Intermittent disconnection of both Bell Fibe Internet & TV

[deeliciousplum]

Hi,
Experiencing intermittent disconnections on our Bell Fibe Internet and TV services. They last for about five to ten minutes, yet are fairly frequent and disruptive. On some days they number at about 4 to 5 disruptions. These interruptions have been occurring for about 3 weeks. The latest experiences are not new as they do happen roughly every year, yet at different times of the year. Not too long ago, we were given a replacement modem which was refurbished and of the same model. That surprised us as the replacement refurbished model is very, very old. We love our services when they are working. As we have spoken over these many years with a helpful Bell technician, we know all the steps to do a thorough clean reboot of our modem and other hardware. The questions we have are:

1. Are our Bell services constantly experiencing outages due to work being done near to our hub? If that is that case, can we get a heads-up on when the work starts and ends as it is difficult to use the services when there are interruptions.
2. Is it the fault of the very, very old refurbished modem? Do these die often? If so, is there a new and not refurbished model to replace the old one which can be sent to us? I'm positive that Bell's records show that we have been with Bell for such a long time and hope that this will assist in providing us with better, possibly modern equipment for the services that we love and that we rely on.
3. We have sent notices before that the Bell service box which is directly behind our home and which we share with many of the nearby townhouses may need to be updated/replaced. I have, on several occasions and yearly, had to stuff the exposed cables back into the box and to place back the cover which often falls from wind or from not being properly replaced/secured after something was serviced. There are far too many cables running down the outside of the service box and Bell technicians ought to see how these are hit by those that do the groundskeeping of the town homes. Plus, lots of young children and the pets of the families who live nearby may come into contact with all of those cables. Sorry for the lengthy rant.

Well, we do hope that there will not be another year of numerous intermittent outages. We do hope that our equipment, e.g., modem and the Fibe Tv units will be updated to something far newer than the decades old equipment that we have currently. I am proficient at installing such things if Bell decides to send them to us.

If you made it this far, thank you for your patience and hope to not have to be a bother due to our Bell services needing to be constantly reset for us to experience the services.

Wishing to all a wonderful Spring.

[deeliciousplum]

A gentle follow-up: The issues that we had were masterfully solved by a visiting Bell technician. After yesterday's posting to this forum and during this morning, we experienced a complete loss of our Bell Fibe internet and Bell Fibe TV and then our landline. When things happen, they happen all at once. The visiting technician was thorough and if they represent all of Bell's techies, then Bell has the best technicians possible for a variety of issues. The current problems were due to a single broken wire that was in our 'need to be replaced' outdoor service box. I know this sounds like me being a broken record, yet, I do hope that those responsible for the outdoor hubs, those service boxes, can find the time to replace ours. It is a shared service box which feeds about 18 town homes. The cover constantly falls after a storm or if it was not set back with the help of wrapping a strong zip tie around the cover and the box. When the cover is on the ground, numerous small cables pour/hang out. And, to add to that chaos, there are numerous cables that due to how full the service box is run on the outside of the box and which go underground. These cables are exposed to those who work on groundskeeping. We have seen these cables hit by grass cutting tools as well as they are exposed to the little hands of children and curious pets and wildlife. So, and please, do consider replacing this "ready to be retired" service box. Thank you! Sorry for the long post. And, thank you for repairing our services. 🌺

[deeliciousplum]

A disheartening follow-up: My family woke up to two complete disruptions of our Bell Fibe internet and Bell Fibe TV. Sigh. I do not blame the recent visit from the technician as on the day of their visit, they did an exceptional job which resulted in zero disruptions to our three Bell services, e.g., landline, internet, and tv, up 'til we all went to bed. This may be the sign that we need to consider what our options are when it comes to internet and tv service providers. As both of my parents are elderly, one parent being immobile, and where both rely on the internet to keep in contact with family and close friends and where one relies on the tv for much needed entertainment, these disruptions have an effect on their day to day activities. My father's cell provider has sent us a very good offer for home internet service. And, from looking at their contract, there is no sign that it will go up astronomically when the new service provider's contract ends. The new service provider's pricing will continue to be reasonable.

Bell pros:
- when the service works, it works so well.
- always a pleasant interaction with those who offer tech help via calling in to Bell as well as with those who are Bell's visiting technicians.

Bell cons:
- family has been with Bell for so many decades. So, we are understandably surprised that we are provided with outdated equipment for our internet and tv services. The replacement modem, which was a replacement for the antique modem that broke down not too long ago, is the same and equally as antique modem and the replacement is refurbished. Antique and refurbished. Sigh.
- frequent short disruptions as well as complete disruptions of services. Disruptions happening at different times of the year which are not resolved as they reappear even after servicing and a modem replacement.
- if the disruptions are due to work being done on Bell's network in and around our neck of the woods, we are never given a heads-up.

Possible conclusion:
Call whichever companies offer a reasonable deal for the services that we now have with Bell. Explore the reputation of the other companies and choose the one with the least issues. We do not want to switch our provider as Bell is a part of the lives and history of my elderly parents. Bell's disruptive services may lead us no choice but to switch providers.

I hope that this is read by a Bell representative as calling in may simply be experienced as something having been done. Yet, which, through experience, results in disruptions to our Bell services moments or days or weeks later.

[deeliciousplum]

Sigh: Even after the help that we received from a telephone call to a Bell technician and even after a thorough service visit to our home by a nice Bell technician, we are experiencing two more days of numerous short Fibe internet and Fibe TV disruptions as well as several long and complete disruptions of Fibe internet and Fibe TV. I am uncertain what we are to do to remedy these disconcerting interruptions of our Bell services. These disruptions are experiences we have had at different times of the year and for many years. Forgive me for making this more like a journal of what can go wrong with Bell's Fibe internet and Fibe TV services. I wonder if there are mechanisms in place and where Bell keeps a log of when our services are not working so that we do not have to explain the service disruptions over and over and over again to people who may not be authorized to provide the help that our family needs. Well, I will not make this a long posting. Maybe, this new week will be a week where my family and I will make some much needed decisions on our internet and tv service provider. Wishing to all in the forum a wonderful new week. 🌻

[AlexS]

What other telco options do you have?

[deeliciousplum]

My elderly father received a tempting internet service offer from his mobile phone provider. The company which sent an offer is called altima telecom. The two year contract's monthly charges are very competitive as well as when the two years are up, the monthly cost goes up by a little, not like some other providers where once your good deal is finished, the cost goes up by a lot.  The altima telecom user experience feedback is reasonably positive. Of course, not perfect. But, reasonably positive reviews. Yet, a gentle note that if Bell can resolve the numerous disconnects and provide a dependable service for what my elderly parents are paying, I do not think that they will switch providers. But, and over these last few weeks, it may not looking good for Bell.

[AlexS]

Well you should have told your story to the loyalty dep of this secondary company instead of running a tv series here. Bell isn’t the one directly do business with you.  If only Bell’s infrastructure is connected to the address, your only choice is starlink. And where did you get reviews about this company’s TV service? Some aspects have few information online even for major providers.

[BellPatricia]

Hi there @deeliciousplum, welcome to the Bell Community 🙂

Thank you for all of troubleshooting steps you have taken so far. 

Can you share which modem/TV receiver (make/model) you are using.

Do you see any type of error message on the modem/TV screen when this occurs?

Have you tried running Virtual Repair when the disconnect occurs? Virtual repair helps detect and resolve issues, and optimizes your service without you having to call technical support.

Depending on the equipment you have, there are a few threads in the Community that we think you will find helpful.

We invite you to check out Giga hub randomly rebooting where other customers have been discussing a similar topic.

Keep the Community posted about how everything is going.

- Patricia

[deeliciousplum]

Oh? Wonderful. I hope that we can resolve these numerous short and lengthier disruptions of our Bell Fibe internet and tv services.

Hi Patricia,
Here is a list of our equipment:
- Bell Fibe internet: Bell Home Hub 2000 Fast 5230
- Bell Fibe TV: Bell VIP 2262

The error messages that our Home Hub 2000 displays are a mishmash of blinking lights and even lights which are off and then which gradually come on and then off and then on again after short to lengthier periods of time/delay. Both blue blinking as well as red blinking lights are visible and that these happen to most of the indicator lights that the modem is host to.

The error message on our tv is to call Bell as well as a code 101.

I do wish to try your suggestion of the Virtual Repair mechanism/tool. We'll get back to you with our experiences of applying it and if this tool had an effect during the more recent 10 (they are becoming more frequent) or so daily, short, and complete disruptions of our Bell services as well as for the 2 to 3 lengthier and daily complete disruptions of our Bell services. As for how we respond to the lengthier disruptions of our Bell services, we do all the steps that were shown to us by the Bell technicians who have visited us over the years.

I have read a number of newer and older threads. Yet, none appear to offer any suggestions which apply to our experiences of our Bell services being disrupted.

We do hope that this can be resolved soon. My elderly parents have been with Bell for as long as I can remember. If Bell decides on sending another service technician to help in impeding the disruptions of our Bell services, that would be wonderful. My parents do rely on the internet to keep in touch with family and with their community engagements/activities. My mother, being immobile, does draw a lot of her entertainment, news, and cultural programs from having access to Fibe TV.

Thank you for your response. We do hope that our Bell services will one day be repaired and rendered dependable and we do hope for a day when we may return to not being a bother on this forum.

Wishing you a wonderful new week.

[deeliciousplum]

Tentative good news:
After applying Virtual Repair, a tool used for remotely testing Bell's service box, for remotely testing our Bell Vip 2262 tv receiver, and for remotely testing our Bell Home Hub 2000, the Virtual Repair tool discovered that there is nothing wrong. If I had a (now non-existent) Canadian penny for every time we heard that... Hah! Sigh. Yet, here is the tentative good news. After the test was run, the VR tool recommended chatting with their Bell chat help. The Bell chat agent was very thoughtful and listened to our Bell services issues and then assisted in setting up an appointment with a home visit by a Bell technician.

What are my hopes? That this afternoon's Bell Technician is playfully known as Gandalf (from Lord of the Rings and a gender-neutral version) due to their abilities to fix what may be the unfixable. A glimpse of my imagination: As the Bell Technician approaches the cables, cables which are pathways for the receiving and transmitting of data, 'Gandalf' will raise their wizard's staff up high and then slam the staff down with such a force yelling "You will pass!" Mere moments after, all of our Bell services will be rendered working and dependable. After the Bell technician leaves, my family will experience for weeks, months, possibly for years zero/no short nor long disruptions of our Bell Fibe internet and tv services. Yes, I am a wishful thinker. That is why I am thinking of the term tentative good news.

Thank you to the peeps at Bell. May things go well during today's visit by a Bell technician.

[deeliciousplum]

tl;dr Yet, a cathartic act of writing and of learning. If you are reading this and time is as per reality valuable, the very last line of my posting covers everything.

Scratching our heads may accurately capture our current experiences with daily and growing in numbers short and lengthy Bell Fibe internet and tv disruptions. What moves us from scratching our heads to feelings of being abandoned by a company, a company which we've been with for far too many decades than I can remember, is the experience of being upsold* a new contract due to no one knowing why our as well as our neighbour's Bell services are constantly down. To be fair, the *new contract does come with a reduction of price (roughly $16 dollars off of the huge amount that our family is paying for decades is not really a reduction) for a period of 24 months. Something akin to a Spidey sense tells me that when the two years are up, we may be pummelled by what the new and actual costs for services will be and which we have already been paying for and which are rife with disruptions.

Today's Bell technician pros:
After two nice techies and after several equally as nice phone and online chat Bell agents, no one knows why our Bell services are constantly disrupted.

Today's Bell technician cons:
After the thoughtful (I am in awe of how nice these technicians are) and thorough, yet not successful, technician left, we were left to be exploited by a Bell contract upseller. While reaching out to Bell, so as to send us the reasonably newer modem model, a modem that may be only 6 to 8 years old as opposed to the antique and refurbished Home Hub 2000 that Bell gave us last time, we had to struggle without success to press upon the agent to simply send us the Home Hub 3000. The Bell sales agent would not send us the newer old modem without ensnaring us in a new contract with new pricings which may cost us far more later on.

Conclusion: While Bell's agents and techies were and continue to be fully cognisant of our three or so weeks of short and lengthy Bell Fibe internet and TV disruptions, we were not once offered renumeration for the disruptions and challenges that my elderly parents faced while trying to use the services to connect with family and for entertainment and news programs. What ought we to call a company and/or its business model which preys upon its paying clients who have had and who wish to continue to have a long-term relationship with their services? There are a few descriptors that readily come to mind which may be not appropriate for what I support as being a family-friendly forum.

Post-conclusion: We only wanted a "newer" (as in not an antique nor refurbished) modem to be sent to us which I would install and hope that it would be a reasonable remedy. We were requesting one as per the recommendation(s) of this afternoon's Bell techie who spent roughly two hours methodologically going through everything with a fine-tooth comb. Being cornered by an upseller Bell agent who said clearly that they sympathized and understood our experiences and the challenges of my elderly parents only added to our disappointments.

I know. I know. This list of problems with Bell's services are nothing when we compare these to people who truly suffer. While fully acknowledging the injustices/inequalities that our species faces, I gently wish that my elderly parents were not paying a chunk of their monthly pensions to a business whose business model appears to be primed to take advantage of people like my parents and me. I hope that the upseller Bell agent received a bonus and not a reprimand for taking so long to upsell us and for demonstrably taking us to the proverbial cleaners. Sigh.

A Bell Home Hub 3000 (which I hope is not refurbished) will be arriving this Thursday as is a new and unwanted, yet a must be agreed to or no older modem replacement of our current very old model modem will be sent Bell contract. SIgh.

Lots and lots of sighs. Sigh. The benefactors of Mordor are winning. Our techie Gandalf could not hold them at bay.

[deeliciousplum]

A gentle reflection on the tentative part of the title of the previous posting...

We are disheartened to share that after two very thoughtful Bell technicians, where yesterday's techie spent about two hours troubleshooting our Bell modem and tv receiver as well as running out back to the service box and telephone junction thingy, no issues nor sources of the disruptions could be found. While keeping the no issues could be found in mind and after those two hours of troubleshooting, both the Bell technician and I were staring at a modem that was displaying that it was not working as intended and we were staring at a tv screen which was displaying an error message that we ought to call Bell.

Over three weeks of, and continuing, disruptions of our Bell Fibe internet and tv and not a single solution. Not even a single call from a concerned Bell agent to discuss renumeration for paid (expensive) Bell services which are not working as intended nor a call for discussing what Bell's next steps will to be to remedy Bell's malfunctioning services/hardware.

Conclusion:
Upon the recommendation of the Bell technician, we are to replace what "may be*" (*an unknown) a faulty Bell Home Hub 2000 with a Bell Home Hub 3000. Without any assurances that once we replace the modem our services will be rendered working/dependable, we called Bell and were greeted by a Bell agent not with a date of when the replacement Home Hub 3000 will be sent to us nor with an apology for the loss of access to the Bell services nor with a promise to renumerate us for paid Bell services that were not working. My family was greeted by a Bell sales agent who convinced us that without a new contract, we were to remain as paying Bell customers who are owners of what may be a malfunctioning Hub 2000 as well as that we will be a family who continues to experience numerous daily short and long disruptions of our Bell services. Sigh. A no choice scenario is a no choice scenario.

Tomorrow, the Home Hub 3000 may arrive. One can only hope that this may help to remedy what have been  frustrating experiences with our Bell services and with no Bell agent to help us with any sign of what Bell's peeps will do/what steps they'll take to return our paid Bell services to a reasonable working condition.

Even as this new post was typed, we had over three internet and tv disruptions. Sigh.

[deeliciousplum]

Let us open this latest posting with one of Bell's mission statements:
"Flexible packages and reliability you can trust"
Ok. Now, on to what is our family's difficulties with Bell's reliability. As for the trust part, you all can come to your own conclusions on that part.

So? Where are we with our Bell Fibe internet and tv services?

- We are still waiting for the Home Hub 3000 with the hope that the modem may be the issue of roughly a month's short and lengthy disruptions. As far as the two visiting Bell technicians and the calls to Bell's agents are concerned, we have discovered that we and Bell's staff do not know what the problem is. And, we are not holding our breath when it comes to the "has not arrived yet" replacement modem in helping us to fix Bell Fibe's numerous disruptions. Unknowns are unknowns. If the replacement modem fixes the disruptions, then I have far more questions about Bell's repair methodologies.

- We are continuing to worry that instead of being helped through our last interaction with a Bell agent, we were upsold a new Bell Fibe and home phone package. Committing to the new contract was an example of a no choice experience as it was our only means to acquire the replacement modem in hopes of attempting to remedy our Bell Fibe services disruptions. When the two years are up of the new contract, my elderly parents, one who is immobile, may be shocked as to how high their new contract costs truly are. And, I must share that the Bell sales agent kept repeating of how concerned the agent is of the health of my elderly parents, of how the agent understood their and my challenges and frustrations, and that the agent wanted to help us. Sigh. I am not sure that "help" is how I would describe what we experienced with the Bell sales agent when all we needed, and were refused without a new contract, was a replacement modem or at the very least that our expensive services are properly repaired.

Conclusion:
I allowed myself to be befuddled by a Bell sales agent who played the role of being concerned and who convinced me that they will help my elderly parents on a pension save on their expensive services.

Lesson(s) learned?
Over the last month and a bit, my family and I have lost access to functioning Bell Fibe services. We, as of yet, do not know the total sum of the monthly costs of the first two years of an unwanted and unnecessary new Bell Fibe internet and tv as well as landline contract. Not to mention that we do not know what the costs will be when the temporary credits on a new two-year contract will be when these end. Will two elderly parents on a pension afford the new monthly costs after the temporary credits end. Sigh.

🌺If you made it this far in our far too numerous and too lengthy Bell Fibe saga writings or if you have not read any of it (which I am totally fine with), then I do thank you all for your time and patience. May these readings have been more entertaining than painful. As for my family and I and after over a half century of being with Bell, we are wondering why we have been and continue to be treated this way by Bell's employees. It does not make any sense.

[BellPatricia]

Good day @deeliciousplum, thank you for continuing to keep the Community updated.

We would like to look into this a bit further, and have sent you a private message. Please check your Messages within your profile avatar in the top right corner.

Unsure how to check or send a private message? See How to send a private message

- Patricia

[deeliciousplum]

Wonderful! A gentle note: I am the primary caregiver of my elderly mother as well as we are continuing to experience numerous short and lengthy disruptions of our Bell Fibe internet and tv which may add a delay to sending and to receiving messages. I thank you in advance for wishing to explore our not functioning Bell Fibe services. Now, to respond to your private message.