Why you should steer clear of Smart Telecom

makeorbrake

Contemptible customer service - just because I have the audacity as a customer to highlight an ongoing problem to them, they downgrade my broadband 'profile'.

Full details here

Joey the lips

I stopped using smart telecome when they started billing me twice. Then when i refused to pay the same bill twice I had to defend myself to a debt collection agency who "did not care"

I thought that was the end of it but it was not... They are muppets and I will never use them again.

Not so smart imo.

makeorbrake

My current stats following the new 'profile';



...and here is the profile I always had before this

Everything has worstened by 100%. By the way, I have not spoken to anyone from Smart - I have just posted details of the problems encountered on their forum - see 1st post (just in case anyone thinks I abused someone and they retaliated!).

spurious

The Smart support forum from what I recall is staffed on a voluntary basis by Smart staff.

Did you try to ring them or just email the support address and post on the forum?

I'm now with UPC but I never had any technical issue with Smart that was not quickly dealt with.

I hope you get yours sorted soon.

makeorbrake

spurious wrote: »

The Smart support forum from what I recall is staffed on a voluntary basis by Smart staff. Did you try to ring them or just email the support address and post on the forum?

I understand that with regard to their forum. After that, I contacted support via email. No reply after the first mail - but reply after the second saying that they had changed my profile....

Theres only the illusion of choice in the market - but I can't (wont) put up with this type of treatment. I guess it will be utv next (christ, i wish BT would have stayed!)

bk

Things have definitely gone way down hill since Digiweb took over Smart.

Most Smart users are now experiencing much slower speeds, resulting it seems from the switch to Digiwebs backend network and congestion.

http://support.smarttelecom.ie/forums/showthread.php?t=3837
http://support.smarttelecom.ie/forums/showthread.php?t=3805

brian__foley

bk wrote: »

Things have definitely gone way down hill since Digiweb took over Smart.

Most Smart users are now experiencing much slower speeds, resulting it seems from the switch to Digiwebs backend network and congestion.

http://support.smarttelecom.ie/forums/showthread.php?t=3837
http://support.smarttelecom.ie/forums/showthread.php?t=3805

Mine is beyond crazy for the last three days

1. Random dropping of connection despite all router lights normal (i.e. detection of SSID fine, just no connectivity to web).
2. More recent random dropping of DSL signal entirely.
3. Right now, able to access some, but not all sites including Smart forums and google.com, but no problems with this site and others. [edit - crazy; I have lost absolute access to all google domains and the smart forums can't ping google, but can ping boards.ie!!!]

I have no idea what is going on....


EDIT - UPDATE -

Just to update on this (and thank the relevant person). It was certainly frustrating the above occuring over the long weekend, but I telephoned Smart's 1890 number this morning, details were taken and I was promised a call from technical support. This came at 10.45 (i.e. about an hour later). There was no quibbles and he straight forwardly pointed out that it appeared from their end that there was some issue with the authentication of the modem failing to properly deliver the Smart username and password as would be required. There was a near immediate promise to have a new modem sent out. Very happy with Smart's response on this. This is not the first time I've had very quick responses over the phone from Smart and I'm glad its resolved.

brian__foley

spoke too soon...

makeorbrake

brian__foley wrote: »

spoke too soon...

#
I asked them to put me back on the better performing profile - giving it one last chance. Have all of details for UTV package to go on if it doesn't work out. Almost a week has gone without a disconnect - so if it holds, I will stay. On the next disconnect, I will ring UTV back and arrange the switch.

jay93

makeorbrake wrote: »

#
I asked them to put me back on the better performing profile - giving it one last chance. Have all of details for UTV package to go on if it doesn't work out. Almost a week has gone without a disconnect - so if it holds, I will stay. On the next disconnect, I will ring UTV back and arrange the switch.

to be honest UTV are a good isp but there download caps are complete muck 3mb connection and you only get 12GB download a month what the hell even with eircom 3mb is 30GB cap and vodafone 3mb is 40GB cap UTV could be alot more generous imo;);)

makeorbrake

jay93 wrote: »

to be honest UTV are a good isp but there download caps are complete muck 3mb connection and you only get 12GB download a month what the hell even with eircom 3mb is 30GB cap and vodafone 3mb is 40GB cap UTV could be alot more generous imo;);)

Yeah - have heard that alright. However, i'm no longer all too bothered about the download cap - more interested in good stable service with good ping, and fast upload.

lucernarian

makeorbrake wrote: »

#
I asked them to put me back on the better performing profile - giving it one last chance. Have all of details for UTV package to go on if it doesn't work out. Almost a week has gone without a disconnect - so if it holds, I will stay. On the next disconnect, I will ring UTV back and arrange the switch.

If your line is of a certain quality, going to UTV won't change that. Your modem losing sync isn't the fault of your ISP especially if they lowered the connection speed to make the line more stable.

Your download speeds are a related but different issue to the speed the modem is connected to the exchange at.

makeorbrake

To_be_confirmed wrote: »

If your line is of a certain quality, going to UTV won't change that. Your modem losing sync isn't the fault of your ISP especially if they lowered the connection speed to make the line more stable.

Your download speeds are a related but different issue to the speed the modem is connected to the exchange at.

Sure - I appreciate that it looks that way. However, I never had any issues (re. disconnects) with BT or Vodafone (clearly voda have other issues) - and i had bt as recently as December and Vodafone as recently as beginning of Feb. Cutting everything in half (ie. ping, d/l speed, upload speed) didn't prevent disconnects either.
However, over a week back on the proper profile and no issues experienced (fingers crossed)

jay93

makeorbrake wrote: »

Yeah - have heard that alright. However, i'm no longer all too bothered about the download cap - more interested in good stable service with good ping, and fast upload.

heres a test of a relitives UTV connection its always solid no matter what time of day ping is always between 40-55 never usually goes higher all in all a good enough service my stupid vodafone connection has been down for about 2hours now its useless :(



3mb btw

BROWNE51

Apart from the google loading issues mentioned elsewhere I have to say I have found them to provide a good value service for broadband(12up/1 down) and landline calls.Im in the Kildare area and without them I would be stuck Eirc*n as I was for many years...man was I glad to get rid of their IDSN service a few years ago!!.Absolute ripoff

chriscross1

they a disaster

brian__foley

BROWNE51 wrote: »

Apart from the google loading issues mentioned elsewhere I have to say I have found them to provide a good value service for broadband(12up/1 down) and landline calls.Im in the Kildare area and without them I would be stuck Eirc*n as I was for many years...man was I glad to get rid of their IDSN service a few years ago!!.Absolute ripoff

That seems to be the story - happy with them for years, but "something" is up in the last few months. Which is a pity, because it was uber reliable for so long.