Ice Broadband steadily becoming even more terrible

boomerang

I'm in Murroe too and I have had sixty days loss of service since the end of June. Most recently, it was gone for a whole week.

I lodged a complaint with Comreg, sent them two letters (one registered) and three emails before I got a reply - three months later - and I had to fight with them to get two month's credit on my account.

The only good thing I can say about them is that they must have very few customers left in Murroe because at least when it does work now, the speeds are really good!

I would follow the crowd and switch to Munster Broadband but I just can't afford to pay the install fee at the moment. Checked with eircom two weeks ago and they won't be enabling the exchange in Murroe until Q1 or Q2, 2010.

daveharnett

boomerang wrote: »

I'm in Murroe ... Checked with eircom two weeks ago and they won't be enabling the exchange in Murroe until Q1 or Q2, 2010.

Don't bother. Eircom have been promising to upgrade the exchange "in the next 3-6 months" for at least three years now.

pauldaly1888

ive been with ice two years in january. at the start it was a disaster, slow speeds, always down. after a lot of phonecalls i got it sorted anyways. good speeds now and never offline plus i was refunded for the downtime i had. wanted to cancel there because of it being too expensive with wage cuts etc but ice dropped the price so im staying now. in co. meath by the way

boomerang

Has anyone managed to get their money back from Ice? (i.e. installation fee and monthly charges.)

Service went down on the 16th or 17th. Got a text from Ice on Christmas Eve to tell me the service would not be back over Christmas and that they would update me in the New Year. :rolleyes: We're looking at eighty days loss of service since June and before that the speeds were awful most of the time since install.

Ev0lut10n

boomerang wrote: »

Has anyone managed to get their money back from Ice? (i.e. installation fee and monthly charges.)

Service went down on the 16th or 17th. Got a text from Ice on Christmas Eve to tell me the service would not be back over Christmas and that they would update me in the New Year. :rolleyes: We're looking at eighty days loss of service since June and before that the speeds were awful most of the time since install.

I recieved that text from them on the 22nd, saying that there would be an update txt in the first week on the new year. I just recieved said update txt from the, telling me that it won't be resumed in 2 weeks, and will 'hear' from them again on the 15th...

Does anyone know where I can get read out of the full customer - company contract? Because all I can see in the Terms & Conditions on their website is loophole after loophole.

boomerang

Seeing as they're completely failing to provide any kind of service, I wouldn't be too worried about your contractual obligations to them. We rang them today, guy said it'll be back in two weeks time. Then we got that text to say, actually no, it won't be back in two weeks time - but we'll update you in two weeks' time. It's down now since December 16th. Ridiculous! I'm chucking in the towel, probably should have done long ago. Getting in Munster Broadband instead and I'm going to fight tooth and nail to get my installation charge back from Ice plus any direct debits paid to them in the last six months - Comreg have proven absolutely toothless so I'm going through the Small Claims Court.

fayer

Has this shower finally gone bang?

Service was cutoff to all of Oldtown yesterday about 5pm. No lines in Ice being picked up, even called the accounts line for bill payers and that is not be picked up.

fayer

Their alive! Just got through after many many calls. Power has failed on Naul high site, awaiting updates.

Got the following txts!

Fat lot of good when it means I cant work.

We apologise for the loss of servcie in your area. The weather
conditions are delaying our efforts to restore the service. A further
update will follow

Dear Customer, we regret to inform you that service in your area will
not be resumed before close of business today. We apologise for the
inconvience.

Sellphone

that's strange, I am about 2 kms from Oldtown and I never had any disruption to service, what's going on?

fayer

Sellphone wrote: »

that's strange, I am about 2 kms from Oldtown and I never had any disruption to service, what's going on?

The naul high site is down, ice are blameing a 3rd party company they are buying the broadcast service from in Naul.

You must be on the second station in the area, I was on that originally but was moved due to interference.

Service will be down till Monday at the earliest.

manufan16

that explains a no signal and Ice not returning any calls to me.
Are there any other ISP's covering North county Dublin ?
Ice were the only option back a couple of yrs ago but I think now it's time for a change.

manufan16

that explains a no signal and Ice not returning any calls to me.
Are there any other ISP's covering North county Dublin ?
Ice were the only option back a couple of yrs ago but I think now it's time for a change.

zuzu

anyone have problems with speed yesterday in the kilcock/maynooth area? it was slower than slow!!!

fayer

fayer wrote: »

The naul high site is down, ice are blameing a 3rd party company they are buying the broadcast service from in Naul.

You must be on the second station in the area, I was on that originally but was moved due to interference.

Service will be down till Monday at the earliest.

Service was restored at 9:10am this morning.

Frank Spencer

I am an Ice broadband customer for over a year in North County Dublin. My service went out last Wednesday for the first time ever. I was kept updated via text message of what was going on and when the service was resumed on Monday I found that mine was still out.

I called them and they went through a couple of checks with me and we ascertained that it was a problem that required a technican to call out. They said it is normally 3-5 days for a call out so I was pleasantly suprised when a technican was arranged for today. He arrived about 11am or so and had the problem sorted within 20 minutes.

I never have any issues with speed and as I said already this is the first problem I have ever had and it hs been resolved very satisfactorily.

Great service!

Tommie Kelly

Waiting over two months now to be installed.

Can't be arse with them anymore

boomerang

Comreg were in contact with Ice today on my behalf.

Service is down since 16th December, won't be back until the end of January at the earliest and I am having to fight them tooth and nail to get the credit I'm entitled to.

Tommie Kelly

Service is down since the middle of November here, thats why they can't install me

Ev0lut10n

Got the expected update txt, though it didn't say what I hoped it would...

Service won't be resumed etc etc, update again on the 29th, another two weeks away!
What the hell is going on? Do they not have the money/resources to carry out the work? Or is it taking longer than they expected and they don't want to admit they have ?&#£'d up again?

Any info will be gladly welcomed on the matter, but getting that from Ice will be like getting blood from a stone.

Tommie Kelly

the guy who tried to install mine the day the system went down told me that they only have two service tech guys for the whole country. That all the rest where let go months ago

mrplop

Tommie Kelly wrote: »

Waiting over two months now to be installed.

Can't be arse with them anymore

After reading this thread why were you getting Ice in the first place?
By all accounts they're on their last legs anyway...

Tommie Kelly

I only read the thread after I started getting problems

manufan16

Does anybody know of alternative ISP's in the north county dublin area ?

fayer

Oldtown down again, massif packet loss. Called customer support, managed not to hit the usual voice mail but sat on hold for 13 min. Call was picked up (could here background noise) and they hung up on me immediately, coincidence that this was 9 min before customer service closed. Called back 9 times more (all before closing time of 8PM) all calls diverted to voice mail.

This company is a joke, the staff are a Joke, not something I would normally say as I appreciate CS is a hard job epically for people work for this kip, but cutting off callers that NEED support is low.

boomerang

Ev0lut10n wrote: »

Got the expected update txt, though it didn't say what I hoped it would...

Service won't be resumed etc etc, update again on the 29th, another two weeks away!
What the hell is going on? Do they not have the money/resources to carry out the work? Or is it taking longer than they expected and they don't want to admit they have ?&#£'d up again?

Any info will be gladly welcomed on the matter, but getting that from Ice will be like getting blood from a stone.

Personally I think they have so few customers left in Murroe and Cappamore that it's just not worth their while constantly fixing the transmitter and they're hoping we'll all just cave in and cancel the service. Did you know it's run on a diesel generator? And when the diesel runs out, yep, the service goes down until someone goes up there with another jerry can. :rolleyes:

Their customer service is beyond a joke. There's one or two nice guys on the phones but they absolutely do disconnect incoming calls, it's impossible to get accurate credit on your account, some of the CSRs just blow you off, they never call back when they say they will, emails are ignored, even registered letters are ignored, you never get the name of who is writing to you/texting you/speaking to you... I could go on... But instead, I'll just say that Munster Broadband are coming out to me to do an install on Friday.

The Cush

boomerang wrote: »

Personally I think they have so few customers left in Murroe and Cappamore that it's just not worth their while constantly fixing the transmitter and they're hoping we'll all just cave in and cancel the service. Did you know it's run on a diesel generator? And when the diesel runs out, yep, the service goes down until someone goes up there with another jerry can. :rolleyes:

I had Munster Broadband installed last Thursday week, very happy with them. That day they had five installs for ex-Ice customers. Noticed that 3 neighbouring houses has their Ice antennas removed also recently, many more around the area are still installed.

The diesel tank for the generator has to be carried down from the generator by teleporter. The day before it went down in mid Dec the tank and teleporter were at the service station in Murroe waiting for a fill by an O'Dwyers Oil (?) truck which was filling the service station tanks. Because of this I assume the latest outage is a technical/generator problem and not diesel.

They are without doubt winding down the service in the Murroe area without having to compensate customers.

CiDeRmAn

Browned off with my Icebroadband service.
I have been a customer for some 4 years now and it has been a rollercoaster.
It does work, sometimes I even get with 25% of the suggested speed that I buy every month, but often it just drops away and I may as well be flashing morse code out the window on a torch for all the information that gets u/l or d/l.

It was crawling for a couple of months last year and all calls were answered eventually by unhelpful staff, who fiddled with a few settings and never helped.

I would have changed ISP but they are the only ones available in my neck of North County Dublin, near Rolestown.

However, I now find that I can access Magnet, so I'm going to give them a buzz, a better service for less money, hopefully more reliable too.
Sooner I ditch this dead albatross around my neck the better.

boomerang

Service gone since 16th December now, no explanation why, next update will be by text message on the 14th of February.

Little do they know I've already escaped to Munster Broadband, who I couldn't recommend highly enough.

Here's my letter of cancellation, and their hilarious response:



Dear Ice Broadband,

Please take this email as notice that I am cancelling my service with your company. I will be cancelling my direct debit tomorrow and I am sending a copy of this email by registered post. For what it's worth here are my reasons for disconnecting:

* Slow, unreliable speeds since install. This is well-documented in emails sent to yourselves since January 2009 with speed tests attached. Funnily enough speeds improved considerably once a competitor started offering service in Murroe and Ice customers disconnected in droves to avail of it.


* The unbelievable amount of down-time since June 2009 - this too is well documented. 71 days in six months from June to December 2009. Currently the service is off the air since December 16th (40 days and counting.)


* Failure to at least properly credit my account for loss of service - despite your assurances to Comreg. On two occasions you falsely advised Comreg that requested credit was applied to my account, when you had not done so. I have repeatedly sent very clear emails with exact dates that the service was not working, and despite this, I have had to fight tooth and nail to have the credit applied. I am still owed credit for loss of service between August and October, plus the credit for loss of service since December 16th.


* The lack of transparency in your dealings with customers. I have had great difficulty in determining the balance on my account - CSRs could not advise me and several requests for a statement were ignored. Any correspondence from you is always anonymous.


* Extremely poor customer service. Being fobbed off and stonewalled by your CSRs. Unable to get through on the phone. Countless emails and letters ignored. CSRs disconnecting calls coming through rather than answering them. No communication regarding the current loss of service (six weeks now and counting) bar two text messages! None of the CSRs ever seem to know what is going on or how soon the service may be restored. Nor do they ever offer any apology.


It is clear to me now that you offered to supply me with a service that you could not actually provide. The service has been completely unsatisfactory from start to finish. I am now requesting that you refund me all direct debits taken from my bank account since June 2009 and the original installation fee of €100.

If I do not receive a satisfactory response from Ice within ten working days I will lodge a case with the Small Claims Court.



Dear Customer,

This email is to confirm receipt of you cancellation request.

Your cancellation request will be processed within 28 days as per our Terms and Conditions.

A refund for payment taken in December 2009 has been processed and forwarded to our Accounts Department.

We will be in contact with you shortly to arrange retrieval of the equipment on site.

Thank you for your business.

ICE Broadband

fayer

Until the week before last I was getting 150Kbs to 230Kbs on torrents now a max of 19Kbs no matter what. Everything else seems fine,





You got to laugh at the "Grade A" result for Ice!

Anyone else seeing this? Or have a way around it?

blade912

Live in meath near ashbourne. Don't known how icebroadband are lasting this long, paying for 3mbs but as you can see not getting that for the last month download .1 mbs ,Had problems 6 times with the speed in the last 6 months No response from emails, not answering their phones tried countless times. My advice to people who are thinking of getting broadband with these people is to avoid them at all costs.