Broadband Horror Stories - We want them

Dizzyblabla

I was checking online to see if I could get it for months, and when my neighbour across the road got it, I was sure I could, but no, the line wasn't good enough blablabla

Finally I saw that I could get it and ordered it, with the surf for free for the summer deal and about a month later I emailed and asked what was the story, and I was emailed my username and password, so I rang, telling them that I hadn't received the modem. They gave me the number for the delivery people (can't remember who it was now) with the reference number, and I was told that the modem had been delivered to a totally different place. So I emailed my contact again, she said she'd send another one out and confirmed the delivery address. 2 months passed and there was still no sign of the modem, so I emailed her and told her to cancel it, that there was no point in keeping it, cause I wasn't getting any modems and I wasn't going to start paying for a service that I wasn't getting. She offered to send another modem, I said no, to just cancel it.

About 3 months later I decided to try Esat BT, so I ordered it online, and checked it periodically to see if it had been completed yet. Then about 2-3 weeks later I saw that it was rejected, so I rang them to ask them why it had been rejected, they asked if I had an account with Eircom previously, I laughed, and said not really, but they said that I needed the cancellation number.

On to the phone I went, to get my cancellation number, and was advised that the account was still active and I had to ring a different number because I had ordered it on the surf for free for the summer deal. I emailed my contact back again and asked her for the cancellation number and an explanation as to why it hadn't been cancelled, she said that she had put the request through and that she would look into it (still no cancellation number) so I emailed her back a cross email saying that I wanted the cancellation number by close of business. I did get it that day, surprisingly!

I rang Esat back, gave them my cancellation number and patiently waited, and checked online every so often, when there it was again about 2 weeks later, "order rejected". I rang them, getting p*ssed off now and wishing I never liked computers, and asked them why. The guy on the phone told me that it hadn't passed the line test with Eircom, and I told him that it had passed the line test months previously, he tested it again while on the phone and apologised and said he'd put the request through again, got the modem about 2 weeks later and it's been working fine since, but it took about 5 months of emails and phonecalls to get it...

if only life could be simple!

Hi I ordered Broadband in October, and I only received the modem a couple of days ago. Not only that, they said they sent me out 2 modems and 6 receivers! They put all of that on my bill, and they're not changing it coz they say thats what I ordered! (Seriously, who would order 6 receivers and only 2 modems?) Even worse, they're charging me for back months of Broadband since October, and they're not changing their mind about that either!!!!!

Dizzyblabla

bootbender wrote:

Has anyone here had such chronic hassle in getting broadband with ESATbt?

PS: I have checked the line with eircom and it passed but when I try to sign up online with them I get the following message:
"Our records show that the account number and phone number that you have supplied,have already been registered on the site. Please ensure you have entered your correct account details and proceed."

Just wondering if I have made a balls up....oh well any advice most welcome

Thank you for your time

Bootbender

Had you already ordered with Eircom by accident? or check and make sure that Eircom haven't reserved your line, that would stop Esat from providing it to you (technically what happened to me)

Our man in Havana

sticker wrote:

Still no word from anyone. I was sent out a contract to sign in Early January - which I did, and returned and STILL NO WORD.

Did you send eircom a cheque for the installation fee? Did they cash it? If they cashed it you have them by the short and curlies for breach of contract. When they same happened to me ,I pointed this out and my phone was connected the next day.

Sully

Is it ok to report storys about problems I have had since I got broadband? Bad service, Poor support etc etc.

Or is it for people who cant get broadband and the problems around it?

- Sully

diarmo

Kenny007 wrote:

Hi I ordered Broadband in October, and I only received the modem a couple of days ago. Not only that, they said they sent me out 2 modems and 6 receivers! They put all of that on my bill, and they're not changing it coz they say thats what I ordered! (Seriously, who would order 6 receivers and only 2 modems?) Even worse, they're charging me for back months of Broadband since October, and they're not changing their mind about that either!!!!!

Get your solicitor to sort that bu!! out in court.

Damn it man...sue them for being incompetant or something because there is no way in hell I would pay!!

Timon

I read Smarttelcom's adverts in February with what seemed like a good deal compared to others providers, so I went to their website, input my telephone number into their exchange checker, and was told that Phibsboro exchange would be unbundled in February/March.

I therefore registered with them, expecting that within six weeks maximum I would finally have broadband at a reasonable enough price given the "free" line rental part of the offer.

February passes, no sign of being connected so I telephone them to be told it would be done within the coming four weeks (March), and that I would be given 2 weeks notice of the date.

Mid-March comes, just 2 weeks to go, I phone again and am told it would be "any day now".

March 30th comes, and I email and receive a snotty reply that Phibsboro is not due to be unbundled till March/April. I went back to Smarttelecom's website and guess what, their exchange checker does indeed now say March/April. No apology for their misleading previous claim; no explanation; no notification of the postponement.

Still no sign of the wee feckers; what is the point of signing up with them if I have to sit around for months to get them to do their side of the deal?

Does anyone know if Smarttelecom is a dynamic company or are they just a bunch of amateurs fantazising about getting rich quick, but who cannot get their act together? Are they for real? Do they want to do business or not?

Do I have any grounds for complaint to the recently announced ComReg Consumers' Panel?

What is our government up to in all this? Do they really want Ireland to sink to the bottom of the developed world's broadband penetration table?

seamus

Timon wrote:

Does anyone know if Smarttelecom is a dynamic company or are they just a bunch of amateurs fantazising about getting rich quick, but who cannot get their act together? Are they for real? Do they want to do business or not?

Any delay in Smart's rollout plan is almost certainly caused by delaying tactics on the part of eircom, who are doing their utmost to block them. While Smart make this clear in public statements, they don't say it on their website (and presumably didn't say that to you over the phone), which is a pretty poor show.

RiotSirC

Well, as people may, or may not, be aware, Eircom upgraded their lines last weekend in some Dublin areas (haven't a clue about anywhere else in the country), to enable faster broadband. I, of course, as a long-time paying customer and one of their first broadband customers received ABOSOLUTELY NO notification of this prior to the upgrade. I found out just the other day from my friend living just around the corner that he is now on a 2MB line, as opposed to the old 256k DSL we've had for a while here. Me, I haven't noticed any change in the speed of the DSL connection, so I go round to his house to get him to prove it, and there he is downloading stuff at nearly 4/5 times faster than my own pc. The bandwidth test from various sites(eircom.net, www.bandwidthplace.com/speedtest) give him a reading of a 1.5MB - 2MB line. So, I go double check my own line. The test comes back with the same old 256k reading. SO,

I'm pretty pissed off. Double check everything, move my whole pc right to the front door and hook the pc up to the main line coming into the house to make sure it's not my extension phone cords causing the slow speeds. No difference.

--A few weeks before this I was getting fed up with eircom's overpricing and underperformance, so I sent in the cessation form to get it cut off, as I wanted to switch to the Breeze Wireless service(higher level Ripwave product)---

I first rang the (eircom) sales dept to ask them to tear it(cessation doc) up before they cut me off because this 2MB line sounds pretty nice. They, of course, have no record whatsoever of the document having arrived and the account is fully active. Excellent!!!! (read "fkin idiots!!!")

After that the sales rep tells me to ring the tech suport about the speed matter. So, ring them up and the guy couldnt be more useless. Gives me the complete run-around that went something like this:

Eircom: Your exchange musn't have been upgraded yet.

Me: Same exchange as the rest of my neighbours who have much faster lines.

E: Oh, you must be on the lower package and thus not entitled to it..

Me: I'm on the higher package, my friend is on the lower one. His line is faster

E: Oh, it must be your pc, you must have lots of spyware, viruses, tro...

Me: (cut him short, getting more pissed off) Not a chance, its a brand new top-end pc and it's completely clean!!!!!!!

E:Oh, um...(I can practically hear the bull**** cogs turning in this guy's brain) well, now, some old houses have really poor grade copper wiring which may not be able to handle the new upgrades, and maybe the wire has degraded over the years.

Me: So, my house is the only house in an estate of a couple hundred houses where a different grade copper wire was used which prevents me having faster BB speeds.

E: um...yes.

( I **** you not on the preceding lines, the guy actually tried to pull this on me)

Me: (long silence while I think of 15 different ways I'd like to castrate this guy)

E: Eircom is ONLY OBLIGATED to provide a line to your house capable of carrying VOICE QUALITY transmissions. theres nothing I can do. (he didnt actually shout, im just emphasizing this point)

Me: Can I talk to someone else.
E: there's no one else who can help you, there's nothing we can do
Me: Id like to speak to someone else
(repeat above lines several times only uttered in different ways........he eventually leaves the line to go look for someone, meanwhile I can see the phonebill ticking higher and higher while this guy has a good laugh to himself, eventually he come back and repeats his previous statement)

I eventually thank him for his time and hang up in the most polite manner I can manage - no need to let these idiots drag you down and go off at them, thats what Boards.ie is for right

Anyway, that's my venting for now. So, here I am, firstly: after asking Eircom to cut me off, they just pretend like I never asked them and continue to charge me, and secondly: given the complete runaround and fed a load of bull because of their shortcomings and inablity to provide the service that they advertise. I won't even go into how long it took for them to come round and install the damned thing in the first place a couple years back.

I'll update this if I get anywhere, but somehow, it looks doubtful. I may jsut switch to wireless after all, and as with all other eircom broadband users, I urge anyone who hasn't already signed up with them, RUN FOR THE BLOODY HILLS!!!!


EDIT: did the line-test on the eircom site and the line passed instantly....

dub45

RiotSirC wrote:

Well, as people may, or may not, be aware, Eircom upgraded their lines last weekend in some Dublin areas (haven't a clue about anywhere else in the country), to enable faster broadband. I, of ................................

EDIT: did the line-test on the eircom site and the line passed instantly....

Just a couple of points your friend must be on the higher product is he is getting 2 mb speeds. Eircom did do a lot of 'pr' on the new speeds in advance of their introduction and most users were waiting with baited breath for the introduction.

As you will see from the many threads on the subject in the bb forum there are issues with the introduction and it is taking a while to bed down but things seem to be improving. These issues are not confined to Eircom customers but seem to be exchange related.

There are also reports that the upgrade has caused some problems with certain routers so if you are using a router it might be worth checking how well that is performing.

And there is also the real possibility that there is a problem with your line. You mention the old 256k product but the old product was 512k so if you never managed to get more than 256k did you investigate this previously -especially as you say you were on the higher product and should have expected pretty good speeds with the lower contention rate?

RiotSirC

I actually rang eircom when they first installed the line and they said that the previously advertised 512k connection was now 256k and that I had gotten what I was supposed to. I was still getting the 30k/s downloads so it seemed to be running as normal and I didnt complain. - I was part of the trial runs before the actual release and was using a different modem etc. Anyways, I'd think if they had apporved our house to be worth testing the line on that it met with all their minimum standards and there shouldn't be any problems now. I'll get back onto them tomorrow/monday and get them to check at the exchange. the main delay with them connecting me when I first got the package was the gob****e in the exchange actually plugged me into a faulty port so I couldn't get a DSL sync with the exchange. Took em about 2 weeks to figure that one out

btw, I dont use a router

bk

RiotSirC wrote:

I actually rang eircom when they first installed the line and they said that the previously advertised 512k connection was now 256k and that I had gotten what I was supposed to. I was still getting the 30k/s downloads so it seemed to be running as normal and I didnt complain. -

Eircoms old product was 512k RADSL. The RA stands for Rate Adaptive.
This means that it your line isn't capable of sustaining 512k then it drops down to a slower speed such as 256k.

You say you were getting 30 k/s, I assume you mean 30 KBs which translates to 240 kbps, which is about right for 256k.

The new 2mb and 1mb products are also Rate Adaptive, which means you might only get 256k if that is all your line can do.

There are a number of different reasons why your line might be so bad. Distance from exchange, DACS, bad wiring in your house.

davedm

K it starts with calling Eircom to be told no way ever are you getting BB in your area because the cables are bad.????
Three people I know in my area have eircom,anyway after telling the twat on the phone this he again says no way ever.

I call NTL !!!!!!!!!!!!
Not in your area we will let you know in about a year.Remember I am in a built up area of Blanchardstown.

I think this is a joke so I call all providers to be told "if you don't have eircom compatible lines then you can't ever use us"


So to about 6 mths ago......
I call Irish Broadband
I get told that it is in my area and they will install in about 4 weeks.

YIPEEEEEEEEEEE

10 weeks later and many calls I still got squat.So I forget about it.

2 months ago I get a call to say that they had problems and will install next week.
I wait they call everything looks good exept that even though I have line of sight the mast is on the fritz so no ping.Job dropped and I back at square one.

4 weeks later I get a call,the mast has been upgraded and I am ready to rock and roll.

presant time and I am typing this on a dial up connection as after getting IBB connected it has now been offline for 2 days and no helpdesk available till Monday

I believe the term is

AAAAAAGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

To be continued..........................................

Dave

damien

I think you'll find contact details of the MD of IBB in the Broadband forum if you want to complain directly and skip the non-existant support people.

aare

Reading this thread with my cocoa, late last night, no way did I suspect that, by morning I would have a little horror story of my own to post.

Doing a little check on Comreg site I noticed several, ridiculously expensive, satellite services listed for the area I live in, and a curious little wireless service called [URL=http://]http://www.ehotspot.ie[/URL] .

I clicked on "signup" and my county and noticed with delight that the obscure area in which I live was indeed listed. This was looking very good indeed as under the list ehotspot clearly states:

"If your County or Town is not listed and would like to setup a wireless broadband campaign in co-operation with ehotspot, please click here"

But as one of the lucky ones, who's area is listed, I needn't worry about that, need I?

Better and better, when you actually READ the (very detailed) terms and conditions and see that under same, my contract for provision of service BEGINS as soon as I have completed and submitted this form (as it did not ask for bank details I was not too worried).

This morning I was stunned to see that the ONLY response I have received is an email as follows, which included over 300mb of spurious graphics as file attachments, something common sense would tell a hamster was not going to be welcome on a dial in connection:

To Whom It May Concern:



You have made an enquiry about receiving our satellite broadband service and should have received our standard response.



We are now re-contacting you to see if you would like to become your communities’ local champion in campaigning for an ehotspot broadband service.



Being a champion involves a little bit of commitment from you in marketing our product, to help you we can supply leaflets, info packs and sign up forms. We also have a Channel Manager based in Ireland who can attend presentation evenings to explain how the system works etc



Your goal is to find a minimum of 16 people or more who are willing to sign up for the service. Once 16 or more names have been presented to ehotspot our engineers will carry out a survey to find the best location for our base station. They will then carry out a line of sight survey to each customer from the base station to see if they will be able to receive a broadband connection. Once this has been completed we can then start installing!



As a incentive to you as the champion we offer 2 options



16 – 24 customers you will receive ½ price service for 12months

25+ customers you will receive FREE service for 12months



If you would like more details on becoming a champion please contact me A.S.A.P. mailto:viki@ehotspot.co.uk or call 0044 (0)1262 409109; where you can speak to one of our team members directly.



Kind Regards





Kind Regards

Viki Morritt

Personal Assistant Sales

viki@ehotspot.co.uk



on behalf of

Clint Smith

Channel Manager

ehotspot Ltd

123 Promenade

Bridlington

East Yorkshire

YO15 2QN

Tel :: 0044 (0)1262 409109

Fax :: 0044 (0)1262 400866

clint@ehotspot.co.uk

www.ehotspot.ie

It would seem, until further notice, that ehotspot's entire signup procedure, is nothing more than a ruse to obtain contact details for a very crude and ill conceived campaign of direct marketing.

A very small horror story, tis true, but, I think, an horror story all the same...

Bebop

This concerns a client of mine, I can provide details but would not like to go public,

I am the on call support for a small business in Kilternan Co. Dublin, they were using ISDN for e-mail and web access for about 12 PC's, they asked Eircom about moving up to ADSL,

the line was ordered and duly installed by Eircom,they upgraded one of the 2 ISDN lines to ADSL, I was called out to complete the configuration and join it to the network, when I left it was up and running but a short time later it went down,

I checked the config again and it looked fine, plugged a phone into the phone socket, no dial tone, rang eircom who initally said that there was no fault on the line,
Eircom came back out and got the line working, but it failed again shortly after
excuses included;

"Your line is not suitable" [it worked fine with ISDN]
"too far from the exchange"
" it wont work if you connect more than 1 computer"
"The analog phone you are using [to test for a dial tone] must be faulty"
"the problem is in your network" etc etc,

last week a helpful Eircom technician tried to resolve the problem but could not, he decided to go back to ISDN!!
He rang me to say the ISDN was reconnected, I rushed out and dug up the old ISDN router, but no joy, plugging in my trusty analog phone did not reveal any dial tone

I borrowed a working ISDN router and tried it, after some tweaking and setting it up with the new isdn numbers it connected, but ran very slowly, later the speed went up and everything seemed OK, but again it went down shortly after
as I write it continues to work in spasms, eircom have tested the line and pronounced it healty, they have now said that they will do a "Stress" test tomorrow, the only reason I am staying with this is to find what happens next, I will keep you posted

dionsiseire

i wouldnt mind helping

im in the middle of a broadband struggle with eircom, comreg and BT

ive ordered a relocation of broadband on "december 10th!" and im still waiting on this to go through

ordered the form december 10th, took a massive 24 days to reach me
early january it was sent back, it finally got logged onto esats system january 26th, so nothing has happened and its already 6 weeks.
put through the relocation order, came back rejected, problems on the line
contacted eircom told to go away, not their customer, rang esat bt, got told sorry eircom dont let us fix lines, so i rang eircom about 10 times before they gave in and sent an engineer. enginner comes. were now in february middlish sometime. does some work, says everything is fixed. i ring back eircom to test the line. to quote " im amazed you could make this phone call, that line is terrible " so he sent out another engineer, much nicer guy, did some "proper tests" found an intermittent fault 150 metres away from the house on the main line. sorted the problem, asked him if everything was now ok for calls and broadband, he said everything looks fine. he also mentioned that BT and Eircom have no "live" test to see its fixed, it updates every month or so, it could update tomorrow, or it might update in just over 3 weeks, its pot luck.

at this point we at about march 3rd.

rang back esatbt, as expect, line still showing problems, i told them the engineer said the test istn live and updates once a month, got told the last update was feb 26th around so had to wait till march 26th.

march 26th - rang again no change
april 1st - no change
april 3rd - the order has gone through, apparently it went through march 26th, go figure. so i was delighted and left it for the 2 weeks.
somewhere in between today and the next date i registered my comlaint with comreg (also the dates are not exact but estimates)
april 17th - rang got told there was a live date for 2 weeks time,
happy enough with having a live date finally from eircom i went about my business that day, got a call last from niamh in complaints responding to my comreg complaint, sorry there are still fault on the line theres nothing we can do.

so ive filled comreg in on the being lied to about live dates, in 3 weeks i will be exactly 6 months without broadband, ive run up a €250 dialup bill through my sheer need for internet access (running a mates e-business, college work, my own personal site) and thats only a 2 month bill.
i cant imagine what the next bill will be. either way i feel i should get back all bills with internet access minus 40 euro each month.

oh and at time of writing i still have no contact from conreg or BT or eircom as to whats going on with my broadband in the last 2 days.

and if your wondering, i only relocated from one side of swords to another,

swords being an area covered by nearly 4 exchanges between , rivervalley, swords, balbriggan and malahide exchanges, the exchange is fully broadband ready, and is gone to the new speeds according to friends with broadband

go figure, so if i can help let me know,
wanna use my case as a valid point as to the lack of transparency between communication providers and the inability or lack of willingness of eircom to fix my line, to sort my connection , just say so.

6 months is my teething point. no services rendered in 6 month, but that direct debit thingy works fine

dionsiseire

well id just like to add that esat bt have decided to give up

and i can not avail of braodband

in swords, an exchange that was enabled years ago.
on a brand new phone line
reasons cited being the phone line is incompatible

oh thats right, its in eircoms benefit to lay faulty lines,

Dub_Irl

K, I would like to add to the list of ppl being messed about by Eircom.

This has being on going for at least two and half months. We originally had ISDN in the house and for ages I held back waiting to spend money on Broadband. So finally I ring eircom and ask about Broadband. They test my lines (ISDN is still installed at this stage) and the LINES ARE PASSING. All sounds ok, Eircom suggest we get the lines downgraded to PSTN. We wait 3-4 weeks and eventually an eircom engineer arrives and changes our lines back to PSTN. Rang Eircom and ask for Lines to be test. Our TWO PSTN lines which were before ISDN was removed were PASSING and are now FAILING. I ask for a more thorough test to be done. 2 weeks later no response. Ring Eircom and asked what has happened. No-one seems to know and a game of pass the customer begins. This goes on for 3-4 weeks more. I am finally told this morning the lines have being being checked yet again more thorough this time but are still failing. Eircom tell me there is nothing more they can do. The girl suggests I complain to COMREG about it and to keep pushing till I get it fixed even though it was Eircom who originally suggested I unistall ISDN and get the lines stepped back to PSTN

I ring Comreg and am politely informed I have being "Fobbed Off" and they cannot do anything about this. They have no power over Broadband and it is up to Eircom to resovle it.


Rang Eircom Customer Care and tried to log a complaint for the complete lack of good service and general messing they have being putting me through.

Informed of how they were the ppl that suggested I remove IDSN to get Broadband in the first place.

Girl told me there was nothing she could do if the lines were failing and that it might possibly pass in a month or two ??? As they lines get tested each month.

I am very disappointed with this and feel I am at the mercy of Eircom to decide whether I will get broadband or not.

BTW I am near the SWORDS Exchange which is DSL enabled and many of my neighbours are using Broadband.


I will be interested in letter writing as well to get this resolved. I work in IT and I know how the Customer Care system works but Eircom is the worst I have ever dealt with.

steveon

I currently reside in Limerick city approx a quarter of a mile from Limerick main exhange, with a clear view of its communication tower. At the moment throught the generosity of my neighbour I am able to connect to the internet via a wireless Network he runs himself throught the eircom broadband service.

However lately I decided to get in my own connection, to enable me to download and upload more data, whilst not feeling guilty so I went ahead, with ordering a line, specifying I wanted the line for broadband only, only to get a similar responce to most of the previous posts, that my line was currently faulty so they would have to send an engineer out to my house, and this would take approx 2weeks. I decided to get the line, an after a week I got impatient, so I checked out the line myself, finding a break in the line over an old floorboard, which I fixed, and could make perfect use of the phoneline, but alas it failed for broadband. A few days later I got a call from an eircom engineer whom I told I had fixed the line but he made up the usual cock n bull story that he found a problem outside my house, which he had now fixed but he wanted to recheck everything inside my house, which he was satified with upon expection. There is no telephone lines in my area, as my estate is less than 8yrs old, so all the wires are underground.

Once again I tired the line for broadband, and for it to fail once again, ringing eircom to complain, I was passsed from customer care rep to rep, and evidentually given a customer complained line number to call which is 1800200481, and told that my line is failing and that eircom dont know why and dont have a solution to the problem. I find this adsurd that they are allow to hold us to ransom on this matter and feel its about time COMREG done their job and regulated this area more firmly. It is afterall the Irish people who payed for the installation of all these exchanges orginally.

I am writing this email through my neighbour broadband connection, and feel let down once again and completely ripped off.

Best of luck with your compaign
Steven
Limerick.

muffler

steveon wrote:

and feel its about time COMREG done their job and regulated this area more firmly.

Have you brought this to the attention of Comreg?

They cant act uinless they are notified of the problem.

Have you checked Eircom's customer charter?

dub45

steveon wrote:

I currently reside in Limerick city approx a quarter of a mile from Limerick main exhange, with a clear view of its communication ............................ It is afterall the Irish people who payed for the installation of all these exchanges orginally.

I am writing this email through my neighbour broadband connection, and feel let down once again and completely ripped off.

Best of luck with your compaign
Steven
Limerick.

..

The Irish people got a lot of money for Eircom when they sold it to themselves some time ago!..

How long did you leave it before you checked the line for bb after your repairs? It can take at least two weeks if not more for the most recent check to show up in the database/

declan55

I've had it installed and repaired for about a month now...

steveon

I had my line repaired over a month ago, and I brought all this to the attention of comreg, which as always is a complete waste of time as they do nothing but accept everything the telecom companies say to them. :mad:

parsi

steveon wrote:

I had my line repaired over a month ago, and I brought all this to the attention of comreg, which as always is a complete waste of time as they do nothing but accept everything the telecom companies say to them. :mad:

Not always - I had issues with UTV and reported them to Comreg. They ignored Comreg's first intervention but got their finger out when they got a second one (even though they had overstepped the time limit for resolution).

However we shouldn't have to go that far for everything...

WizZard

Dunno where this should go. Mods, please feel free to move it if required.

This is actually a happy story.

My home place (midlands) has 1mb broadband with BT, and Eircom for calls/rental.
My mum was moving house last weekend and since she isn't the most techie person ever i told her I would handle the cancelling of the line + broadband and getting new line with same number for the new house.
I expected, as you would, horrible delays between DSL being cancelled and then reordered, line testing etc.
However, my mum decided to go through the "moving house" link on the eircom website last monday (27/6), as a result of which she got an email saying she would get a new a/c number and new phone number.
I told her not to worry and that I would contact eircom about this when I got home to help with the move.

Now, whilst she was moving last Friday there was an eircom guy in the new estate and she went up and explained how she had ordered the line moved and could he do it now please. After sweet talking him he agreed and went off to do it. He then went into the house and connected the socket and pronounced the line live, and explained the new phone number to her. She said how she wanted to keep her number and could he do that - as that was what she had agreed with eircom (a fib! I'm still not sure if she understood what she was doing...). He went off again and came back a few minutes later saying that was ok, and she hadn't told him she had broadband. My mum didn't think it was important.

When I got home that night, to the new house and plugged in the DSL modem, it sync'ed and we have DSL still.
Anyway, to cut a long story short my mum managed to get her home phoneline moved and broadband moved, from one house to another (same exchange) within one hour.

Now how the hell do eircom justify the farce of formalities they want to make you go through before doing the same, since I now have first hand experience that it is technically possible!

DonegalMan

WizZard wrote:

Now how the hell do eircom justify the farce of formalities they want to make you go through before doing the same, since I now have first hand experience that it is technically possible!

There's a world of difference between dealing with Eircom admin and Eircom engineers, I've had a fair few dealings with the latter and in my experience, they are great guys, just be friendly to them and they'll do all they can to help you.

WizZard

Sorry for dragging up an old thread, but I have a bit to add to my last story/post.

Eircom managed to cancel my mum's phoneline last week, and thus the broadband connection with BTIreland.
After spending almost an hour on the phone Eircom told her, "Oh yeah, your account was deleted" and left it at that. They made no mention of the fact that this would cancel the broadband. When the line/account got reconnected we had broadband for a day or two, and then that went. On contacting BTIreland we were told that the broadband was cancelled by Eircom, because the line was cancelled!
When my mum rang Eircom to complain they tried to sell her the broadband time as it was better value than she had from BT, and they could install it faster than she could reconnect to BTIreland! They actually said that on the phone!

Needless to say we are now moving line, broadband and calls to BTIreland.

theking

I have had eircom broadband for over a year. ie I'm out of contract.
I decided to move to BT.
I contacted them and told them I wanted NO DOWNTIME. This was the most important thing.
They said that was no problem, I could just transfer the broadband I had. They said I should just fill out the form on the BT website and they'd do the rest.
I got a letter from them saying I needed a cancellation number to finish the job, and I'd get this from eircom. Then it would take about 14 working days from when I gave them the number for them to make the handover.
I rang eircom. I told them I needed a cancellation number so that I could move the site to another provider with NO DOWNTIME. Three transfers to and back to sales, I was given my cancellation number. I left a message with BT telling them what it was.
At one minute after midnight my DSL stopped working. I still had sync, but the account login and password no longer connected me.
I rang eircom the next day. They said that my broadband was cancelled now. It would take more than a month to put it back. There was no possible way to undo this. (That phone call took more than an hour) I rang BT. They said that in fact they wouldn't have me hooked up for a little over a month. I asked why my seemless transition with no downtime had gone so wrong. I was told if I didn't want downtime, I shouldn't have asked for a cancellation number. It cancelled the broadband and they couldn't do the seemless transition thing any more.
I asked to speak to the woman who'd written me the letter asking me to get the cancellation number. I had words planned.
She no longer worked there.
I am on dialup, with my dsl sync light still mocking me from the modem.

aare

theking wrote:

They said that was no problem.

And you BELIEVED them?