Castleforbes Square, docklands

reallybad

Hi everyone,

If there is anyone else living in this block of apartment please post any issues which you may have here or alternatively to Castleforbes@Gmail.com and i will try and collate all the information together in an attempt to improve things as they stand.

The first issue here is the lack of phone service to the area as well as the lack of broadband
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2054926005

Thanks

RB

geecee

Ad Really Bad points out there will not be Phone services available in the area until July at the earliest...
Besides the lack of Phone and Broadband services in the area there is also:

Sky Conway - what a ripoff.
€15 per month to provide channels that are free-to-air anyway.

With 300+ apartments in the development, there is no way they need €15 per customer per month for "maintenance"

I would be interested to know how long a contract has been awarded to them to provide exclusive access to the building(s)

NTL say they are unable to install in this building as Sky Conway have it exclusively (surely this is a monopoly and illegal?)

I notice that Digiweb Metro is available in the area, this woueld allow us to have 2MB broadband and voice carried over the wireless connection, but reuires equipment to be installed on the roof... and then cables to be run to each apartment...

Does anyone think this would be a go-er with the management company or with Danninger?

Goosey

I agree that Sky Conway is a rip off in regards to the service and channels they are providing. Their may be grounds to take either the management or conways to court based on EU and Irish regulations.

15 euro's pm +whatever Sky(BSkyB) charge, if you want to have BSkyB route. This I would say would be looking if the residents as a whole were to challenge the Mgmt. and or Conways.

Then again if Eircom are allowed to charge you line rental regardless of the telecom provider you use ( some may have the charge in their own telecom bill ). Then this would appear to be similar to what Conways are doing. In which case we may not have any grounds to attack the system there.

On the other hand ...the Apartment Mgmt. company saying that you cannot put up Aerials or Sat. dishes as it may ruining the aesthetics of the apartments ...well maybe it would but they are not the ones living there ...so maybe we could force that issue.

In this day and age ...leaving us with Eat or Don't Eat ..what do we care attitude is a bit much. In a day of consumerism ...I WANT CHOICES!

But I am not a legal eagle so I am not qualified to say that we could or should.

Regarding the phone ...well that's just bad planning on the developers part and lack of foresight on ours.

I for one never thought that an apartment in Dublin1 would not have phone capabilities already.

I need BB for work as I am on call and also work from home sometimes in the evening. Once I move in this weekend that's all knocked on the head until Eircom hook us up. S4it happens as they say.

Regarding DigiWeb ....I cannot see them adding extra wiring to the apartments.

jdc78

I've found the Castleforbes Management Company to be quite good, suprisingly. With every query I've had, they have promptly responded back, again suprisingly.

ie. I came home one night to find the entire drive filled with cars parked for some event that was on at the Point, including a car blocking the entrance to one of the underground parking garages. It took everything for me not to get out and let the air out of the tires or something worse! I called the property management company the next day and a little more than a week later, there were signs posted with No Parking on one side and Parking for Residents on the other. One thing that does bother me about this is the number of residents using the outside parking as their permanent parking place. I have been told that Private Clamping will come into effect shortly forcing these people to either park below, park out on Castleforbes Road, or in fact buy a parking space.

reallybad

jdc78 wrote:

I've found the Castleforbes Management Company to be quite good, suprisingly. With every query I've had, they have promptly responded back, again suprisingly.

ie. I came home one night to find the entire drive filled with cars parked for some event that was on at the Point, including a car blocking the entrance to one of the underground parking garages. It took everything for me not to get out and let the air out of the tires or something worse! I called the property management company the next day and a little more than a week later, there were signs posted with No Parking on one side and Parking for Residents on the other. One thing that does bother me about this is the number of residents using the outside parking as their permanent parking place. I have been told that Private Clamping will come into effect shortly forcing these people to either park below, park out on Castleforbes Road, or in fact buy a parking space.

Hi i agree, its totally unacceptable on the level of public people using the parking. However i would be concerned with the idea of clamping, there are only a handful of spaces and i know certin people are and will abuse this, if there is a space free i dont like the idea of asking my friends who visit to park elsewhere. I know they are visitor spaces but there is nothing we can do about it. I for one would vote against the bringing in of clamping for the area.

jdc78

No, I think it would be generally endorsed if there is continual parking by one particular car ie. there is a silver Ford Puma and some big pickup that I don't think have their own parking. Interstingly, my space which has spaces lined up perpendicular behind me has been extended and the ones behind me have been taken out - outlined paint removed.

jdc78

Here is a laugh...

Sky Conway is offering Broadband at Castleforbes for:

€100 connection
€30 per month for 'upto' 1 Mb download speeds.

Contact jim@skyconway.com!

I reckon we all write a nice email to good ol' Jim at Conway or direct him to boards.ie for some reading.:D

reallybad

jdc78 wrote:

No, I think it would be generally endorsed if there is continual parking by one particular car ie. there is a silver Ford Puma and some big pickup that I don't think have their own parking. Interstingly, my space which has spaces lined up perpendicular behind me has been extended and the ones behind me have been taken out - outlined paint removed.

Iknow what you are saying but form my dealings from private clamping companies they are a joke, they have no concept of monitoring. Where i lived previously we had private parking also. You needed to have the registration logged with those guys, i rang them up and gave them the reg as 00 TN **** but the muppet on the other end of the phone wrote down 00 TS *** and we got clamped. These guys wont do monitoring. What if like me, i have my parent up for a weekend, say friday evening to Sunday afternoon, i dont think anyone would have objection to this, lets face it we are all going to have callers like that.

I totally appreciate your point but sadly i dont see any realistic way of dealing with the situation without clamping innocent people and we all know that that is probably one of the most annoying things things to happen. And there would be a lot more people p*ssed off.

However if i could see a solution i would certainly back it to avoid abuse of the spaces.

As for Sky Conway - 100 connection fee - is he having a laugh? Seriously? I will email him now to see what can be done. 100 for what. Is there a minimum contract? I wonder what the contention rate

Guys

I also hope to create a list of issues which are out of the residents control such as lack of phone service and broadband and bring them to the attention of our local TD and Taoiseach and see what can be done.

I was the person who rang the council last week about the rubbish on Castleforbes road and although the majority was picked up, the street leaves a lot to be desired.

The following issues i would like to raise with him
1-No Phone Line
2-No BroadBand
3-Rubbish on the street
4-Abondonment of haulage equipmentin the general area. Tuck Trailers never seem to be in use

If there is anything else please advise

Thanks

RB

reallybad

jdc78 wrote:

No, I think it would be generally endorsed if there is continual parking by one particular car ie. there is a silver Ford Puma and some big pickup that I don't think have their own parking. Interstingly, my space which has spaces lined up perpendicular behind me has been extended and the ones behind me have been taken out - outlined paint removed.

Iknow what you are saying but form my dealings from private clamping companies they are a joke, they have no concept of monitoring. Where i lived previously we had private parking also. You needed to have the registration logged with those guys, i rang them up and gave them the reg as 00 TN **** but the muppet on the other end of the phone wrote down 00 TS *** and we got clamped. These guys wont do monitoring. What if like me, i have my parent up for a weekend, say friday evening to Sunday afternoon, i dont think anyone would have objection to this, lets face it we are all going to have callers like that.

I totally appreciate your point but sadly i dont see any realistic way of dealing with the situation without clamping innocent people and we all know that that is probably one of the most annoying things things to happen. And there would be a lot more people p*ssed off.

However if i could see a solution i would certainly back it to avoid abuse of the spaces.

As for Sky Conway - 100 connection fee - is he having a laugh? Seriously? I will email him now to see what can be done. 100 for what. Is there a minimum contract? I wonder what the contention rate

Guys

I also hope to create a list of issues which are out of the residents control such as lack of phone service and broadband and bring them to the attention of our local TD - An Taoiseach and see what can be done.

I was the person who rang the council last week about the rubbish on Castleforbes road and although the majority was picked up, the street leaves a lot to be desired.

The following issues i would like to raise with him
1-No Phone Line
2-No BroadBand
3-Rubbish on the street
4-Abondonment of haulage equipmentin the general area. Tuck Trailers never seem to be in use

If there is anything else please advise

Thanks

RB

Roar83

yeah they are a joke. the guy who came to install it was rushing so much he nocked the TV off the bracket and chipped the wall. He also said he'd put in extra tv point in the room for EUR50 (a nice mixer fior him). i put them in for about EUR10 in 15 mins when he went.
The basic package they give is depressing, Living1, living 2, the extreme sports channel, gimme a break. id buy a package but i feel theyd be just ripping us off once again.
As for broad band, i hear you can have Clearwire inastalled and its pretty good in castleforbes.

- One pint to note is, every morning the main door in block D is left open for builders, for what i can only imagine is the most of the day. im not too pleased about it as its pretty quite in the block in the moment and it would be a burgalers playground for the apartments that are occupied.

-The phone line is a basic service and its inexcuseable. surely such a service should have been organised by the developer.

reallybad

Roar83 wrote:

yeah they are a joke. the guy who came to install it was rushing so much he nocked the TV off the bracket and chipped the wall. He also said he'd put in extra tv point in the room for EUR50 (a nice mixer fior him). i put them in for about EUR10 in 15 mins when he went.
The basic package they give is depressing, Living1, living 2, the extreme sports channel, gimme a break. id buy a package but i feel theyd be just ripping us off once again.
As for broad band, i hear you can have Clearwire inastalled and its pretty good in castleforbes.

- One pint to note is, every morning the main door in block D is left open for builders, for what i can only imagine is the most of the day. im not too pleased about it as its pretty quite in the block in the moment and it would be a burgalers playground for the apartments that are occupied.

-The phone line is a basic service and its inexcuseable. surely such a service should have been organised by the developer.

Roar83, a guy i work with is loaning me his Clearwire to check out tomorrow night so i can give you an answer on that then.

I am in Block D also and the fact that the door if left open s very valid and i think we should contact the management company on this as builders tend to do what they please regardless

Have any of ye been in the car park in the last 24 hours, the amount of rubbish is crazy. It looks like the Management company originally booked too many bins cut back and how have been caught out as the place is over flowing with rubbish.

Has anyone got the number and name of someone to contact handy and i can call them now?

jdc78

info@rfpm.ie

Enda McDonnell

RF Property Management

reallybad

jdc78 wrote:

info@rfpm.ie

Enda McDonnell

RF Property Management

Thanks, done

geecee

I ordered the Sky Conway TV package today
It breaks my heart paying them 60 connection and 45 Per quarter on DD, but what choice do i have for the next few months!

RB i'd be interested in seeing how you get on with the clearwire tomorrow, their packages look to be very expensive for whats on offer (and with a 1 year contract) and a 10GB limit for 40 Per month!

The girl at sky conway didn't know anything about the broadband.
However the TV engineer who called a few minutes ago said that it was available and he'd get someone to contact me about it later....

Will post details as soon as i get them...

Incidentally skyconway will be onsite tomorrow from 11-12 so call them early tomorrow if you want to get connected up for TV this week.... If not it'll be next monday!

GRANGE124

RB Thanks for contacting the Council about the rubbish- hopefully as more people get on there case it'll stop being a problem completely.

We got clearwire last week- got the wireless router too- so far so good. The guy who set it up was sound and actually knew what he was talking about. He also suggested people sharing the wireless- say between neighbouring apt- worth considering.

Sky Conway is a joke- so far to deal with on the phone they have been just short of rude.... also the connection fee is a rip off!
In fairness to the guy who 'connected ' it for us- i.e. placed the lead from wall to TV and then pressed autotune- he had the decency to look embarresed...as well he should- still charged the €60 though.

Goosey

BTW : Thanks Real Bad for taking the lead on this and doing what you are doing.
It benefits us all in the block.

It's appreciated.

Goosey

geecee

Hi Grange124
Which of the clearwire products did u get?
The X2 Box, Freedom, Performer or Bsiness Packages?
Regardless of which products you get:
€25PM for 512
€39PM for 1Meg 10 GB cap
€49PM for 2 Megs 20 GB Cap
All look ridiculously overpriced...

Have u tried VOIP with it yet?
Does it work?

Has anyome got any uopdate of the Sky Conway Broadband offering?
Any ideas how its delivered?

One more question... I had my RIPwave box delivered last Thur... Anyone know if its too late to cancel now?

geecee

Sorry to drag the thread slightly off-topic, but after researching clearwire thoroughly this evening it seems they completely block:

-P2P (limewire, E-mule, Bit torrent)
-Gaming Ports
-Voip Ports
-irc
-Large Internet downloads
-ftp!


So it seems they are only useful only for browsing... Despite their hefty setup fees and monthly costs....

They may be more stable the Ripwave, but they are certainly no alternative to a cable or DSL internet connection.

I think the best hope for Castleforbes is for us to oust Sky Conway and get NTL into the building.... As Done by Gibo in this Thread:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2054912247&highlight=sky+conway

Then we can get proper Cable TV, Cable Internet and use Voip for telephony... This way we never need to get eircom involved at all....

Goosey

Following on from Gibo's thread that geecee brought up.

http://www.tca.ie/ - then click on "Make a complaint" under the "Contact Us" section in the navigation bar on the right side of your window

"You should contact the Competition Authority when you think you may have identified anti-competitive behaviour."


Here is a sample of what to expect : :eek:
Submit a Complaint to the Competition Authority

The only way we can stop anti-competitive behavior in Ireland is to be aware that it is taking place. If you are aware of such behavior we would strongly encourage you to inform us. There are a number of ways to register a complaint. The most common way is via this feedback form, but feel free to contact us:

Via Email to: complaints@tca.ie
Via Phone: 1890 220 224 (intl.:+353-1-8045400)
Via Fax: +353-1-8045401

Or you can send written complaints to:

The Competition Authority,
Parnell House,
14 Parnell Square,
Dublin 1.

As a general matter, we will do everything possible not to pass on your details to any third party; however, it is important to note that the Authority may need to divulge information that it has obtained, including the identity of the source, to the firm under investigation. If you do choose to supply us with your contact details, the accused party will not be made aware of your identity as the complainant without this being discussed with you beforehand. If there is a good reason, it may be possible for us to protect your identity; and, we would ask that you raise this concern with us at the earliest possible opportunity.

You should also be aware that there may be instances where we could be legally required to divulge your identity and the details of the information that you provide us, e.g., in legal proceedings or under certain provisions of the Freedom of Information Act, 1997.

If you wish, you can submit an anonymous complaint to us, but you should be aware that there is no guarantee that the Authority will be able to take action. We can only act on such complaints if the information is verifiable and of sufficient detail to be useful.

For more information please go to the Frequently Asked Questions section.

Please give us your contact details:

* you fill in an online form here *


Before we all charge off ... we should have some sort of template drawn up that we can all use or a list of common thoughts on why this is anti-competitive and who exactly we need to name, company and or person(s).

We should also think about other avenues. Such as the Mgmt company.
Their address and a contact name.

A list of TD's in the area that we should all be firing letters to and or emails.
Anyone else that we can think off.

Then every one of use needs to start firing the letters, complaints, etc off to the those in the list that we come up with.

What say ye??? ARggggghhhhh!:D

reallybad

geecee wrote:

Sorry to drag the thread slightly off-topic, but after researching clearwire thoroughly this evening it seems they completely block:

-P2P (limewire, E-mule, Bit torrent)
-Gaming Ports
-Voip Ports
-irc
-Large Internet downloads
-ftp!


So it seems they are only useful only for browsing... Despite their hefty setup fees and monthly costs....

They may be more stable the Ripwave, but they are certainly no alternative to a cable or DSL internet connection.

I think the best hope for Castleforbes is for us to oust Sky Conway and get NTL into the building.... As Done by Gibo in this Thread:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2054912247&highlight=sky+conway

Then we can get proper Cable TV, Cable Internet and use Voip for telephony... This way we never need to get eircom involved at all....

I had a chat with my mate who uses Skype and he informs me although me WAS able to use it the quality was not paticularly good - this is rubbish! My god :-(

reallybad

Goosey wrote:

Following on from Gibo's thread that geecee brought up.

http://www.tca.ie/ - then click on "Make a complaint" under the "Contact Us" section in the navigation bar on the right side of your window

"You should contact the Competition Authority when you think you may have identified anti-competitive behaviour."


Here is a sample of what to expect : :eek:
Submit a Complaint to the Competition Authority

The only way we can stop anti-competitive behavior in Ireland is to be aware that it is taking place. If you are aware of such behavior we would strongly encourage you to inform us. There are a number of ways to register a complaint. The most common way is via this feedback form, but feel free to contact us:

Via Email to: complaints@tca.ie
Via Phone: 1890 220 224 (intl.:+353-1-8045400)
Via Fax: +353-1-8045401

Or you can send written complaints to:

The Competition Authority,
Parnell House,
14 Parnell Square,
Dublin 1.

As a general matter, we will do everything possible not to pass on your details to any third party; however, it is important to note that the Authority may need to divulge information that it has obtained, including the identity of the source, to the firm under investigation. If you do choose to supply us with your contact details, the accused party will not be made aware of your identity as the complainant without this being discussed with you beforehand. If there is a good reason, it may be possible for us to protect your identity; and, we would ask that you raise this concern with us at the earliest possible opportunity.

You should also be aware that there may be instances where we could be legally required to divulge your identity and the details of the information that you provide us, e.g., in legal proceedings or under certain provisions of the Freedom of Information Act, 1997.

If you wish, you can submit an anonymous complaint to us, but you should be aware that there is no guarantee that the Authority will be able to take action. We can only act on such complaints if the information is verifiable and of sufficient detail to be useful.

For more information please go to the Frequently Asked Questions section.

Please give us your contact details:

* you fill in an online form here *


Before we all charge off ... we should have some sort of template drawn up that we can all use or a list of common thoughts on why this is anti-competitive and who exactly we need to name, company and or person(s).

We should also think about other avenues. Such as the Mgmt company.
Their address and a contact name.

A list of TD's in the area that we should all be firing letters to and or emails.
Anyone else that we can think off.

Then every one of use needs to start firing the letters, complaints, etc off to the those in the list that we come up with.

What say ye??? ARggggghhhhh!:D

Hey Goosey, sounds like a great idea, i have a list of the local TD's for the area and have started formatting some bit of a letter of complaint to them which i dont have with me at the moment but will post up here when i send it on. If doing this i believe anonymous compaints wont be taken seriously. If they have a name and point of contact they will be able to act further

Would yourself or someone else like to send something off to the complaints authority.

I stillhavent heard anything back from the management company who i contacted yesterday.


The following should be contacted
1-Management Company
2-The Complainst Authority
3-Local TD's
4-The Press

I am volunteering to contact TD's and the press. I have a draft letter done up at home for the TD's in relation to the topics i mentioned yesterday wihch i can forward tonight for you guys to approve before i send it off.

So the Schedule is as follows - Can we have maybe a volunteer for something else?

The following should be contacted
1-Management Company
2-The Complainst Authority
3-Local TD's (ReallyBad)
4-The Press (ReallyBad)

Goosey

What if we all sent letters to TD's and all sent complaints everybody and anybody we think can effect the outcome of this.

The more people we have making complaints the better chance of us as a whole being heard.

When you get a chance ...post up the TD's that you have and to who we should hit with letter, emails etc.

What we need to do is act as a team not as individuals. This way we add more weight to the cause.

So if we can pool our information together first then all of us take the list and start sending our complaints at more or less the same time.

What do you think ...do-able?

If anyone has a addresses for the Mgmt. company ...I'm a renter not an owner :-)

Thx.

reallybad

Sounds good to me, i will either post up the list of TD's tonight or in the morning. I have the stuff left at home.

Afraid i am going to be offline a lot of today but will keep an eye on the board for as much as i can

Thansk
RB

jdc78

Okay,

I spoke to the Competition Authority last week and they have agreed to follow up the complaint of Sky Conway. The person I spoke with was named HAN, she can be contacted at 01 804 5418 or by email at hn@tca.ie and was very helpful. Further she said that if we could not get anywhere with the Competition Authority Act (something about the Act of 2002 Sec. 4 and 5), then she would follow up with the Communications Regulatory Authority and the Consumer Affairs Bureau/ Authority - whatever it is called.

She asked me to pass on her details (only found them today) to anyone that wants to add to the complaints with Sky Conway at Castleforbes.

Hope that helps so we can get moving on this!

reallybad

Thanks very much for the information guys, i have emailed both NTL and TCA

Appreciate all input

Goosey

Real Bad ...You have already contacted NTL ...so you might as well be that person that contacts Brian Dowling ...as Gibo said ..don't spam.

Everyone else can ye start hitting the TCA with the complaints.

When Real Bad has the list of TD's then we can start hitting them as well.

Cheers lads ...let's keep the momentum going with this ...:)

reallybad

Goosey wrote:

Real Bad ...You have already contacted NTL ...so you might as well be that person that contacts Brian Dowling ...as Gibo said ..don't spam.

Everyone else can ye start hitting the TCA with the complaints.

When Real Bad has the list of TD's then we can start hitting them as well.

Cheers lads ...let's keep the momentum going with this ...:)

Excellent stuff. Will let ye know of any replies i get. If i dont get a reply by email then i will phone them up later in the week

Goosey

Here's the email I sent to the TCA after leaving a Vm.

"Hi Han,
I left a voice mail on your phone.

My complaint is that at some point in the planning phase of the apartment block that I live in. The developers or the complex mgmt. decided to only run with a company called "Sky Conway" to wire and install a single point of access for television broadcasts ..other then using the ears to get the terrestrial channels, such as RTE1, RTE2 and TnG. Going through "Sky Conway" for television.

What my complaint is that If I would want to get Sky ( BSkyB http://www.sky.co.uk ) I can ...but I have to not only pay "Sky Conway" €15 per month and also on top of that whatever Sky (BSkyB) charge for their service.

All "Sky Conway" provide is "Free To Air" stations, that if a person had their own satellite dish and set-top decoder box ( can be bought separate ) they could get these channels that "Sky Conway" are charging €15 per month for.

Why is this a monopoly. This is a monopoly because if I wanted to get my own satellite dish or if I wanted to get in NTL ( cable ) I cannot.

There appears to be a cosy deal between certain parties to ensure that if a tenant wants television other then the channels you can pick up with a "rabbit ears" aerial. That you are forced to use "Sky Conway".

I believe that you have been approached by other concerned tenants regarding this issue.

Apartments : Castleforbes Square, Dublin 1.
Television providers : Sky Conway
Developers : Danninger

Ref :
Free to Air : Free-to-air (FTA) is a term used to describe television (TV) and radio broadcasts which are broadcast unencrypted and may therefore be picked up via any suitable receiver.

Let me know if you need further information or clarification."

geecee

I have submitted my complaint to the competition authority...

Incidentally did anyone hear back from SkyConway with regard to their Broadband offering?

Roar83

Thats a good idea Goosey, it would be worth nipping this in the bud a.s.a.p. especially as the development still isnt finished it may be easier to get NTL. i think you'l find that Mr.Berti Aherne is one of our local TD's. But the

Goosey

Lads ..is there an actual Mgmt. company for the complex ( Castleforbes ) in place yet???

If so what is their name and contact details? :eek:

Thx