Smart Customer? Got approached by eircom or others

damien

If you are a Smart customer and got approached by eircom after the Smart service being cut off, can you contact IrelandOffline by emailing info [at] irelandOffline dot org

vito

Have you seen this:

http://blog.roam4free.ie/power-play-by-eircom

thebman

Magnet have an add in todays Irish Independant which was quite clever I thought.

fifth

Why? If you don't want to go back to eircom, just don't..

RangeR

funkyflea wrote:

Why? If you don't want to go back to eircom, just don't..

Yes but Eircom are not legally allowed to contact Smart customers for the first 3 months of the change over. Also, I THINK that Eircom are NOT allowed use a Smart customer list that they would have. It would be anti competitive :eek:

JNive

exactyl, you dont see BT and UTV ringing all teh smart customers, so why should eircom be allowed to do so. blatant anti-competition and abuse of customer data for commercial gain

scout353

Got a call from Eircom today on a second line in the house (which is with UTV) - he knew my name and that I was with Smart and did I want to return to eircom.

Why I questioned the validity of this he told me he was calling numbers on a list and did not know which company the person would be with, though he knew I was with Smart and knew to ask me by name - both numbers would not be attriubted to me at all!!

Nasty practice if you ask me!

shayser

An Eircom rep called to my house in Letterkenny today at 3pm. I was at work. He spoke to my wife.

He told her that Smart had gone into liquidation yesterday at 3pm and that he was here to "clean up the mess". He was very pushy but at the same time making out that he was doing her favour. As she is the first to admit, all the recent shenanigans are above her head. He left with her signature on two forms. One to switch back to eircom, the other to subscribe to Eircom Talktime. As for as she was concerned she was getting the phone fixed.

We don't not want to nor will ever go back to Eircom.

I am absolutely raging. So angry. My wife is equally upset and feels like a fool.

Bastards.

Kensington

Two guys called around to the house here in Templeogue today, speaking to the mother. Thankfully, she told them what she thought of eircom . They left their details though and were very pushy - BSing on about smart being gone and that if we didn't sign up there and then we could be waiting 2 or 3 weeks to be switched (not that it matters since if smart goes, so does the phoneline) and basically trying to scare us into changing. They claimed they didn't know we were with smart, yet they knew the billpayer by name and funnily, they only called to one other house on the road, who also happen to have smart broadband. Not co-incidence, surely...

BTW. E-mail sent

Sir Oxman

shayser wrote:

An Eircom rep called to my house in Letterkenny today at 3pm. I was at work. He spoke to my wife.

He told her that Smart had gone into liquidation yesterday at 3pm and that he was here to "clean up the mess". He was very pushy but at the same time making out that he was doing her favour. As she is the first to admit, all the recent shenanigans are above her head. He left with her signature on two forms. One to switch back to eircom, the other to subscribe to Eircom Talktime. As for as she was concerned she was getting the phone fixed.

We don't not want to nor will ever go back to Eircom.

I am absolutely raging. So angry. My wife is equally upset and feels like a fool.

Bastards.

On th e other thread, someone posted saying there is a 5 day cooling off period so check that out.
Also, email IOFFL with your story.
Don't let them get away with this.

inode

they came to my house earlier today too in letterkenny. his name was PJ. he convinced my mum that he was doing us a favour and that we had to join eircom etc. so she signed the papers. i came home later and got the guys number and called him back out to my house. i recorded a good bit of the conversation too. will be posting it if anyone is interested.

machalla

Would it be the competition authority that need to be contacted about Eircon using the smart customer list for winback practices?

I would assume it would have to be Alto or one of the telecoms companies to lodge a complaint about this practice. Perhaps they are all just too scated to do so. All seem happy to pick off smarts customers but not each others.

fifth

I have to say, I am with eircom - and not unhappy but this cold calling and campaigning on doorsteps seems a bit too much.

They've been pestering people down here in Wexford to buy broadband and phonewatch. Hope they call to me. ;P

Out of curiosity, what is IOFFL going to do after everyone emails them about Eircom (has everyone spelt 'eircon' and '€ircon' enough times yet, kinda annoying now, like 'm$' and 'microshaft' - we get the idea) calling and soliciting?

ff.

WizZard

inode wrote:

i recorded a good bit of the conversation too. will be posting it if anyone is interested.

Definitely (if it won't impede the complaint that I presume IOFFL are going to lodge with the CA and/or poodle)

Foxwood

funkyflea wrote:

Eircom

It's not Eircom, it's eircom.

(If you're going to be pedantic, it's a good idea to check the subjects website first).

Sponge Bob

the debt is to eircom wholesale ...whether its €4m or whatever but eircom are owed something

eircom wholesale have given exclusive details to eircom retail to go to another telcos customers and try winback on them, eircom winback staff always were the scum of the earth so lying is pretty normal for them.

seeing as the winback are óut there Magnet will be next unless Magnet take steps to secure their data from the winback people who work for eircom retail but are given all the key data they need by eircom wholesale and this time they are going in pairs because if they went singly (as usual) they would be lynched out there.

thank feck I have me laser

machalla

I believe either Eircon or Eirscum is more appropriate for them. I see no reason not to point out the negative aspects of this lot.

Even if I went back to them they couldn't provide me with BB in any case due to the state of their phone lines which they refuse to either fix or upgrade. I was told on numerous occasions that I would never be able to get BB by Eircon. Hows that for a quality company...

Anyone who wonders why I dislike them SO much might get an idea now as to why. Its bad enough not being able to get BB but having it, then having it taken away is just leaving a bit more than a bitter taste to say the least. Hopefully Smart will pull through and it doesn't come to that.

I find the Eircon fanboy/fangirls tiresome to say the least.

cgarvey

And I'm sure the alleged fanboy/girls (who seem to be making very valid points IMO) find your Eircon/Eirscum taunts immature & tiresome. How about sticking to the debate at hand?

machalla

Probably, but perhaps thats the point? Anyway you are right, this thread is supposed to be about being approached by Eircon winback teams not other issues.

Sponge Bob

Oh dearie me, look at the amount of Winback jobs that are being advertised

http://jobs.ie/Jobs.aspx?EmployerId=35596

ballabooyeah

On the business side of things,
A smart employee sent out a customer listing of all corporate customers to all carriers they compete with.

As oyu can imagine - he was fired as soon as this was found out.

Everyone is jumping ship and not waiting to see what happens.

de_shadow

I got the knock on the door from eircom at 7ish Tuesday night i hadn't even had a chance to check if my BB or phone was actually off after getting in from work.
The rep told me they were the only ones that could get me back up and running by the following Tuesday, i told him i would definitly not be going back to eircom .

machalla

It only just clicked with me. Eircon are taking on more winback door to door people by the look of that listing Sponge posted. Smart just got rid of their door-to-door people (I presume they are all gone by now). Would it be a big leap to think that some of the ex-smart people are now working for Eircon winback now? Which could be adding a little edge to some of the sales tactics.

Sponge Bob

machalla wrote:

Would it be a big leap to think that some of the ex-smart people are now working for Eircon winback now?

Not at all, the very same people in some cases .

clohamon

Just got propositioned on a business line by Imagine. Asked if I was a former Smart customer.

I asked how she had got my number. She said that they were phoning everybody. She also said Comreg had told her that "Smart were not coming back and had ceased trading."

Its dog eat dog out there.

damien

funkyflea wrote:

Out of curiosity, what is IOFFL going to do after everyone emails them about Eircom calling and soliciting?

That's exactly what eircom asked me too when they contacted me. Small e for eircom according to their own writing standards. I'm sure I'll give copies of the email to the EU who IrelandOffline are meeting with this month.

damien

How about we stick to the topic please? If you're not a Smart customer and have not been approached by eircom then pick one of the many other threads where anyone can talk about anything even remotely related to telecoms isues.

Sponge Bob

most of those approached are among the 4000 LLU customers who are still cut off , those not cut off have not been approached, yet.

dub45

Sponge Bob wrote:

most of those approached are among the 4000 LLU customers who are still cut off , those not cut off have not been approached, yet.

I am feeling quite neglected:D

byte

I was approached tonight by a Door to door guy, here in Letterkenny. His name was Sean I think. He went on to say he used to do the same job with Smart, but got sacked and is now with eircom. He said Smart is ruined and that after the end of this week, all my services will be gone. He went on to say that the PDA he had was Smart's (maybe that's how they know who is with Smart?) and that he still had Smart's car! He asked if my Smart line and broadband still worked, to which I confirmed, and he said that I was lucky, and that many in Carndonagh and Buncrana who were Smart customers still had their bb also (I didn't realise these 2 towns were Smart LLU areas). He also said some Smart 2Mb customers were lucky in that they sometimes got 3Mb speeds. I really doubt he knew what he was talking about

So, basically, I could join back with eircom through him there and then, and get 3 months line rental half price :rolleyes:, or if I waited until end of this week, my phoneline would be physically disconnected and I'd have to pay eircom €129 to get it reconnected! So, then I told him if eircom does that, I'll let the line go to hell, and I'll switch to wireless from IBB or Digiweb, and he just said they're rubbish and I'd be better with an eircom phoneline so I could make calls.

IN the end, just to get rid of him, I just took his number (my dinner was getting cold ) and he insisted he expected to hear from me tomorrow.

dahamsta

byte wrote:

IN the end, just to get rid of him, I just took his number

Next time call him a liar and tell him to f*ck off. It's more direct.

byte

dahamsta wrote:

Next time call him a liar and tell him to f*ck off. It's more direct.

LOL Hopefully, I won't hear from him or his ilk again.

Amusingly, when the door rang, my gf went to answer the door, and for a laugh I said if it's eircom, tell them to **** off. She didn't heed me though, and I was surprised that it was eircom!

You Suck!

Called here too, but I was so pissed, the sight of the eircom symbol being red to a bull went on a rant and didn't let the guy get a word in sideways.....

Liam Byrne

If anyone is approached by eircon reps, resist the urge to tell them to **** off (I know, it'll be tough).

Instead, ask them LOADS of questions about contention ratios, broadband speed, connectivity (e.g. how come broadband wasn't available here last year when I wanted it), pricing (why it's so much dearer than Smart), limits, number portability issues, and ask about every other special offer.....

THEN ask them why the eircom radio advert doesn't distinguish between people who do need to swtich and those who don't.

THEN ask them how they got your name and number and whether it's legal under the Data Protection Act.

Finally, after keeping them there for an hour, tell them to **** off.....remember, while this wastes your time, it also wastes theirs, so you could be saving someone further down their list who's less well informed from being conned....

zynaps

Liam Byrne wrote:

Finally, after keeping them there for an hour, tell them to **** off.....remember, while this wastes your time, it also wastes theirs, so you could be saving someone further down their list who's less well informed from being conned....

Take one for the team, eh?

I'd suggest taping the conversation - you never know what tricks these guys will pull (ie: you suddenly find out you've been signed up when you didn't sign anything and no mention of such was made at the time).

dahamsta

Pulling out a tape recorder is probably the quickest way to get rid of them anyway.

cgarvey

I've moved some posts out, at the request of Damien. Given that we've asked twice to keep it on topic (for Smart customers to report here if they've been approached by a winback team), I'll just be deleting off topic posts (something I don't like doing), in future.

Fitzee

I was too short with the eircom reps that called me, I am sorry now that I didn't keep them on the line to get some supporting material for complaints. The odd thing is, I had a residential account and a business account on WLR with Smart, I got a call in relation to both accounts within a minute or two from the same person.... It's clearly some list they had from some time ago as I happened to have changed from Smart a couple of weeks previously. I have the contact number (mobile) of the girl who called me too, if that's of any interest DM. Any assistance I can provide to call eircom and comreg to task on this disgrace will be gratefully given. The whole situation disgusts me and makes Ireland look like a joke, again, thanks to eircom & comreg, partners in crime:mad:

mr_disc

they approached me.... called to my house and i promptly told them where to go !!........ long live smart !!;)

jward

I am a Smart Broadband customer and here's my story so far:

1. I had a complete service until last Wednesday afternoon October 4th. Then I was shutdown. This was after ComReg had agreed an interim solution with eircom to provide a service for 2 weeks on October 3rd.
2. An eircom sales person knocked on my door on Thursday (coincidence?). He knew I was a Smart Customer, and then also knocked on my neighbours door (also a smart customer).
3. The same eircom sales person told us that we were being disconnected in 2 days. This FUD is being used despite the 2 week agreement in place. He also told us that it would take 4 weeks for another provider and eircom would connect us immediately. Unfortunately the last sentence is probably true.

I contacted ComReg to inform them of this. They don't seem to be doing anything about it.

I now have to go through 3rd Party Verification to get my Smart broadband reconnected. The number has been sent to eircom for reconnection so god knows how long thats going to take.

jward

jward wrote:

I contacted ComReg to inform them of this. They don't seem to be doing anything about it.

I got a direct contact in ComReg from the Smart support forums. I passed on the details as posted here. He rang me back and we discussed the matter further.

They're currently collating the information from a number of sources.

Sponge Bob

'Collating' is Comreg Speak for "Doing Nothing" and they will do nothing .

Anyone who was cut off and who then approached Comreg (that I know of) was not turned back on as a consqeuence. I am referring to LLU customers here.

jward

Sponge Bob wrote:

'Collating' is Comreg Speak for "Doing Nothing" and they will do nothing .

Anyone who was cut off and who then approached Comreg (that I know of) was not turned back on as a consqeuence. I am referring to LLU customers here.

That maybe the case but I was happy to get called back and that it appeared as if it was being dealt with as a serious matter.

My previous dealings were over the phone to the ComReg consumer line. I was fobbed off.

I'm told I'll be kept informed so will post if there are any more developments.