IBB Business or joke ?

Cionn

Having posted about this shower before I thought they had shown me that things can't get any worse and then they proved that they can.
I live in Dublin 13 and have been trying to get broadband access without having to get an Eircon line installed since March/April. I was told that IBB were going live with a mast in Artane that would allow me to connect using their home breeze package at a monthly cost of €39. Back in April I was told that this mast would be operational in "a few weeks".
I continued to call them every few weeks and got the usual "in few weeks all systems will be go" response from the sales desk staff. Then in July they told me that they were finalising a mast in Baldoyle (beside where I live) that I could connect to and I could also get the cheaper product Ripwave. I think to myself happy days this might have been worth the wait after all as I was told them I could be connected in two weeks. I get an email of the PDF application forms and fill them in and send them into their office. I wait for a response, and wait and wait. Nothing happens.

I August I ring them up and I'm told that there are technical issues and the activation of the mast has been put back a couple of weeks. I wait a little longer.
On Tuesday I call the salesdesk and ask them what the story is with the Baldoyle mast and is it available yet as I have heard nothing about my application being processed or any other information from the company. I get the response that "I'm just on the sales desk I need to talk to technical can I call you back when they get out of a meeting" Did I get a phone call back, hell no they seem to be operating a non communication policy with all potential customers why would they ruin all that now.

So I ring back yesterday and have the most unbelievable conversation with one of the Sales Desk staff.
He tells me that it is going to be another 4 -5 weeks before the Baldoyle mast will be operational (after being told in July it would take 2 weeks so extrapolating that timeframe out to its logical conclusion it would be available sometime 2006).
I say stuff that can I connect to the Artane mast that I was looking to be connected to back in April. I am told that that is not available and that the home Breeze product that I would have to connect to has been discontinued and that I would have to get the 1mb product that would cost me almost €49 a month. Also the Artane mast that was listed as going live soon has disappeared from their site completely.
The person I was speaking to didn't know what a ping was, or Latency. He had no undetstanding of the 2.4 or 5.8 product. I mean this guy sounded as if a conversation about a toaster would be too technical for him.

At this stage I blew a gasket and said that I wanted my application returned as it had direct debit details that I didn't want them to have. The guy on the phone told me he couldn't do that. I told him he had no choice, I also requested that all my details be deleted from their system he told me he couldn't do that either.

Is IBB a broadband supplier or just a company set up to fustrate potential customers.

End of rant for the moment although I am going to ring up again today to try and speak to someone more senior, although the way that the company is operating I wouldn't be surprised if the drone I was talking to yesterday has been promoted to the top of the chain.

Any Ideas of what I should do next I am staring down the barrell of having to get an eircom line installed how bad is that (please I don't want to hear the suggestion "IrishWAN" as an answer I tried that just a load of emails disappearing into cyberspace with no response)

MicraBoy

Sounds similar to my experiences. I'm in Dublin 7 and had the whole discussion and confusion about Breeze Home/Breeze Lite/Ripwave. I'm on my second application at the minute, hoping to get the Breeze Lite product.

Although I have to say I'm reasonably happy with the responsiveness of the help desk to queries, I am very unhappy with the accuracy of the information (including on their website).

I'll have to wait and see what happens with this application. I'll post back on it with updates.

Maeve

Hi,

I had a similar situation with IBB .. but you have to realise that they are a company that were quite small uuntil very recently. The task they have taken on is quite big!! I think they are doing quite well considering. In the technical world.. software development .. hardware supply .. things NEVER go according to plan!! We all know that.

Anyway. I rang IBB in May or June about getting a ripwave connection and was told that the Ballycoolin mast was over capacity and that they were putting up another mast in the Blanch region really soon .. like in two weeks.
A month or so later I rang back and they said it still wasn't ready. I rang back a couple of weeks later and was told .. ok, send us in your application forms. I delivered the application forms by hand to their Sandyford office (... ok .. I was excited at the thoughts of finally getting broadband !! ). IBB didn't respond to the application at all .. I rang them and they said they had never received my hand delivered application !! They also said I was out of range for ripwave and would have to go with the 1MB Breeze home for 48 euro.
I did!! Once I sent in my application forms .. I rang them and asked to install on a particular day .. spot on time the installation crew arrived and set up the disk on the roof .. etc etc. I know have VERY VERY fast internet connection. Yep .. it took some time, but it was worth the wait. EVERYONE is having trouble getting broadband .. be it ADSL, Satellite or Wireless. It is taking time to roll out over the country. Time to be patient. :eek:

Mutant_Fruit

I know where IBB are coming from with the "Ready in four weeks" thing. They just dont want potential customers to leave for ADSL. But i think its a bit rediculous. They shouldn't make promises they can't keep, and its quite obvious they cannot get their towers operational within "4 weeks", unless by "4 weeks" they mean 4 months.

Maeve

They would have to take a lot of time to investigate a site before signing up to it. Once the mast is up there and they have customers connected to it .. if things don't work out, or they seem sub-performant then they can hardly move customers to another mast.

I think it is preferable to be certain that customers are getting a quality service. (Oh, and no, I don't work for IBB and don't have share in it etc etc).

I'd prefer to wait (as I did) and get a quality service .. as oppose to rush rush .. less than standard tech tests .. sign up customers .. oh crap, its not working!! Then get an absolutely crap connection to my house .. and you know then they would arse around trying to fix something possibly unfixable for months before telling you that the service is flawed (if they ever did).

lazygit

im in the same boat as Maeve im also in Dublin 7, posted in my application form about 3 weeks ago. was told it would be 10-15 days before install was done.

3.30 pm on day 15 i have 1mb up / 1mb down IBB connection with excellent pings, am happy as a pig in ****e!

Cionn

Maeve wrote:

Hi,

I had a similar situation with IBB .. but you have to realise that they are a company that were quite small uuntil very recently. The task they have taken on is quite big!! I think they are doing quite well considering. In the technical world.. software development .. hardware supply .. things NEVER go according to plan!! We all know that. :

I have to disagree with that I think that if you are going into business to provide a service, you should be professional in your approach and implementation. I think that when you are stringing potential customers on for longer than 6 months that is beyond anybody's patience. I think that they need to be honest on the phone kicking peoples expectations to touch is not the way to do it.

Personally at the moment I was a potential customer that has now wasted 6 months chasing them. I could have signed up for ADSL for a year and then moved over to them when all was set up correctly. Now not a chance I would give them my business. I don't think that we should reward this type of service with our custom.

I know that I am heated up about this at the moment but I don't buy into the roll over and take it for a while , they are only setting up. I can understand that attitude from IrishWAN as they are non profit but look at the profits that NTR make on an annual basis. IBB is part of NTR that own the East Link West Link and the Drogheda bypass toll bridge. They should not be short of cash given the results of the company as a whole. They are just being cheap and inefficient in their implementation.

I suppose I just need to prey to my new god "NTL" and hope that he grants me the miracle of Internet access in my area. I mean if they pi** me off I will have to send my own satellite up as I am fed up with all other options.

Cionn

Ardent

It's the same in every business - sales people will always make promises that they cannot possibly keep. In IBB's case, sales need to communicate a little more with the tech dept.

Maeve

>>IBB is part of NTR that own the East Link West Link and the Drogheda bypass toll bridge.
>>They should not be short of cash given the results of the company as a whole.
>>They are just being cheap and inefficient in their implementation.

Sorry, I don't agree. It doesn't matter who IBB are. They still need time to research. This could take 2 weeks if things work out .. or it could take a month or even 6 months if they don't.

Cionn .. IBB have offered you a IMB connection!! Whats the problem? So you'd take an NTL connection over that. You'll be waiting for NTL to roll out in your area too .. a few more months. Why chop of your nose to spite. If you want broadband .. take the opportunity now. Some people can't even get what you've been offered.

MicraBoy

3.30 pm on day 15 i have 1mb up / 1mb down IBB connection with excellent pings, am happy as a pig in ****e!

Careful there lazygit you're gonna get my hopes up!!

Cionn

Maeve
They offered me a 1mb line when it would be available in a "few weeks" for €48 that is the problem.

I have no need for a 1mb line 512 for me is fine and I was happy with €30 a month. I am not going to pay almost €50 a months + 150 installation which may or may not be available in 6 months.

I thought the whole thing in business is to expand your product offerings to cater to the customers needs not reduce the number of your products.
Look at the majority of posts about IBB it paints a picture of poor service (especially ripwave product) and bad/non existent sales/technical support.

C

Maeve

Ah right .. In my case .. I don't have a phone line .. so it is actually still cheaper to get the 1 MB line for me.

Eircom - ADSL
Phoneline - 20 euro
BB - 39 euro??
About 59 euro a month.

I don't have cable tv .. therefore NTL would be more expensive for me too (don't think they have it in my area).

I quess I'm a little biased at the moment. But I unserstand where you are coming from Cionn when you say you are P**ed off to have been offered the 30 euro deal and then told its actually going to cost 50 euro.

I'm just happy to have BB at all.

Blaster99

It's quite evident that their 2.4Ghz offering doesn't work, so it's understandable they want to phase that out. The 5.8Ghz [uncapped] 1024/1024 is less than half the price of Eircom's [capped] 1024/256 service, so it's outstanding value.

There are quite a few players in the broadband market who can't predict when a roll-out will occur. I think in fact none of them state officially when an area will be upgraded, Eircom included. But it's obviously stupid to say "it's going to be up in 2 weeks" when that's not going to happen.

Dr Bolouswki

Yes its poor that they are stringing you along but I work in sales also and I know that it's usually internal sales communications issues that cause these problems rather than them malicioulsy stringing you along - the sales people (wether they are good or bad, know their stuff or not) are most likely told that yes, masts are going up in 4 weeks time - these plans then fall through and another timeline is set for it...

My own experience of ordering broadband with them is sending the forms in on a monday - phone call on the friday to tell me they can test the line of sight on monday - when I passed they came out and installed the following thursday - given say, 2 days for the forms to reach tem, that means it took them 7 working days to set me up

compare this to eircom - I ordered a new line from them in June cos my other line failed the test, despite 7 phone calls at weekly intervals NOTHING has happened since, and anyone I rang was totally unhelpful...

IBB all working fine so far - I'd say spend the €49 a month and get the service if possible, even if it means a wait

Nothing is eorth the hassle of dealing with eircom

Mutant_Fruit

Maeve wrote:

Sorry, I don't agree. It doesn't matter who IBB are. They still need time to research. This could take 2 weeks if things work out .. or it could take a month or even 6 months if they don't.

Cionn .. IBB have offered you a IMB connection!! Whats the problem? So you'd take an NTL connection over that. You'll be waiting for NTL to roll out in your area too .. a few more months. Why chop of your nose to spite. If you want broadband .. take the opportunity now. Some people can't even get what you've been offered.

Firstly, it doesn't matter who IBB are, i agree. BUT why are they continously making false promises. I\ heard stories of people waiting "just 4 weeks" since late last february or early march. Thats just unacceptable whoever they are. At least Eircom have the decency to say "We don't know", which may or may not be true, but they don't give false hope to people.

blobert

Getting IBB out to your house to install is an absolute nightmare, but if they eventually do get around to it, their products are pretty good.

I've been very happy with my 1mb service, though it ain't cheap at €84 a month and have had no problems (that weren't of my creation).

Mutant_Fruit

blobert wrote:

Getting IBB out to your house to install is an absolute nightmare, but if they eventually do get around to it, their products are pretty good.

I've been very happy with my 1mb service, though it ain't cheap at €84 a month and have had no problems (that weren't of my creation).

I presume that 84 wasn't a typo, but i pay 48eur for my 1mb/1mb... whats the story?

Ain't it illegal to charge twp different people different prices for the exact same servic? (i know nothing about law :P)

Moonbeam

Nope,
It depends what's on the contract they signed and what the prices were at the time

Cionn

I was talking to a girl in IBB who was helpful (a first) and has given me her word that she will call me today by 12:00. She was the first person to take some accountability and has even given me her direct dial as a contact number.
One thing that I think is hilarious is that if you ring IBB and press the buttons to speak to reception you always just get a voicemail.

I will post back this afternoon when either something will be agreed or I'll hit the roof and go a bit mad again.

C

Cionn

I just thought that I'd add an update to my attempts of getting Broadband from IBB.
The update is that the Baldoyle mast is still not live, I was talking to one of the IBB people last week and was told that there was a completion date of the 7th Dec. Therefore I ring back today and ask for an update to be told that "IBB don't give go live dates" and that "a completion date is not a go live date". I suppose it is a bit stupid to be giving potential customers cmpletion dates when they have no relevance to go live dates but then I am dealing with IBB.
To cap all that off I got what amounts to the funnyist bit of customer services I have ever witnessed, I was asked to stop contacting them and wait for them to contact me. I put my application in for BB 5 months ago and they have never initiated contact with me in that time and the only thing they can say is don't call us we'll call you, I'm not asking them out on a date I just want BB as promised.

If there is anyone out there who can help me connect to Dublin WAN I would love to hear from them as now it is a matter of principle I need BB but I don't want to go down the route of IBB or getting a phone line. Help me ob1 your my last hope.

Fibonacci

IBB falls under the regulation of ComReg.
I had a lot of trouble with ESAT/IOL broadband, and had to phone ComReg to sort them out. Any time i have phoned ComReg I have found them VERY helpful. Anyway, as part of the ComReg license BB suppliers have to have a mechanism for dealing with complaints: Designated Complaints Managers, resolution timelines, etc....

If you are still having serious complaints with IBB, I would suggest you call ComReg, and understand your rights. Then start the 'Official' IBB complaints procedure in motion....

Cionn

I will looking into it thanks for the tip. I think people should start to complain as Irish Broadband don't seem to be making any changes themselves. I have requested some doncument under the freedom of information (on IBB submissions)hopefully they have some details of complaints procedure in there too. They really are a joke of a company.

ballooba

My networking knowledge is fairly low but what do ye think of this:
Ping statistics for 195.149.21.11:
Packets: Sent = 100, Received = 99, Lost = 1 (1% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 95ms, Maximum = 2469ms, Average = 558ms

That's Jolt.co.uk I'm pinging it was done at 16:50 today and I live 7.6km from the mast (explains high round trip times???)

Blaster99

They seem to be busy enough so there's probably not enough incentive for them to improve. Do you think ComReg is going to help you when you're not a customer yet? I would have thought that most of the regulations have to do with consumer protection but they haven't sold you anything.

Cionn

I know I'm not a customer but there must be something in the licencing agreement that forces them to act in a professional manner. They do have signed customer contracts from me dating back months. I don't think it will do any harm to send off a complaint to Comreg and the department for communications. I wouldn't mind sending the various newspapers off a copy of the complaint too. I know I am been juvenile about this but if you promise a service and string a customer/potential customer along with the standard answer of "two weeks" for 7 months I think you have a right to complain if you have not been provided with the service offered.

Blaster99

I suppose most people would just vote with their feet and take their business someplace else. If you have no other choice, IBB doesn't have a universal service obligation so I don't think there's much anything to beat them up about. But give it your best shot obviously.

Praetorian

IBB are simply the worst broadband provider in the country. The staff that I’ve dealt with seem to be incompetent compulsive liars. I’ve got this vision in my head of poorly trained monkeys climbing on desks and answering phone calls every so often.

I wouldn’t touch them with a 400 metre barge poll, even if they were offering 20m/bit synchronous for a tenner a month.

I've had relatively small problems with broadband from Eircom and broadband from Netsource.