UPC Broadband question

currythis

My contract with Irish Broadband(no landline in the house) is up at the end of the month and I'm thinking of going to upc for broadband as the irish broadband is quite slow and pretty pricey at 26 quid per month!Is UPC's broadband any good and is it easily installed?Also if I were to order it this week would it be installed by the end of the month?Thanks in advance!

Infoanon

I would recommend UPC broadband service - never had any real issues with it and the speed is exactly what it should be.

I assume you are looking at their broadband service and not their TV service.

2 things to watchout for :

Know what speed you want - they will try to sell you the most expensive package and check your TV reception afterwards especially if you have dodgy BBC2 reception.

byte

Mod Note: Thread moved to Broadband.

dub45

I would suggest that you do a search here as there is a lot to read about UPC.

As the poster states above some people have excellent bb While others have poor quality and it really is impossible to know in advance which you are likely to get. If you are lucky then thats it sorted - faster speeds than anyone else at the moment.

However, and it is a big however, they have dire, awful you name it, customer service. You only have to make one call (apart from to their sales dept of course) to realise that they simply do not want to deal with you as a customer as the system is unapologetically set up to make sure that you have as little contact with a staff member as is possible. You really have to try very hard to be as bad as they are in the area of customer service.

They are also notorious for not turning up for appointments.

So you pays your money and takes your chances.

vibe666

having said that, most of the other ISP's you could choose won't have much better customer service and won't give you the same speeds UPC are offering.

add to that the possibility of (up to) 120mbps breoadband from them by the end of this year and it's a pretty attractive offer, assuming as dub45 says, it works fine for you out of the box.

dub45

vibe666 wrote: »

having said that, most of the other ISP's you could choose won't have much better customer service and won't give you the same speeds UPC are offering.

add to that the possibility of (up to) 120mbps breoadband from them by the end of this year and it's a pretty attractive offer, assuming as dub45 says, it works fine for you out of the box.

I really dont think any of the others could be quite as bad as UPC no matter hwo hard they tried:)

_Sidhe_

dub45 wrote: »

I really dont think any of the others could be quite as bad as UPC no matter hwo hard they tried:)

God you really do have a problem don't you.

I can barely remember a post you've made since I started posting here myself that didn't mention UPC's customer service.

Yes, everyone has just as bad call centers.

I've had God knows ow many problems with Eircom.
Just for the sake of it, as I've never really rang UPC for tech issues, I thought I'd try now.

2 minutes to get through.
I asked a basic question about mail servers was given them straight away an asked if I wanted to be guided in setting them up.

Oh the horror.

The only thing that did annoy me was being offered the phone service at the end of the call.

But what company doesn't do that nowadays.

Why don't you try that Dub.
I've head nothing but bad reports on the call center here, but I've hear lots of crap on internet forums.

Lvbrs

Hi. I've had UPC Broadband Value Package for 3 years. Only ever went down twice. Admittedly,the first time was over Christmas, and their CS team told me it was a faulty cable modem and would need an engineer call out which would take a week. It came back the next day and it was in fact a general problem in the area.

The speed is good, 3Mb being the lowest speed they offer.

I must admit the Technical support team only seem to know the basics of support,as in rebooting the modem etc and I always get the impression that they are reading from a very basic script. They need real IT Desktop support people in there, who can specialise in the BB / Technical area but have a good IT foundation.

Having said that I have found them to be pretty OK really, just not very well trained technically, which I guess is what a customer needs at the end of the day.

On the call outs: The engineers are not actually employed by UPC as far as I know. When i had BB installed adn then Digtal+ ther was no problem. But i subsequently reported a TV signal fault and was left waiting all day, only to find ,again, that it was a fault in my area. The engineer or UPC should have contacted me to let me know.( Apparently the engineer cancelled the call but I was left hanging around.)

hightower1

Lvbrs wrote: »

Hi. I've had UPC Broadband Value Package for 3 years. Only ever went down twice. Admittedly,the first time was over Christmas, and their CS team told me it was a faulty cable modem and would need an engineer call out which would take a week. It came back the next day and it was in fact a general problem in the area.

The speed is good, 3Mb being the lowest speed they offer.

I must admit the Technical support team only seem to know the basics of support,as in rebooting the modem etc and I always get the impression that they are reading from a very basic script. They need real IT Desktop support people in there, who can specialise in the BB / Technical area but have a good IT foundation.

Having said that I have found them to be pretty OK really, just not very well trained technically, which I guess is what a customer needs at the end of the day.

On the call outs: The engineers are not actually employed by UPC as far as I know. When i had BB installed adn then Digtal+ ther was no problem. But i subsequently reported a TV signal fault and was left waiting all day, only to find ,again, that it was a fault in my area. The engineer or UPC should have contacted me to let me know.( Apparently the engineer cancelled the call but I was left hanging around.)

I think a lot of people would ring a technical support department these days and expect support to run as far as their software? the mandate for a lot of these departments are to ensure the supply of broadband into a customers house not the use or displaying of such.

In UPC's case they will service and investigate connection problems into and exiting their modem, they wont cover routers/hardware/software. I think thats fair enough considering the term ISP. They will only supply the means to connect and the connection nothing more or less.

The reasons for this are at least three fold. Firstly it allows for a shorter average turn around time on the average call to a tech department and in turn improving customer flow and wait times.
Secondly it means they need only train agents on their systems and not hardware/software issues, OS troubleshooting etc.
Finally it would be very difficult to try and staff an department with I.T graduates with incentives of rota hours, 25k per year salary and never ending work loads? Given the choice and considering you were an I.T graduate would you work in an ISP tech support department or a private in house I.T department with better pay, hours and work load?

As you say that they could do with hiring more qualified agents would you be prepared to foot the cost of this? Considering the pay increase may mean your call to that department may be charged?

UPC have gone one step further and staggered that choice by introducing their partnership with Cobweb technologies, allowing all network issues or modem issues being supported by their own agents with in house training and tools or then should the issue being found with any hardware/software supplying you with Cobweb techs details at a paid rate. At which stage the decision is entirely up to the customer to contact them and carry on trouble shooting but being completely aware there is a cost from that point.

Any other ISP's solution would be to say sorry, our modem is working and supplying connection its your equipment. UPC liaise with Cobweb tech and allow you to continue troubleshooting your equipment issues with I.T trained specialists that don't have to reply on recycled information but can hear it directly from your ISP!



I have to say when I first was suggested to call a 95c per min number I was taken back but when I thought about it.... it allows them to keep costs low and pass on savings, get through to their tech support quicker, get 1st class IT support on my equipment immediately(not having to haul it do pc world) and most importantly the transition from free modem support to paid IT support is MY choice.:)


P.S. I hope you are listening DUB 45, I think in anyones opinion that its great customer support.

IIMII

So as not to start a new thread, can anyone confirm that you can plug your existing phone handset into the UPC port if I were to ditch BT and get UPC? Is there any noticable difference in call quality? I take it their offering is VOIP?

Similarly, could I plug my Sky+ box into the UPC socket (so it can do it's dial in and out tasks) as you would with a normal telephone line?

_Sidhe_

IIMII wrote: »

So as not to start a new thread, can anyone confirm that you can plug your existing phone handset into the UPC port if I were to ditch BT and get UPC? Is there any noticable difference in call quality? I take it their offering is VOIP?

Similarly, could I plug my Sky+ box into the UPC socket (so it can do it's dial in and out tasks) as you would with a normal telephone line?

As long as the phone is VOIP capable it'll work.
Some older DECT phones aren't.

UPC's service is, and isn't VOIP.
It technically is, but as the call never leaves their own network, they can control the signal.
This means that you don't get the intermitant issues that you would through a traditional VOIP service.
As long as there's no service issues, the quality is pretty much identical to an analogue (Eircom) system.
Of course if the Broadband or power goes, so does your phone (although nearly everyone uses DECT phones nowadays anyway so the power thing is the same).

You can use Sky boxes the same way as normal.

dub45

hightower1 wrote: »

I think a lot of people would ring a technical support department these days and expect support to run as far as their software? the mandate for a lot of these departments are to ensure the supply of broadband into a customers house not the use or displaying of such.

In UPC's case they will service and investigate connection problems into and exiting their modem, they wont cover routers/hardware/software. I think thats fair enough considering the term ISP. They will only supply the means to connect and the connection nothing more or less.

The reasons for this are at least three fold. Firstly it allows for a shorter average turn around time on the average call to a tech department and in turn improving customer flow and wait times.
Secondly it means they need only train agents on their systems and not hardware/software issues, OS troubleshooting etc.
Finally it would be very difficult to try and staff an department with I.T graduates with incentives of rota hours, 25k per year salary and never ending work loads? Given the choice and considering you were an I.T graduate would you work in an ISP tech support department or a private in house I.T department with better pay, hours and work load?

As you say that they could do with hiring more qualified agents would you be prepared to foot the cost of this? Considering the pay increase may mean your call to that department may be charged?

UPC have gone one step further and staggered that choice by introducing their partnership with Cobweb technologies, allowing all network issues or modem issues being supported by their own agents with in house training and tools or then should the issue being found with any hardware/software supplying you with Cobweb techs details at a paid rate. At which stage the decision is entirely up to the customer to contact them and carry on trouble shooting but being completely aware there is a cost from that point.

Any other ISP's solution would be to say sorry, our modem is working and supplying connection its your equipment. UPC liaise with Cobweb tech and allow you to continue troubleshooting your equipment issues with I.T trained specialists that don't have to reply on recycled information but can hear it directly from your ISP!



I have to say when I first was suggested to call a 95c per min number I was taken back but when I thought about it.... it allows them to keep costs low and pass on savings, get through to their tech support quicker, get 1st class IT support on my equipment immediately(not having to haul it do pc world) and most importantly the transition from free modem support to paid IT support is MY choice.:)


P.S. I hope you are listening DUB 45, I think in anyones opinion that its great customer support.

On the contrary I have very serious reservations about an ISP offering this type of service to unsuspecting customers. A service which has no quality levels built in as far as I can see in reading the terms and conditions. For example there appears to be no guarantee or undertaking that a 'technician' will end a call after a certain period of time?

I dont know how you can call charging someone 95c a minute for a service which may not work at all for you 'great customer support'? There is absolutely no incentive for the 'technician' to get the problem solved quickly in fact quite the reverse.

It would be very easy for an inexperienced person to spend up to 20 mins or so on such a line. At least if you pay a 'technician' to call out they are there and can deal easilly with what can be an an awkward situation for a newbie and so on but I really don't agree with this type of thing being done over the phone. And I would think that irrespective of whichever ISP was doing it.

dub45

_Sidhe_ wrote: »

God you really do have a problem don't you.

I can barely remember a post you've made since I started posting here myself that didn't mention UPC's customer service.

Yes, everyone has just as bad call centers.

I've had God knows ow many problems with Eircom.
Just for the sake of it, as I've never really rang UPC for tech issues, I thought I'd try now.

2 minutes to get through.
I asked a basic question about mail servers was given them straight away an asked if I wanted to be guided in setting them up.

Oh the horror.

The only thing that did annoy me was being offered the phone service at the end of the call.

But what company doesn't do that nowadays.

Why don't you try that Dub.
I've head nothing but bad reports on the call center here, but I've hear lots of crap on internet forums.

I have a problem with lousy customer service wherever it comes from! And I can assure you I have made loads of posts that managed to ignore the joke that is UPC's customer service. And remember customer service covers more than tech issues.

hightower1

dub45 wrote: »

On the contrary I have very serious reservations about an ISP offering this type of service to unsuspecting customers. A service which has no quality levels built in as far as I can see in reading the terms and conditions.

Sorry? Unsuspecting? It would be very strange for a UPC agent to give a contact number of a PC support call center without first advising a customer of that there is a PC related issue? I believe at that point the customer is very much suspecting a PC issue.

In relation to the quality levels, of which service are you unclear about? UPC's broadband quality levels are outlined in there terms and conditions ,free to anyone to read on their site. http://www.upc.ie/termsandconditions/

In fact in their second paragraph they outline it as ....

2.2 In supplying the Services we will always use our reasonable skill and care but are
unable to guarantee fault free performance. The Services are provided on a best efforts basis and we do not warrant that any connection to, transmission over, or results of the
Equipment or the Services will meet your requirements or will provide uninterrupted use
or will operate as required or at any minimum speed, or error free. We can not
guarantee minimum bandwidth delivered to you and we can not guarantee that all data
traffic can be transported complete and without delay. If a fault occurs you should notify
us by contacting our customer management centre. If you are unable to access the
Services, you remain liable to pay all Charges that would otherwise apply.




In short, should a problem with your modem/connection arise they will make every effort to resolve the problem in a timely manor. I fail to see how you overlooked this as it is the very start of UPC's terms and conditions and is quite clear what they hold their quality levels to.

If you are relating to their partnership with Cobweb Technologies or "Premium service" as they name it all information again can be found on their website under .... http://www.upc.ie/service/?cid=123&aid=84

It is very clear what each stage of the service will cover and what they aim to achieve with a caller.


So both their website outlines their quality levels, different grounds covered by both technical support departments/premium support level.





[/QUOTE]It would be very easy for an inexperienced person to spend up to 20 mins or so on such a line. At least if you pay a person to call out they are there and can deal with awkward situations and so on but I really don't agree with this type of thing being done over the phone. And I would think that irrespective of whichever ISP was doing it.[/QUOTE]

Up to twenty mins as your example states is €19, a minimum book in charge with pc world is €50 eur as is the average call out charge for a PC repair technician. ALL of these services will not guarantee a solution to a particular issue and will charge no matter the outcome. The only difference is that their premium line as I have already stated has two clear advantages... 1.It is immediate support and 2. The relevant information on the problem and connection are communicated direct form the ISP and not re communicated from ISP to PC owner to IT support.

You are of coarse entitled to not agree with this type of thing being done over the phone but bear in mind that it is a level being offered by "terrible customer service" that no other ISP offers, is aimed at immediate solution to a persons problem and is chosen by the caller. All three aspects of universally agreed foundations of good customer support.

dub45

hightower1 wrote: »

Sorry? Unsuspecting? It would be very strange for a UPC agent to give a contact number of a PC support call center without first advising a customer of that there is a PC related issue? I believe at that point the customer is very much suspecting a PC issue.

In the first place there is no guarantee that the problem is in fact with the pc. And I used ''unsuspecting'' in the sense that I doubt if many people realise how much such a call may cost them and how unsatisfactory such calls can be.

hightower1 wrote: »

In relation to the quality levels, of which service are you unclear about?


If you are relating to their partnership with Cobweb Technologies or "Premium service" as they name it all information again can be found on their website under .... http://www.upc.ie/service/?cid=123&aid=84

It is very clear what each stage of the service will cover and what they aim to achieve with a caller.

Can you tell me then exactly what an inexperienced person can expect from a referral from UPC's support desk to this wonderful 95c a minute service?

Are customers encouraged to read the Terms and Conditions before calling this service? Is this service as diligent as UPC themselves in ensuring that it is the account holder that they are talking to?

And why is this service which most people will be referred to presumably as a result of ringing UPC with an internet connection problem offering advice on everything from printers to pdas and scanners not to mention 'all third party software' All third party software? that is some claim to make.

It would be very easy for an inexperienced person to spend up to 20 mins or so on such a line. At least if you pay a person to call out they are there and can deal with awkward situations and so on but I really don't agree with this type of thing being done over the phone. And I would think that irrespective of whichever ISP was doing it.

hightower1 wrote: »

Up to twenty mins as your example states is €19, a minimum book in charge with pc world is €50 eur as is the average call out charge for a PC repair technician. ALL of these services will not guarantee a solution to a particular issue and will charge no matter the outcome.

The difference is that the person who opts for the pc repair technician can get a quote or indeed quotes and a fair idea of what the problem will cost to cure. And the technician will deal with the problem themselves at first hand. A call to a premium line offers no question of obtaining an estimate or expert hands on attention. I took the example of 20 minute as a relatively short call given that the website says that they work through a series of steps.

hightower1 wrote: »

The only difference is that their premium line as I have already stated has two clear advantages... 1.It is immediate support and 2. The relevant information on the problem and connection are communicated direct form the ISP and not re communicated from ISP to PC owner to IT support.

That presupposes a ready and quick diagnosis and the ability of perhaps a very inexperienced person to implement it. It would be very interesting to know how much the average call to this wonderful support service rakes in and how satisfactory the service overall is as viewed by customers. I would also be very interested to know the average length of calls.

hightower1 wrote: »

You are of coarse entitled to not agree with this type of thing being done over the phone but bear in mind that it is a level being offered by "terrible customer service" that no other ISP offers, is aimed at immediate solution to a persons problem and is chosen by the caller. All three aspects of universally agreed foundations of good customer support.

I don't agree that this is customer service or support at all. I am very dubious about the referral of a customer with a problem which may or may not be the isp's to solve to a paid service operated by that same isp. I would be very interested to know what instructions are given to UPC's staff as to how far they should go in attempting to solve a problem before referring it to this paid service. In my view it is to other isps' credit that they do not engage in this type of referral.

And in my view Smart offer a far better service to their customers via their on line forums where the expertise of Smart staff and customers are available to customers with problems totally free of course!!

_Sidhe_

dub45 wrote: »

I don't agree that this is customer service or support at all. I am very dubious about the referral of a customer with a problem which may or may not be the isp's to solve to a paid service operated by that same isp. I would be very interested to know what instructions are given to UPC's staff as to how far they should go in attempting to solve a problem before referring it to this paid service. In my view it is to other isps' credit that they do not engage in this type of referral.

And in my view Smart offer a far better service to their customers via their on line forums where the expertise of Smart staff and customers are available to customers with problems totally free of course!!

So what you're saying is that you, a moderator, are going around constantly advising customers that have no experience of UPC that they have terrible Customer Service (not bad now, but terrible) based on what you admit are your completely unsubstansiated worries.

You admit to having no experience on the matter, and no idea how it works, but freely assume and alledge with no proof, evidence or reason, because you personally don't like UPC.

Thanks you.

That answers alot.


P.S: And yes, Smart probably dop have the best support, and their website is a great concept.
But Smart being the best, doesn't make UPC the worst.
BT/Eircom/Imagine/Perlico/Vodafone etc don't have support forums.
Are they "terrible" customer service?

dub45

_Sidhe_ wrote: »

So what you're saying is that you, a moderator, are going around constantly advising customers that have no experience of UPC that they have terrible Customer Service (not bad now, but terrible) based on what you admit are your completely unsubstansiated worries.

You admit to having no experience on the matter, and no idea how it works, but freely assume and alledge with no proof, evidence or reason, because you personally don't like UPC.

Thanks you.

That answers alot.


P.S: And yes, Smart probably dop have the best support, and their website is a great concept.
But Smart being the best, doesn't make UPC the worst.
BT/Eircom/Imagine/Perlico/Vodafone etc don't have support forums.
Are they "terrible" customer service?

Sadly in your blind love for UPC you appear either unwilling or unable to address my concerns.

My concerns about UPC's customer service are not related to the material you quote above. The material you quote above is in relation to UPC's relationship with their technical support partners. And it is information that as a non employee of UPC I have no access to.

I would expect that anyone who gave any consideraton to such a commerical relationship (even the most avid fan of UPC) would have serious concerns about the possiblities for abuse. And it completely escapes me as to how anyone can consider paying 95c a minute to be customer service? Particularly when there is no information available as to the qualifications of the people giving this 'technical advice'.

My concerns about UPC customer service are based on direct personal experience and those of others whom I have spoken to; reading many many posts here - easily found via a search and if you want to add more material you only have to do a google search. Even the wikipedia article on them gives newspaper references to their poor customer service.

There are none so blind as those who will not see or will only see what they want to see.

Incidentally being a moderator does not preclude me from posting on anyone's customer service.

hightower1

So Dub45, can I just clarify something?

If a caller has no internet connection....

They call UPC...

The agent will determen if the problem is the
modem/network/router/hardware/software through remote testing....

If the issue is router/hardware/software you belive that good customer service of at least better service is to say "sorry, not our problem" ?

Instead of adding "but I can give you a number for a IT support line at a premium rate?" ?



You feel that an ISP giving less options to a paying customer in relation to a non service issue is better customer service?

Upc are by no means perfect but in my opinion they are compeditive, innovative and are genuinly a driving force in broadband supply in this country.

_Sidhe_

dub45 wrote: »

Sadly in your blind love for UPC you appear either unwilling or unable to address my concerns.

My concerns about UPC's customer service are not related to the material you quote above. The material you quote above is in relation to UPC's relationship with their technical support partners. And it is information that as a non employee of UPC I have no access to.

I would expect that anyone who gave any consideraton to such a commerical relationship (even the most avid fan of UPC) would have serious concerns about the possiblities for abuse. And it completely escapes as to how anyone can consider paying 95c a minute to be customer service? Particularly when there is no information available as to the qualifications of the people giving this 'technical advice'.

My concerns about UPC customer service are based on direct personal experience and those of others whom I have spoken to; reading many many posts here - easily found via a search and if you want to add more material you only have to do a google search. Even the wikipedia article on them gives newspaper references to their poor customer service.

There are none so blind as those who will not see or will only see what they want to see.

Incidentally being a moderator does not preclude me from posting on anyone's customer service.

And blind hatred seems to blind you even more so.
You're posting your concern as fact.
That is my problem.
You are not saying that UPC's service is bad because......
You are saying it is bad becasue maybe this might be the case.

That is not on.


And yes, you will find loads of people saying UPC is bad.
Just like you'll find loads of people saying that the world was created in 6 days 6,000 years ago.
And loads of people who say that America "liberated" Iraq.
etc...
etc...
etc...

The internet is full of people spreading oppinions as fact.
You should know, as you've just proven yourself as one of them.

And being a moderator doesn't preclude you from anyhing.
but it should preclude you from the bias that you would penalise others for.

Hey, I've got a quote for you.
Can't for the life of me remember where I heard it, but it sums up your attitude in this matter perfectly.

There are none so blind as those who will not see or will only see what they want to see.

dub45

hightower1 wrote: »

So Dub45, can I just clarify something?

If a caller has no internet connection....

They call UPC...

The agent will determen if the problem is the
modem/network/router/hardware/software through remote testing....

If the issue is router/hardware/software you belive that good customer service of at least better service is to say "sorry, not our problem" ?

Instead of adding "but I can give you a number for a IT support line at a premium rate?" ?


You feel that an ISP giving less options to a paying customer in relation to a non service issue is better customer service?

I belived that an isp has a responsibility to do as much as possible to deliver the broadband signal that the customer is paying for to the customers modem or router. Any equipment supplied by the isp should also be supported.

If the isp's support has genuinely exhausted all the options in relation to that obligation then there is nothing wrong with pointing out that the customer needs to seek help elsewhere. You will find posts from me on boards pointing out that I believe that customers expect far too much from their isps.

However I have concerns about an isp only giving out a number for a service that they have a commercial relationshp with. And I have explained those concerns elsewhere in the thread. And giving a customer that number, to my mind anyways, cannot be described as customer service in any form unless it is given with a clear indication that there is a commercial relationship involved and that there are plenty of alternatives.

hightower1 wrote: »

Upc are by no means perfect but in my opinion they are compeditive, innovative and are genuinly a driving force in broadband supply in this country.

You are entitled to your opinion but unfortunately they still have lousy customer service!

dub45

_Sidhe_ wrote: »

And blind hatred seems to blind you even more so.
You're posting your concern as fact.
That is my problem.
You are not saying that UPC's service is bad because......
You are saying it is bad becasue maybe this might be the case.

That is not on.


And yes, you will find loads of people saying UPC is bad.
Just like you'll find loads of people saying that the world was created in 6 days 6,000 years ago.
And loads of people who say that America "liberated" Iraq.
etc...
etc...
etc...

The internet is full of people spreading oppinions as fact.
You should know, as you've just proven yourself as one of them.

And being a moderator doesn't preclude you from anyhing.
but it should preclude you from the bias that you would penalise others for.

Hey, I've got a quote for you.
Can't for the life of me remember where I heard it, but it sums up your attitude in this matter perfectly.

There are none so blind as those who will not see or will only see what they want to see.

And how exactly does this rant advance your argument that UPC give good customer service?

Below is a quote from an article by Conor Pope in the Irish Times of Saturday 13th 2008

But which company has attracted the most complaints? Aer Lingus? Ryanair? BT Ireland? While these have featured, certainly, they don't come close to matching the unenviable record of NTL - or UPC, to give it its title since 2006.

Since the beginning of this year alone we have had more than 50 readers contact us in connection with the company. Many complained about service appointments not being kept, others were dismayed at the cluelessness of call centre operatives and the failure of the company to return calls, while more expressed bafflement at the difficulties encountered when trying to sign up to NTL.

Earlier this week UPC's managing director, Robert Dunn, told The Irish Times that he believed the company's customer service was good - but he accepted "there is a reasonable amount of room for improvement" and that the service offered by UPC is "not quite the finished article".

He admits the company "got a bit of a bad name" in late 2006 when the National Consumer Agency intervened after the volume of complaints grew so loud. The migration of Chorus into UPC in 2007 "caused a bit of problem for us", he adds.

However, Dunn maintains there has been a steady improvement since that rocky start and says the company is spending €30-€40 million annually on upgrading its networks to improve the TV and broadband packages it offers and to introduce a telephone service. "As you go through that upgrade it is a little bit of a bumpy road."

"Can it be better? Yes, I will be frank, of course it can. I want it to be better and I believe we are on a strong upward path. At the end of the day, people have choices. If I don't keep them happy they will go to Sky or they will go to Eircom or another provider," he says.

And I suppose that article is all part of the vile conspiracy against UPC?

garbage bin

DUB45
I am a moderator in a PC website and I don't have the liberty to speak my mind and say so many bad thing about a company that I do not represent.
Someone, specially UPC SHOULD GET ON TO BOARDS.IE AND GET YOU KICKED OUT OR HAVE IT REPRIMANDED

Now, the only reason why I'm writing this is that I am a customer with UPC and I find that the BB services are the best I ever had, and I had before other companies, (BT, DIGIWEB and Other providers from different countries), I had a bad experience with the above providers.

I rang all the customer services, BT customer services were horrendous. I was 2 months with them and that was enough.
Digiweb was not the best either. was slow and there was not even a tech out if I had issues
NTL/UPC was as far the best I've came across with. Had service call for next available day when modem stopped working and since then no other issues what so ever.
None of the providers will support any 3rd party devices (routers, computers, Switch)
Is how we say in our forum, They make it they support it. Which means.... Netgear makes, netgear supports....
You can't expect a company to provide a support for something they are not responsible for...

As you are an employee and as such an official represntative on boards.ie your personal opinions are represeting that of boards.ie, I am aware that all mod's employeed by boards are allowed post but its extremelly irregular to allow a openly expressed emplyee or moderator to air his personal opinions on the public forum.

dub45

I am not an employee of boards.

As regards UPC and ''the many bad things'' that I have said about them - I have said that they have lousy customer service and produced evidence for it. (and by the way the web is full of it if you want more)

I have pointed out and, it is documented here, that some people get great bb speeds from them and others don't and there is no way to know in advance of signing up which camp you will fall into.

Given that UPC sell Netgear routers to people then I believe they should support those routers.

I have pointed out that I have concerns about the commercial relationship between UPC and their 'pay as you' go technology partners and given reasons for those concerns. That's all.

rikili

I have to back up DUB45, I had so many issues with NTL (especially with TV, and Channel 4). and the customer service is the worse. I had to cancel with them and go to Sky, and have broadband from BT... I don't say that BT's customer service is excellent, but it's much better than NTL. With NTL I had to go up to management (here in Ireland, and I had a manger calling me from the UK) to get my issue sorted, and then not a single apology or here’s a month free after having my TV service disrupted for more than 3 weeks!!!!
Also after taking a day off for their technician to come and fix my issue, he didn't show up, neither did he call to cancel the call. So I had to take another day off for them to show up and fix my issue which took around 3 weeks, and 2 calls to managers to have it fixed.

To add insult to injury, after cancelling my account with them (I sent a letter, and faxed it, and rang their customer service to make sure they received my cancellation letter and my fax), I still received threatening letters for not having paid. and when I ring the Customer service they tell me that my account is not active therefore I shouldn't be receiving requests for payment, but still their billing service asking me to pay !!!

One last word, for hightower1, from your posts it looks like you work for NTL, so instead of arguing, please read people’s posts and take it as a feedback not an attack, and try to fix these issues. Exchanging words on Forums won't change people’s perception of NTL, but actions to improve NTL's customer service will change that. We have nothing against NTL, we were just victims of a very bad service for which we paid money but didn't get what we paid for!

hightower1

rikili wrote: »

One last word, for hightower1, from your posts it looks like you work for NTL, so instead of arguing, please read people’s posts and take it as a feedback not an attack, and try to fix these issues. Exchanging words on Forums won't change people’s perception of NTL, but actions to improve NTL's customer service will change that. We have nothing against NTL, we were just victims of a very bad service for which we paid money but didn't get what we paid for!

I am not a UPC employee just a happy customer who is very interested in the progress of broadband sales and implimentation in Ireland. I am in fact involved in the field of tech support and I would challenge anyone who would speak critically of the field, not just of one ISP to do the job for a single day and maintain their attidudes. In fact I have defended many ISP's here (even though its not an ISP tech support department I work for) simply because it is the whiners and complainers that wouldnt last a day in the job they have.



Also DUB 45 you listed as a moderator here and that would have been appointed to you by Borads.ie this makes you a rep of their company. As such your personal opinions can be taken as the same of that of the forum whom appointed you a moderator. As was said to you previously posting opinion here is for users not moderators. From a legal standpoint UPC would be well within their rights to report you for this via the contuct us option so I dunno how wise it is to post opinion logged in as a moderator? perhaps logging in as a user might be better?
Whatever about differnce of opinions no one wants poor advertisments for boards here agreed?

Blindpew

dub45 called it right. UPC don't seem to employ any real people, androids are all that I ever got to speak with, or else they were people pretending to be androids putting on a funny voice.
There are too many rules and regulations and terms and conditions, if a man is right he's right and people shouldn't try to defend the indefensible.

dub45

hightower1 wrote: »

I am not a UPC employee just a happy customer who is very interested in the progress of broadband sales and implimentation in Ireland. I am in fact involved in the field of tech support and I would challenge anyone who would speak critically of the field, not just of one ISP to do the job for a single day and maintain their attidudes. In fact I have defended many ISP's here (even though its not an ISP tech support department I work for) simply because it is the whiners and complainers that wouldnt last a day in the job they have.

Also DUB 45 you listed as a moderator here and that would have been appointed to you by Borads.ie this makes you a rep of their company. As such your personal opinions can be taken as the same of that of the forum whom appointed you a moderator. As was said to you previously posting opinion here is for users not moderators. From a legal standpoint UPC would be well within their rights to report you for this via the contuct us option so I dunno how wise it is to post opinion logged in as a moderator? perhaps logging in as a user might be better?
Whatever about differnce of opinions no one wants poor advertisments for boards here agreed?

Moderators regularly express their opinions on boards. I am certainly not a representative of boards - my only function as a mod is to keep an eye on the wireless forum.

Are you suggesting that UPC should report me for pointing out what is already in profusion in the public domain? ie comment on their poor customer service? Given that their senior management reps have already acknowledged shortcomings in this area that would be rich indeed!

And as you appear to have forgotten or ignored, anything I have written here about upc I have substantiated or given reasons for my concerns.

_Sidhe_

Digital Media Awards 2008

Best internet provider

Winner: UPC Ireland

Digital Media Awards 2009

Best internet provider

Winner: UPC Ireland


Irish Contact Center And Shared Services Awards 2008

Best Training Programme

Winner: UPC

Best Technical Support Center/Helpdesk

Runner up: UPC

Best Use Of Technology

Winner UPC





So there you go Dub.

5 minutes of googling found me that, just like you.

So the UPC Technical Support team is the runner up in the Irish Call Centers award thingies, and UPC is the Digital Media awards best ISP for two years running.

Amazing what you can find on the internet isn't it.
So some people here, and one or two journalists on a slow news day, come out and say something.
And you ignore the fact that UPC BB and their support are currently winning awards.
Funny that.


And as for the Netgear routers.
PC World / Harvey Normans / Amazon etc all sell the routers too.
As too Virgin Media in the UK.
And any other number of cable BB proviers world wide.
And none of them service the routers either.
But of course that's all UPC's fault too.:rolleyes:

I wish you'd told me sooner.
When I had Virgin Broadband in England it should have been UPC I was ringing up to complain to.


You also talk about with UPC you don't know whether you'll have a good or bad connection before you join.
Name one provider that you do?
If you dont know how far you are from the local exchange, how do you know what kind of speeds you'll get?
And if you discover that you're only getting 1 mb on a 3mb line, will you have to wait a week or too for it to be fixed, like with UPC, or have Eircom/BT/etc tell you tough, we only say up to.
If you simply have a bad copper line, will Eircom come out and relay it?
Will BT or Vodafone?
No.

So your point is completely moot.
Nobody knows what kind of a line or connection you'll get before it's installed.
You're just singling out UPC.
Again.



And Rikili
Quick question.
You were phoned by a UPC manager from the UK.
That's funny, cause UPC aren't in the UK.
And even if they were, all UPC companies (UPC Ireland/Holland/Romania/Poland/etc) are completlely seperate.
UPC Ireland don't have managers in the UK, unless they're on holidays.

So you wouldn't be talking about NTL by any chance.
The company that UPC bought out in 2006 or so.
Or the call center they used to have, in Waterford wasn't it, which is closed now.
And has been for about 2-3 years.

I'm sorry my friend, but Marathon is now Snickers.

And it would just be silly if you were advising somebody on your oppinion of a dead company.
And exactly what I've been saying all along.
People blaming UPC for NTL's problems.

dub45

The Digital Media Awards 2009 were sponsored by 3, Connect-World, The Digital Hub, Design Communications, Think Event Design & Installation and UPC Ireland.

What a coincidence!

http://www.digitalmedia.ie/2009/index.html

And for anyone who doesn't know a company actually pays to enter this 'competition'.

Meanwhile even hardened boardsies were incredulous:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055502968&highlight=digital+media+awards

Blindpew

Blindpew wrote: »

dub45 called it right. UPC don't seem to employ any real people, androids are all that I ever got to speak with, or else they were people pretending to be androids putting on a funny voice.
There are too many rules and regulations and terms and conditions, if a man is right he's right and people shouldn't try to defend the indefensible.

Its a good thing that only the very gullible blindly believe what they read on web forums! Ive read the bloated posts in this thread and they have only served to confirm the widely held belief that a majority of people who use these and other forums will gladly hide behind their anonymity and pretty much say anything that they may think will help them win an arguement and make the other guy look ridiculous.

The only help we can give the op on the topic that can not be taken as biased is our own personal experience with upc and absolutely nothing else. No press releases, no hearsay, no quotes from other threads, no awards, no possible future scenarios should be proposed as evidence that upc are a collective leviathan or that they are demi-gods.

My experience: They were very poor as ntl, unreliable service and very poor customer support. As UPC it has been a pleasure to deal with them, moved house, new install in 3 days, upgraded package done with ease over the phone.

vibe666

garbage bin wrote: »

DUB45
I am a moderator in a PC website and I don't have the liberty to speak my mind and say so many bad thing about a company that I do not represent.
Someone, specially UPC SHOULD GET ON TO BOARDS.IE AND GET YOU KICKED OUT OR HAVE IT REPRIMANDED

sorry, but that is wrong on just about every level.

exactly what website are you a moderator on? you don't have to make it public, just send me a PM with the name of the website and your user ID for that site and I can confirm that for everybody here.

forgive my skepticism, but I would expect a moderator of any forum to know at least the most basic things about modship, such as that mods are simply users with elevated rights on the particular sub-forum they are a mod of and are no different than any other user on any other part of that forum.

i'd also expect them to know that mods do not get paid for what they do and are not employees of the forum, but voluneers made up of experienced users who have proved themselves in that particular area of the forum.

a mod would also know that making threats towards other posters is against the rules AND that IP addresses of all posts are logged by the forum and visible to mods of that forum and that logging in using multiple accounts is also against the rules and will usually get you an instant ban.

not to mention that a mod would know how to write a post without throwing unnecessary formatting around in the post multiple times creating a complete mess for others to try and quote from. :rolleyes:

like every other user here, Dub45 is perfectly entitled to voice his opinions and experience of any ISP without being threatened. this is Ireland after all not China.