Biggest problem with Vmedia

[sabsolam]

Biggest problem with Vmedia is communicating with their customers. There are so many ways to keep us informed when service interruptions occur or if they are aware of problems and keep us informed on new updates.

Twitter, Facebook, the Vmedia website their blog or even THIS FORUM.

In this day and age it is inexcusable.

Us customers are guinea pigs testing out your service, I have been a customer since June of last year I have never had a month without some kind of issue with the service may it be internet or IPTV, Vbox or all.

Yes Vmedia is the new kid on the block but as the new kid should be open with their customers keep us informed.

[Trentelshark]

I will preface this by saying I don't expect perfection regardless of who I am signed up with, but the same thought crossed my mind yesterday, and again last night. Bit long winded as well, but I have to agree that updates would go a long way particularly as it pertains to the following based on my recent experience:

1. An up-to-date list of DSL/Cable outages, slowdowns, known issues, etc.that is easy to access. Especially if capacity, which the IPTV service relies on, is exhausted, this would be good to know so I'm not cursing out my stream when it randomly hangs.
2. Upcoming network maintenance be it CIKtel, Rogers or the IPTV head-end. Planned dates/times and expected impact would also be good.
3. Maybe a known issues list/tentative release date for fixes for the VBox so when it pulls something random I can go look this up, or am aware of it so I'm not surprised and contemplate a hardware issue.

This is all stemming from the latest example in the fact that CIKTel has, as I understand it, flat out run out of capacity at the POI at peak hours (to the point I feel it has been oversold unless there is some other underlying issue with Rogers we are unaware of) and my cable connection has been quite frankly garbage as a result. TV freezing constantly during peak, download speeds on par with dial-up (not exaggerating, last night I was seeing no more 0.25Mbps for over 25 minutes....I don't recall the last time I saw a number this low), and packet loss/latency as a result of packets being queued/dropped in the 15-20% range at least once it hits the POI. Yes there have been hints at this on here and DSLR, and yes there had been mention in a thread that an upgrade had been performed (I believe George said the full order wasn't processed) and yes Harry in Support confirmed this will be resolved before the end of January but unless you follow all those forums, you would never know.

Even still, since the speeds dropped off a cliff seemingly overnight, and there was mention that an upgrade had been done, I thought it was safe to assume it was either my hardware, or my node, that was leading to the issue. After ruling all this out via loads of local troubleshooting I contacted Support, and as per above Harry let me know there were further upgrades planned. I have requested the ticket remain open until all upgrades are complete because if I don't see immediate improvement additional troubleshooting is going to be required, primarily by me as this occurs outside Support hours, until it is resolved. I do remain hopeful. In any case, this could have all been avoided with a notice somewhere (or multiple places, here, social media, support portal, etc) that VMedia was aware of the issue and upgrades were planned to address them.

On a side note I hope the capacity upgrade is going to be substantial because based on the connection behaviour, there is a good sized shortage in capacity, not a minimal one. While it is usually only for a period of time during peak (25 to 30 mins max as a general rule), this unfortunately has the added headache of affecting the TV service, not just downloads or pings during online gaming. The latter I can deal with within reason, I just put the game on hold and come back later, or others in the household put down the laptop/tablet for a bit and resume later. But the fact our TV service relies on having ample capacity available at a minimum to maintain stream transfer and it is not there is a disappointment but we (household) are patiently holding out for the upgrades to be completed and see how things go from there.

[balatro]

I agree with the above posters. VMedia... respond please? As stated , for a tech company, not very tech savvy with regard to communication with your customers.

[eltoddo]

Sadly, I've looked around many of the threads here and I have come to the same unfortunate conclusion: VMedia doesn't seem to care about having a moderator to respond to posts here. I still have yet to see VMedia officially comment on any thread I've looked at. Now I haven't looked at them all, but I've found several which I would have expected a response on, there was none.

VMedia, I know you're a new service provider, and as such I'm willing to cut some slack as it's tough to get operations up and running, including a good forum moderator. But I still find the lack of any response on threads that should have official responses a bit disturbing as a new customer. This makes me wonder if I've made the right decision to choose your service vs many other which are trying harder to maintain open communication with their customers.