I'm RAGING, has this happened anyone else?

prechaun

Can anyone explain this to me? I signed up for Home Starter (1meg, 8gig cap) last summer for €29.99 a month, end of. Then, about a month ago, without asking, it seemed I got a free upgrade to Home Starter Plus (2meg, 20gig cap). I think everybody got upgraded, not sure though. Then, today I got a strange letter from Eircom titled:

Good News for Eircom Broadband Customers!

I was very excited to read what this great news was
It read as follows........

Dear Mr.X
As an eircom broadband home starter customer, you already know the many benifits of broadband internet access with eircom. We are pleased to announce that since the end of January 2006, your broadband service has just improved. WHICH I DIDN'T ASK FOR. The following are the benifits you can now enjoy:

• Higher Download/Upload Speed: Increase from 1Mbps/128Kbps to 2Mbps/256Kbps. Your service is now twice as fast at no extra cost!
• Higher Download Alowance: Increase from 8G to 20G. You can download more than twice as much at no extra cost!
• New Service Name: For account administration and billing purposes, your broadband package name has now changed from Home Starter to Home Plus.
• End of Promotion: We would just like to remind you that the promotional price you are currently paying for your broadband service (€29.99) ends on 31st of March, at which time the standard price €39.99 will apply

blah
blah
blah

And it goes on talking sh1te. Oh, and its worth noting that the envelope this letter came in was in a very un-eircom-like envelope. It just looked like junk mail that you don't need to read, nothing like the envelopes bills or anything come in. How the hell can they just up the price like that??? I didn't sign up for 39.99, i signed up for 29.99. And this horse sh1t about NO EXTRA COST for these upgrades. No extra cost my fackin arse. They are UNBELIEVABLE! What sort of people run this sort of outfit. GANGSTERS. These bastards should be takin out and shot. They're not worthy of livin. Wait till I get hold of some poor unfortunate nob on the phone. He'll want to quit after he's spoken to me.
Rant over.
For now.
Oh, and this isn't the first billing issue I've had with them. When I was ordering broadband I asked what the cost was going to be for connection and everything. They said it was whatever it was and I accepted it and ordered. Then, when the bill came, there was an unnaccountable extra €30 on it. I got some girl on the phone who explained to me that they had to send out some engineer or something to check was my line good enough (even though i had been told it was good enough before), and they charged me €30 for it! Without even telling me! In fact telling me they WOULDN'T need to do this. I ate the head of yer one anyway and she started crying and called her supervisor. He apologised and said that an engineer WASN'T sent out and he didn't understand where the€30 came from and took it off my bill. Scum bags.
Now, rant over.

Karoma

... The 29.99 per month was an introductory offer for a limited time AFAIK...

Ed:
End of Promotion: We would just like to remind you that the promotional price you are currently paying for your broadband service (€29.99) ends on 31st of March, at which time the standard price €39.99 will apply

When did you sign up? (Be more specific... over 6months ago by any chance?)

dub45

You can please some of the people etc etc..... Never thought I would see the day when someone would complain about having their speeds doubled for no extra cost:eek:

I suspect that your hatred for Eircom means that you do not actually want an answer to this issue. And I think you have to be the first person on boards ever to criticise an isp for their envelopes:rolleyes:. the price for Eircom's basic bb product in recent times has been 39.99 - they have had promotions for short introductory periods of it being 29.99. You obviously did not pay attention to this when you signed up for the product. It is the customer's responsiblity to check their terms and conditions.

Eircom recently doubled the speed for some of their products for no extra cost and in the process upped the download caps. they also provide the option to go back to your previous speed if you want to pay less. While we all agree that Eircom's prices are high nobody is forced to avail of them there are plenty of dsl options out there. If you hate them so much it is difficult to understand why you do business with them.

Admitting that you made some poor girl cry who is attempting to do her job

I ate the head of yer one anyway and she started crying and called her supervisor.

(incidentally the supervisor should have politely told you where to go. No one is employed to put up with such behaviour on the part of a customer) and salivating at the prospect of taking your anger out over some non existent grievance on some other unfortunate Eircom employee is pretty obnoxious really.

Wait till I get hold of some poor unfortunate nob on the phone. He'll want to quit after he's spoken to me.

I suggest your pursue your irrational hatred of Eircom in the Personal Issues forum.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=127

DonkeyStyle \o/

prechaun wrote:

I ate the head of yer one anyway and she started crying and called her supervisor.

LMAO
I shouldn't laugh at this having worked on the other end of the phone from vile screming idiots myself, but I find that hilarious for some reason... maybe I've got an evil streak or something.

dub45 wrote:

(incidentally the supervisor should have politely told you where to go. No one is employed to put up with such behaviour on the part of a customer) and salivating at the prospect of taking your anger out over some non existent grievance on some other unfortunate Eircom employee is pretty obnoxious really.

Yeah they're just normal people doing their job as they're told to do it... treating some phone grunt as if you were talking to the eircom rat himself seems a bit delusional.
I don't know why this simple concept is so hard for people to grasp... venting anger at whoever answers your call is so pointless... they're not to blame for your problems... not even if it took you an hour to get through. :rolleyes:
Really, does it take working in a callcenter yourself to see what an asshat abusing level1 monkeys makes you?

MarkR

prechaun wrote:

I ate the head of yer one anyway and she started crying and called her supervisor.

Wow. Will you be my dad? You sound like a really well rounded rational person and a person to admire.

Seriously though, i'm surprised you got any support at all, and to be honest I think you're one of those people who should be dealt with at the end of a very long smelly stick, or perhaps a letter.

kaizersoze

Well aren't you the big man. Proud of yourself no doubt.
Probably too busy barking down the phone and missed being told what you were signing up for.
Now take 3 deep breaths, calm down and read this slowly.
You signed up to a special offer promotion. This promotion consisted of a promotional price of €29.99 for 6 months, increasing to the normal price of €39.99 there after. Ok.
Breath.
The price would have increased for you anyway even if the speed increase never happened so the 2 are unrelated.
Breath.
If you're so annoyed about having your speed increased for free, you can ring Eircom ask the nice lady/gentleman, in a calm and controlled manor, to downgrade your account to the old speed and your subscription will go down to €29.99 again.

secret_squirrel

OP: Caveat Emptor - look it up you muppet.

seamus

I never thought one of these people would actually post here. You sign up for things without fully understanding what you're signing up for, then when you're shown up to be the fool, you eat the head of some poor bastard who's getting paid very little for a job that gives no thanks.

Well done, every time you ring somewhere, they hate you, and you forever become known as "the scumbag that mad so-and-so cry".

Karoma

I ate the head of yer one anyway and she started crying and called her supervisor.

I hadn't read this - long-winded rants bore me these days.

Why don't you ring Eircom and discuss your options. Try to use your grown-up voice,umkay?

I hope you downgrade and get your 29.99 bill, and end up paying more when they sting you for going over the cap.

carbsy

Mother of god, worra langer!

Markieboy

Hi Prechaun... Same thing here & I was totally disgusted... sent following to Gerry Ryan...

"Hi Gerry…
Here’s a little story I’m sure your listeners will be interested in hearing…

Some months back I signed a friend up to ‘Eircom Broadband Home Starter’ at €29.99 per month.

I did not choose ‘Eircom Broadband Home Plus’ (a separate product that was €10 dearer)

It should be noted that I have no recollection what so ever that ‘Home Starter’ was a promotional offer. My understanding was that it was the full product as advertised on the web.

If you check their web at the moment (see screenshot below) that product is still advertised (and it doesn’t mention anything about a promotional offer!)

So… my buddy got a letter in the door the other day stating basically…

“End of Promotion… For account administration and billing purposes your broadband package name has now been changed from ‘Home Starter’ to ‘Home Plus’”

Current pricing (€29.99 per month) will end on 31st March at which time it will go up to €39.99 inc vat per month.

At seeing this I got rather irate and started making some calls (the number on the letter was useless). Tell your listeners to call 1800 503 303 (and then select option 2)

The bottom line is this…

1) They claim that Home Starter was a promotional offer
2) The say that Home Starter is now a product in it’s own right
3) They are automatically upgrading all current “Home Starter” customers to “Home Plus” (€39.99 per month)
I was advised to call back on the 31st March to ensure my buddys’s account is not upgraded

What ever about #1 & #2...obviously #3 above is divisive and dishonest to the Consumer. I’m sure Mr Hobbs would agree Consumers should be given the choice to upgrade and Eircom should not have the arrogance to perform this automatically…

Not sure if this warrants air time, but it certainly got my blood up…

Cheers for now,
"

Oh, and by the way... for all the folks on the opposite end of the debate... by all means continue to take it willingly up the butt from swindlers like Eircom, but I 'aint taking divisive crap like this from anyone...

Nick_oliveri

Ha, some ejjits gettin pissy about a line upgrade. It was like a christmas and a birthday to me.

Stays the same price, introductory offer stops as they said it would, whats the problem?

Dont get pissy budday.

paulm17781

Markieboy wrote:

Oh, and by the way... for all the folks on the opposite end of the debate... by all means continue to take it willingly up the butt from swindlers like Eircom, but I 'aint taking divisive crap like this from anyone...

You see that is where you are wrong. It used to say on the website that 29.99 was a promotion your own fault for not reading it properly. We are standing up for Eircom as they have done nothing wrong here.

You would also note that people who don't want to willingly up the butt from swindlers like Eircom don't sign up with Eircom.

kaizersoze

Markieboy, a good researcher will see through that letter like grampa's underpants. All they will do is obtain a copy of the T&C's for the time you signed up and figure out that you didn't read them.
Mind you, at least you didn't make anyone cry.

Duiske

kaizersoze wrote:

a good researcher will see through that letter like grampa's underpants. All they will do is obtain a copy of the T&C's for the time you signed up and figure out that you didn't read them.
.

Exactly. I signed up in october and knew that I was on a promotional tariff until march, and to be honest I didn't have to go thru the T&C's to find out. It was stated quite clearly on the sign-up page.
Tell you what !!! I would love to be listening in the next time Prechaun needs to call Eircom customer service :rolleyes:

event

Markieboy wrote:

Hi Prechaun... Same thing here & I was totally disgusted... sent following to Gerry Ryan...

"Hi Gerry…
Here’s a little story I’m sure your listeners will be interested in hearing…

Some months back I signed a friend up to ‘Eircom Broadband Home Starter’ at €29.99 per month.

I did not choose ‘Eircom Broadband Home Plus’ (a separate product that was €10 dearer)

It should be noted that I have no recollection what so ever that ‘Home Starter’ was a promotional offer. My understanding was that it was the full product as advertised on the web.

If you check their web at the moment (see screenshot below) that product is still advertised (and it doesn’t mention anything about a promotional offer!)

So… my buddy got a letter in the door the other day stating basically…

“End of Promotion… For account administration and billing purposes your broadband package name has now been changed from ‘Home Starter’ to ‘Home Plus’”

Current pricing (€29.99 per month) will end on 31st March at which time it will go up to €39.99 inc vat per month.

At seeing this I got rather irate and started making some calls (the number on the letter was useless). Tell your listeners to call 1800 503 303 (and then select option 2)

The bottom line is this…

1) They claim that Home Starter was a promotional offer
2) The say that Home Starter is now a product in it’s own right
3) They are automatically upgrading all current “Home Starter” customers to “Home Plus” (€39.99 per month)
I was advised to call back on the 31st March to ensure my buddys’s account is not upgraded

What ever about #1 & #2...obviously #3 above is divisive and dishonest to the Consumer. I’m sure Mr Hobbs would agree Consumers should be given the choice to upgrade and Eircom should not have the arrogance to perform this automatically…

Not sure if this warrants air time, but it certainly got my blood up…

Cheers for now,
"

Oh, and by the way... for all the folks on the opposite end of the debate... by all means continue to take it willingly up the butt from swindlers like Eircom, but I 'aint taking divisive crap like this from anyone...

oh good lord

i dunno whats allowed on boards.ie, i know its strict, but you're an idiot

READ THE T&C

and eddie hobbs, god, some people think he's a saviour or something:rolleyes:

oh and prechaun, i hope you dont have to ever call back for tech support
i used to work there, and believe me, your name will be known

paulm17781

event wrote:

oh and prechaun, i hope you dont have to ever call back for tech support
i used to work there, and believe me, your name will be known

Generally I have a real issue when CS staff say something like this, however I have bigger issues with people like the OP thinking he is great for upsetting some poor girl who probably hates her job anyway and has NO power over what eircom do. I hope next time he calls Eircom he has a tough old time.

dmulla

I have to say, the exact same thing has happened to me. And although prechaun was probably a bit hard on some poor call centre operator, how else can you get through to them? Its far too easy for the bosses to hire people that "aren't at fault", and either expect them to take the hassle off angry customers, or else expect that customers wont get angry with the call operators cos they're "not at fault".
But anyway, this is strange.....I rang them up today to ask could I NOT get this upgrade and stay with my original package of 29.99 for 1mg and 8 gigs and the girl said I couldn't do it until the 31st of March, and ONLY on that day! I said could I not just cancel it now? And she said no, only on that day! I've been on to bt since though and I'm just gonna change. Their "option 2" is the same specs as the eircom upgrade except its only 30.00e. Also, you can include line rental and its only 40e, so thats what I'm gonna do.
Does anyone know if I have to return the router? Or how do I go about doing it?
Also, does anyone know of any issues with cancelling eircom? Cos I think I've been paying eircom a month or two in advance. Do I just cancel it and then have broadband for free for the next couple of months and THEN order from BT?
Thanks

event

paulm17781 wrote:

Generally I have a real issue when CS staff say something like this, however I have bigger issues with people like the OP thinking he is great for upsetting some poor girl who probably hates her job anyway and has NO power over what eircom do. I hope next time he calls Eircom he has a tough old time.

me too, but that will happen in any walk of life

if you make a girl cry who works in a supermarket, the next time you go there, dont expect good service

cormac_byrne

dmulla wrote:

I have to say, the exact same thing has happened to me. And although prechaun was probably a bit hard on some poor call centre operator, how else can you get through to them? Its far too easy for the bosses to hire people that "aren't at fault", and either expect them to take the hassle off angry customers, or else expect that customers wont get angry with the call operators cos they're "not at fault".

The thing to realise about call centre operators is that there is only a limited amount that they can do for you. Being nice to them is the best way of getting them to help you. It may even get them to bend the rules a bit or escalate your case quicker than others.

However if the softly softly approach doesn't work the you need to escalate, a certain amount of ranting here may be justified to convince them you won't go away. This ranting should be directed at the company / product rather than the calltaker.

Sometimes they're so badly trained it's very hard not to get angry with them.
But this is the fault of the company. They didn't train the operator properly or else they didn't interview properly and got a clueless idiot. Or else they pay so low they accept they will get poor candidates at interview.

The key to getting escalated is persistance rather than out and out ranting.
Many callcentres don't allow the calltakers to hang up on customers, so you just stay on the line and say the same things over and over until you wear them down.

I did this with UPS once, "I want to speak to your supervisor" , "there's noone available", "I want to speak to your supervisor", "sorry can't do that", "I want to speak to your supervisor" ... imagine that repeated for 10 minutes, followed by pauses then "are you still there" ... " yes, can I speak to your supervisor" ... "this call must be costing you a fortune" "no my company is paying, can I speak to your supervisor" ... eventually he said he needed to go to lunch and hung up on me.

Immediately I called back and told the next calltaker the last guy was rude and hung up on me. I demanded to take to a manager. That got me a callback by management.

Incidentally UPS customer support is so bad it makes IBB look good in comparison.

And speaking of IBB, having been with thim since last March, I finally had enough and declared WAR on them on Monday. I didn't make anyone cry (at least not on the phone) and every cent I ever paid them arrived back in my bank A/C today.

keyran

It would be illegal for any company to total deceive a customer into paying more for service so it must have said it somewhere, there is no way a company like Eircom is going to make that mistake and not admit it.

It surprises me that anyone could be arrogant enough to attack a call centre rep so much to make him or her cry, I admire that you felt that confident that Eircom would make a mistake like that to go onto a call all guns blazing.

As for getting what you want usually threatening to cancel is enough to get what ever it is you are looking for. Once in the hands of their “Save Team” I’m sure you get what ever you like. If you don’t then maybe you are better of not being their customer in the first place.

I am sure you are not the only w**ker that calls in to them every day and the fact that you feel proud to eat these people on the phone is quite comical. I can guarantee all the silences form the call centre rep on the phone while you are ranting away are spent working out the next move to make in minesweeper or if there are any available moves on Solitaire, or may be wondering what the canteen have on for lunch.

The louder you shout the less help you are going to get guaranteed.

Trojan911

I got the same letter from Eircom and called them and they have ammended my tarriff back to the original one I started with i.e. €29.99 p/m 8GB download @ 1Mbps and 1GB upload @ 128kbps. Told them I did'nt want the extra cost for something I would never use to its full capacity. They said it would be ammended back within 48hrs...

There was no shouting, bullying, tears or bad feeling after the call.


TJ911....

Markieboy

Who cares if it was a promotional product... doesn't ANYONE believe Eircom should give the consumer the choice to accept the upgrade...?
Particularly as... (quote from the nice lady in the call centre "Eircom realised their compeditors had better products, so they made the 29.99 package a product in it's own right")

She also said to me that they were inundated with calls about this very issue...!!!!! so... there 'aint just two of us miffed with EircoN...

Don'tcha just love a good debate... !

paulm17781

Markieboy wrote:

Who cares if it was a promotional product... doesn't ANYONE believe Eircom should give the consumer the choice to accept the upgrade...?
Particularly as... (quote from the nice lady in the call centre "Eircom realised their compeditors had better products, so they made the 29.99 package a product in it's own right")

She also said to me that they were inundated with calls about this very issue...!!!!! so... there 'aint just two of us miffed with EircoN...

Let me get this straight...

You signed up for a product that was due to increase in price in the future.
That price increase happened to coincide with a speed upgrade.
You are now getting a better product for the same price you would be paying anyway.
You have a problem with this.

Are you a few cards short of a full deck?

Duiske

If folk are unhappy with this they should simply downgrade their package.
But there may be a catch when doing this. If you upgrade from, say, starter to plus... thats fine...free upgrade. But if do it the other way round, plus to starter, eircom can continue to charge you for plus for the duration of your contract. So do not downgrade until your first six months are up.

peepsbates

i think prechaun has left the building:eek:

shinzon

well now youve gone and done it

This surely will be hung up on some wall in Eircom, as yes shin is actually without any back biting or actual snide comments is gonna defend eircom (sticks in the throat in know but hell here i go)

They gave you a free upgrade, your upload/download speeed increased, you should be happy, hundreds if not thousands of people in ireland would give there left nut to get what you got for FREE

And why all the whining and bitching about spending 10 euro extra on your broadband, if you dont want it ring them theyll downgrade you and you can pay what your were paying before

I sincerely hope you dont go offf on one over such a petty thing as 10 euro every ingle time, otherwise youll get a stressed and have a heart attack over nothing.

And ill say it again EIRCOM DID NOTHING WRONG,

I never thought id hear myself say that

Damn hell really has frozen over

Shin

jman

Shin,

Am inclined to agree with you ....

However (there's always one) ... following the letter of the law then
Eircom possibly did nothing wrong (I did'nt see the t&c's of this package)

One thing is evident from this. If what Markieboy said is correct ( :eek: ) , and their
call centers are flooded with calls over this, then Eircom should have
foreseen this and proactively addressed it before their staff took the heat from gob sh1tes like Prechaun.

It would have shown consideration not just for their Customers, but for their
frontline people also. A simple mail to customers on the intro offer
advising them that packages had changed, your charge will be increased inline with the offer you are on, however if you wish to change to a lower package yada yada yada would have gone a long well.
Ultimately it would have done no harm and might even improve their bottom
line in the long run.

My personal opinion is that Eircon have a Ryan Air type approch to
customer sat. i.e They dont give a sh$t ! The difference being though
that Ryan Air are low cost/very competitive and can get away with this because of
their prices. Eircon on the other hand are not ....

Sooner or later the day will come and their customers will leave them in
droves ....

Jammmmin

secret_squirrel

Can anyone clarify if Eircom ever made the offer the OP was ranting about?

I got BB around the same and all the companies were ONLY doing variations on the halfprice for six months offer.

Speaking as someone who got stung by missing the cancellation 29.99 charge in the UTV small print, I have abosolutely no sympathy for the OP or anyone else in their situation.

As consumers it is our responsibility to educate ourselves on the pro's and con's in the small print of any agreement we take out. Not that the half price offer was exactly in SMALL PRINT.

OP has it occured to you that you are the sort of person that MaccyD's puts the 'Warning this product may be HOT' on its coffee and apple pies for???
:rolleyes:

Freddie59

keyran wrote:

It surprises me that anyone could be arrogant enough to attack a call centre rep so much to make him or her cry, I admire that you felt that confident that Eircom would make a mistake like that to go onto a call all guns blazing.


The louder you shout the less help you are going to get guaranteed.

Have to agree with you on both points. I have seen young girls in a call centre brought to tears by people at the other end. Nothing excuses this. How would the person at the other end feel if it was their wife or daughter?

Indeed the louder you shout..........maybe I'm naieve, but I feel that in 99% of cases if you're nice to people they will be nice to you. It's human nature.:)

rsynnott

Ah, mad people...