Larfs with UPC

peckerhead

I won't deal with 'em by 'phone any more, so...

Date: 13/11/2010 08:47:55
To: Customer.Support@upc.ie
Subject: Fault report - a/c no. XXXXXXX
Dear Sir/Madam,
Nothing has changed in our PC setup or router but for some weeks now we’ve been getting frequent network connection failures (sometimes hourly, at least 5/6 times a day) and similar dropouts on the phone line. Sometimes it cuts off a minute or two into the call, sometimes people tell us they can’t even get through. Could I ask you to do a line test, please, and then if necessary contact me to arrange for a technician to call and look at our ‘last mile’ of cable, which was laid when this house was built, in 1992, before Irish Multichannel became Chorus/NTL became UPC. I wonder if you might also consider replacing our router, which is the older Cisco EPC2425 model supplied when we were first connected to UPC last February. At the time the technician who installed it expressed some doubt about the quality of the cable and said to call him back to replace it if there was any problem.
Could I also ask, while you’re at it, to check whether we got the recent free upgrade from 5MB to Fibre Power Broadband 8Mb. We don’t seem to have benefitted from this, from what I can see of our speeds (test run with only one PC turned on, no other active connection).
Many thanks,
Peckerhead

**********************************************************************
On Mon, Nov 15, 2010 at 10:00 AM, UPC Customer Support <customer.support@upc.ie> wrote:
Dear Peckerhead,
Thank you for your recent email.
As per the account details I can confirm that the concern department is already working on this issue and a service call is scheduled on 16/11/2010 in between 9.00AM to 1.00PM.
Please note that the Fiber Power 8Mb pack will come at the price of € 25.00 per month hence please confirm if you want to proceed with the FREE upgrade.
If you have any further queries, please do not hesitate to email us on customer.support@upc.ie. Alternatively you can freephone 1908 to speak with one of our Customer Services Representatives. All calls are recorded.
Kind regards,
Nameless
UPC Customer Support Team

**********************************************************************
Many thanks, Nameless.
You say this is a free upgrade, yet specify a price. Can you clarify please — I understand that this upgrade from our existing products — Fibre Power Broadband 5Mb, plus Home Phone with Anytime World at €18.00, plus standalone charge of €7.75 a month — comes without any extra cost and does not constitute a new 12 months contract, it is simply a technical upgrade of your Broadband service (you no longer advertise a 5MB product). Is that correct?
Best wishes,
Peckerhead

**********************************************************************
Dear Peckerhead,
Thank you for your recent email.
As per the account details I can confirm that currently you are subscribing for the Fiber Power 5MB pack however we do not offer this pack anymore to the customers.
The 5MB pack has been replaced by Fiber Power 8MB which will have charges of € 25.00 per month.
Also there will not be any charges for the upgrade to the new pack.
Kind regards,
Nameless
UPC Customer Support Team

**********************************************************************
Thank you, Nameless.
So, if I accept this "free" upgrade "with no charges", my charges will rise by €3/month?
Will I also be considered to have entered a new 12 months contract?
Best wishes,
Peckerhead

**********************************************************************
Dear Peckerhead,
Thank you for your recent email.
Please note that there will not be any new 12 months contract applicable to your subscription for the Broadband Upgrade.
Kind regards,
Nameless
UPC Customer Support Team

**********************************************************************

For a telecommunications company, they don't do, eh, communications very well, do they? :rolleyes:

jor el

What's wrong with that? They'll upgrade your modem model, without charge, but you must change to FP 8MBps broadband, which has a different price to your 5Mbps broadband. There's no charge for the upgrade, but the 8Mbps broadband has a different price. You're making more of this than you need to.

Thor

let me get this straight, They are giving you an extra 3mbps for an extra 3 euro per month!!

I have seen alot of companies up there price and NOT give you anything for it.

Also i see no problems with the correspondence you received, Its the problem you have that you are mad about not how they communicated.

peckerhead

I've no problem paying €3 extra for an upgrade, once they first sort out the connection problem. (Incidentally, I don't have to upgrade to get a new(er) modem, if it turns out that that's the source of the problem, although my hunch is it's the cable...)

I just wanted a straight answer to two simple questions. That's my point.

jor el

peckerhead wrote: »

I just wanted a straight answer to two simple questions. That's my point.

But, they did answer both of your questions. There's a service call booked for tomorrow, and to avail of the 8Mbps speed you need to pay for it, all you need to do is confirm you'd like the change. Isn't that it?

peckerhead

Are you trying to take away my grievance?

jor el

Yes. Yes I am... I can also take away your pain, your fear, your shoes and your motorcycle.

peckerhead

:eek: Do you work for UPC Customer Service too?

vibe666

peckerhead wrote: »

:eek: Do you work for UPC Customer Service too?
http://news.cnet.com/i/bto/20080507/GTA_IV_540x303.jpg

don't even go there! accusing people of working for UPC is how flame wars start.

also, what router do you want them to upgrade you to?

AFAIK even if you signed up today for 30mbps broadband from UPC you'd still be given the EPC2425, i'm not aware of them currently providing any other router to their customers so if you get them to replace it, they're just going to give you another EPC2425.

the only other option you have is to try and get them to give you the scientific atlanta 2203 EMTA which is basically a cable modem with two phone ports on it and then supplying your own router, which would be a better option anyway imho, but it can be like trying to get blood from a stone sometimes.

jor el

vibe666 wrote: »

the only other option you have is to try and get them to give you the scientific atlanta 2203 EMTA which is basically a cable modem with two phone ports on it and then supplying your own router, which would be a better option anyway imho, but it can be like trying to get blood from a stone sometimes.

That's what I have, with a separate Netgear router. It was the standard kit when I had UPC installed. One poster on this forum did manage to get UPC to provision a Scientific Atlanta modem that he had sourced himself (could have been on Adverts.ie), to replace the uber-crap EPC2425 that he had. So, if you can find a decent cable modem, you may be able to get UPC to provision it's MAC address for you, and then use that.

jamesmc123

Jor_El must work for UPC

bealtine

jamesmc123 wrote: »

Jor_El must work for UPC

Just because Jor_el is calling it like it is does not necessarily mean he works for UPC, thats just silly.
AS he outlines that's exactly what I did too and it worked for me. I swapped the crappy Cisco modem
for the older SA2203 modem. That Cisco is a joke the firmware that UPC commissioned is rubbish.

jor el

jamesmc123 wrote: »

Jor_El must work for UPC

jamesmc123 must work for God, since he obviously knows everything about everyone. :rolleyes:

vibe666

a mate just had UPC 15mbps installed today. i'd warned him against getting the 2425 so he specifically asked for the 2203 and said he had to use a specific router from his work when he's working from home.

when the engineers came out to do the install, it still took him 10 minutes to convince them he didn't want the cisco tho, they really didn't want to give him a 2203. i imagine they're like gold dust these days.

vibe666

vibe666 wrote: »

a mate just had UPC 15mbps installed today. i'd warned him against getting the 2425 so he specifically asked for the 2203 and said he had to use a specific router from his work when he's working from home.

when the engineers came out to do the install, it still took him 10 minutes to convince them he didn't want the cisco tho, they really didn't want to give him a 2203. i imagine they're like gold dust these days.

I'm meant to be getting my 2203 replaced tomorrow, because they categorically deny that there's any software issue with my modem (it's running on the old firmware so I'm getting dropouts due to DCC errors). I suspect a registered letter will have to go out if the replacement modem still has the old firmware.

vibe666

i've had firmware updates pushed out remotely onto my 2203, can't they just do that?

vibe666

vibe666 wrote: »

i've had firmware updates pushed out remotely onto my 2203, can't they just do that?

Well I got the replacement modem this morning, it's a pretty old looking one with a WebStar logo rather than a Scientific Atlanta one, so probably a refurb. However it updated itself to the new Cisco firmware within a few minutes of powering on so I'm guessing my old modem wasn't accepting updates for some reason. Problem solved.