Why all the issues

Smoggy

Everyone seems to have an issue with thier DSL Provider ...

Just use UTV, they have a good service at a reasonable price and they also throw in a phone deal where you get evenings and weekends @ local / national and UK calls are free.

My phone bill is always under €10 and I have only had a day when the service was down in over a year.

Two Thumbs Up

le-dub

Morning....

I agree 100%. I had dial up broadband with UTV and in over 2 years i only had one problem and it was on there end and it was fixed the next day:D
I tried geting broadband with them, but they say couldn't provide it, so im with eircom. I've only had one problem with them and it only lasted a day...

uncle_sam_ie

I can't get UTV. Dial up Broadband :rolleyes:

_Kaiser_

If you can get eircom DSL you should be able to get UTV - did they say why you can't have it?

I had UTV Clicksilver for a few years too, but eventually got rid of them for several reasons:

- The pricing/packages they offered did not change according to the times. Other providers started offering higher speed/larger download caps, and despite massive pressure from their customers both here and in their newsgroup, UTV gave no indication of following suit, or if they did make a change would insist on customers signing up to a new 12 month contract with them. The terms and conditions of these contracts seemed to change on almost a monthly basis too.

- Outages and performance was a big problem for them for a while. Althought they later started sending advance notification of these, initially it would just go down without warning or explanation. I don't think they ever really sorted out the high pings issue, making gaming a hassle/impractical - again despite pressure from customers for answers/a fix.

- Although UTV were intially great at providing feedback and support (both here and on their newgroup) when they first launched, this soon stopped and the newsgroup seemed to be manned by one guy who seemed to be doing it more on his own initiative rather than in any sort of official role. They also seemed to be very selective about which questions they'd answer.
The newsgroup is/was also only accessible from a UTV connection, making it useless if you're in work/elsewhere and wanted to check/report something for example.

- UTV "lost" 6 months worth of phone calls on me, then "found" them again and proceeded to bill me a few hundred quid in one go and without warning. When I rang them about it they tried blaming it on BT and eircom who in turn blamed UTV etc. As far as I was concerned, as my provider it was their responsibility but they seemed far more imterested in passing the buck.

- My number is ex-directory and always has been, but after I started getting marketing calls I wondered how they'd gotten it. By chance I found a "UTV privacy" section on the online account manager. Rather than opt in to receive marketing calls and such, UTV had apparently enabled this option by default enabling them (in my opinion) to turn a quick buck by selling their customer's details to these crowd.

I rang them about it and as usual the rep was of no help (more because she didn't seem to know anything about this option than anything else really), but I suggested that they may want to advise customers of this invasion of privacy by e-mail which she said they'd do. I *think* there was mention of it then on one of the bills a few months later, but certainly no "important change to your privacy options" type e-mail that I remember.

... so that's why I left UTV :rolleyes:

dahamsta

Another UTV defector here, for similar reasons to Kaiser.

kaizersoze

Good post Kaiser. Sums it all up really. Main reasons for me was cost, connection problems and support (lack of).

CuLT

The reason "everyone" seems to have a problem in this forum is because nobody posts when everything is running smoothly.

Same with anything, you only hear the complaints because the content people don't need to comment.

bk

CuLT wrote:

The reason "everyone" seems to have a problem in this forum is because nobody posts when everything is running smoothly.

Same with anything, you only hear the complaints because the content people don't need to comment.

That is not true, many people post when they have had good experiences with an ISP.

UTV certainly has dropped out of favour here on boards.

Smoggy

for me, UTV pricing as it stands is spot on and more competative than most others.

Outtages haven't been an issue either, and download speeds have always been able to hit the max 208k, Although Ping I cant comment on, I do use my DSL for xbox live games and its fine , but as I havent seen other services on live I cant compare.

But handing out an ex directory number is a bad move on thier behalf, I supose the low price has to come from somewhere thou.

I always send people to UTV when they ask me which DSL provider they should pick. On price alone you cant beat them. So if you dont mind being harassed by sales rep's fly the UTV banner with me

ps I dont work for them.

_Kaiser_

Smoggy wrote:

for me, UTV pricing as it stands is spot on and more competative than most others.

Outtages haven't been an issue either, and download speeds have always been able to hit the max 208k, Although Ping I cant comment on, I do use my DSL for xbox live games and its fine , but as I havent seen other services on live I cant compare.

But handing out an ex directory number is a bad move on thier behalf, I supose the low price has to come from somewhere thou.

I always send people to UTV when they ask me which DSL provider they should pick. On price alone you cant beat them. So if you dont mind being harassed by sales rep's fly the UTV banner with me

ps I dont work for them.

Don't take this wrong, but maybe you should

Anyway, with regards to your point that "the low price has to come from somewhere"; although they have recently changed packages and pricing, for a long time before that they offered the least value for money when compared with equivalent packages from other providers.
When eircom first increased the line speeds they (and the others) passed these on to their own customers without any preconditions.
UTV wanted another 12 month comittment from their customers before they could move to the higher speeds. Even moving packages within UTV was grounds for another contract renewal.

Also, to be blunt, them wanting to squeeze more money from their customers is no excuse to invade my privacy by selling details to a marketing company. My number is ex-directory for precisely this reason. In my opinion they had absolutely no right to do so without my prior consent.

CuLT

bk wrote:

That is not true, many people post when they have had good experiences with an ISP.

UTV certainly has dropped out of favour here on boards.

Rare cases.

I thought I had taken absolutes out of my posting in recent years, I seem to have slipped today.

Smoggy

The point to my initial post was that if people are having problems with thier DSL , im my opinion UTV is a good choice, regardless of what they may have done multiple years back , what they are doing at the moment is proving a good service at a good price and with the phone bundle thrown in a very cheap phone service.

Everytime a package change has occured , mine has been upgraded along with it, with no fuss. My contract is now out and im on a rolling month by month contract. They have also added new features as well like removing the download cap for around €6 a month, which for heavy downloaders is a god send.

The problems you state are of an old UTV. Long live new UTV and if you have a problem with that I can call you up using my UTV phone package at a rate of nothing and explain it again

kaizersoze

I'm €15 p/m better off and have a bigger cap by not being with UTV so I don't know where you're getting the great value from. There are little or no calls made on the landline so their calls package didn't entice me to stay.
Maybe if you're a big phone user the calls package may be attractive and don't forget the €29.99 cancellation fee even if you're outside your contract.
They're cheaper than Eircom. Thats the only positive thing I can say about them.

Smoggy

who's €15 per month cheaper than UTV ?

I have the €29.99 a month package from UTV, a €15 saving would be quite large % wise.
But still wouldnt be worth it for me , due to the calls.

zuma

Bt!

dub45

At one stage and it is by no means a 'multiple of years back' UTV had a culture change where they adopted a 'cute hoor' approach to their customers and appeared to think customers were idiots and would put up with anything.

Initially they required further 12 month contracts for loyal customers to get either newly introducted faster speeds or lower costs - no other isp required that.

As pointed out too they required a 12 month contract to simply change products and this was not always made clear to the person changing - it was also supposed to be a Term and Conditon that never quite found its way into the terms and conditons.

Up to the time I left some months ago their online billing system did not show customers payments which in my view anyways is a serious matter. They also displayed total contempt for any advance notification that their billing was wrong even though they require you to notify them in advance in their Terms and Conditons but there again they only seemed to obxerve these when it suited them!

Their support which at one stage was legendary collapsed totally and was that way for ages.

They were the first to charge for breaking the cap (as they were entitled to do of course)

BB customers who were with them from the start probably experienced more outages and slow speeds than any other isps customers especially in the early stages of bb and their 'upstream provider' was always blamed - people assumed this was Eircom and were only too ready to accept that Eircom were trying to shaft them - UTV did nothing to alter this misconception. At one stage the upstream provider was so inefficient that UTV were talking of changing.

And as stated above UTV will blame Eircom or indeed anyone else for anything at all never mind slow speeds.

They blamed the fact that they deducted an advance months line rental from me on Eircom! EVen though I had pointed out well in advance that it was not due.

And there are still stings in the tail which will surface in due course.

They charge you to leave them no matter how long you are with them and they threaten not to release your line until the modem has been returned.

dub45

zuma wrote:

Bt!

aka Billing Torture!:eek:

kaizersoze

Smoggy wrote:

who's €15 per month cheaper than UTV ?

I have the €29.99 a month package from UTV, a €15 saving would be quite large % wise.
But still wouldnt be worth it for me , due to the calls.

The same package from BT would cost you €40 including line rental.
Thats a saving of €14.17 p/m. You'd have a bigger cap aswell.

Smoggy

woah !
Eircom charge me €25 per month for line rental
Might as well let them drop my trousers and take me now.
I just paid the bill never looked.
Thats some serious figure.

_Kaiser_

Smoggy wrote:

woah !
Eircom charge me €25 per month for line rental
Might as well let them drop my trousers and take me now.
I just paid the bill never looked.
Thats some serious figure.

Praise Jebus. Another soul has seen the light!

Seriously though... UTV were (I dare say) the best BB provider around in their early days. What a pity they went downhill so rapidly and so thoroughly.

Smoggy

I have seen the light
The light that eircom is shafting me @ €25 a go.
But converting from UTV isnt for me , the flag still flies high.

The UK line rental is £11 , which is about €16/17

kaizersoze

Kaiser2000 wrote:

Praise Jebus. Another soul has seen the light!

Seriously though... UTV were (I dare say) the best BB provider around in their early days. What a pity they went downhill so rapidly and so thoroughly.

Totally agree.

parsi

As a matter of interest when did the "new UTV" start trading ?

I left them in March and they threatened to hold up my transfer until I returned their modem. They got a bit upset when I pointed out that under the terms&conditions I had agreed to I had only to return the modem after transferring and not before. They also got upset when I pointed out that I had sent it back a month previously.

Their caps are uncompetitive and despite querying with them that I was finally out of their clutches they continued to bill me.

And if ever they have a problem they always blame their upstream provider...

dub45

parsi wrote:

As a matter of interest when did the "new UTV" start trading ?

.......................

I think they really began to change around the first wave of bb decreases in costs. I think round about the first year after the introduction of BB Eircom decreased the wholesale price of the products and that was when the UTV mania for 12 month contracts began. They lost a couple of people who were very customer friendsly too Charles in support and Martin on the newsgroup sort of carried along a lot of people who might otherwise have been disenchanted and only for Carl latterly I dread to think what would have happened to them.

It really is an awful pity that they took the direction they did...............

audizerstoren

Have posted this elsewhere but.......STAY WELL AWAY FROM UTV !!! absolute wasters when it comes to customer service and will rip you off any chance they get..READ THE SMALL PRINT...GET A MICROSCOPE OUT..YOU WILL NEED IT!!!