They're cutting me off! unless...

MyBusinez.com

I've been using Irishbroadband for the last 5 years and now. A loyal customer and I've always stuck with them even though every other company has been at my door asking me to switch. They are one of the most expensive but I find their service is much better than the others so it's worth it.

Now, out of nowhere, they say they're cutting me off in 6 weeks unless I pay 150euro to get connected to their new service!?! WTF!? I wouldn't get this treatment from kidnappers!

Has anyone else experienced this?

Ps. I did like their new ad campaign with the guy on the guitar "comin' across the nation..." but now I'm really pissed with them.

jor el

What service are you currently on? Breeze I assume. What is the new service they want you to join? If it's Imagine WiMax, run a mile. It will be nowhere near the Breeze service.

MyBusinez.com

Hi Jor el,
Yes, it's Wimax they want me to go onto. I am planning to make a complaint to Comreg to say that they want to cut off my service even though I've been paying for it for the last 5 years. Do you think I have any sort of case?

Imagine O2 or vodafone rang you to say they are cutting off your phone service unless you pay 150euro to stay on it? that's a ransom demand as far as I can see.

Sponge Bob

Are you on Breeze or Breezemax ??

MyBusinez.com

I'm not sure. I have an antenna (and they want to charge me for another one(?)). Breeze I think.

wires

MyBusinez.com wrote: »

Imagine O2 or vodafone rang you to say they are cutting off your phone service unless you pay 150euro to stay on it? that's a ransom demand as far as I can see.

this might not be the same as in your example the service is still there but the user is cut off.

mybusinez i assume they are discontinuing the service you are on altogether ie. it will no longer be available to anyone in your area???
and operating a different service based on different technology. if thats the case then what are you crying about? do you expect them to keep an old product live for you alone? imo they are being a bit heavy handed though, especially as you say you are a long term customer. did you check which service they want you to move to and then check how much it is for a new customer to sign up?

you know all irish television broadcast will be moving to digital soon forcing anyone with an older tv to buy new equipment. this is the same thing.

if the service is not being discontinued then wtf are they doing???

vibe666

its hardly the same thing.

its more like being an iphone user sheep on o2 for the last 5 years and then getting a letter from o2 to say that unless you upgrade to the new blackberry they will cut you off in 6 weeks.

they're pulling a product/service to a loyal customer with very little notice and trying to force them to pay an upgrade charge for something which they didn't ask for, don't want and may well turn out to be an inferior product and threatening them with disconnection if they don't. :mad:

it's hardly what i'd consider a good business practice to treat your loyal customers in this way. personally, i'd be calling them directly to make a complaint about their shoddy practices and letting them know that if they don't resolve it to your satisfaction you'll be lodging a complaint with comreg and moving to another ISP whilst making as much public noise (letters to newspapers, liveline etc.) whilst you do it.

Thor

wires wrote: »

this might not be the same as in your example the service is still there but the user is cut off.

mybusinez i assume they are discontinuing the service you are on altogether ie. it will no longer be available to anyone in your area???
and operating a different service based on different technology. if thats the case then what are you crying about? do you expect them to keep an old product live for you alone? imo they are being a bit heavy handed though, especially as you say you are a long term customer. did you check which service they want you to move to and then check how much it is for a new customer to sign up?

you know all irish television broadcast will be moving to digital soon forcing anyone with an older tv to buy new equipment. this is the same thing.

if the service is not being discontinued then wtf are they doing???

Yeah but were are talking a couple of years before the change, that is been the case for years as it is. Not the same case here.

OP you have two options, Pay the €150 and switch to wimax or don't pay it and get disconnected. They are getting rid of the technology used behing breeze and switching to wimax altogether and its nothing personel against you.

If you can get another isp like UPC then i would suggest you switch. Line connections are much better than wireless onee and cheaper aswell.

Plus you wont have to pay then €150 so alot more savings down the line.

watty

It's replacing a Reliable Fixed technology with a lower capacity Mobile one. More like having UPC 8Mbps, and worse than being told you have to switch to 8Mbps DSL (which can be anything from 1Mbps to 8Mbps depending on distance). Imagine WiMax can't Guarantee any particular level of service or accurately control contention.

jay93

i dont get why imagine would replace a fixed wireless service with a mobile one?would it not have been a better idea to roll out breeze in more areas than bringing this wimax into the loop??
fair enough if it was fixed wimax now that would be an improvement .
they are downgrading alot of customers to this crappy wimax service from a very reliable one its not fair on their customers to be honest !

jor el

MyBusinez.com wrote: »

Do you think I have any sort of case?

Unfortunately no. They are shutting down their old system, which they are perfectly entitled to do, probably to use the spectrum for the cheaper mobile WiMax system. If they had fixed WiMax, that would be a good alternative, but the mobile one is just not reliable.

Asking you to pay for connection to the new system is a bit much too. They should at least be giving free connection to you, but even then, I'd look for a decent alternative.

UPC, Metro, or Smart/Magnet LLU DSL would be good alternatives. Failing them, any of the eircom resellers are your next best bet. All depends on where you are and what you can avail of.

watty

jay93 wrote: »

i dont get why imagine would replace a fixed wireless service with a mobile one?would it not have been a better idea to roll out breeze in more areas than bringing this wimax into the loop??

Money,

• They only have limited Spectrum. They MUST turn off Breeze to Roll out "Imagine WiMax".
• The two systems can't use the same Channels
• Intel has invested in the Mobile Rollout
• Fixed Installs cost maybe €250 more per new customer than Mobile/Nomadic (self install, no schedule a visit, even sell in retail shop)
• Fixed Systems "management" software/Configuration usually assumes "always on" (real Broadband) and limits the maximum number of users per mast sector.
• Mobile /Nomadic modems disconnect when there is no traffic and in areas between two masts can "hunt" between Masts. They can add unlimited users and hope that users are not online too much.

smcelhinney

I dont understand? Why are they forcing you on to WiMax? Are they discontinuing other products? If so, then surely thats a fundamental change to your original contract, and thus, you are entitled to cancel (as is the case with mobile phone operators, Im sure the same applies to fixed line)..

However IANAL.. so consult someone who knows for definite. I certainly wouldnt stay with someone who was forcing me on to another package and looking for money to do so..

vibe666

they aren't forcing him onto wimax, they've given him the choice of signing up or buggering off somewhere else, it's just very short notice.

hightower1

vibe666 wrote: »

they aren't forcing him onto wimax, they've given him the choice of signing up or buggering off somewhere else, it's just very short notice.

Short notice? Its 6 weeks, he only has to give 4 if he wants to leave them?

BigMoose

watty wrote:

They MUST turn off Breeze to Roll out "Imagine WiMax".

Oh bollocks. As a happy Breeze customer using Blueface for phone, I am dreading the day when I am forced off it as down in Wicklow Town I don't think I have much other choice but to pay for DSL +line rental or some crappy mobile service. Given the amount of data I sometimes use in a month and the fact I want low latency for blueface, the mobiles are not an option. I certainly wouldn't dream of paying Imagine to switch from Breeze to WiMax, I might consider trying it if they swapped it at no cost to me and without extending my contract period. Buggered if I'd pay them and be hooked into a new 12 month contract for an inferior service I never wanted!

wires

i wouldnt go blaming them for this, this is basically the fault of the government and eircom. its a combination of highest line rental charges and the govt endorsement of mobile 'broad'band services. if the fixed wireless system is not profitable any more then can you blame them?
the government seems to be fascinated with these 3g/hsdpa products but i bet none of the ministers use them themselves.
heres the bottom line...the copper network in this country is rotten and hampered by high line rental. as proved by all the threads on here complaining about dsl, it cannot service the whole country (combination of bad lines and limits of technology)
btw i know dsl in towns and cities is probably ok and cable also buy not everyone wants to live in a stinking filthy city surrounded by scumbags.
fixed wireless is good but given the terrain in this country line of sight will be an issue for many.
now we get to the main problem...mobile 3g/hsdpa services are so cheap that your average browser feels there is no contest. i know mobile is crap but the vast majority of users do not. there are a number of reasons they are so cheap but the most important one is that they are oversubscribed which leads to poor performance. the speed advertised is hardly ever achieved.
because of this cheaper alternative people are switching to mobile, i fear that propper broadband is only going to get more and more expensive or impossible to get.
so dont blame imagine - blame eircom and the government.
this is an issue of creating a supply to meet the demand. people want cheap broadband and the mobile operators are cleaning up. assuming most internet users just want a bit of browsing, email and occasional utube do you think they will pay eircom €50+ or go for 3g at €20 and dont try to tell me my assumption is incorrect because if most internet users were heavy users then we would already have a propper nationwide broadband service. you cannot blame a company for supplying what the majority of its customers want.

would have been nice i suppose if they had bothered to phone you and explain whats going on but thats business

watty

Ironically the 3G mobile Data is Horrendously more expensive than Eircom DSL and Line rental. It's subsidised by voice calls.
http://www.techtir.ie/blog/watty/mobile-never-broadband
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056065034

wires

yes of course your right, hence the problems oversubscription cause to an already stressed network but the problem is joe blog doesnt know or care about this, just wants a bit of browsing and email as cheap as possible. this is why broadband is in trouble.
of course, those in the know will seek out the best package available in their area paying little attention to cost but most people in ireland simply dont care.
this is why imagine are moving to an oversubscribed mobile service. the people who post on this forum regularly are in the minority in that they actually know a little about broadband. most irish people are wowefully uninformed, u just have to look at how many customers 3 has to see that people dont really care about quality, just cost and the only way to bring cost down is to lower the quality.

the only organisation that has the will and the resources to do anything about the state of broadband in this country is the government and we all know where they stand.

mybusinez i feel your pain, but unfortunatly there is nothing you can do. as far as the general public and the government are concerned there is no problem, broadband figures show ireland to be one of the world leaders in broadband rollout. ignorance is bliss

JustAddWater

wires wrote: »

not everyone wants to live in a stinking filthy city surrounded by scumbags.

What are you on about? Nothing to do with broadband, get over to R&R and come back when you've calmed down

...

Anyhow, OP its unfair that they are charging you to move but IBB are as a service being shutdown. Imagine are concentrating on wimax. It's a similar enough service with the user installing it themselves so it's not much different to IBB, speedwise from some of the horrendous stories, sounds like it'll be much better to be honest!

As an existing customer, they probably should offer you a deal of some kind to encourage you to stay but they're not obliged to. If they cut off the service then there's nothing you can do unfortunately as they're not doing anything wrong (morally, that's a different story)

watty

Actually I'd not assume they are doing nothing wrong.

whynotdo

Personally i would forego having any internet access rather than pay that E150 OP,I understand the arguments made but even if it was My loss i would call their bluff and say "I wish to cancel"
If all their existing customers done the same well they would have to reconsider their bully-boy tactics and at least not charge for their new approach.

Eircom has come up for mention, I think its days may be numbered as a private company.It has made many people working for them re-apply for their jobs and refused to re-employ them..........seems to me they are close to Liquidation.

I have no insight into the future but i think the time were the Govt has to Nationalise the copper fixed line network is on the toss of a coin.

watty

The Copper network is of little value. We need Fibre. A FTTH network would cost a 1/3rd of Eircom's Debts.

eircom isn't going to be liquidised nor nationalised. STT knows what they are doing.

Cabaal

vibe666 wrote: »

they aren't forcing him onto wimax, they've given him the choice of signing up or buggering off somewhere else, it's just very short notice.

6 weeks is more then enough notice, most companys only give 30 days.

While getting the OP to pay a connection fee to the new service is abit crappy imho they are entitled to do so, certainly nothing illegal about their actions.

Can't see Comreg being too bothered with this as the decision represents a company decision which they are entitled to do.

wires

watty wrote: »

STT knows what they are doing.

what exactly are they are doing then? seems to me like they are driving away customers fast with this ngb thing. add that to the fact that many eircom broadband customers who leave also disconnect the line and the loss is two fold. what is their logic in this?

everyone knows the copper network is obsolete so someone somewhere in power must realise that fiber must be rolled out at some stage as wireless is useless. im having a hard time thinking how much work would be involved in getting fiber to every house. how long would that take? and at what cost?

vibe666

Cabaal wrote: »

6 weeks is more then enough notice, most companys only give 30 days.

so you'd be fine with it if your mobile or broadband provider decided to do something similar?

it may be legal for them to do it, but its by no means fair to their loyal customers to expect them to have to pay €150 for what is effectively going to be a downgrade from the user perspective if they use it as an excuse to oversubscribe and i'd be lodging a complaint and voting with my feet if it was me.

wires

JustAddWater wrote: »

What are you on about? Nothing to do with broadband

quite a lot to do with broadband actually as broadband services in rural areas are often vastly inferiour to town and city services. this is to be expected of course but when complaining about the lack of broadband it must be pointed out that it is not the same everywhere.

i myself live in a rural area and i would kill for a reliable fixed wireless service but it seems that mobile is taking over, pity

i think i would agree with the other posts here and simply refuse to pay the €150 and take my business elsewhere, purely in principle. that is of course if there is a choice of isps

jor el

vibe666 wrote: »

so you'd be fine with it if your mobile or broadband provider decided to do something similar?

I know I wouldn't be fine with it, but I'd also know that there's nothing I could do about it. Imagine are shutting down an old system and replacing it with a newer one. It's unfortunate that the old one was quite good, and new one is crap, but it is their decision.

I'm sure Imagine's stance is that they're replacing old and outdated technology with newer and better technology. A complaint will fall on deaf ears, but I certainly wouldn't be paying them to move to their WiMax.

PogMoThoin

Hold on, €150 connection fee? What for? :eek:

I've often seen fixed wireless providers slated on here for charging a connection fee to cover install costs, at least they pay a home visit and do a fixed install with decent equipment getting the best signal possible, not give people €10 dongles and hope they work it out themselves.

How can they justify the connection fee? Money for nothing if You ask Me

watty

No Dongle is €10.
DSL Modems are cheap. But USB Wireless Modems for WiMax, 3G/HSPA or other Mobile systems (not WiFi) often cost €100 to €200. This is why they are operator locked when you buy them.

Matt in IT

I'm going to start a thread on this in a bit.
I used to get Breeze for my clients back when they had 2mb and 3mb packages and I got a reseller fee as a bonus. I wasn't complaining it was the best out there and I still got a kickback.

I've been using blueface for ages too.

I'm furious though that a company is allowed to come in and kill a superior product. They should be speeding things up and instead they are shafting a great product.

My business clients can't use WiMax as many threads on boards attest it is poor in comparison.

I will say I have moved a number of clients 10+ to Wicklow Broadband and they are all happy. Installed typically in a day or two from calling.
...I don't work for them in case you were wondering...

The basic pack upload isn't as fast as Breeze 1mb but it's far better than anything else.
The ping is quick and I get an A on pingtest.net - I am on a 5mb pack at the moment Blueface works nicely too.

I'm in Delgany and I've clients using Wicklow Broadband in Greystones, Bray Head, Charlesland and Newcastle.
If you ever visit the Happy Pear in greystones their free WiFi is hooked up to Wicklow Broadband.

I've just run this ping test. I usually get an A this time it's a B.
I think it's because of branch that I need to trim.
I've a 17ms ping on Speedtest.





cheers
Matt.