UPC Customer Service - Faulty Router

Draupnir

Looking for peoples opinions here, router hardware that UPC supplied to me when I joined as a 30mb Broadband customer a couple of years ago is faulty. Connection drops consistently every few hours requiring a restart of the router to reestablish.

Had an engineer out to confirm the line and modem are fine and have tested when it drops that it's the router. Firmware is the latest available and settings are factory standard.

Phoned UPC to report the issue with the hardware they supplied and they are trying to brush me off onto Netgear, giving me a number for customer service in Netgear, of whom I am not a customer as far as I am concerned.

Genuinely can't believe that they are unwilling to swap out a 50 euro router that's causing their service to be pretty crap for me.

dub45

Far be it from me of all people to defend UPC:eek: but I cant really see how you expect them to supply you with a new wireless router after a couple of years as you say.

At the time you signed up for the bb I presume you got the router as a freebie or you purchased it. UPC's product is not 'bb and a wireless network' it is just bb and as such they are delivering that to you.

If your router is outside the guarantee period then I cannot see Netgear being of much help to you.

Kintarō Hattori

dub45 wrote: »

Far be it from me of all people to defend UPC:eek: but I cant really see how you expect them to supply you with a new wireless router after a couple of years as you say.

At the time you signed up for the bb I presume you got the router as a freebie or you purchased it. UPC's product is not 'bb and a wireless network' it is just bb and as such they are delivering that to you.

If your router is outside the guarantee period then I cannot see Netgear being of much help to you.

Agreed. Have a look on adverts.ie or pop into your local computer store, routers are fairly cheap these days.

Draupnir

Oops my mistake, i typed a couple of years when I meant to say a couple of MONTHS!!

If it was anyway longer than 6 months I'd be inclined to agree, but we are literally talking less than 3 months since they supplied the thing, now they are on about 1 month warranty and pointing me to Netgear, of whom I am not and never have been, a customer

gurramok

What router/modem hardware did they supply to you?

Draupnir

Cisco Modem and some form of plastic white Netgear router

gurramok

What type of Cisco modem? Is it the dreaded 2425 one?

If it is, the problem is at their end as the wireless is know to be terrible on it.

dlofnep

If they provided the equipment to you, and it is in warranty - the onus is on them to replace it. Just tell them the engineer clarified that it was faulty.

Draupnir

Told them that, seems they believe a 1 month warranty is acceptable on the router. It's the Netgear router that is generating the wireless network, it's not just dropping it's wireless connection it is dropping it's connection entirely so I lose signal in another location that is using an Airport Express to produce another wireless network.

dlofnep

How exactly does it only have a 1 month warranty? Isn't there some sort of law for minimum warranty on electrical goods in the EU? You might have to google it, but thought I read about it somewhere.

Did your contract state that it was only a 1 month warranty? Some load of shíte to have something like a router on a 1 month warranty.

gurramok

They told me that as well about 30 day warranty on their supplied Cisco 2425 router. It didn't stick to me as mine was less than 30days old so I had them by the balls

OP never said what model of modem they have(2303 perhaps?). Anyway at the end of the day, UPC will just say we 'guarantee you access to internet'.

As they supplied the wireless part(Netgear) 3months ago, ring them again and be persistent, a good apple among bad apples on the pot of luck will help you. I had a superb agent who helped me connecting my Dlink to their supplied wireless dongle at my PC. A bit of knowledge of my dlink router helped matters to prevent them brushing me off.

Either that or buy a new wireless router for 50quid if you are fed up ringing and waiting.

jor el

Hmm, not sure what you are entitled to in this situation. If you had bought it, then you would definitely be able to hold UPC to bare over it. But since they gave it to you, I'm not sure that they're under any obligation to do anything.

There may well be a warranty with Netgear, so it might be worth contacting them.

dlofnep

jor el wrote: »

Hmm, not sure what you are entitled to in this situation. If you had bought it, then you would definitely be able to hold UPC to bare over it. But since they gave it to you, I'm not sure that they're under any obligation to do anything.

There may well be a warranty with Netgear, so it might be worth contacting them.

If they give it to you as part of the deal, they should be libel to it's warranty, shouldn't they?

I work for an ISP - and this is how it is for us.

lucernarian

The thing is, even if it was free, the router was still provided as part of a transaction and the customer (Draupnir) had prior knowledge of this and bought a product off UPC accordingly. IMO, there might be no clear answer to this unless you got legal advice or brought the matter to the small claims court. I.e. Seek the amount of time you've been paying them for effectively receiving a "faulty service" in a claim.

A judge would have a fair idea of the law in this regard, and all for €9/€15, I can't remember which.

MrTrebus

I feel for ya,

I was 3 MONTHS trying to convince them their MODEM was faulty.
I finally had to threaten them that I would rip down all their Fiber optic cabling from under the eaves of my house, because they had not looked for my permission to either enter my garden nor make changes to the front of my house.

I gave them one week to take the cables down or I would do it for them, and they could collect the pile from outside of my gate !!!

the following day an engineer arrived out with a modem he knew was working fine and lo and behold my broadband has worked perfectly well since he changed the modem

You absolutley HAVE to keep at them every day for them to do anything.
I'd suggest you threaten them same thing !

PS, I tried 3 different wireless routers AND spent an hour on the phone to the netgear support guys cause NTHell claimed it wasnt their modem at fault !!!!

F8ckers !!!!

dub45

Have a look at the quote below from the National Consumer agency website:

http://www.consumerconnect.ie/eng/Hot_Topics/FAQs/Faulty-goods/

Q3. If I have a problem with faulty goods, where should I go to?


When you make a purchase, your contract is with the seller of the goods and if there is a problem with the product it is up to the seller to put things right.

However, depending on the nature of the product and the problem arising with it, you may find it more convenient to deal directly with the manufacturer.

This could arise, for example, where call out arrangements need to be made with the servicing staff of the manufacturing firm.

In such circumstances, you should make it clear to the company from which you purchased the product that your contract is with them.

Dealing directly with the distributor/manufacturer does not exempt the seller from their obligations if their further involvement is required.

Your situation is slightly unusual in that you got the router free but it was part of their offer for the product.

I would suggest ringing the NCA for their opinion.

thefishone

Went to read the small print,hope this helps

http://www.upc.ie/pdf/Chorus%20Combined%20TC011007.pdf

This..

f. The cable modem is connected by coaxial cable to the Chorus network. In this case we define the limit of our

network as the RJ45, Ethernet, or communications port/USB on the cable modem as our network termination point and
the limit of our liability in terms of Equipment
And this.....

19. You agree that you will notify us of any defect in the operation or performance of the Services by telephoning the

Customer Service line (details of which appear on our Website) or by writing to the Customer Service Department (the
address of which appears on our website) who will always aim to respond as promptly as possible following
notification of a defect. Where we are providing a Broadband Internet Service and it is not possible to correct a defect

remotely over the telephone we will dispatch a technician as soon as possible to correct the fault identified

And might be the most impotant..

34. The Equipment shall remain our property at all times and we may need to alter or renew it from time to time at our discretion. In order to do this we or our agents will normally require reasonable access to your premises.