Huge drop in Broadband speed once your contract runs out

[Marty1892]

Was paying for fibre broadband with a minimum guaranteed speed of 58mbps. Ran as advertised until December last year. Now I live alone so I really didn't notice the drop in performance until I randomly checked the speed. I contacted sky and was informed my broadband contract had expired. The suspicious thing is that the performance drop coincided with me being out of contract. I was informed that if I wanted an engineer to visit my home it would cost me £55 or I could sign up again and this would be free. Not once did they mention anything about me being eligible for a refund for the time I wasn't receiving the service I was paying for. According to their own rules if you receive a speed below that of the minimum guaranteed speed for 14 days consecutively you should receive a refund or receive a free period equal to the period of slow performance.

I wasn't very happy with the response I received. I slept on the decision for 24 hours. I then cancelled my Sky broadband and switched over to Virgin Media.

I'm now paying the same amount per month but my broadband speed is avg 220mbps & 21mbps for download and upload respectively.

Be warned people to keep an eye on your contract end date. 

[TimmyBGood]

@Marty1892 

As we frequently repeat, contracts don't end unless they are cancelled: it's the minimum contract period (and any associated discount) which has a fixed time period.  After that is over, prices typically go up, but as Sky are still supplying a service in return for payment, there's certainly still a contract with associated terms and conditions in place.

Personally I always suggest subscribers challenge any suggestion they have to pay for support when outside a minimum term: it seems very unlikely that's a legitimate demand.

Not being within a minimum term has no implications for speed: Ofcom would be very unhappy with any ISP which reduced speed to encourage renewal.

[Chanimal82]

My internet in the last week has been so slow that I've had to use 4g just to type this message. Just went onto the sky app and surprise surprise, my contract ended a week ago. Checked my DD and I have been charged an extra £40 (now £150 a month). I've had no notification to say my contract was ending which is against the rules of Ofcom. (I work in broadcasting so deal with ofcom on a regular basis). It's disgusting to be honest. So theoretically I'm paying more for high speed broadband but not receiving it. It's against consumer rights too. 
I will be complaining to sky and ofcom tomorrow about it. 

[Chanimal82]

Just to show how bad it is, the sky app speed check says my internet is perfect. A different speed checker shows as a 0.85 upload and 0.02 download. It's terrible 

[GD1]

@Chanimal82  What do your hubs stats say?

Please can you post your router stats so the forum can advise on any issues. This link explains how to do that https://helpforum.sky.com/t5/Broadband/How-to-find-your-Sky-Broadband-router-stats/td-p/2855717#

[TimmyBGood]

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@Chanimal82 wrote:

(I work in broadcasting so deal with ofcom on a regular basis)

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Then you presumably recognise that with Ofcom having oversight of them (as I mentioned above) no regulated provider would do something as incredibly stupid as deliberately reducing speed to subscribers at the end of their minimum contract period.

You'll also know that Ofcom don't deal with complaints from individual ISP subscribers: those go through the internal ISP process until deadlock is reached, and then to the appointed alternate dispute resolution service.

[GD1]

@Chanimal82  And as yet you've not provided your router stats to show this massive drop in speeed?

[Chanimal82]

Hello, unfortunately I have been at work now so not near my router to to log in to it. I will be doing it when I return. 

I spoke to our compliance officer today at work and ofcom do deal with individual complaints before deadlock. 

[Chrisee]

@Chanimal82 your compliance officer needs to check their facts Ofcom do not investigate customer complaints themselves. They do record and report on complaint levels by company but the complaint system approved by them is a two stage process all complaints must go in the first instance to the company. If the matter cannot be resolved or 8 weeks has passed then it can go to one of the Ofcom approved Alternative Dispute Resolution provider in Sky's case that is https://www.cedr.com/consumer/cisas/ 

In theory customers could go to court if the ADR decision is negative but in practice it is very rare for a judge to over rule such a decision.. 

if you want proof read the final paragraph on this page under Compensation and Complaints https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-telecoms-and-internet/advice-for-consumers/problems/broadband-landli...

[jakeatphonespot]

Same situation, ever since ive been out of contract ive been capped at 30mbps, suspicious! Its been a perfect 70mbps until recently

[Highlinder]

@jakeatphonespot Can you please run the broadband test, this can be done either via the Sky app on mobile data or use the link below.
https://www.sky.com/help/diagnostics/sky-broadband-diagnostic/sky-broadband-diagnostic

When the test completes can you click on " Tell me more about my connection " and take a screenshot of your speed that you are supposed to get between and your minimum.

[Nemes]

Same here, out of contract at the end of July and i'm getting around 38 mbps if i'm lucky now, it went to 60 odd last night but on the whole it's in the 30's. I also had no idea i was getting slower speeds, it was out of desperation that i googled "Drop in Broadband speed once your contract runs out" that i found this thread.

My Router says i'm getting 60 odd mbps but i'm most certainly not. The website speed test says everything is fine with my router.

Here's my routers stats.

Router Statistics

System Up Time: 95:06:12

Port Status TxPkts RxPkts Collision Pkts Tx b/s Rx b/s Up Time WAN MER 5291909 8511203 0 1087582 15280710 01:53:27 LAN Up 157483708 83753281 69 16049222 1085356 95:06:12 WLAN (2.4 GHz) Up 2243373 878891 0 6784 736 94:10:38 WLAN (5 GHz) Up 8099709 7615280 0 12179 13840 94:10:33

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Broadband Link Downstream Upstream Connection Speed 69568 kbps 20000 kbps Line Attenuation D1(4.9 dB) , D2(11.3 dB) , D3(18.4 dB) U0(0.1 dB) , U1(8.5 dB) , U2(13.5 dB) Noise Margin 6.1 dB 9.2 dB

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Poll Interval:

Seconds (at least 3s):

Set Interval Stop

I've reset my router, checked cables, plugs connected into the filter and tried a new filter. I also have the same speeds on my laptop that is connected to an ethernet cable via a D-link box to my router and my PC is connected via an ethernet cable to the router as well.

Does the line information on my copy/paste of my stats just say what my router is allowed to get rather than the actual speed?

I Use Ookla for the speed tests.

Does anyone think my router maybe faulty?

My last line of defence will be to reinstall windows 10

[jamesn123]

@Nemes 

Its hard to tell from your description, is any of your devices wired directly to the router rather than through whatever the 'D-Link box' is?

[Nemes]

The D-Link box is a DGS-108 8-Port 10/100/1000BASE-T Gigabit Ethernet Switch

My PC is connected to the router and the D-Link box is connected to the router.

I have 4 ports on my router that i can use altogether.

I bought the D-Link box when i had a Sky Q router which only had two ports which had been returned, i only have Broadband with Sky now.

From the D-Link box i have 5 ethernet cables running from it.

1 to my laptop.

2 to my kitchen for when i have my laptop in my kitchen

3 to my TV

4 to my Blu Ray box

5 to my Phillips Hue Bridge

I still get the slow speeds when i only have one cable to my PC in the router.

I'm just wondering if i'm getting slow speeds because i have a VPN running all the time. If my VPN thinks my ip is compromised it disconnects or stops my internet until it's safe again.

As far as i know, a broadband provider always tries for the fastest speeds available until the broadband connection fails, then it tries a slower speed until it gets a stable connection. So with my VPN disconnecting my broadband for protection, i wonder if that is confusing my router speeds?

I think i'll stop my VPN for a few days and see if my broadband speed goes back to normal of 60 odd mbps.

[jamesn123]

@Nemes 

A VPN will always result in lower speeds due to network overheads and peak times on the VPN providers servers.