, that if I were you, I would be phoning and requesting my MAC, theyve had enough chances :(
Those stats should give you pretty decent speeds on adslmax and theres plenty of ISPs that would do so
http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/isp_price_list.php
AOL have to supply you with your MAC key if requested (see OFCOMs ruling) and dont let them fob you off with being in a new contract period either ... because they certainly haven't fulfilled their side of it. :/
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Your probably right, talk talk is unbundled aol is not. I'm a stubborn sod and will stick with this. If nothing else my posts will highlight the complete incompetence of aol customer service and help desks. After all the emails look what I received
4/10/07
I am afraid that I am unable to assist you with this matter at this stage. I require further information on the exact problems you are experiencing. Perhaps you could resend you query, including as much information as possible. Upon receipt of this, we will be happy to assist you further.
I gave e mailed them all the information they needed. I also managed to get through to cancellations in Ireland on 4/10/07 where a nice lady admitted something had gone wrong and I would receive my upgrade in 3-5 days which she confirmed by email.
I then received this in reply to my email
6/10/07
I would like to inform you that you are on AOL Broadband Silver without Modem - ?14.99 with Estimated Speed of 2Mbps and the Installation date is 11/10/07.
Still waiting
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>> talk talk is unbundled aol
Since TT took over aol uk, then they have been using the TT dslams for LLU upgrades rather than putting in more AOL dslams. That bit makes financial sense.
>> I'm a stubborn sod and will stick with this.
Good for you, keep trying :)
Unfortunately yours isnt the only case Ive seen where AOL are doing this, and I have unfortunately seen many many more instances where AOL have tried fobbing off users re the upgrades. Not all of them have involved LLU.
The only thing that does seem to work is persistance and requesting your MAC. There are many other ISPs out there that would give you the maximum speed your line could handle - nevermind 2Mb - for the same £ that you are paying to AOL :/
Good luck and please let us know how it goes.
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I have higher upstream attenuation than you but lower downstream.
This is what I get from an ADSL2+ provider :
Link Information
Uptime: 15 days, 12:57:56
Modulation: G.992.5 Annex A
Bandwidth (Up/Down) [kbps/kbps]: 1,351 / 18,857
Data Transferred (Sent/Received) [MB/GB]: 403.14 / 4.70
Output Power (Up/Down) [dBm]: 12.0 / 17.5
Line Attenuation (Up/Down) [dB]: 10.5 / 23.5
SN Margin (Up/Down) [dB]: 7.5 / 8.5
Were I you I would be suggesting that AOL could go forth and multiply. If you have an ADSL2+ provider at your exchange then switch to them provided you can afford it and their support is reasonable. Even if you don't then you'd be better off elsewhere as you'd get 8Mbps easily - unless you have some dreadful noise/cabling nearby which your stats don't suggest.
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I must admit it's getting close to the go forth and multiply stage. I just can't resist one last try. This is the latest meaningless gibberish from the AOL customer services people. I find the second one most confusing.
15/10/07
Please be informed that I have checked your records twice and I saw that your line can support maximum 8 Mbps as of 5th October 2007 which is the maximum that you can get on your BT IP STREAM LINE
Line Speed depends on number of reasons.
1. Distance of your house form the exchange.
2. BT phone line condition.
3. Plan that you are on (AOL Broadband Silver)
4. The maximum line speed that the line can support in your Area (58Mbps)
18/10/07
I appreciate that you've taken the time to allow us an opportunity to handle this for you and thanks for your patience waiting for us to reply to your email. As per the details i see that your price plan has been changed and the order has been rejected
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Why has your order been rejected - did they give a reason why?
Because all the tests that youve done on here and your line stats show otherwise :(
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Why has your order been rejected - did they give a reason why?
Because all the tests that youve done on here and your line stats show otherwise :(
I asked that exact question. This is the response I received this morning.
As per your query we have sent a special request to the concerned Department for the Speed Upgrade. It would take 4-5 working days for the speed to get stable. Within this time period you might face disconnection or slow speed problem as your line is currently under check.
The same old thing again!!
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>> As per your query we have sent a special request to the concerned Department for the Speed Upgrade.
Lets hope they have this time - fingers crossed for you... why this hasnt been done before though and why the delay tactics.. well :/
>> It would take 4-5 working days for the speed to get stable. Within this time period you might face disconnection or slow speed problem as your line is currently under check.
Have a read of how maxdsl (http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/maxdsl2.htm) works and also information on the IP profile (http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/IPprofile.htm), which should give you a better indication of how things should work.
Good luck and let us know how it goes.
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>> As per your query we have sent a special request to the concerned Department for the Speed Upgrade
Doesn't sound like they're particularly concerned about it to me!
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meiow
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At last.
Checked today and
Downstream 7646kbps
upstream 448kbps
downloading at 1922kbps
What a marathon that was. Thanks for your help ans support.
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Downstream 7646kbps
upstream 448kbps
downloading at 1922kbps
Umm... not sure - but I think you've just hit the 2nd stage problem.
That is they get BT to do the speed upgrade but dont give you the throughput speed and throttle your connection at their end.
Your sync speed of 7646 indicates that you are connecting to the exchange at around the maximum for an interleaved 8Mb connection.
However throughput of 1922 kbps indicates that your ISP has you on a 2Mbps account.
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I can't complain to much about the download speed, an upgrade to 2Mb was what I asked them for all those weeks ago. I recieved a reply to my letter of complaint (sent 15/10/07) one part reads
" After looking into your concerns further I wish to advise that your line has now been upgrade to ADSL Max and that this will supply the highest stable speed that your telephone line is capable of"
Well I don't think thats true I've got what I asked for 2Mb. The part I like best and has been the root of my waiting is.
"AOL is still in the process its customers to these speeds however at this time we are unable to give exact dates for when a customers line may be upgraded to upto 2MB, these speed upgrades are performed on a bulk migration process and as such they work on a exchange by exchange process"
If thats the case why sign people up to higher speeds when they have no intention of doing anything until they are ready. It could, and did, take months depending where you live.
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This seems an anomality that is peculiar to AOL (and tiscali).
BT actually did all the work to upgrade 99.99% of exchanges by the end of March 2006 and aside from 1 or 2 all exchanges are now Maxdsl enabled (up to 8Mb).
You can check when your own exchange was Max enabled by putting your details in the adsl checker (http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/adslchecker.php).
It should say something like "dsl Max enabled: March 30, 2006 "
AOL seem to be dragging their heels upgrading their customers on their side of things. The fact that you are already syncing at the higher speeds shows that you can get the higher speeds, just that AOL arent giving you the throughput.
The term they use "these speed upgrades are performed on a bulk migration process and as such they work on a exchange by exchange process" sound more likely that they are referring to transferring lines to LLU.
Bit naughty the way AOL are going about this.. and the way theyve phrased the sentence
"that your line has now been upgrade to ADSL Max and that this will supply the highest stable speed that your telephone line is capable of" isnt quite true.
Yes your line has been upgraded - but AOL arent giving you the throughput speed that its capable of.
... but the main thing is that you are happy now that theyve given you the 2Mb that you requested :)