how long does it take Eircom to get off their backsides and do repairs?

pork99

I'm currently having trouble with my DSL line. The line started to give up intermittently over Saturday evening/Sunday morning. By Sunday evening the line was completely dead - no DSL, no phone.

I rang UTVip support on Sunday and they told me that because incoming calls are disabled it is a line fault and therefore the responsibility of Eircom. I had to wait until Monday morning before getting a support rep in Eircom (all I could get on Sunday was their automated response). Eventually - and it was an ordeal, was hung up on once, kept getting referred to Eircom DSL support (I have Clicksilver), I got to report the fault to Eircom.

I rang them again this morning and they could not give me even a rough estimate of how long it would take to get the line repaired.

1) Does anyone have any idea how long it takes Eircom to do repairs on domestic lines?

2) What caused the line to go down in the first place?

3) If I do not get a reasonably fast response - 2-3 days after reporting the fault is reasonable I think - what recourse do I have? Anyone have any advice on going through Eircom's internal complaints procedure?

4) How do I go about escalating the complaint to ComReg if necessary?

(I get the impression that the fact that I'm using UTVip is confusing them & causing a problem)

sceptre

Originally posted by pork99
1) Does anyone have any idea how long it takes Eircom to do repairs on domestic lines?

No idea how long they normally take but they have a 2 working day guarantee in their customer charter.

2) What caused the line to go down in the first place?

No-one will be able to answer that question with more than a guess based on the info you've supplied.

3) If I do not get a reasonably fast response - 2-3 days after reporting the fault is reasonable I think - what recourse do I have? Anyone have any advice on going through Eircom's internal complaints procedure?

They give you a month's free line rental if they don't fix a line fault withing two working days. That's "line rental" not "DSL rental" of course.

4) How do I go about escalating the complaint to ComReg if necessary?

Email them after exhausting the Eircom complaints procedure. If they can't give you a timescale on a repair, you've effectively done that so ring them once more and go straight to Comreg.

(I get the impression that the fact that I'm using UTVip is confusing them & causing a problem)

If so (and it's entirely possible) they're easily confused. You aren't the first non-Eircom customer to ring in with a line fault and you won't be the last. They really should have a procedure for this.

(I'm pre-supposing you've tried removing the filters from all the sockets and tried ringing your own number frmo a mobile)

pork99

Thanks Sceptre

No-one will be able to answer that question with more than a guess based on the info you've supplied.

Should have said what COULD have caused the line to go

They give you a month's free line rental if they don't fix a line fault withing two working days. That's "line rental" not "DSL rental" of course.

Very useful info, thanking you sir!

You aren't the first non-Eircom customer to ring in with a line fault and you won't be the last. They really should have a procedure for this.

It was like talking to the furniture. The impression I got was that my situation was a bit of a novelty to them, but yes I can't be the first, which just makes it more annoying.

(I'm pre-supposing you've tried removing the filters from all the sockets and tried ringing your own number frmo a mobile)

Tried ringing from mobile, kept getting "customer not available message" Will try without the filters ASAP

elsoldemayo

Originally posted by pork99

(I get the impression that the fact that I'm using UTVip is confusing them & causing a problem)

The simplest way of avoiding this is don't mention it.
Just report the line is dead, because as soon as you mention anything even slightly unusual about your line the Eircom rep will try to pass the problem off as not their fault.
That's what I'd do if I was taking your call.

Urban Weigl

Originally posted by sceptre
No idea how long they normally take but they have a 2 working day guarantee in their customer charter.

Is this true? Eircom have always taken an average of 7 days (including weekend) to repair faults for me

sceptre

Originally posted by Urban Weigl
Is this true? Eircom have always taken an average of 7 days (including weekend) to repair faults for me

It's true. Mentioned on page 10 of the (2003) phone book. I'd suspect they rarely make the deadline though. Obviously it's subject to you agreeing a time with them (no barricading the doors and complaining later:))

And I was wrong above when I said it was compensation of one month's line rental. Two months.

tribble

In my experience they are usually pretty quick smart about it.
Usually next day.
If you complain through another provider and they call eircom then it's usually same day (if called before 12 noon).

Though these figure are all 'in my experience' and boy have I had some 'experiences' with eircom. Hell, even right now my dsl's broke (though I am the one of the first customers in the exchange).

tribble

crawler

And all this is why it can be very risky using DSL for any form of essential service.....

Delphi91

Having dealt with Eircom on a few occasions, my expereince has been good. Generally they come out the following day, although my most recent problem resulted in an engineer visiting that very day.

Just gonna give my €0.02 worth here:

I had a line go COMPLETELY dead on me once because it got wet. Cable comes in underground into a large manhole in the garden. After some failry heavy rain, the line died completely. Turned out that junction box under the manhole cover had gotten wet. Engineer dried it out, fitted new junction box and away we went again - problem solved.

Like I said, that was what solved my problem - not sure it will apply to you though.

Mike

pork99

Originally posted by elsoldemayo
The simplest way of avoiding this is don't mention it.
Just report the line is dead, because as soon as you mention anything even slightly unusual about your line the Eircom rep will try to pass the problem off as not their fault.
That's what I'd do if I was taking your call.

I was not going to mention it. When they found out I have DSL they automaticaly assumed that it was i-stream and forwarded me to 1890 260 260 who then told me they could do nothing because its not i-stream. They refer me back to 1901 who then refer me back to 1890 260 260 etc

BKtje

Just ask to speak toa supervisor imo, annoy UTV as well tho. It is after all their service that is out as well.

query

Eircom have to publish their fault repair timelines and their perfomance on the comreg website. Can't find the report but i know its there somewhere

niallb

Every exchange has at least one engineer reponsible for it, so in a smaller exchange,
I think there's a much better technician to problem ratio!

The bottom line is voice service.
telling them it's a DSL line is putting you on a different waiting list.
I'd agree with elsoldemayo, keep it simple.
Your phone line is dead, they must fix it.
They don't need any information except your number
and customer account details.
Ring them back yet again and check have they even logged your call -
anything but a line fault might be considered as somebody else's problem.

Leave UTV out of it until the line is sorted.
All they can do is pick up the phone, and you're already doing that.
If you've DSL problems on a working voice line,
then get them involved.

Since I moved out of Dublin any repairs or faults
have been seen to either on the day or next day.
(I have three lines and we had bad weather, so not that bad a service)

In Dublin 15, I ordered a phoneline that took 27 weeks to be installed. Upgrade to ISDN took another 9 weeks.
Problems were seen to usually very promptly though.

I ordered an ISDN upgrade on a line here (very rural Meath)
and it was up and running within 4 days.

Good luck with your line,
NiallB

raeGten

Originally posted by sceptre
No idea how long they normally take but they have a 2 working day guarantee in their customer charter.

I seem to remember reading somewhere that what they promised was to RESPOND to any problems within 48 hours. I don't think they made any garauntees about fixing it within that time though. I think they only make that kind of garauntee with a leased line (within 24 hours I think??).

pork99

Originally posted by niallb

The bottom line is voice service.
telling them it's a DSL line is putting you on a different waiting list.
I'd agree with elsoldemayo, keep it simple.
Your phone line is dead, they must fix it.
They don't need any information except your number
and customer account details.


Leave UTV out of it until the line is sorted.
All they can do is pick up the phone, and you're already doing that.
If you've DSL problems on a working voice line,
then get them involved.

NiallB

Yes I was following that policy but they somehow that I've dsl, was as if they looked up something at their end that said mytelnum = dsl. Then they forwarded me to i-stream helpdesk without me volunteering the info.

psychic Biddy?

oscarBravo

I could have used a psychic Biddy in the past. On a couple of occasions I logged a fault with my FWA line, only to have a guy arrive out (usually promptly) with a crimping tool in his hand, look blankly at the antenna, and disappear off again.

pork99

Originally posted by B-K-DzR
Just ask to speak toa supervisor imo, annoy UTV as well tho. It is after all their service that is out as well.

the way UTVip support put it, if theres no dsl and no outgoing calls, its their fault. If those faults are present plus you cannot take incoming calls then its a line fault and therefore up tp eircom to fix

However I would love to know how and why dsl seems to have put everthing out of action.

css

If the line is completely dead to voice calls, I wouldn't even mention DSL to them.. You're just giving them an excuse to pawn you off. Same with any of these support lines for anything, don't give more details than they ask for....

pork99

Originally posted by css
If the line is completely dead to voice calls, I wouldn't even mention DSL to them.. You're just giving them an excuse to pawn you off. Same with any of these support lines for anything, don't give more details than they ask for....

yes but they knew about the DSL without being told about it :eek:

jd

Originally posted by css
If the line is completely dead to voice calls, I wouldn't even mention DSL to them.. You're just giving them an excuse to pawn you off. Same with any of these support lines for anything, don't give more details than they ask for....

I can imagine it-
I cant connect...

.
.
.
30 mins later...
was there a thunder storm in your area..
yip..big flash nearby too...
.
.

sceptre

Originally posted by raeGten
I seem to remember reading somewhere that what they promised was to RESPOND to any problems within 48 hours. I don't think they made any garauntees about fixing it within that time though. I think they only make that kind of garauntee with a leased line (within 24 hours I think??).

From the Eircom customer service guarantee:

Our objective is to clear all faults on your telephone line within 2 working days of the fault being reported, subject to an agreed appointment with our repair centre. If we fail to meet the deadline you can claim the equivalent of two months' line rental which will appear on your next phone bill*


*Terms and conditions apply (sceptre adds: But of course they do). The credit does not apply if the delay is due to circumstances beyond the reasonable control of Eircom. For new line installation this would include the customer being unavailable to take service within 10 working days of calling us, or when we are awaiting completion of construction work carried out by third parties. In the case of line faults this would include extreme weather conditinos, serious damage to telecommunications equipment caused by a third party, or when the customer is unavaileble to have their fault repaired within two working days of contacting us. Please note that eircom working days are Monday to Friday. The terms of our customer service guarantee do not apply to ISDN lines

They're stuck.

sunbeam

In my experience it has taken anything up to five days to fix our line.

This was especially problematic when my mother was living here alone. She is elderly, practically housebound and dependent on the phone both for her link to the outside world and her security system (one of those alarm pendants she could press if she had a fall). Repeated explanation of these facts to Eircom customer care seemed to make little difference. Now that I think of it repeatedly annoying them did eventually lead to the appearance of an engineer a day earlier than expected (i.e. after four days) last October

In many cases the weather hadn't been especially bad, but one of the lines had blown down. As my mother gets free rental a refund of that wouldn't be any use to her.

pork99

Just got home this evening (was away this week) and I have discovered that if you remove the UTVip supplied filters DSL works, put them on and nothing, no phones either way though

Looks like it might have been defective kit from UTVip. Phoned their help desk (still far far more helpful than eircom) and told them what was happening and should get some new filters. Still leaves me with the problem of 3 dead phones.

BKtje

However I would love to know how and why dsl seems to have put everthing out of action.

Thats why i suggested talking to utv as well cos even tho the line isnt their problem, the dsl on it is and imo they'd get a quicker response from Eircom than some guy..

Ring again, talk to a Supervisor /only/, explain that ur line is not working for voice. That you refuse to pay line rental until it is fixed and infact that u want ur 2 month free line rental as they have been told about the fault on numerous occasions by you. If she tries to pwn you off on DSl people say its not a DSl problem but a fault in the line. Get them to do their test thingy there and then. (they'll do the test straight away, at least did on my ISDN).
If she says she'll ring you back, get her name, position and anything else you can think of. If she says she can't help you get her to get someone who can cos you have been without a working phone line for over a week and that this is unacceptable.
Make sure you ger her details before she pawns you off so that she (could be a he of course) KNOWS that you will be back to her if the other route fails.

Ask if its possible to speak to an engineer from your exchange. Dont forget her details as it then makes it her problem and the only way ud stop bugging her is to have it fixed.
Good Luck

Urban Weigl

Originally posted by B-K-DzR
Thats why i suggested talking to utv as well cos even tho the line isnt their problem, the dsl on it is and imo they'd get a quicker response from Eircom than some guy.

Obviously if they supplied filters and those filters failed, the filters would be their problem. However, ADSL is a bitstream product (they merely provide the bandwidth), so if it is the ADSL generally it would not be their problem.