Eircom New Connections

foggy_lad

not sure where to put this thread so move it if appropriate please, but here goes

i rang Eircon about getting a phone line in and was told it would be free if it did not require any linework ie:laying any wires or cables.

i am in a new house and there is an eircom socket in the kitchen and this is also connected outside at the Eircom box where all the meters(gas, E.S.B.) are.

so you would think that as i have a Black cable going to this box coming from the Eircom box on the footpath and it is connected to the white indoor cable going to the socket in my kitchen that i would be wired up!

but Eircom say no it is not wired up and they require payment of €123 for wiring up my house?

is this just a scam or are Eircom really going to wire up my house again?

anyone else experienced such a rip-off?

Sam Vimes

line work is not the same as "laying any wires or cables". if all they have to do is "switch your line on" at their end then its free, otherwise an engineer has to do work on your line, not necessarily in your house or even between your house and the box, and you have to pay for it. there is no scam. and its €121.93 not €123

of course, they may have an incorrect record for your address so if you believe that they're mistaken about the line needing work then call them and ask them to confirm it.

and remember, if you're nice about it you'll get a lot further than if you accuse someone working in a call centre for ~24,000 a year of trying to scam you

foggy_lad

surely if someone went to the trouble of putting the cable in place from their connection point on the street to my house yet did not join the wires together they are doing this deliberately so they can later charge customers extra for the connection which should have been done while the wires were being put in place!!

yes it is another scam as they then have the bare-faced cheek to advertise "free" connection which will cost €121.93 even though everything is in place but they failed to join up 3 wires!

chrislad

Oh would you ever shut up. It's 121.93 for a first time connection for everyone. It involves sending an engineer out to turn on your phone line at the exchange. Since it's a new house, it won't have been set up before so it'll cost you. It cost me the same in December. Build a bridge and throw yourself off it. Seriously. This is Consumer Issues, not Guess Who Foggy Will Accuse Next?. Get. Over. It.

jor el

foggy_lad wrote: »

surely if someone went to the trouble of putting the cable in place from their connection point on the street to my house yet did not join the wires together they are doing this deliberately so they can later charge customers extra for the connection which should have been done while the wires were being put in place!!

Any electrician can pre-wire a house for phone sockets, it doesn't mean eircom came anywhere near it. There may still be work to be done that requires an engineer, either at the house or in the exchange. I got a 2nd line installed recently, and although it was just a 2 minute job to connect a new socket to the existing lines already in my house, I had to pay the full cost. So if there's any work to be done, you'll have to pay.

The only people who know for sure what needs to be done will be eircom. Whatever details they have on file for your address should be correct. You could ask them to define exactly what a pre-wired home would need to avail of the free connection. There must be something that your house is missing.

Axwell

jor el wrote: »

There must be something that your house is missing.

Ya a brain by the sounds of it

but maybe some phone cable. It might be a case the the wiring thats there is faulty maybe its not connected, you just said it looks connected. Im sure if an engineer comes out he will be able to tell you instead of you just shouting scam straight away because you have to pay them a few quid.

Beano

The word scam has been bandied about with gay abandon recently. Perhaps we should automatically lock any thread with scam in the title.

Sam Vimes

Axwell wrote: »

Im sure if an engineer comes out he will be able to tell you instead of you just shouting scam straight away because you have to pay them a few quid.

it seems you're new to foggy_lad

Axwell

Commander Vimes wrote: »

it seems you're new to foggy_lad

Yup correct, im guessing hes the cavan version of eddie hobbs?

miju

foggy_lad wrote: »

but Eircom say no it is not wired up and they require payment of €123 for wiring up my house?

is this just a scam or are Eircom really going to wire up my house again?

anyone else experienced such a rip-off?

was in the exact same situation as you before and was expecting a possible connection fee of about €50 at most. when the girl told me it was €121 I laughed down the phone at her at the excessive charge IMO and took my business elsewhere.

With NTL phone and boradband (free connection for both btw) and generally very happy with them since they've sorted some initial niggly connection problems in my area

anyways moral of the story if you dont like the price of something and think it's excessive, vote with your feet and go elsewhere it's the only way prices "eventually" would come down for such things

Sam Vimes

Axwell wrote: »

Yup correct, im guessing hes the cavan version of eddie hobbs?

basically his hobby is finding scams to warn people about and get offended over. his last example of a scam was an argos 3 for 2 offer. if i understand correctly, it was a scam because it wasn't available in all stores

Sam Vimes

miju wrote: »

was in the exact same situation as you before and was expecting a possible connection fee of about €50 at most. when the girl told me it was €121 I laughed down the phone at her at the excessive charge IMO and took my business elsewhere.

With NTL phone and boradband (free connection for both btw) and generally very happy with them since they've sorted some initial niggly connection problems in my area

anyways moral of the story if you dont like the price of something and think it's excessive, vote with your feet and go elsewhere it's the only way prices "eventually" would come down for such things

the price of a landline is set by the regulator. i don't think eircom are free to change it.
but you are right in saying its very high

Axwell

Commander Vimes wrote: »

basically his hobby is finding scams to warn people about and get offended over. his last example of a scam was an argos 3 for 2 offer. if i understand correctly, it was a scam because it wasn't available in all stores

Thats an outrage, damn scam artists have made their way into big companies like argos and eircom now. Back in the day used to be guys on the street getting you to find the queen in 3 cards or a pea under 3 lids. Clever feckers scam artists..

MOH

Moved into a rented apartment when Eircom were doing 'free' connection before. Gf phoned them to get the line connected, they told her 100+ quid. I went mad when I heard, she phoned back the same day to cancel it, they told her there had been a mistake and we wouldn't have to pay the connection fee. Went ahead, first bill came out with the connection fee on it. They insisted we pay it, said an engineer had called out (which I doubted very much) and threatened to cut us off, ended up paying it because I was less clued in about them then. In my case it was definitely a scam. And I've heard of others getting charged when they shouldn't have been.

But then again if they have a monopoly and Comreg are toothless, what else are you going to do?

TheDriver

AFAIK, Eircom assist the builder with the phone lines first day when building the estate so they actually put in the lines and if you want to connect, they charge you for the work they have done, that was the case with houses before. Nowadays, an engineer must connect the electricians work in the house to their box outside under the ground and that is what you are paying for and also the cost of the work they had to do for the estate originally. Not a scam, just overpriced but no way around it mostly.

mickoneill30

I moved into a house that previously had an Eircom phone line in it. When I queried them about having to pay for connection they told me that I'd have to pay if the line was deactivated for more than a year.
So it's not just for first time connections.

Maybe the lines deteriorate if they're not used for a year.;)

MOH

mickoneill30 wrote: »

I moved into a house that previously had an Eircom phone line in it. When I queried them about having to pay for connection they told me that I'd have to pay if the line was deactivated for more than a year.
So it's not just for first time connections.

Maybe the lines deteriorate if they're not used for a year.;)

I'd forgotten that - that's what they told me when they charged me. They said the line had been deactivated for too long. When asked how long 'too long' was, they couldn't give me a definite timeframe.

hellbent

The person who said the builder initially does the work for eircom, who have to pay him(the builder) is correct. Eircom then have to send someone to connect the cable, not only in the house, but typically 2 or 3 places along the way, where different cables meet, so as to provide a path to the exchange.

At the exchange the cable is then connected to a dedicated and expensive piece of equipment, especially so if the customer is getting broadband as well as the phoneline. Someone else has to enable the line, a few minutes work. It's really not that expensive given the time involved and the cost of cable pair and equipment involved, although the main way eircom gets its money back is over time, through the rental charges, which are HIGHWAY ROBBERY.

Lastly, even if the house previously had a phone, and was disconnected, even if the line had been idle for only a few weeks, it's common for the cable pair to be reused instead to service someone else. Or to repair a faulty line for someone else. You get the idea? So eircom is not scamming you on a connection charge, its on the monthly rental, I tell you.:)

oneweb

It makes no sense for eircom to connect every single new phone line to the exchange - a large amount of people don't need a landline by default anymore because they use mobiles, wireless or cable broadband (and in future hopefully fibre) etc.

If an old line has been left unused for quite a while and the port that line uses in the exchange is needed for a new line, then the old one will be disconnected from the exchange to make space, it's common sense really.

MOH

Well, common sense would indicate that when they say it's free connection during a promotional period, it's free connection, once the line is in place.

There's nothing in their offer terms and conditions about an extra 120 quid payment. It does state that "Offer is applicable where all line work is completely in place for PSTN connections only", but to most people if there's a line into your house and a telephone socket which you know was previously used, that would indicate that "all line work is in place".


So there's basically nothing stopping Eircom claiming that the line has been disconnected in the exchange and charging people a connection fee over again every time a line changes hands. Scam i am.

foggy_lad

Eircom state in their advertising that there is free connection if there is no linework to be done implying that as long as your house is wired up you will not incur charges associated with bringing a line in from the nearest pole or nearest Eircom connection box.

as my house is wired up and the cable goes to that connection box down the street i should be able to avail of tha advertised offer but its just another example of huge companies offering deals which they know they will not honour!

chrislad

Do you even read?

Eircom.ie

From the Terms and Conditions of the offer

Terms and Conditions
eircom phoneline

• Offer is not available to PSTN lines ceased within the promotional period.

• Offer is applicable where all line work is completely in place for PSTN connections only.

• Free offer available from January 9th until April 8th 2008.


eircom broadband
• eircom broadband subject to survey, availability and compatibility.


eircom talktime
• Hang up and redial at 60 minutes to avoid further call charges.

• Free offer available from January 23rd until April 8th 2008



Not only is your lack of reading ability showing you up, your ignorance is really showing. Just because you assume something means something doesn't make it fact. Having your house wired up to have it capable of having a phone line does not make it completely in place. Yes, it is expensive, but it's in no way misleading or a scam.

Beano

foggy_lad wrote: »

Eircom state in their advertising that there is free connection if there is no linework to be done implying that as long as your house is wired up you will not incur charges associated with bringing a line in from the nearest pole or nearest Eircom connection box.

as my house is wired up and the cable goes to that connection box down the street i should be able to avail of tha advertised offer but its just another example of huge companies offering deals which they know they will not honour!

your implication is not valid. having a line coming from a junction box to your house does not mean that there is no linework to be done. There may be a line going to the junction but it may not be connected to anything inside or it may not be enabled. either way an engineer will need to do some work hence the charge. whether the work takes him 5 minutes or 50 minutes the charge is the same.

hellbent

MOH wrote: »

...but to most people if there's a line into your house and a telephone socket which you know was previously used, that would indicate that "all line work is in place".


So there's basically nothing stopping Eircom claiming that the line has been disconnected in the exchange and charging people a connection fee over again every time a line changes hands. Scam i am.

As I said in a previous post, the REALITY, not "most people's" perception, is that even if a working line had existed until recently, the cable pair may have been 'nabbed' for another customer, or to repair a fault elsewhere. You can't expect eircom to leave scarce and valuable cable pairs unused just in case someone wants to reuse a line that had been ceased. Normally eircom does not touch the cable pair for 3 months after the service has been ceased.

The 'free' offer applies to linework that is in situ, and obviously if staff have to go about providing a new cable connection to the house, then you will be charged. In theory, staff can lie and tell you there is no line in situ, when in fact there is, but I can practically guarantee you, that does not happen.

Sam Vimes

hellbent wrote: »

The 'free' offer applies to linework that is in situ, and obviously if staff have to go about providing a new cable connection to the house, then you will be charged. In theory, staff can lie and tell you there is no line in situ, when in fact there is, but I can practically guarantee you, that does not happen.

especially since the CS agents and the engineers are both on salaries and don't gain anything by pretending a line needs re-cabling. in fact, an engineer would much rather spend his scarce time doing the ample amount of work that actually needs his attention rather than pissing away a few hours pretending to do work so some australian guy he's never met can get an extra €121.93.

foggy_lad has a hard time understanding that staff in stores gain absolutely nothing from denying him his rights or "trying to scam him" because they get paid either way

and any company that was instructing its staff to lie to people would be exposed by said staff in a matter of days. foggy, the people that you constantly accuse of trying to get one over on you are just people doing a job like you and me. if you don't think you'd lie for your employer in order to deny customer's rights, why do you seem to think everyone else in the country would? and what do you think they have to gain from it?

MOH

hellbent wrote: »

As I said in a previous post, the REALITY, not "most people's" perception, is that even if a working line had existed until recently, the cable pair may have been 'nabbed' for another customer, or to repair a fault elsewhere. You can't expect eircom to leave scarce and valuable cable pairs unused just in case someone wants to reuse a line that had been ceased. Normally eircom does not touch the cable pair for 3 months after the service has been ceased.

The 'free' offer applies to linework that is in situ, and obviously if staff have to go about providing a new cable connection to the house, then you will be charged. In theory, staff can lie and tell you there is no line in situ, when in fact there is, but I can practically guarantee you, that does not happen.

Well, one staff member told me there was no need for any work to be done, and then others said work had been done and charged me, so one of them was lying, and I ended up out of pocket as a result. And I know I'm not the only one it's happened to. Still, I'm free of Eircon now, thank God.

Sam Vimes

MOH wrote: »

Well, one staff member told me there was no need for any work to be done, and then others said work had been done and charged me, so one of them was lying, and I ended up out of pocket as a result. And I know I'm not the only one it's happened to. Still, I'm free of Eircon now, thank God.

would you not think that maybe one of them was wrong, rather than one of them was lying?

hellbent

Commander Vimes wrote: »

would you not think that maybe one of them was wrong, rather than one of them was lying?

That's exactly it, Commander. They look up records and do an electrical test on the line to see if they can detect a master socket at the house. A long line or other electrical factors can make it seem as though a complete line is present when its not, or vise versa. Also the testers are HQ'd in Dublin somewhere, and are responsible for testing the entire country. Records are obviously incorrect too, from time to time.


The real problem is that eircom should not be making these offers while knowing the problems that are likely to result from situations such as this. But that's the marketing guys for you, on commission of course.

Phester

Well after reading this I can confirm that this sort of thing happens every day in eircom.

I had a line in my house that had been disconnected by an ex tenant that moved away. the line still had a dial tone. So the line was in situ and so I would not have to pay the full 121.90. Because there was a problem on the records side of eircom and they could not find my line they told me that they would have to pay the full amount.

After several phone calls including my friends that work in the local exchange. That looked into the problem. I concluded that the line had a soft number i think that is what they called it dial 1990000 or something like that. The call center was rude to me and very unhelpful. I was very polite to them. Call center manager practically ****ed me out of it saying that I was wrong and that I was lying to them. Work would have to be carried out on the line.

One more subsequent phone call that I got through to a call center in cork in instead of up the country and within 10 min I had a phone line working. I tired to make a formal complaint against the names I had been given to find out that the name (first) did not exist in in the staff list.

The problem was in the data records that they kept for my address.
The number on my line was ported to a different address and a new number was not put onto my line. or something like that

This may not be relevant for new estates.

MOH

Sam Vimes wrote: »

would you not think that maybe one of them was wrong, rather than one of them was lying?

Whether they were lying or incompetent, I was told I wouldn't be charged anything and was then charged 120 quid for a line I wouldn't have bothered with had I been told that up front, and Eircom then refused to take responsibility for one of their employees giving me incorrect information and insisted on the payment. So as far as I'm concerned I was lied to.

Sam Vimes

MOH wrote: »

Whether they were lying or incompetent, I was told I wouldn't be charged anything and was then charged 120 quid for a line I wouldn't have bothered with had I been told that up front, and Eircom then refused to take responsibility for one of their employees giving me incorrect information and insisted on the payment. So as far as I'm concerned I was lied to.

the employee that told you it was free was wrong. why should they then charge you nothing because an employee made a mistake? if the one that told you it cost 120 was wrong would you then insist on paying?

at what point did you find out you'd have to pay? was the work already done or could you have refused to pay and not bothered with the line as you say?