EsatBT satisfaction poll

edanto

There are plenty of horror stories here about the billing dept at BT, but I'm stuck between choosing them and Eircom for BB out at the wrinklies.

Pricewise, BT win - but I'd like to get an idea of how common the billing problems are compared with happy customers; that might swing the decision.

The poll is vulnerable to shilling, so I've left it public and if you see a bunch of single digit posters voting for 'great connection, great customer service' - take it with a pinch of salt.

BT stories, good and bad, invited.

hellboy99

Pricewise you can't complain, their BB service isn't bad and the cap is alright too. on the other hand their customer service or should i say the lack of it is a nightmare and don't get me started on billing issues :mad:

dub45

I dont think you need a poll - their actual bb sevrice appears to be excellent - the rest is a lottery.

I firmly believe that until they get their billing act sorted out nobody should recommend them. It is simply outrageous that they have been allowed to continue for so long without sorting out their billing,

Sapele

bad connection

I voted for good connection, sh1t service

I've never had a problem with BT's connection, however in the last 2 weeks or so my dsl connection has occasionally dropped only to immediately reconnect again. I don't care now, as I'm finished with esat bT as of later this month (YES!!) Don't get me started on their sh1t service, i've got an upset stomach today and thinking about BT billing would only make it a lot worse

jor el

good connection, sh1t service

I vote good connection but average service. I've not had any problems on my current connection since my first bill, but that was sorted after one call. When I cancelled my old connection, at a previous address, they kept billing me, to the tune of nearly €300. Took a few calls and a threatening email to get it finally sorted.

rogue-entity

good connection, sh1t service

I have an absolutly fantastic connection, on occasion it behaves like a 3Meg one, and I get download speeds around 368k. I doubt I would get this from €ircon.

However there billing is off. I got billed 98 for the connection and first two months instead of the 80 they promised me. They charged me for an extra week of broadband because I got my modem a week early (not really a problem I suppose). And they overcharged me the same amount for my 15/month promotion and the current 30/month charge. I keep meaning to get on to there billing department, but I may as well be on hold for two hours before I would get through to them.

For me though, service and speed are more important then minor billing errors and other problems. I must get on to them about the overcharging and get them to refund that money to me (or maybe they will give me my next two months free ?)

Sparky

good connection, average service

always has been great for me, granted im about 250mtrs away from the exchange.

Idleater

good connection, sh1t service

I've had no problems with the service since switching. Well, to be honest since it is just a resold standart €ircon bb service, there should be nothing wrong with it.

The customer service people needed a couple of hints (phonecalls) that I actually did want to apply to their service before they would accept my money :rolleyes: , but since then I have not been overcharged (yet), so until they do or I have to contact them for anything else they remain at "average service". Plenty of nightmare stories out there tho.

L.

eskimo

good connection, sh1t service

When BT were Esat, they billed us for IR£400 because of mistake a they made. They refused to admit the mistake and claimed it was our fault and made us pay the bill (well my mam cracked out of sheer frustration. I would have fought it to the ends of the earth!).

I'm on BT broadband now and I've found it to be frustratingly slow at times. But then again broadband is extremely overestimated in general anyway.

netwhizkid

good connection, average service

I'm with bt for dial-up (BT Anytime 180) It works grand and despite some glitches at the start regarding email servers I entually got @eircom.net email to come through with some great help from the computer forum I have yet to be billed by them, They have agredd to bill bi-monthly onto the Credit Card, and i should not get a bill till April so I presume it will be on May's CC bill. I believe there billing department are crap so two fingers crossed.

matrim

good connection, average service

I haven't had any problems with bt.
The speed and service is very good. I haven't had any downtime in around 6 months.

As regards billing, I was overcharged once by 15 euro. I didn't even notice that I had been overcharged. The sent me a letter and the next bill it was given back to me.

sticker

good connection, average service

I couldn't be happier with BT... I've the 3meg setup and never a problem... For what it's worth, good phone techy staff too!!

edanto

Going on the votes so far, it seems like 2/3 of people think BT have average or great customer service - that's encouraging because if I keep a close eye on the bills for the first while and put a maximum limit on the direct debit with the bank, then I should be able to avoid any surprises. fingers crossed!

There doesn't seem to be much difference between Eircom and BTs ratio of happy:not happy customers, going by Moriarty's poll. The e20 monthly difference might swing my decision to BT, I think.

Still, this poll will be open for another couple of weeks. I'm getting an idea of the kind of problems that might crop up from the stories too, forewarned is 4-armed and all that.

Cheers

dts

bad connection

Wait till you try to cancel then the problems start. It took me six months of emails and sitting on the phone on hold for hours before I finaly got the money they owed me. Wouldnt go near them again no matter how cheap they are.

Lafortezza

good connection, sh1t service

The BB line itself was fine, speeds were good and never had a disconnect in 5 months. When I cancelled though they continued to charge me. Sorted now but still waiting on the 80 sponds

Marica

bad connection

Have had BT broadband plus calls and line rental since September and I can't fault them on connection or technical issues but their customer service is an unmitigated disaster.

Last October I opted out of the National Directory Database (to stop unsolicited marketing calls) but continued to get calls every evening from people in India trying to sell me phone services. I complained to BT but got nowhere until I made a formal complaint to Comreg.

Then in February they sent me a letter telling me they'd overcharged me by over E40 but assured me they'd only debit the correct amount. Needless to say they didn't and I've been banging my head off the customer "service" brick wall for the past two weeks. They don't respond to emails (well, they send an automated reply telling you they'll get back to you in 4 days, then nothing) and if you ring 1904 after about 6pm and select customer service the phone rings 28 times and then cuts you off. The customer service page on their website is crap and completely unusable.

I'm actually happy with the broadband and phone service I get from them, but I'm considering my options as I'm not prepared put up with this level of customer service (although I have no illusions about other providers being particularly good in that department).

8track

I had 2Mb connection since July, great speed about 1.3/1.4Mb down on irishisptest and no disconnects. Was upgraded (around Jan) to 3Mb - good at first - down speeds went up to 2.1/2.3Mb on irishisptest, no disconnects. But over the last few weeks it's been pretty bad, down speeds now fluctuate wildly 600k - 1.3Mb and frequent disconnects. Tried new modem from BT, even worse with it. BT insist line is fine as far as the house. To rule out internal problems I'm going to split line before first socket, install dual microfilter at that point and run Cat 5E from Eircom junction box to the microfilter and Cat 5E from microfilter to the modem. That way it should rule out any 'it's internal wiring' excuses and get BT to sort out in exchange if necessary.

BTW - there have been hundreds of new houses built near me recently - could the connection of those by Eircom have had an impact?

Billing - I've had no problems, except in deciphering how they make up the amounts. Totals charged seem to be fine though.

edanto

Well, 65 votes - that's nearly as many BT users that have voted in Moriarty's poll; perhaps that's covered the bulk of people that drop into the forum.

It leaves me apprehensive about the customer service to expect, 38 votes in the 'go with BT' categories and 22 in the 'stay away'.

Better than a one in three chance of having a big problem!! Well, unscientific, but that's the message from the poll.

Cormic

good connection, sh1t service

I think the connection is great and the only contact with the service centre was average. So that is what I voted.

surveys

I find it difficult to believe that anybody, having read the threads on here would go near ESATBT ? sure the technical side is fine, no problems, but you will never get to use the internet, all your time and anger will be taken up by the horrendous billing and mal-administration that you will have to suffer. ! Believe me. ! Anyway, several of us have decided to write to the Director of European Operations in BT HQ London, and send him a 'dossier'. We are looking for others to join us who have had bad experiences. Anybody on this thread willing. ? If anybody wants to join in please leave me a personal message, or post an acceptance here and I will get in touch with you. (hopefully 'them')
Don't join ESATBT. Go somewhere else, and enjoy a peaceful nights sleep. !
And plase make this 50 votes 'against'. !

skyhighflyer

bad connection

The Good:

Consistently excellent speeds of 1.76Mb down, 226kb up.

Pings of 20 - 25 MS to boards... sub - 20 to heanet

Decent cap allowance and they're good about letting a few extra gigs slip by unnoticed.

Although I've heard stories of it taking weeks to deliver the modem and set up the line I was waiting just 12 days from placing my order to having broadband up and running.

The bad:

Billing is a genuinely a joke. I was overcharged €70 on my first bill and only after following it up with several calls and emails was I reimbursed.

Tech support is very nearly as bad. Having called unsuccessfully several times on day one to get my password I gave up and thankfully was given the eircom master password from a friendly boardsie which worked. I think if he hadn't helped me I'd still be waiting for it now. And that's it.


Overall, I'd recommend them as long as you can keep an eye on the bills and have the time to follow their mistakes up.

Zynks

good connection, average service

My views and experiences are the same as skyhighflyer's, with two exceptions:

- I am only chasing €40 since last October (they are mine and I want them back!!!)
- Tech support have been very good on the two occasions I called them

skyhighflyer wrote:

The Good:

Consistently excellent speeds of 1.76Mb down, 226kb up.

Pings of 20 - 25 MS to boards... sub - 20 to heanet

Decent cap allowance and they're good about letting a few extra gigs slip by unnoticed.

Although I've heard stories of it taking weeks to deliver the modem and set up the line I was waiting just 12 days from placing my order to having broadband up and running.

The bad:

Billing is a genuinely a joke. I was overcharged €70 on my first bill and only after following it up with several calls and emails was I reimbursed.

Tech support is very nearly as bad. Having called unsuccessfully several times on day one to get my password I gave up and thankfully was given the eircom master password from a friendly boardsie which worked. I think if he hadn't helped me I'd still be waiting for it now. And that's it.


Overall, I'd recommend them as long as you can keep an eye on the bills and have the time to follow their mistakes up.

edanto

Update:

Modem arrived a week after it was ordered, with a follow up call from customer service to check that everything had arrived and it was ok.

I got a reply from deep inside BT when I told them about this polll. I had told them that I was apprehensive about the customer service I would get if I encounter a billing problem.

BT rep wrote:

Appreciate fully that we have a number of shortfalls in our customer service and billing divisions, but be assured we have a full set of programmes running to address each issue. As many of our problems are systems-related, it is taking more time to "fix" the problems that we'd like, but we are well under way.

The reply from BT was cc'd to a few names inside BT and she also sent her mobile number and asked me to let her know how things went.

So, for me, the customer service so far has been pretty good. Fingers crossed.

dub45

edanto wrote:

Update:

Modem arrived a week after it was ordered, with a follow up call from customer service to check that everything had arrived and it was ok.

I got a reply from deep inside BT when I told them about this polll. I had told them that I was apprehensive about the customer service I would get if I encounter a billing problem.



The reply from BT was cc'd to a few names inside BT and she also sent her mobile number and asked me to let her know how things went.

So, for me, the customer service so far has been pretty good. Fingers crossed.

Weren't a lot of the most recently issued bills wrong yet again?????????

Unfortunately we have heard all this before:rolleyes: there was a guy on here late last year who seemed to be working in there and he was naively assuring us that things were improving - this is a so called reputable company and they have been sending out wrong bills and deducting wrong amounts for years now - I spoke to a guy recently who had asked me about broadband and I advised him against Esat bb because of the billing and guess what his first words to me were? 'you were right' first bill was wrong hours on the phone etc etc.

I dont notice anywhere in their advertising that they have 'system' or 'billing' problems or that they have taken any apparent measures to addess people's concerns that are the victims of these shortfalls!!!!!!!

I wonder would it be any good to produce that emal when the debt collectors call?

Sapele

bad connection

That sounds good; I hope everything goes well for you edanto. I think the BT reps reference to "many of our problems" may be telling. Making them aware that you are going to be watching things closely may have been a good call