Indefinite delays in Metro installation in Dublin

bokonon

[I posted this yesterday in the "Metro users: Are you Happy with your service?" thread but that was the wrong place to post - see here: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=309016&page=40]

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I ordered (online) Metro for a Dublin home on January 4.

There was no mention of any delays in roll-out when I purchased; I received a reference number in my confirmation email immediately that my credit card was processed.

By Monday 16 January I had heard nothing whatsoever, so I called and spoke to a customer services agent. I told her I had expected some kind of communication from Metro by then.

She told me she "guaranteed" she would call me back with an installation date this week. This installation would "be one week after that".

Nothing happened. This evening I called Metro back and spoke to the same agent.

This time I was told that there are customers waiting "since November" to be installed; there "are not enough installers"; there are "others waiting since the start of December". There is no way of telling when I will be installed and she had no senior person to whom I could seek further information.

The agent could not speak to the installation manager, there was no one further for me to talk to, I may or may not be notified of installation next week. Furthermore, if I wasn't contacted next week then I may or may not be contacted the week after.

There was no way of telling, there was nothing she could do, and no-one that she could transfer me to who would be able to do anything for me.

She knew no more about the situation and could not tell me anyone in the organisation who could help.

I told her that the main reason I ordered from Metro was to avoid Eircom, and this was all gone very Eircom. She said, "I can cancel your order if you want".

I'm now wondering about this whole organisation.

Some questions:

- How long does it take to get installed? I noticed a guy up there saying he's been waiting about 7 weeks. Seven weeks!!!
- Is support (once installed) this bad?
- Is it actually worth the wait? I mean feckit if it's just Eircom in sheeps' clothing, I may as well just go for Eircom?
- Does anyone know if there is any avenue for contacting Metro sales/installation? I might as well be talking to myself as talking to the 1800-number.

And finally, I'm obviously talking for a lot of people who are in exactly the same situation as me when I ask:

Should I wait? Or should I go back to the drawing board...?

Blaster99

You can get 3Mbps broadband from BT Ireland with a phone service that exists/works for €50 a month. I would go for that.

Jumpy

Well if you are in Dublin you have a lot of options. Bear in mind you may not even be able to get Metro due to line of sight issues.
Im only a recent install and due to problems at the moment I cant give you a proper review of the service but there seems to be a general satisfaction with it.
The only problem is with ADSL is that you will have to get a line connected and pay the line connection fee AND pay the installation fee for the ADSL hookup (providing the line will take it).
Whatever you decide to do , do not take the plunge and go for Irish Broadband, that seems to be a mistake judging from responses here.

dathi1

I run a business in the city centre. I applied 3 weeks ago for a business connection with an accepted application. I've never been contacted by phone or email as to the status of the connection??? If I was to treat my customers the same way I'd be gone days ago. I'm not ringing or phoning them....2 more days and I'm switching.

Blaster99

I applied in November I think it was, also for a business connection. They did show up fairly quickly, within two weeks at least. They can only do very simple installations and mine required a cherry-picker apparently. They asked me to provide that, to which I said some polite version of "sod off". I then got an e-mail from them two weeks later telling me that the reason I couldn't get the installation was because of lack of LOS. I'm like 1km from the mast and I can see it from the ground, let's put it that way.

I don't really hold a grudge towards them because of this, but it's not really a professional service at this point. At least I didn't have to hang around too long to find out.

bokonon

I just posted a copy of my original query to compaints@digiweb.ie, with the following annotation:

>For your information, I posted on boards.ie about this yesterday - see here:
>
>http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2054881179
>
>I will post any follow up I receive from you here also, as I am not the only one in this boat.
>I think perhaps you should be up front about delays at the time of ordering, by the way.

Hopefully someone from digiweb will tell us what the lead time to delivery actually is *in reality*.

bokonon

I got an out-of-office reply from complaints@digiweb.ie

> Thanks for your email. I am out of the office until Sat 28th Jan, without
> access to email.
>
> For urgent matters, please contact Karen Xxxxxxxx, +353-55-5555555, xxxxxxx@digiweb.ie
>
> thanks,
> Colm Xxxxxx

It says he doesn't have access to email - so I assume he's in Limerick...

(Sorry couldn't resist )

[http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=309016&page=42 if you don't know what I mean]

Chaz

bokonon - I pmed you a while ago looking for your details so that i can try and get it sorted.

bokonon

Chaz, thanks very much for that - I didn't notice the PM.

I just got a response from Karen (complaints@digiweb.ie) anyway, and Metro is lining up an installation for next week.

I have to say the response from Metro was incredibly prompt once I mailed in a complaint. Karen emailed the following:

> I have contacted our installations department – who will in turn be in touch in the next few minutes.

I had barely finished reading the mail when my phone rang and an install is now being scheduled for next week.

Thanks again for volunteering to help out on this one Chaz, and dathi1, I reckon you should mail complaints@digiweb.ie and see if they can speed up your order.