ISP your router is always at fault, when it is not.

[Third Opinion]

Maybe somebody can give me advice on how to deal with technical support.

I use plus.net and have done for many years. I live in a very rural area where we are prone to power outages.

Sometimes after a short outage I lose service. From what I gather something Plus.nets end fails to log me off or disconnect me. This means I can no longer connect.

After the usual ages waiting on the phone you get the same old story about it is not their fault it is because I am using my own router. So I hang up connect their router only to have no service still and have to make the phone call.

Twice they have dispatched a new router which has taken 4 days to arrive and has the same no service.

Any tips on how to deal with tech support. Today was a short 4 hours before they discovered the fault was yet again their end.

 

[bad_ass_neil]

is it always the same fault? what are they fixing at there end?

next time it happens just tell them what they did last time and try that first.
A lot of the time you just need to done some leg work first, like trying there router first before you ring. Then explaining what you have done and that it happens a lot and they need to do this to fix it.

keeping hold of the old logged job numbers is always good as well so they can always look back at the old jobs and see what it says on the system.

 

[xGBHxPegasus]

Ask them to note the faults on your account, so next time it happens you can ask them to check that and show that its been their fault the last time.

Will hopefully shorten the "have you turned it off and on again?" dialog to "oh yeh I see it was us the last 3 times".

 

[Steveocee]

How do you know that when you have your power outage, when it comes back up your router isn't sending a small spike up the ADSL line and tripping the line card out? Just a thought as had something similar with a customer a couple of years ago.

From this;
"From what I gather something Plus.nets end fails to log me off or disconnect me"
That sounds like a stale session so sometimes a 15 minute power off can clear this or generally a Flex VC and RAS rebuild is needed, if it continually happens then I think you can ask for a lift and shift.

 

[Third Opinion]

How do you know that when you have your power outage, when it comes back up your router isn't sending a small spike up the ADSL line and tripping the line card out? Just a thought as had something similar with a customer a couple of years ago.

From this;
"From what I gather something Plus.nets end fails to log me off or disconnect me"
That sounds like a stale session so sometimes a 15 minute power off can clear this or generally a Flex VC and RAS rebuild is needed, if it continually happens then I think you can ask for a lift and shift.

I have no idea what that means technically. But the last chap I spoke to said something about it being reset.

He said I can expect lower speeds and a few disconnects as if it was a new ADSL connection.

Is that the kind of thing you mean? I probably should add the telephone exchange is only about 100 metres from my home so when I lose power so does it. It has a generator which kicks and can run for days (it has done on some long outages last Xmas).

 

[APM]

ask them to log the details for the next time.

Also maybe it would be best to unplug your router and your pc maybe while the power is out then wait for it to come back on fully before you start all your stuff up again

 

[ADT]

Had a similar issue with virgin media before regarding a faulty router. If you are no longer in a contract tell them that you will be going with another provider, their cancellation team will do everything possible to keep you signed on with them.