Broadband Horror Stories - We want them

Illkillya

shinzon wrote:

yep i did etho got on the phone after i was finished with the engineer, still failed after i explained what the engineer had done, and i said even with what the engineer said your still telling me it failed

God what she said next nearly had me telling her where to stick her BB

" Our Records are More upto date then the engineers"

A polite way of telling me to **** off and dont call again if ever i heard one

Shin

Shin - my guess is you have a similar problem to what I had, when I was getting "no tests results available" when I rang eircom, my line actually had been tested, and passed, but for some reason was not entered into the database that Eircom query when checking if your line passes or not. No matter how many times they sent a request to the exchange for my line to be tested, and no matter how many times it was tested, it would still come back with no test results. A letter to Phil Nolan fixed it for me.

De Rebel

If everything you say is accurate and true then it sounds as though there is an interesting test case here.

Ericom's test database says that your line has failed, eircom's engineer says that your line is OK. This apparant conflict needs to be resolved. It would be a really good case for a full audit. I strongly recommend that you write a letter asking that this conflict be fully investigated and send it to Phil Nolan in eircom, with copies to both John Doherty in Comreg and Dermot Ahern in DCMNR asking that they investigate this case. Letters, not e-mails.

The engineer will probably be disciplined, which is unfortunate, but this leaves a question mark hanging over the accuracy of the results database. This is the first time that I know of where we have a cut and dry case to proceed with.

spongebob

As Shinz is on one of the 40 ESAT exchanges IIRC has he ever asked ESAT to unbundle the line and test it with their gear which is a possibility I believe ? Just a thought !

a nice email to Bill Murphy in ESAT could be a help here, let me stress that ESAT are victims of this crappy database system even more than Shin is, what with Eircom stealing their customers and blocking the ports on the DSL gear to stop people going to IOL and that ESAT are only being suggested by me because they may be able to run a separate test to the Eircom one given they already have the gear in 2 exchanges in Waterford City for the past 2 years .........

That means Shin (and all his mates) will apply for IOL BB won't ya Shin

M

shinzon

just as an update to this, once the parents found out about the engineers results and my subsequent call to eircom and continual line failure they went spare, especially after the engineers commment that they line was about as good as you could get

The mother got onto Eircom straight away and demanded why an engineer passed the line and yere failing it still, well apparently somebody is going to call us back on monday with an update, so im just wondering is this the fabled 72 hour test.

As for getting on the bandwagon with phil nolan, Comreg and dermot aherne, i feel as if ive been there done that got the t-shirt (which incidentally i have lol).

Strange thing the operator said to my mother when she was talking to her, she said the whole of viewmount can get broadband but it just seems its only your line is failing :rolleyes:

Anyhoo im going to wait till monday and see what happens, if not ill consider going through it all one more time and see what becomes of it

Shin

damien

shinzon wrote:

As for getting on the bandwagon with phil nolan, Comreg and dermot aherne, i feel as if ive been there done that got the t-shirt (which incidentally i have lol).

Shinzon, I urge you to write those letters. You'll be doing it not just for yourself but for everybody else who this happens to. You could be the person that prevents this from happening again.

Zombrex

Arrraghhhh

EsatBT customer service and sales is sooo bad I just want to rip out my tounge and bash them to death with it.

I have been trying to sign up my family for broadband with them for 2 months. Firstly they lost 2 of our applications! Then they told us (after me ringing up) that because I had a previous account under the home phone number (from a while ago, and account that has been cancelled) my dad couldn't sign up for broadband if he is living at that address!

What kinda lame ass accounts system only lets you have one account under a telephone number. That is just stupid database design.

After a few weeks they sent us out a "change of name" form that had incorrect instructions on it of how to fill it out! FFS! We only found this out when they had the cheek to ring up later saying we had filled it out wrong. When then sent them another, correct one, they then proceeded to lose it.

Twice we were rang up by bitchie sales staff saying the account was in the application was in the wrong name, but who new nothing about the forms they had sent out to us and then that they had lost ("thats nothing to do with me").

And to top it all off someone at Esat sent us back the very first "lost" broadband application, weeks after we sent it in, saying we would have to change the name on the account with a copy of the incorrect change of name form!!!!

OH MY GOD!!!!!! :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

What the hell can you do with a company like this! Eircom are just as bad with a crappier service and Clicksilver make you change your phone over to them, so my family can't really go anywhere else.

I remember someone posted the name of the sales manger at Esat and said that if you write to him directly he will gets things sorted for you... anyone remember who that was.

viking

Wicknight wrote:

I remember someone posted the name of the sales manger at Esat and said that if you write to him directly he will gets things sorted for you... anyone remember who that was.

Bill.Murphy@esat.com
CEO of EsatBT

AndrewMc

My horror story is quite simple and ongoing: I can't even get a phone line. I applied in early March this year, and was told "two weeks", then "end April", then "end July", then "end November", and finally this afternoon I was told I might have a phone line "sometime in early 2005".

They say they have to install a new exchange in my area (since nobody on my street can get a phone, and two more streets have been built since, and more houses are under construction). Despite all Eircom's boasts that they've been working on this for 18 months and it'll cost E500,000 apparently the plan for this megaproject doesn't include things like "when".

From what I understand from the builder, they were told back in 2001 that these houses would be built, so they've actually had over three years (so far) to get it done.

lucernarian

Thats interesting, I didnt read this thread ever yet I independently sent Dermot an email complaining about the sham of telecoms in this country. I had an idea so I took out my phone book, looked up his home number and when I asked someone what his address was, it matched the one in the phone book almost exactly. I promptly entered his number into eircom's online database and it showed in bold large red lettering: FAIL. I then sent him an email pointing this out to him (I also told him the no. I used for confirmation).

I also pointed out to him innaccuracies in the broadband.gov.ie website regarding Louth.

I even congratulated him on the introduction of FRIACO to Ireland to sweeten him up but as of yet I got no reply to my email.

I sent it on 26-8-04 and I copied and saved the email on my pc. I explicitly pointed out to him that I was a constituent and I "would appreciate a personal reply".

One other thing, am I allowed to ask for Ministers' phonenumbers here and can they be posted?

From my experience I think I have a good quality line (at least 45kbps speed). Does that guarantee that I'm not on a splitter or could I be on some kind of "non-intergrated" multigain?

Could anyone tell me if ESAT BT will enable your line for the 3 month trial even if they think it fails the test?
MJT

bealtine

//One other thing, am I allowed to ask for Ministers' phonenumbers here
//and can they be posted?

I'd advise against that particular course of action or that nice Herr Flicks goons would be err coming to blow down your house etc

seamus

To_be_confirmed wrote:

One other thing, am I allowed to ask for Ministers' phonenumbers here and can they be posted?

Feel free to ask, just don't post them. They're quite freely available (*cough* phonebook), but no matter how sedate the cause, there's always one nutcase who'd go too far, so it'd be nice if we didn't allow anyone the chance to point the finger at us.

lucernarian

lol, I got the number freely in a phone book but could anyone tell me the name of his wife as the name "Dermot" also has a wife's name written beside it which I wont post in case it's not the minister who is listed in the phone book.

bealtine

[QUOTE
could anyone tell me the name of his wife as the name "Dermot" also has a [/QUOTE]

err Mrs...<grin>

jd

To_be_confirmed wrote:

could anyone tell me ...

Google it..
I did

lucernarian

Great idea, pity I didn't think of it :rolleyes:
Doing it right after posting this.

Gadgie

AndrewMc wrote:

My horror story is quite simple and ongoing: I can't even get a phone line. I applied in early March this year, and was told "two weeks", then "end April", then "end July", then "end November", and finally this afternoon I was told I might have a phone line "sometime in early 2005".

Have you contacted ComReg about this?

lucernarian

Indeed, isn't it part of Eircom's USO that they install a phone line within 2 working days of it being ordered?

spongebob

2 Days does not apply anymore from the 1st of Sept

Its 10 days if there is full copper on the premises and no guarantee whatsoever if the wiring is not complete on the customer premises.

http://www.eircom.ie/About/Activities/pending.pdf page 18 of 25

Better order tomorrow at the latest

M


M

gaui3d0pnbz86o

Here is mine, not as bad as some. I suppose compared to others ive been lucky.

Area: Lucan, Name: Tom xxxxx

ok, I decided at the start of this year i would like broadband, now been the patient sort that i am, i decided to wait for a good offer, as i figured there had to be one at some time. In June Eircom started thier surf the summer for free offer. With free rental for 3 months, and free modem and no charges, the offer sounded good to me. the fact it had a 4 gb cap i didnt mind, as im not much of a downloader, On 28th of june i ordered broadband, my line passed and all was ordered. so far so good! i was told that due to demand it would take 2-3weeks to get my modem and filters and get the line enabled. didnt seem like much of a problem to me as i expected a small delay.

two weeks pass, and still nothing. decided to wait the 3rd week as i was told there was a small delay. after 3 weeks still nothing, 4 weeks still nothing. i decided to ring to see if i could get any information. so i ring, and get told to ring another number, then another and another(get the picture.. no one wanted to help) eventually, i got through to a really helpful chap, cant for the life of me remember who he is. but he was the business! he checked stuff out, and said my parcel had left on 9th july and my line enabled on the 13th july, was about the 20th when i rang there.so i explained i hadnt recieved anything yet, and he gave me a tracking number for my modem and filters. so i head off to SDS website and i said attempted delivery even though there is always someone at my house, always. so i rang SDS, figured it may be at their warehouse. I ring them, and the package has been returned to eircom, Not eircoms problem i know but still. Slightly peeved i ring eircom back and explain what happened. No problem they say. they resent the package(or so they say) and claim ill get it by friday!. friday comes and goes, so does the weekend, so does monday. tuesday comes. i decided to get a dsl modem myself. hooked it all up and works at 256k const disconnects and i occosenly get 396k. not great i think. but i figure it may just be a crap modem, or a worng setting or something.

later in the week, stil nothing comes so i decided to ring. i get a lady,
no help what so ever. and claimed she couldnt give me a tracking number for my dsl equipment. didnt want to listen and was just , and there is only one phrase for her and anyone who has dedlt with her or her kind will nod in unison when i say biddy from hell.

mad and irate i email phil nolan. here is the email:


Mr Nolan,

I thank you for taking the time to read this and I hope this matter
can be resolved quickly. On the 29th of June this year, i decided to
avail of your current broadband offer. I rang Eircom.net sales and was
told my line was fine and that soon I'd be surfing at 10 times faster
then my current dial up connection - Eircom's flat 25 service.

Eagerly i ordered the service and was told it would take two to three
weeks for my modem, dsl filters and for the line to be enabled. No
problems there. I understood the offer was very popular and that
slight delays were inevitable do to demand.

However i have yet to recieve my modem and filters. The line was dsl
enabled on the 20th of July. At the beginning of this month i rang
enquiring about the status of my order, and was told it was shipped
the first week of July, the gentleman i was speaking to on the phone
gladly gave me the tracking number of my parcel. I contacted SDS to be
informed that the parcel had been returned to Eircom as my address
could not be found. Strange though the bills always arrive. I rang
again that day and the package was reordered. It was only supposed to
take 5 days. It is still not here.

In the end I went out and bought my own modem and filters as I am not
getting value from the free trial. If i had not bought my own I still
would be waiting and not be enjoying the pleasure of the free
broadband offer.

Unfortunately a pleasure it is not. I have not once achieved a 512k
connection. I seem to be stuck at only 256k. 10 times the speed
difference it is not. I believe it is down to the amount of noise on
the line. Could this be checked? The would be no charge i would hope.

Through no fault of my own I have missed out on a large portion of the
free offer. For a good will gesture I would ask that i be given an
extra free month. I would also ask that I receive my dsl filters and
modem promptly as well.

Regards,
Tom xxxxx

i didnt get an email reply, but exactly 40 minutes later i get a call from a gentleman. he says he will get en express courier for me so i will have it the next day. sure enough i get a call from a motorcycle curior firm next day, checking im in and looking for directions. My dsl filters and modem have arrived. all looking good yes....... well in true drama style, theres more!

so i get all the stuff, out of the box, and uninstall my other dsl modem(which was showing no signal, one of the disconnects i figure) i hook all the stuff up, and no signa, surprise surprise! give it while i thought, while turns to a day, turns to two turns to a week turns to 10 days! still no signal! i give up and decide to contact eircom. check net(using dial up) for details for tech support. turns out to be a 15xx number which i cant dial due to a bar we have on the line for those numbers. i notice a email adress under it, its ment to be for tech support for other packages bar the home starter, sure its the same department i thought. i email them anyway and after 2 days i get this reply

Dear Customer,

Unfortunately technical support is not offered by email or web-chat to customers of our Home Starter packages.

If you require support you can; ring our support line on 1530 555 444 (8am-10pm, 7 days; Call cost 33 cent per min)

Kind Regards,
eircom net Broadband Support.

just dandy i thought! i ring the order line in desperation, maybe they can pass a messge on! no joy there however they said they could transfer my call over! great i said! however after 30 mins on hold i get disconnected! i email phil nolan again in desperation as the modem problem was sorted quickly. here is the mail:

Mr Nolan,

Further to my last email, I have now received my broadband modem.
However now my dsl signal has been down for the best part of the last
week. I rang broadband sales and service to be told to ring a 1500
number, which i can not dial, due to a bar we have on those numbers. I
emailed broadband support and to date have heard nothing and the
signal is still down.

I find this level of service frustrating to say the least. Firstly it
takes the best part of two months to get my broadband equipment and
now after getting it, the signal goes down for nearly a week.

I never had any problems with Eircom before and always thought your
service and customer support was a shining example to others but now
with two problems is as many months i start to wonder. I would ask
this to be rectified as soon as possible so that my faith in Eircom be
restored.

Tom xxxxx

(whoops, those mails not in order, but you get the idea! sorry)

i ring the 1890 tech support number (for non home starter packages)and explain my situition about the 1500 number. the guy (another saint in eirom) who answer said hed get an eingeneer to check the exchange. he also ran through a load of checks with me over the phone. nothing worked so he assumed it was an exchange problem, but there would be a call out charge if there was a problem my end!

next day enginer rings, gets me out of bed, he says line is grand, signal is good and strong, am i getting a signal or is it still down. i check it and it works! miricle of miricle! engineer rings back to check on my signal, tell him its working but he said he did nothing his end...(this was last friday by the way)

well its all working now!(but only from main box@512 and extensions@256-probably low quality wiring) and so far no disconnects. so after about 10 weeks of nothing and complaints i have it up and running. that is my horror story. also you notice ive pretty much missed out on the entire summer offer! hows that for timing eircom. thanks for taking the time to read

tom

AndrewMc

Glenn wrote:

Have you contacted ComReg about this?

Indeed I have, and it's ongoing. They made a complaint on my behalf (I've already made two myself directly to Eircom) and the phone call yesterday (after a three week wait) was their followup. Apparently Comreg are also expecting a reply from Eircom themselves, in which Eircom will have to detail the reasons for the delay. Can't wait to see what they come up with...

eth0_

There was a new estate built up the road from me in Drogheda, Grange Rath, and people in that estate were waiting upwards of AN ENTIRE YEAR for a phone line to be installed!
And Eircom had been told at the time of inception for this development how many houses there'd be, so they could have a new exchange point ready.

ComReg couldn't/wouldn't do a thing, despite the fact it was covered many times in local - and I think national - press!

AndrewMc

eth0_ wrote:

There was a new estate built up the road from me in Drogheda, Grange Rath, and people in that estate were waiting upwards of AN ENTIRE YEAR for a phone line to be installed!
And Eircom had been told at the time of inception for this development how many houses there'd be, so they could have a new exchange point ready.

Sounds almost identical to our situation - do you have a rough idea when this was (I've found a reference that suggests it's Feb 03)? It'd be nice to say "look, our situation is more like standard Eircom practice, not just some magical disaster".

eth0_

AndrewMc wrote:

Sounds almost identical to our situation - do you have a rough idea when this was (I've found a reference that suggests it's Feb 03)? It'd be nice to say "look, our situation is more like standard Eircom practice, not just some magical disaster".

Well a guy I work with lives in this place, and he applied May 2003. He just told me he then got billed for Eircom for line rental and the install for seven months....even though they never installed a line and in fact hadn't even got the capacity on the existing exchange to install ANY lines in that estate! hahah!

lucernarian

Do you know what the situation is in the Drogheda exchange as there's no way for me to find out why I can't get DSL. I know a friend whose dad used to work there as an engineer. He said that Drogheda used to be the main exchange in Ireland?! I doubt that but is there anyone I could talk to about the Drogheda exchange?

amen

I live in Athenry Co Galway approx 2.2 miles from exchange just about on the max limit for eircom bb (althought BT can go up to 10 miles and my parents in wicklow live 2.5 miles from exchange and have no problems)
Constantly told the lines fails no reason given
via eircom contact (friend) I found out there is a carrier system on the line which will not be removed
so I asked eircom about a new line and was quoted E1000.00 with no guarantee that it would work with broadband
meet a ericom guy driving along in one of the broadband vans near my house and stopped him. he suggested that broadband was available in my area as he was arranging for several ppl to get connected including local primary school which is 3+ miles from exchange
I've contacted eircom customer care but no response
it appears what ever about dublin once you leave a city eircom don't want to know
its ironic that Athenry got activated as I told everyone I knew on Athenry exchange with a pc to preregister which was a lot of ppl and now I can't get connected :-(

if you want my contact details, email phone etc pm me

amen

I live in Athenry Co Galway approx 2.2 miles from exchange just about on the max limit for eircom bb (althought BT can go up to 10 miles and my parents in wicklow live 2.5 miles from exchange and have no problems)
Constantly told the lines fails no reason given
via eircom contact (friend) I found out there is a carrier system on the line which will not be removed
so I asked eircom about a new line and was quoted E1000.00 with no guarantee that it would work with broadband
meet a ericom guy driving along in one of the broadband vans near my house and stopped him. he suggested that broadband was available in my area as he was arranging for several ppl to get connected including local primary school which is 3+ miles from exchange
I've contacted eircom customer care but no response
it appears what ever about dublin once you leave a city eircom don't want to know
its ironic that Athenry got activated as I told everyone I knew on Athenry exchange with a pc to preregister which was a lot of ppl and now I can't get connected :-(

if you want my contact details, email phone etc pm me

oeNeo

Im not sure if this qualifies as a broadband horror story but anyway..

My line keeps failing the test for DSL. My exchange is activated and all that. Im well within range of both exchanges in my town. The only reason I think Im failing is that I've ISDN installed. I've called up Eircom about 6 or 7 times over the last few months asking them to do more line tests. Each time I ring them they say it'll take 3 to 4 weeks for them to do it and get the results back to me. I dont even think they've done it yet because last time I rang netsource (didnt know they were business only, bah!) they said that there wasnt any results on my phone line, hence the fail always coming up.

Esat werent much better. They said they'd get back to me within a week after I rang them looking for a line test, but to no avail. I rang Eircom again last week and was told I failed because my line was too old. I asked the woman if I could get another line test but she said that she had just done one. Am I mistaken or does it not take some time to conduct one of these? Wasnt she just checking the result database from previous(?) tests? Bah I dunno.

damien

AndrewMc wrote:

Can't wait to see what they come up with...

Andrew, I've sent you a pm. Please check it and reply.

Damien.

Chris001

This part is extracted from the complaint that I sent to Eircom:

I ordered broadband services for home September last year.

The order was placed through "e-channel" (so I was told later)
ie Internet for 3 weeks without any sort of response.
there is NO email confirmation, no letter or any call, nothing.

Rang up the telesales 3 weeks later and was told that
because I ordered through the "e-channel"
there is nothing they could do as there is no info on their system
and they could not tell me whether the order was ever received.

Then I was told that I have to wait until end of October
and if I did not receive anything, ring them up again.

To be fair to the telesales people, the rep was very polite
it just that your system / workflow seems to be the problem

Tried again a few days later, told the guy the same story
and the guy on the phone seems to go through some paper
and then told me that they did not receive the order.
He then put an order through over the phone.
The next day, he rang back and gave me username and password.
A few days later, a modem arrived.
I have to say that is the best part of the service that I have received.

In the first two months, less than half of the time
I actually get connection when I try to use it.
I DO NOT expect 99.999% availability
but less than 50% is totally unacceptable and have to pay the full cost.
The problem is that the DSL Sync light just keep flashing most of the time and never goes solid
ie there is no connection.
For a good week, there is one or two days that the DSL Sync light still up all time and the service is good.
The rest of the time, it may go solid for a short time - from a few minutes to a few hours and then gone again.

We were away for about a month.

Back from holiday, the quality of service has not improved.

Rang the support people too many times than I would like to remember at this stage.
I spent more on the support calls per month than I used to pay for the dial up services.

The support people (most of them) are courteous and some are quite helpful.
Some of them are just short of rude and unhelpful.

When I ring up, I have to tell the support people the same story
and they keep on asking me the same questions over everytime.
They do not seem to have any case history ???

Eventually, 3 people came out to the house.

The first arrived and did a few things
and then we were told that there are 2 problems:
1 We have Eircom Phonewatch in the house
2 The line is noisy.

This guy suggested that I did not tell the sales people about the Eircom Phonewatch
and therefore I am at fault.
Wait a minute, I have mentioned that to the sales people at the very beginning.

If that is such a big issue, it should be the provider responsibility to inform customer at early stage
How would customer know that there is conflict between the two Eircom services ?

I got both the phone watch and DSL services from Eircom,
I presume both are from the same company
and they should know that I have phone watch ?

The support people never even mentioned about Phone Watch ?

In at least one of the support calls,
the support people has identified the noise on the line may be the problem.
I was told that they will order line check (whatever that means)
and was told at least once that the line check seems ok.

The second guy come out to check the noise on the line.
He did quite a few things and did not seem to be able to identify the fault.
He could hear the noise on the line himself.
Anyway, there did not seem to be any resolution on the line noise.

The third guy came out to the house to install a DSL filter last week.
It worked fine for a short while (several hours)
and then the connection started to drop again.
The DSL light just keep flashing ... and eventually came back after a few hours.

The next day, the connection dropped twice.

The following day, no connection for the whole day.
I came home in the evening and spent 10 minutes on the phone talking to the support people.
(Remember I have to pay for those support calls)
Eventually, I was told that my connection was "unjumped" ie disconnected at the exchange
and reason unknown.

I was told that I have to call the telesales to ask the connection to be reconnected.

Done that on Thursday evening.
The telesale people are helpful enough and talked to the team leader.
She was very sympathetic and sent off email immediately to appropriate department
(so I was told).

I explained to her my main concern is if and when the connection is restored:
will the service quality remain as BAD as it is.

Ask about if there is any escalation path and there does not seem any.
How could you not have any kind of escalation when a case like this is not resolved after so long.

Rang up the telesale on the following Monday evening to check when the connection will be restored.
I was told that the is no job submitted to the system saying when the connection will be restored.

It may be only 2 working days for you but it is 4 elapsed day for me.
I would expect at least there will be a job schedule
to "re-jump" the connection after 2 working days.

I was told that I should call the channel partner because my original order is put through channel partner ?

I rang the channel partner number given to me between 7 and 7:30 pm
Got answering machine and left a message.

I rang the channel partner number again the following morning around 9:30am
Got answering machine and left a message.
Just wonder when someone will ever return my call.

At 10 Feb 2004, I lodged a complaint to the customer services with all the above details.
Got a standard response email the same day.

A week later, sent ccm@eircom.ie another email to remind them the service level that they have stated on the web site.

Two week later and got no response so I lodged a complaint to comreg (consumerline@comreg.ie)
and cc ccm@eircom.ie (eircom customer complaint department)


Hi,

I have lodged a complaint about the DSL services
to Eircom 10 working days ago (10 Feb Tue - see below).
An email acknowledge is received on the same day.
However, there is no case reference etc.
Now, ten days later, there is no other response.

It is a long story so I would ask you to read the complaint
that I sent on 10 Feb to get the details.

A few developments after that and here is the summary:

* I call 1800 503 303 (telesales) average 3 times a week since to see whether any work is scheduled to get the connection back. Well, it is still not back yet.

* I did try 1800 261 461 (channel sales) a number of times as requested by people on 1800 503 303 (telesales). Always got answering machine. Left message but no one ever bother to return the call.

* Friday 20 Feb, when I spoke to another team lead and he told me that the job to "rejumper" the connection is completed.

* Tried in the evening, and did not get any SYNC light (indicator of DSL connection).

* Then rang the tech support, they told me that as far as they can see, there is no task to "rejumper" the connection completed. They told me to get sales to get the connection rejumper which I have done so many times in past few weeks.

* Monday 23 Feb morning, rang 1800 503 303, they are adamant that the connection is up and running.

* Tried in the evening, reset the modem to factory settings and did not get any SYNC light.

* Then rang the tech support, the same story - they told me that as far as they can see, there is no task to "rejumper" the connection completed. He is not going to "waste my money" (it is a premium call 1550 number) and try to troubleshoot the problem.

* Then I rang 1800 503 303 (telesales), again they are adamant that the connection is live. They also kindly remind me that I should be ringing 1800 261 461 (channel sales) instead.

* Back the tech support, the support person said definitely that there is no task to "rejumper" the connection completed. He would put in an order to get the network people to check if there is a connection/jumper from the exchange.

* Tried 1800 261 461 (channel sales). got answering machine and left message.

* Back to 1800 503 303 (telesales), tried to talk to the team lead who I have spoken to before but she "was in a meeting". The agent also kindly remind me that I should be ringing 1800 261 461 (channel sales) instead.

...


On the same day (Tue) after I lodged the complaint to comreg (may be a coincidence),
the connection is "rejumped".

Comreg rang me two days (Thu) later to confirm that they have received the complaint
and discuss some of the details and said they will forward the case to Eircom.

The following Monday, got a call from customer services and said that the issue will be addressed immediately.

Tuesday, a network guy comes around to replace an external cable.

The sync light stayed solid (ie connection is up) since and issue resolved.
That was nearly 5 months after I first submitted the web order.

In some way, I am glad that I have gone with Eircom.
WHY ?
If I have not done so, I probably would have been bounced around between Eircom and the other ISP forever ! (instead of Eircom departments).

My 12 months contract is finishing and I am looking for new ISP.

D8 boy

I live close to the Coombe in Dublin 8 about 2 km from Dolphin's Barn exchange.

I checked the government site www.broadband.gov.ie to see what suppliers were available in the Coombe area. Answer was
DSL: Esat, UTV, Perlico, Leap and Pure
Wireless: Irish Broadband & Leap.

Leap and Pure only seem to deal with business users. The Esat and UTV site both say that broadband is not available on my number. I also tried eircom, though curiosuly not listed as available on www.broadband.gov.ie. The initial check was OK but when I went to order, their website did a line check and said it's not suitable. I emailed Perlico but they said they use the eircom line so they same would apply. I filled in the web form on Irish Broadband 2 weeks ago and no-one has replied. I phoned ntl, they say it's not available in the area and would not give dates of when it might be available "for competitive reasons". (The sales guy sounded very unimpressed when I said this wasn't an issue since there was no competition in the area!)

I had eircom out recently as there was an intermittent fault on the phone line. The engineer traced this to a problem with internal wiring, fixed that up, said the line was fine and considered that broadband should not be an issue.

A work colleague who lives nearby got the Irish Broadband Ripwave prduct - it worked fine for 1 night and then stopped and is trying to get it to work 1 week later. I'm slightly wary of doing business with a company which has a badly-designed website, doesn't reply to sales enquiries and supplies products which stop working after 1 day.

Any ideas - should I nag the DSL carriers or take the plunge into Wireless ? If this is the level of service in the "Digital Hub" , about 1.5 km from Dublin city centre where does this leave the government's "Broadband Strategy"!!