Ice Broadband steadily becoming even more terrible

BigglesMcGee

stepbar wrote: »

Why doesn't someone take a court case against these guys?

Wouldnt that be Comregs job.

Have Comreg ever done ..... anything.

bartificer

BigglesMcGee wrote: »

Wouldnt that be Comregs job.

Have Comreg ever done ..... anything.

Comreg seem to be OK at getting individuals out of contracts with bad ISPs which is good. But that is only half of what they should be doing. They should be going after bad ISPs that rip people off like ICE but they clearly don't.

Bart.

thebman

Yes and recent legislation has been put in that allows them to fine the ISP's much larger amounts than previously.

When your on the phone to Comreg, ask them why they haven't taken action against ICE on behalf of consumers given the number of users having problems with them.

Also report them to the ASAI for false advertising given you never get those speeds. They'll actually take action. They did take get Three to stop running their Mobile BB TV ads boasting about speeds that could not be obtained and said they needed to pay more attention to BB in their final report so they will most likely be interested in this case.

You should also report them to the more general consumer protection bodies and I'd mention that the reason your are contacting them instead of Comreg is that Comreg refuses to take action despite the large number of people having problems. Previously Comreg have been publicly insulted by other consumer rights agencies for not doing their job because the crap has landed on these other bodies plates.

bartificer

brim4brim wrote: »

Yes and recent legislation has been put in that allows them to fine the ISP's much larger amounts than previously.

When your on the phone to Comreg, ask them why they haven't taken action against ICE on behalf of consumers given the number of users having problems with them.

Also report them to the ASAI for false advertising given you never get those speeds. They'll actually take action. They did take get Three to stop running their Mobile BB TV ads boasting about speeds that could not be obtained and said they needed to pay more attention to BB in their final report so they will most likely be interested in this case.

You should also report them to the more general consumer protection bodies and I'd mention that the reason your are contacting them instead of Comreg is that Comreg refuses to take action despite the large number of people having problems. Previously Comreg have been publicly insulted by other consumer rights agencies for not doing their job because the crap has landed on these other bodies plates.

Just one question, who are ASAI?

I'm actually in the humour for doing my civic duty on this one and doing my bit to bring ICE to justice ... I urge all other affected customers to do the same.

Bart.

thebman

http://www.asai.ie/

Advertising Standards Authority of Ireland.

Make sure to specify the ad details and what Ice have said and what the actual service is like.

I think they do a lot of advertising my mail so they might be able to force them to change their statements on these ads.

It will take complaints by a few different users I'd say before they'll look into the issue seriously. With Three they got about 20 or 30 complaints from boards.ie users and then they sent someone to Three to discuss the matter with them and he wrote a report on the findings and a list of recommendations which was passed to Three and Three seem to have followed them. I don't know if there are penalties for not doing so but I imagine there are if 3 listened up.

It might not do any harm to link to this thread as evidence that other users are also experiencing the same issues and that you know it isn't just the case for you.

Anyway good luck with it, hope some authority gives them the kick in the rear they so richly deserve.

BigglesMcGee

bartificer wrote: »

Just one question, who are ASAI?

I'm actually in the humour for doing my civic duty on this one and doing my bit to bring ICE to justice ... I urge all other affected customers to do the same.

Bart.

I'll do this too.

Another thing myself and a couple of people in my area are going to do is to cancel our direct debits in the bank.

Lets see if Ice contact us then. Since they wont even acknowledge us otherwise, never mind fix it. We'll also refuse to pay for the time Ice have not been in touch with us or fixed our BB connections.

I'll let you know how it goes. My DD is due this week.

Still worse than dial-up by the way.

Just did an eperiment. Have one computer on the Ice connection and put the laptop on dial-up.
The laptop beats ice for loading webpages and downloading small (< 5 Megs) files easily.
Ice wins with large files, but this is no good to me. Im not interested in large files.

bartificer

I've decided to cancel my direct debit too. I rang 24hour banking to do it just now but they won't do it over the phone so I have to take time off work to go in to an actual branch. Time well spent I think.

I've had it with these muppets. It's almost 2am and even now I can't get above 8KB/s. I mean, this is supposed to be a GAMING package! Packet loss is through the roof and latency has gone mad. It's been about a month since I was told it would be 7 to 10 days till all our many woes would be gone. Typical ICE lies.

I'm a member of a few flickr groups and it's become impossible for me to take part. It takes so long for an image to load that it just does your head in.

When I heard that £$&*%$ Fran Rooney being paraded out by RTE as one of their guests last weekend I nearly threw my radio out the window. They even introduced him and the chairman or CEO or what ever of ICE broadband as if that was praise rather than an indictment. That £$%£$%^ is getting rich off our mysery. It's a pitty I'm not religious because if I was at least I'd have the satisfaction of know the rich git will burn for ever in hell!

BigglesMcGee

The banks can be lazy and not allow you to close a direct debit.

Sometimes you have to threaten to close your bank account to get a direct debit cancelled ... stupid, i know.


But i'm prepared to walk in today and tell them cancel the Direct Debit to Ice or Cancel the whole bank account.

I already have a second Current account that i feed money into every month so they'll know its as easy as piss for me to close the account.

I would suggest everyone with ice problems do this. Possibly you'll get cut off from Ice,
but to be honest, you would be better on dial-up anyway.

A customer shouldnt have to constantly chase a provider to provide the service that they take your money for.

bartificer

Just a little update. I cancelled the DD and got ICE to agree to an immediate cancelation of my account and to them waiving their cancelation fee. I also got back on to ComReg who actually have no teeth. All they can do is help individuals out of contacts with dodgy suppliers, they can't actually apply any sanctions to the ISP. I also lodged a complaint with ASAI.

More: http://www.bartbusschots.ie/blog/?p=816

Bart.

thebman

Well they can do more as in they have the power to, they just won't and come up with all sorts of excuses not to.

It would probably be easier for them to do their jobs than come with these excuses to do nothing!

BTW don't expect the ASAI to update you on the issue, they should have a report on their site in a couple of months. It would help move the case along if other people also reported the issue to ASAI so other people reading this thread, FFS report the fraudsters who are stealing your money.

BigglesMcGee

I've cancelled the DD today. Lets see if Ice contact me for a change now.

I've lodged a comlaint with the ASAI too.

I lodged one with Comreg ages ago and they never replied.

On another note. I was talking to a neighbour on the bus on the way home.
He's got Ice and is having a nightmare with trying to contact them.

He told me he called sales instead of tech support. Sales just put him through to tech support where noone answers anyway.
So he hangs up and keps hanging up when he gets put on hold and calling sales until they get tech support on the phone.

I think i'll try this too.

bartificer

BigglesMcGee wrote: »

I've cancelled the DD today. Lets see if Ice contact me for a change now.

I've lodged a comlaint with the ASAI too.

I lodged one with Comreg ages ago and they never replied.

On another note. I was talking to a neighbour on the bus on the way home.
He's got Ice and is having a nightmare with trying to contact them.

He told me he called sales instead of tech support. Sales just put him through to tech support where noone answers anyway.
So he hangs up and keps hanging up when he gets put on hold and calling sales until they get tech support on the phone.

I think i'll try this too.

Nice idea!

If anyone has any tricks for actually getting to talk to a manager that work I'd love to hear them. The fact that managers don't want to talk to users speaks volumes. They clearly don't give a flying £$%£$ about their customers.

Bart.

watajoke

Just to let you all know, I heard that there are no actual managers working there these days, they all left and so have most of their loyal staff who were around from day one...What does that tell us eh!!!

BigglesMcGee

Im beginning to think nobody works at ice at all.
I still cant get an answer from tech support tonight.
Its worse than ever, if thats possible.

Speeds all over the place, pings 3500 ms and higher.

I think Comreg or anybody even thinking of becoming an Ice customer should try ringing Ice Support and see if they are happy with the no answer situation BEFORE they get Ice broadband.

There is a program on Newstalk 106 in the mornings where the presenter takes complaints from people trying to call customer support to various cowboy companies. She then rings them on behalf of the customer and gets them to explain themselves on air. And they follow up on the results too.

Can we all call or email Newstalk about Ice Broadbands appalling service and lack of support? and if enough of us do, she will make it an issue on national radio.

Mention this thread in your email too.

What do you guys say?

jilly21

Hi guys, i tried to call ice before and nothing, after 20 on my mob i gave up (i've my phone with them which is s@#te.

I tried to cancel my DD but the bank said that if ice asked for it, they had to honour it, thought they coudn't see the DD on my details even though they've been taking it out for months.

im really fed up with them, i have to get my phone line in and that ios costing me 128 euros, plus im paying for somethin i can abrely use...is there anything i can do to get them to refund me and pay for my phone line to be put bk in?...well that is if i ever manage to get thru to them to cancel the contract.

Longrangedriver

BigglesMcGee wrote: »

Im beginning to think nobody works at ice at all.
I still cant get an answer from tech support tonight.
Its worse than ever, if thats possible.

Speeds all over the place, pings 3500 ms and higher.

I think Comreg or anybody even thinking of becoming an Ice customer should try ringing Ice Support and see if they are happy with the no answer situation BEFORE they get Ice broadband.

There is a program on Newstalk 106 in the mornings where the presenter takes complaints from people trying to call customer support to various cowboy companies. She then rings them on behalf of the customer and gets them to explain themselves on air. And they follow up on the results too.

Can we all call or email Newstalk about Ice Broadbands appalling service and lack of support? and if enough of us do, she will make it an issue on national radio.

Mention this thread in your email too.

What do you guys say?

Hi there I was on "Your call" on the Brenda Power show, back there in January, and they are still in contact with me to get updates, so it seems that others must be contacting them, but I havent heard anything on air since I was on. I'd say if you emailed them at yourcall@newstalk.ie, you should hear something back fairly quick, and they'll let someone on air.

BTW One of my issues was sorted out within hours, the other one is still on my roof, as I cancelled in February, (and got BT broadband no problems there so far), and the equipment is still here, I emailled the two relevant people, still nothing, I still keep checking my on-line banking to make sure they don't touch the money, as the bank can't block them until they go in for the funds.

thebman

Newstalk are in the building where I work and do on the street comments at entrance to our office sometimes. I'll be sure to voice the concerns over Ice if asked and mention the word of mouth problems I've heard about them

I'm not unfortunate enough to be a customer though one of my friends is.

BigglesMcGee

jilly21 wrote: »

Hi guys, i tried to call ice before and nothing, after 20 on my mob i gave up (i've my phone with them which is s@#te.

I tried to cancel my DD but the bank said that if ice asked for it, they had to honour it, thought they coudn't see the DD on my details even though they've been taking it out for months.

im really fed up with them, i have to get my phone line in and that ios costing me 128 euros, plus im paying for somethin i can abrely use...is there anything i can do to get them to refund me and pay for my phone line to be put bk in?...well that is if i ever manage to get thru to them to cancel the contract.

I got the same guff from AIB. Go into them with the application forms for another banks current account product. Tell them that Ice are not cooperating with your request for termination (Leave a message on Ices answering machine or something) and the bank are effectivly helping them rob you. Tell them if they dont cancel the DD that you will be sending the application forms off to the new bank and they can close your current account.

bittihuduga

called up ice yesterday and spoke to a nice speaking lad who asked me to send a email to their customer services id.
he then forwarded my application i guess for cancellation
today i received a call about confirmation and was told no payment will be taken next month
hope they dont :-)

Irish Steve

Folks,

I've been using ICE at work for nearly 2 years, and it's been very usable during the day, with no major hassles, although there have been recent issues, which I suggested a while back was more related to their ISP than under the direct control of ICE. I run a regular test of the system, and here is the point that may be encouraging.

Over the last few days, ICE appear to have moved to a new ISP for their own web site, and I suspect that there's more to it than just the web site, although I can't prove anything yet, I am wondering if they've also moved their network processing as well.

Over the last couple of weeks, there have been severe packet loss periods during the day, and I have been notified about network upgrade work that was being carried out, so I am hoping that is the beginning of an improvement in what's going on with their service.

Because of the work I do, with a number of companies, I met with some of the Tech support team at ICE a couple of months ago, and I got the impression that they were aware of many of the issues that are being reported here, and that work to resolve them was in hand, but could not be done overnight, as there were both hardware and system issues that had to be addressed without crashing the entire operation, which is fair comment. It would be a lot simpler in some respects to just pull the plug on one option, and then set up a new server, but that's not going to be possible with the number of users that are on the system, whatever about slow or poor service, no service is a very different ball game.

I've had a trace running every 15 minutes for the last 2 days, and it is very noticable that the packet loss issues do seem to have gone away, regardless of the time of day.

I'm not about to start cheering, but it does look as if there might at last be light at the end of the tunnel that's not a high speed train going in the opposite direction!

Steve

maninaskirt

Hi IrishSteve, I too have seen improvement over the last few days including the improvement with packet loss, but everytime I post anything positive I seem to jinx myself, but as has been posted before we have seen a few weeks of good service and then dial up speeds again for another week, I too have had dealings with senior tech and management, all very pleasant and as helpful as possible.....but when your service dies it really frustrates as when the service is good its really good, here is my latest speedtest:



But such is my confidence that it wont be reliable I also have to pay for DSL as I need reliability, although when ICE is behaving it smokes my DSL.

As another poster said " a few sunny days don't make a summer " but its a start!

BigglesMcGee

Well mine is still ****e.

My biggest problem with ice are the lies and the temporary fixes, coupled with the fact that you cant get through to them.

thebman

If their network is really in this much trouble they should have notified all their customers and given refunds where neccessary.

BigglesMcGee

My neighbour was telling me that he is pursuing a complaint through comreg at the moment with Ice. He has a friend who is a fairly high profile journalist in a major paper who is following his complaint and going to publish a story on it about Ice and about what Comreg actually do about it. Normally he's very easygoing but i think Ice have cracked him (also me ringing him every night to see if his BB is fixed).

Good luck to him and im sure we all look forward to reading about it.
I may be Interviewed

maninaskirt

Hi folks, I'm running the risk of really jinxing myself but mine seems to be holding out at the moment, see for yourself.



Before people flame me for being an employee, I'm not, if you read through the whole thread I have suffered too, but I'm a believer in giving both criticism or praise when deserved....

I was wondering if other people have seen improvement?

ICE staff if your reading.......PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, keep this up!!

BigglesMcGee

Really crap here still.

Has anyone at all got through to Ice support in the last 2 weeks.

Ive used about 400 mins on my mobile trying to get them.

pm.

mine has been goos for a week now please ice keep up the good work

Sellphone

just spent 10 mins on hold. And then on the button at 9 p.m. The message switched.
Cannot keep track of the E mails and voice mails I have left. Having been with them for 3 years it is extremely disappointing. The service has gone down rapidly over last 6 weeks. Don't normally lose the head but tonight I did. Going to cancel the SO.:mad:

Sellphone

And another thing. they went through a brief period of sending text messages telling you the service had a problem, mind you that was only after I suggested it to them.
This could be so great if they :mad:if they put their minds to it!

pm.

Why did i say keep up the good work:mad: its that slow now i cant do a speedtest:mad::mad::mad::mad:they could be 1 of the best bb providers it they just listen to there customers after all we are there bread and butter, ICE PLEASE JUST ANSWER THIS DO YOU CARE ??? you are in a lot of rural places and i take my hat off to you for giving people a chance of getting bb, but it can be as bad as dial up at times why dont you sort this out ??? please answer the questions i know you visit this site