5GEE Router Unusable

[kjharve]

Hi all,

My 5GEE Router is frequently dropping connections (sometimes 4 or 5 times an hour) and often suffers from really slow speeds. It worked pretty well for about the first year. Then some work was carried out in the area in about mid-April and since then we've had nothing but problems. And they're getting worse.

I've tried forcing the router to only use 4G but that hasn't solved the problem. Shutting down the router does temporarily fix the issue but connection can drop again 10 minutes later. It's really frustrating.

During the times the connection drops or is unstable, my mobile doesn't suffer any of the same problems.

Can anyone suggest anything? I think I've tried all the options suggested on other posts, so I'm starting to run out of ideas. At £50p/m it's becoming an expensive ornament!

Thanks

[James_B]

Hi @kjharve,

Welcome back to the EE Community. 🙂

Does the Network Status Checker report any problems in your area?

James

[kjharve]

Hi James,

No it doesn't. There have been no issues with my mobile, just the 5GEE router.

Kevin

[James_B]

Thanks for checking @kjharve 

I'd recommend contacting Technical Support so a member of the team can take a detailed look at this for you.

They'll be happy to help. 🙂

James

[kjharve]

I've been round the houses with tech support for a week and a half now. Their final solution was to send the router in for repair as they had supposedly ruled out all other issues. However, for that I would need to be without Wifi in my house for 2-3 weeks - despite being sent to an EE store to get an exchange unit (as advised by tech support) to find out apparently no such thing exists.

EE really need to look at these issues. There are lots of posts with people having similar issues with these devices. They are also marketing them as an alternative to traditional broadband and that cannot be further from the truth. The product is fine when it's working but when it doesn't, the technical support and issue resolution processes are woefully inadequate.

I'm now faced with a decision between being without Wifi for 2-3 weeks or pursuing expensive solutions such as alternative routers or aerials.

This is obviously a device issue as my mobile never suffers from the same problems. I am typing this now, connected to my iPhone hotspot whilst the router has one of its timeouts.

As for the condescending EE employee in the store who said the devices were "too expensive" to simply replace, maybe he would like to pay my £55pm bill instead. Clearly that's peanuts!

[kjharve]

I'm having the same problems and they seem to be cropping up on this forum more frequently. EE are not handling the issues at all and their processes are woefully inadequate.

As advised by another member, you need to keep paying your bill as that won't help your case. The way to do it is to be a model customer and reclaim your losses through the appropriate channels.

I'm at the point now where I'm going to be seeking financial recompense, cancellation of contract and I think there's a legitimate investigation for trading standards based on how these devices are marketed.

[kjharve]

Lots of people are having this problem. I got quite a lot of info from tech support before they ran out of ideas. They said it was related to when my router would switch between masts. Apparently, I'm in the middle of about 4. Before engineering works were conducted in April, my router would be connected to the mast to the south the majority of the time. But in the last 2-3 weeks, the router has been switching masts more frequently and when the connections drops, it's due to a switch of mast.

I'm not entirely convinced these issues are related to the device. Somethings forcing it to switch masts frequently and that has to be network related. But EE maintain there are no issues in my area.

Something doesn't add up. In the meantime, I'm paying £50pm for something that's barely usable!

[Xtopher]

That’s interesting and actually makes sense. We are on top of a hill and can see maybe 3-4 masts. We always connect to the same one and I’ve only ever seen one reported on this 5G router, but on the previous 4G router we would often connect to some of the other masts. Interestingly never had these dropouts when the old router would swap masts.

Also getting reports from other users in local villages that they too are having issues after these engineering works, which one villager said he’s been told was mast upgrades. They are on a different mast as they are down the hill so can’t connect to the one we usually connect to. 

How do we get a proper engineering contact to look at what’s happening? I’ve told the other villagers to report it to, but most are not using it for broadband so aren’t that bothered. ☹️

[Katie_B]

Hello @Xtopher. 

Since your last post when there was planned maintenance have you been able to get in touch with our technical care team to report further issues?

Speak soon, 

Katie

[Xtopher]

Hi Katie, I had a twitter thread open and they raised a complaint off the back of it, but just kept suggesting it was my router, even though the router has been fine since I got it, until we had this 'engineering work' and since then it sporadically drops the connection. It got to a level where it was bearable compared to trying to jump through hoops with support to get nowhere. Not blaming support, they have to follow their processes, but it needs a network engineer to look at it as it will be a very low level issue, possibly a compatibility thing between the 5GEE router and whatever hardware they installed at the cell tower. I know these intermittent issues can be a right PITA to chase down.