NBN bouncing issues back on us when their line is bad. Costing me money.

[tommo020788]

Hello, I've grown tired of being told its a problem on my end, then being told its a problem on NBN's line, then being told It may be on my end again, every time I'm told it may be a problem on my end, it costs me time and money to do what TPG or NBN have told me to do to fix it, only to have the same problem exist after I spend money and time executing their "solutions".
The TPG "engineer team" already did extensive testing and determined that there was a problem with NBN's lines. Not so much the speed, but the sync speed and SNR quality which was resulting in the internet connection failing periodically.
Here are the steps I've been through already (this is after the hours of time I spent on the phone to TPG tech support going through troubleshooting steps and doing isolation tests over and over):

1. TPG suggested it was a faulty router. I bought a new router, still had the same problem, wasted $200 but at least proved now it wasn't a router issue.
2. Finally after some persistence, and some help from the community staff here, TPG's engineer team  contacted me and said that they found there is a problem with NBN's line and that they had organised for a NBN tech to come out.
3. After 1 failed appointment, the NBN tech came into my house and replaced the socket at the wall where the router is plugged in. He said that I should expect better speeds (not the main problem), but that I would still likely have poor sync speed, and poor SNR causing poor stability due to the distance to node...
4. He then suggested that if the connection is still poor, I would need to hire a cabler to replace the copper wiring in my house.
5. The connection issues persisted, so I had a cabler come out and replace all of the telephone/copper cabling in my house. $180 that was.
6. Speeds went up since installing new cabling, but the line sync speed/SNR (The cabler tested this too) was still very poor, resulting in dropouts (at times worse), so I was still having the same connection failures.
7. TPG misunderstood a post I made here on the forums, and sent me out a "loan modem", telling me that if I do not return it or the old router within 14 days, that I would be charged the full cost of the "loan modem". Zero solicitation for this. Did not even mention at all that they were sending a router.
8. When I called TPG about the router, and that I will not consent to any fees or charges coming out of this loan modem being sent without my knowledge, they said that I need to test the connection with the loan modem, then if the problem still persists I would need to send the loan modem back within the 14 days or I'd be charged for the full cost of the new modem...
9. I have now tested the connection with this "loan modem" and the problem was only worsened. Not only was the connection still dropping out, but the modem was also becoming unresponsive every time the connection dropped (no devices could access the router interface, and the router seemed to get very hot), so I'd have to manually reset the modem by pulling the plug every time. The new modem was also treating normal user's internet usage as DDOS attacks and blocking users from the network. I had to remove those security features because of that. I'm guessing that it was confusing normal usage for DDOS attacks because of packet loss and the line constantly having to resend the same packet over and over to get through the noise.

Now that I have (AGAIN) shown it is NOT my router, or my equipment, what now?... Will TPG actually do something different this time to get NBN to fix the issue? Or is it just gonna be the stereotypical back and forth with the ISP and NBN passing the blame to each other over and over?
I have heard that if NBN doesn't meet their minimum guarantee for users who have been connected for 2 years, and NBN have done all they can to fix the problem (NBN tech said its because of distance to the node, not a faulty node), I can apply to NBN to have the problem fixed by way of alternative or additional technologies. From what I read, depending on what is most cost effective NBN may install either wireless, FTTC or FTTP to bring the connection up to acceptible standards.
Do you know the process for this? Is that something I need to communicate directly with NBN about? or is it something that only TPG can represent me for?
I'm at my last straw here, and while the connection issue appears to not be caused by TPG, I may be forced to move to telstra because they have a router that automattically switches you to a backup 4G connection (free of charge) if the fixed line internet drops out or falls below the guaranteed speeds, and I don't believe TPG has that kind of thing on offer.
What is the solution going forward?

[Will]

Hi @tommo020788 

I'm sorry to hear that the dropout/speed issues is still ongoing. I checked your account and I can confirm that this was raised to our Engineering Team indeed for an investigation, however, they have been unable to contact you. The escalated ticket has been closed yesterday (Nov 9). Based on our records, they tried to reach you on Nov 6-8 with corresponding SMS after each call attempt, but we have not received a response from you.

I ran some tests and we can confirm that your connection still dropping at this point. I have re-escalated this issue back to our Engineering Team so they can continue with the investigation. To ensure that they can call you or send you SMS for the updates and avoid getting the ticket closed due to non-contact, can you PM me your best contact number so I can forward it to the said department.

Regards,

Will

[tommo020788]

what number are they trying to call?
4 times now they have called the wrong number, a number I have already deleted from my account, and then I have told them the correct number to call. Again, as usual, they said they called me and couldn't get in contact, yet they likely called the wrong number again, and didn't bother sending an email or heck why not actually check my account information for the primary number?
I have no missed calls from tpg and no texts. I never get notified of anything tpg is doing regarding my account. It's rediculous.
Why do they have a phone number on record that doesn't exist on my account information after I have already told them 4 times now what number to call and to remove the incorrect number they called? Do they have separate records or something?
Thanks for re-escelating, I hope to hell that the engineering team isn't gonna make me start from square one again, cos if that's the case, I'm out...
Are you able to answer any of the questions I had?

[Will]

Hi @tommo020788 

My apologies for the poor experience and I'm sorry to learn that our Engineering Team was unable to reach out to you on the number you've provided. As for the re-escalated ticket, I have provided the contact number we have on your account. I would suggest, however, to send us a PM confirming your preferred contact number to ensure that you'll be contacted properly.

The investigation about the dropouts you've experienced is still not completed, so I may not be able to provide a specific answer to your questions at this point. From what I can tell, NBNCo's last assessment was that it was still a premise issue. Further updates will be relayed to you directly by an Engineer.

[tommo020788]

That's strange regarding the nbn's conclusion that it was a premises issue, seeing as the tech himself said that its most likely because of the distance to the node.
He did suggest that I install new copper cabling in the house, which I did, but the problem hasn't even improved, in fact sometimes it's worse.
The issue isn't so much down/up speeds (when it's working). The problem is that the connection drops out multiple times a day. This is much much easier to identify the cause of compared to speeds, and everything on the premiss has been isolated and tested to rule it out at this point.
I've spent a good chunk of money being told it's something on my end when it wasn't.
If you have records of up/down speeds for the connection, you could verify that I installed new cabling by looking for when the speeds increased by about 7mbps on average. Went from 17mbps Max, to 40 Max. So speed isn't unacceptable anymore. The line noise is terrible though (snr), which points to a line problem (either faulty line or the length of the copper line too long), and everything on my end is brand new, and has been tested multiple times.

[Will]

Hi @tommo020788

To clarify what I mentioned earlier when NBNCo tagged that the issue as within the premises, they were referring to the internal wiring. It was noted on the ticket we've raised to them that they indeed notified you to have it repaired/replaced.

And yes, I have compared the tests we have on our end and the sync speed indeed has improved.

I can see that our Engineering Team already raised a new ticket back to NBNCo. Once an update is available you will be contacted on the number you provided me via PM.

[tommo020788]

Thanks for that.
Is there any way I can see how your tests are done?
Would be interested to see if the results you see are based on an average or not, and if they are based on samples taken at specific times, or if it is something automatically sampled every 5 mins like a router does to form an average, Min, and Max result.
For example, my router shows SNR margin to be sitting at about 6 on average, but it falls even lower than that at times.
A majority of the day, the internet works, but dropping out occasionally the way it does is more disruptive than a slow connection.
Did NBN happen to also note on there anything about the fact the distance to node is problematic? The NBN tech told me this was the main issue, and that the only thing I could do to help improve that on my end was to get upgraded wiring in my house. But he said the main issue is the distance to node, because it wasn't faulty or anything.
When you say the line sync speed improved, I assume it's still poor enough to justify a fault, seeing as the engineering team has now arranged for another NBN tech to come out.
So after this, if the NBN tech concedes that the only remaining issue is distance to the node, is the procedure I mentioned before something that can be chased up (request NBN to review the infrastructure and remedy the problem)?

P. S. An update to pass on to engineering team, poor SNR does appear to be the cause here, because It looked like I was able to stabilise the connection by adding an SNR stabilising offset on the router, but the offset amount it took to get a stable connection comes with the compromise of having a 1Mbps connection... Less than a third of the current speed.
I figured the engineering team might want to know this, seeing as that should help narrow down the cause...

[Will]

Hi @tommo020788,

We use an application provided by NBNCo to run the test going to your modem. The results that we get on the sync speed is actually based on what the modem is detecting which you can view by accessing the modem's interface.

If the issue is within NBN's infrastructure, NBNCo will be the one to rectify that. However, I'm not aware of any information that NBNCo will change the technology as a last resort.

Our Engineering Team has been advised of your latest post. We most likely have to wait for the technician visit on Friday to be completed before a new update can be provided to you by our Engineering Team. Should there be any changes, they will reach out to you directly.