Line problem with Smart/Eircom

sirspamalot

I have been a happy SMART customer for 2 years. Now I am at my wits' end.

It would appear the physical cable/wire running into my house is damaged as there is no ADSL signal or phone service. SMART say the exchange end is working. (Board/Port/Card/whatever)

SMART say it is Eircom's fault, Eircom will not talk to me as I am not one of their customers. The SLA should be 72 hrs but I am without a phone/Broadband for 6 days now.

Any ideas on how to light a fire under SMART or EIRCOM?
I am getting desperate as the phone line also has my monitored alarm on it and I am travelling in the next couple of days.

S.

paulm17781

I think Eircom have a 'faults' department, perhaps they will deal with you? Apologies if you've tried that (not customer care) the only other thing I can think of is hassle Smart / contact Comreg.

jor el

sirspamalot wrote: »

Any ideas on how to light a fire under SMART or EIRCOM?

You need to light a fire under Smart as you're their customer, not eircom's. Smart may well be right in saying it's an eircom problem, but that doesn't mean they get to shrug their responsibilities. Log a fault with Smart, if you haven't already. If nothing happens (or if you have already logged the fault and nothing has happened) then ask for their complaints department. Follow the process here and if you get nowhere, forward the complaint to Comreg. Comreg won't get involved until you exhaust the complaints process with Smart.

You shouldn't be contacting eircom, Smart should.

You could fire off a general inquiry to Comreg, saying you are a Smart customer and have a line problem. Ask them is it Smart's job to get this fixed, or should you deal with eircom. Forward their reply to Smart to get them to move on it.

lmimmfn

This is sorta relevant
I just noticed on ComRegs site they say that if theres a line fault and your not with Eircom then your ISP can request an Eircom tech to call out and test the line( ive asked this for 4 times from UTV and got nowhere because they say its very difficult to convince Eircom to send out a tech ), However, it also states that the ISP can send out their own tech, thus this also puts responsiblity on the ISP to not just check the line from the switch but also to your house, and if they cant convince Eircom to send someone out they should provide someone themselves

Its Smart's responsibility

Praetorian

Get onto the most senior person that you can on the phone, explain your situation calmly but firmly and tell them if it's not fixed within a reasonable period of time that you will be cancelling your smart contract.

Bohrio

sirspamalot wrote: »

I have been a happy SMART customer for 2 years. Now I am at my wits' end.

It would appear the physical cable/wire running into my house is damaged as there is no ADSL signal or phone service. SMART say the exchange end is working. (Board/Port/Card/whatever)

SMART say it is Eircom's fault, Eircom will not talk to me as I am not one of their customers. The SLA should be 72 hrs but I am without a phone/Broadband for 6 days now.

Any ideas on how to light a fire under SMART or EIRCOM?
I am getting desperate as the phone line also has my monitored alarm on it and I am travelling in the next couple of days.

S.

Unfortunately as such, the SLA between Eircom wholesale and all ISPs does not contemplate the telephone line, therefore, if the fault ocurrs between the Exchange and your house they can perfectly ignore or refuse to fix it.

They will evaluate and decide wether is doable or profitable. If it is too expensive they will not do it.

There is nothign ComReg can do about this.

This is a screen shot of their Bitstream SLA V15

I dont want anyone panicking this is a public document downloadable from their website.


AP mean Access Provider (Eircom)
AS means Access Seeker (ISP)

As you can see it clearly says that PSTN is ONLY guaranteed for PSTN.

The only remote possibility for you to get this sorted is by trying to get Smart to escalate this through their senior managers to Eircom wholesale, but, as I have already said, if its not profitable they will not do it no matter how much Smart insists.

The internal wiring is the ISP responsibility, but that doesnt mean that the ISP have to fix it. Most ISP simply have no engineers to send out, that's why, for example, UTV, will not send an engineer out, they have none.

If they send one out it will not be to fix the internal wiring but to repair the NTP/NTU, and that's a decision that only the technician can take.

lmimmfn

Bohrio wrote: »

Unfortunately as such, the SLA between Eircom wholesale and all ISPs does not contemplate the telephone line, therefore, if the fault ocurrs between the Exchange and your house they can perfectly ignore or refuse to fix it.

They will evaluate and decide wether is doable or profitable. If it is too expensive they will not do it.

There is nothign ComReg can do about this.

This is a screen shot of their Bitstream SLA V15

I dont want anyone panicking this is a public document downloadable from their website.


AP mean Access Provider (Eircom)
AS means Access Seeker (ISP)

As you can see it clearly says that PSTN is ONLY guaranteed for PSTN.

The only remote possibility for you to get this sorted is by trying to get Smart to escalate this through their senior managers to Eircom wholesale, but, as I have already said, if its not profitable they will not do it no matter how much Smart insists.

The internal wiring is the ISP responsibility, but that doesnt mean that the ISP have to fix it. Most ISP simply have no engineers to send out, that's why, for example, UTV, will not send an engineer out, they have none.

If they send one out it will not be to fix the internal wiring but to repair the NTP/NTU, and that's a decision that only the technician can take.

I like that, Copper Pair is guaranteed for PSTN only( even if the switch allows 3Mb connection ), sounds like im screwed,grrr

Bohrio

lmimmfn wrote: »

I like that, Copper Pair is guaranteed for PSTN only( even if the switch allows 3Mb connection ), sounds like im screwed,grrr

I am sorry for you... hopefully this will change one day

Its not only that, your ISP, even if your BB is considered undeliverable, still has to pay Eircom for the first 6 months (or a cancellation fee).

So not pretty for both you and your ISP!

Anyway dont loose your hope!

dub45

Unfortunately Smart's customer service (as opposed to the actual bb product) can be actually lamentable. You really have to push them. I recently had to threaten putting a picket on their offices to actually get a response from them.

Have you tried posting in the forums?

http://support.smarttelecom.ie/forums/index.php?

lmimmfn

Bohrio wrote: »

I am sorry for you... hopefully this will change one day

Its not only that, your ISP, even if your BB is considered undeliverable, still has to pay Eircom for the first 6 months (or a cancellation fee).

So not pretty for both you and your ISP!

Anyway dont loose your hope!

cheers, i hope so, i finally got through to someone decent in UTV and was told theyre gonna escalate it with eircom, and he even allowed me to email my logs/SND ratio etc. and he's gonna open a new case and ask eircom why they keep rejecting the cases and also send the info i passed on. Finally after 3 months at least i have some hope.
Before i was talking to 5 diferent guys and they just fobbed me off, not only that but i got a 'foreigner' and i told him to put the SNR in the case with Eircom, he said he'd done it so i asked him to read out the value i just gave him and he got it completely wrong, i.e. didnt listen to a word i said, grrrr. Anyways im holding out, i was actually gonna cancel it today if it was gonna go around in circles again

I get around 3Mb download and 64kb upload, current irishspeed test result is 1.2Mb download 47kb upload lol. Its completely useless for anything but surfing the web and downloading emails. My reason or having it is for work/research and online gaming, and most of that requires a decent upload( at least 128kb per second ). Not only that but it can take me hours to actually ADSL synch, 1% of the time i get proper speeds, 3Mb download, 384kb upload, so its either the copper or the actual switch is borked

It really annoys me that we're bundled into the category of 90% of ireland having broadband when a lot of us have BB that doesnt even work right

I didnt realise that ISPs have to pay Eircom, that infuriates me even more

Apologies for the rant or taking this off topic, just mad, lol

dub45

lmimmfn wrote: »

cheers, i hope so, i finally got through to someone decent in UTV and was told theyre gonna escalate it with eircom, and he even allowed me to email my logs/SND ratio etc. and he's gonna open a new case and ask eircom why they keep rejecting the cases and also send the info i passed on. Finally after 3 months at least i have some hope.
Before i was talking to 5 diferent guys and they just fobbed me off, not only that but i got a 'foreigner' and i told him to put the SNR in the case with Eircom, he said he'd done it so i asked him to read out the value i just gave him and he got it completely wrong, i.e. didnt listen to a word i said, grrrr. Anyways im holding out, i was actually gonna cancel it today if it was gonna go around in circles again

I get around 3Mb download and 64kb upload, current irishspeed test result is 1.2Mb download 47kb upload lol. Its completely useless for anything but surfing the web and downloading emails. My reason or having it is for work/research and online gaming, and most of that requires a decent upload( at least 128kb per second ). Not only that but it can take me hours to actually ADSL synch, 1% of the time i get proper speeds, 3Mb download, 384kb upload, so its either the copper or the actual switch is borked

It really annoys me that we're bundled into the category of 90% of ireland having broadband when a lot of us have BB that doesnt even work right

I didnt realise that ISPs have to pay Eircom, that infuriates me even more

Apologies for the rant or taking this off topic, just mad, lol

Have you actually established that your line is up to the 3Mb figure. I don't why it should infuriate you that the isps have to pay Eircom (whatever about the amount they pay) isps are renting a resource from Eircom surely you dont expect Eircom to provide that for free?

lmimmfn

dub45 wrote: »

Have you actually established that your line is up to the 3Mb figure. I don't why it should infuriate you that the isps have to pay Eircom (whatever about the amount they pay) isps are renting a resource from Eircom surely you dont expect Eircom to provide that for free?

no,im infuriated that the isps have to pay eircom regardless for 6 months( not to mention it took Eircom 6 months to install my phoneline only after i said they were in violation of ComRegs minimum contract agreement, their estimated date was for 2009 )

Yes, my line is a 3Mb line, 1% of the time it will sync to a 384kb upload, the rest of the time its 64kbps with a 2400-3000kbps download. Theres something wrong with the line or the switch interfering with the line/synch, besides sometimes it can take 30 minutes-1 hour to synch, other times it can take an hour and a half to get an ipaddress( whether thats interference on the line i dont know ).
Tried 2 PC's, 2 modems, ADSL test socket. increasing tx attenuation, 7 different phone cables( 3 of which were 1 metre long )

Problem = Local SNR Margin: 5.5 dB
Remote SNR Margin: 6.0 dB

or 2 weeks ago:
Local SNR Margin: 1.0 dB

Remote SNR Margin: 5.0 dB

when i get 384 upload those SNR margins are 25+

dub45

lmimmfn wrote: »

no,im infuriated that the isps have to pay eircom regardless for 6 months( not to mention it took Eircom 6 months to install my phoneline only after i said they were in violation of ComRegs minimum contract agreement, their estimated date was for 2009 )

Yes, my line is a 3Mb line, 1% of the time it will sync to a 384kb upload, the rest of the time its 64kbps with a 2400-3000kbps download. Theres something wrong with the line or the switch interfering with the line/synch, besides sometimes it can take 30 minutes-1 hour to synch, other times it can take an hour and a half to get an ipaddress( whether thats interference on the line i dont know ).
Tried 2 PC's, 2 modems, ADSL test socket. increasing tx attenuation, 7 different phone cables( 3 of which were 1 metre long )

Problem = Local SNR Margin: 5.5 dB
Remote SNR Margin: 6.0 dB

or 2 weeks ago:
Local SNR Margin: 1.0 dB

Remote SNR Margin: 5.0 dB

when i get 384 upload those SNR margins are 25+

Did you go straight to the 3Mb product or have you tried other speeds on the line. Your line in its present state is nowhere near being up to 3Mb. Have you considered dropping down to a 1Mb product to see if that would make any difference?

http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/lowSNR.htm

lmimmfn

dub45 wrote: »

Did you go straight to the 3Mb product or have you tried other speeds on the line. Your line in its present state is nowhere near being up to 3Mb. Have you considered dropping down to a 1Mb product to see if that would make any difference?

I went straight to 3mb, looking at the exchange location map i live 2km from the exchange in mullingar( previously 17km in Athlone from exchange with 2400 downstream/512 Upstream )
dropping down to a 1mb product is completely useless to me, i use my broadband for work, research and online gaming mostly( or rather used to use )
Even if i did drop down, i would only gain 5db per downgrade, so a maximum of 15db would be reached meaning for 1Mb it would only be okish

Currently my only options are move house or country, both of which carry equal weight as i NEED decent broadband for my job( and industry ) and the current situation in ireland is so hit and miss its impossible to take a chance on, we as consumers have absolutely 0 guarantee of minimum service, even if you threw a fortune at it you have no guarantees

Read that link already( and 30+ others - im a techy who ironically works in telecomms lol ), and did everything including the test line( same result )

The whole situation in ireland infuriates me, i can no longer even work from home, some of us are actually dependent on reasonable broadband levels