Open complaint against Irishbroadband.ie

Rkiver

This is a letter that is being sent into all major newspapers in the Dublin area.

An open letter to the people of Ireland,

I live in Dublin, the supposed capital of Ireland and bastion of technology and culture of this small country of ours. While we all are aware of the overcharged and substandard service of telecommunications offered by Eircom, we expect somewhat better of their competition. Well at least you would think that is what one would expect and receive. But in this instance, I am loath to admit this, Eicom may provide a better service.

I applied for a broadband connection to my home in Artane in late April to a company called Irish Broadband. This company offers a wireless connection to broadband for a small installation fee of €149 and an even smaller monthly fee of €35, which entitles you to a 512K connection, and no download limits. This is in comparison to Eircom’s alleged broadband of 512K, €70 a month, and a limit of 8GB downloads, and also having to have a telephone line installed costing €120. It is clear that Irish Broadband offer a clearly better deal in every department, not that I would know however. You see I do not have broadband, even though I applied for it many months ago.

There were delays, which is no surprise for this country, as nothing ever gets done on time. First it was the end of May it would be done with construction and testing, then it was mid-June, then July, and then the start of August. However I did not find this out by Irish Broadband ringing me and informing me of the delays, I have to keep ringing them back. In fact at one point I was given contradictory information from two of there customer service representatives that I felt I was being deliberately lied to. I was finally rung back after threatening to bring these issues up with the Communications Regulator, and was promised it would be ready for the end of July start of August. I rang them today, being Friday July 30th just to enquire if things were proceeding on schedule, notice that I had to make the call, no attempt was made to contact me. I was then told by the customer service representative that it was scheduled for September. Understandably frustrated I said I would like a call back from his supervisor explaining what was going on.

I have not received such a call. Now this company are a fairly new Irish company, and they sponsor the radio station Q102, advertising as the best in Ireland for providing internet connectivity. I would debate that, and actually I put forward it is false advertising. I eagerly await some form of response from Irish Broadband regarding this, and perhaps some form of reparation for what I view as the time wasted by myself ringing them, and time that I could have already had a form of net connection and been browsing away to my hearts content. I need the internet as I programme, beta test games, and also help maintain one of the larger online community forums.

Sending in from a internet café,
Robert Dunphy

Cabaal

hmmm more paragraphs please..

OMG your DSL was delayed I can see this story on the front page of the Irish Times, I better check Ireland.com later :rolleyes:

Rkiver

It's not that it has been delayed that I have the problem, it's the continued lying from them about it that bugs me. And yes there should be more paragraphs, damned if I know why the copy across didn't seem to take them....

Ronan

I take it that you can't get over the phoneline Broadband from the likes Esator UTV ? Cause if you can I would send that email to the head of Irishbroadband.ie and tell him to sod his service.
Sadly this is not an unusal story, but I am not sure the papers will care (well maybe the Northside People). Still, best of luck with it all.

Cabaal

Rkiver wrote:

It's not that it has been delayed that I have the problem, it's the continued lying from them about it that bugs me. And yes there should be more paragraphs, damned if I know why the copy across didn't seem to take them....

Delays and lies happen, hell they happen in every company
Even my own DSL was delayed (EsatBT)

I connected my DSL router on the 13th June (this does not include the 35+ days of waiting before hand) and found I had a DSL signal on the line, I phoned Esat and there records said they had shipped me the modem and finished the order (which they hadn't) so they said they arrange for a eng to call out.

Eng phoned me yesterday and is due to drop out later today, so although they had my line enabled for atleast 20+ days they did'ent bother shipping me the modem.
Thankfully I had the router so I've been connected anyway

As for your problem, you'd be much more productive with you time if you contacted Comreg on this matter...

Rkiver

The house I live in is rented and does not have an active phoneline. The cost of getting the phoneline reactivated, and then paying Eircom's line rental and then Esats broadband fee is rather expensive, but I'll admit I am considering it at this stage.

Cost of Irish Broadbands installation is 150 Euro, then only 35 a month.
Cost of getting say Esat is 120 Euro for phone line connection, then 28 Euro a month line rental, then 50 Euro broadband fee a month also.

I would like to save money, but at this stage I just want broadband at home.

And trust me I'm getting in touch with ComReg about it, not that I really expect much to be done.

kin9pin

You've only been waiting since April? I currently pay UTV €45 per month and I'm STILL waiting for a broadband service so count yourself lucky.

eth0_

Rkiver wrote:

And yes there should be more paragraphs, damned if I know why the copy across didn't seem to take them....

I think he was being sarcastic. Take a look at the average length of letters in the Irish Times, Indo etc. Now take a look at your letter. Generally only succinct, pithy letters get published.

I don't understand why you're taking this from IBB. If I were you and they were treating me as badly, i'd think 'Hang on, if they can't even get their act together to INSTALL my broadband connection, I don't hold out much hope for the service itself!'.

Cancel your order and go with another provider, I say.

Cabaal

Rkiver wrote:

The house I live in is rented and does not have an active phoneline. The cost of getting the phoneline reactivated, and then paying Eircom's line rental and then Esats broadband fee is rather expensive, but I'll admit I am considering it at this stage.

Cost of Irish Broadbands installation is 150 Euro, then only 35 a month.
Cost of getting say Esat is 120 Euro for phone line connection, then 28 Euro a month line rental, then 50 Euro broadband fee a month also.

I would like to save money, but at this stage I just want broadband at home.

And trust me I'm getting in touch with ComReg about it, not that I really expect much to be done.

hows this then...

Get your phone line activated = 130 euro (90 activation + 30 rental)
Order your DSL with whoever you want, I personally recommend EsatBT Business (45 per month for 512K uncapped or 90 for 1MB)

Get your phone line unbundled, this will turn it into a digital only line
This has the plus side of you not having to pay line rental
so you won't be paying €30 a month to EirCON for a PSTN line you don't use basicfally...

Rkiver

Well as I said I am begining to consider that, but check out their website and you will see why I want them. No limitations of downloads. Cheaper then everywhere else, is it really surprising I want some connection like they are advertising?

And yeah, strange how the Indo rarely post letters over a certain length isn't it? And that is sarcasm.

Ronan

Rkiver wrote:

The house I live in is rented and does not have an active phoneline. The cost of getting the phoneline reactivated, and then paying Eircom's line rental and then Esats broadband fee is rather expensive, but I'll admit I am considering it at this stage.

Cost of Irish Broadbands installation is 150 Euro, then only 35 a month.
Cost of getting say Esat is 120 Euro for phone line connection, then 28 Euro a month line rental, then 50 Euro broadband fee a month also.

Em, Esat is €33 a month and UTV is €29 if you use them for the phone calls and 4 months free... But I can see why paying line rental if you never use the phone is not something you want.

seamus

eth0_ wrote:

I think he was being sarcastic. Take a look at the average length of letters in the Irish Times, Indo etc. Now take a look at your letter. Generally only succinct, pithy letters get published.

Actually, they edit them to fit them in, but obviously it helps to keep your letter short and too the point but witty and scathing. Not an easy thing admittedly. They state the max words at the bottom of the letters page.

Check your spelling and grammar if you're going to send it Rkiver.

Where exactly is the holdup? If you're within range, then getting it shouldn't really be a matter of construction and testing - if you're within range and have LOS, then you can get it. That's what I understand of it anyway.

Is there extra work needs to be done?

sceptre

Rkiver wrote:

This is a letter that is being sent into all major newspapers in the Dublin area.

Unfortunately (from your point of view), most newspapers have a policy of not printing open letters. The Irish Times, for one, states this policy explicitly.

Rkiver

Well thanks for all the views and opinions. After I logged off yesterday, just after thanking Cabaal, I went to ComReg and queried a few things. Suddenly this afternoon I get a call from IB, apologising for the past few months, and telling me they will have it installed on Monday 16th August, free upgrade to the meg line, no extra charge on installation, or on monthly cost. Seems like ComReg may have given them a call on it and they finally acted.

Thanks for all the views and information, they have been appreciated.

Mutant_Fruit

free upgrade to the meg line

I wonder if thats because they are (soon) upgrading all 512 customers to 1meg at no extra charge, and reducing the cost of 512 connections to match other ISP's offerings

I've heard vague rumors that thsi will be happening, but nothing has been confirmed yet.

Rkiver

Could well be, but I am not complaining if it is. I'm just glad they finally rang me back, and are telling me a definate date.

Serbian

You are going to be sorely disappointed Rkiver. Irish Broadband is possibly the most incompetent organisation I have ever had to deal with. Here's a taster of things to come:

Adey2002

Can you post link to the speed test Serbian? I would be interested in doing it on my IBB connection.


Ta

I can confirm that an upgrade to 1 Meg is imminent. Not sure if this is just Breeze, or Ripwave also. (unable to reveal source though).

Ripwave

Adey2002 wrote:

I can confirm that an upgrade to 1 Meg is imminent. Not sure if this is just Breeze, or Ripwave also. (unable to reveal source though).

I was offered an upgrade to a 1meg service, but was told that it would require an aerial on my roof, so I'm pretty sure it's not Ripwave

Serbian

Adey2002 wrote:

Can you post link to the speed test Serbian? I would be interested in doing it on my IBB connection.

IBB took the Speed Test down, I wonder why? You can do one on U.TV however, at the following link:

http://u.tv/speedtest/

Chaz

The speed test was taken down as it was unreliable.

The VL radios and most of the IBB products have a MIR/CIR algorithm that doesnt really allow bursting - but a gradual increase in speed based on certain values.

Moriarty

Off topic stuff split to this thread.