Very poor quality coverage on Meteor

Macspower

Any help and recommendations appreciated...

I signed up to Meteor Billpay a little over a month ago. I discussed the coverage witht he guy in the shop and the plans. Their unlimited plan suited my needs at 85 euro a month and he assured me of 99% coverage anywhere in Ireland..

Immediately on coming home I realised I have virtually no cover inside or outside my house. When I say virtually I mean If I need to make a call I have to walk around looking for 1 bar... this includes outside my house as well.. the person on the other end can never hear me properly with the calls constanlty breaking down.. I live in an area where they claim to have full coverage

But this is not where the major problem arises. I run a business and am constantly on the road. While travelling around the country the coverage has proven to be constantly terrible once I move anywhere outside a major town. with calls constantly dropped or I find myself telling someone I will call them back and then driving around like a lunatic looking for a bar of cover to make the call..

It is fine in high coverage areas but very poor outside it..

I complained to meteor and they told me in a copy and paste email to supply them with loads of details which I did. then they told me to get a new sim car which I did.. and then to try another phone which I did... None of this improved the qulaity of the service.

I am now using a ready to go vodafone to do business where my meteor unlimited phone wont work. I constantly get voicemails where the phone never rang on my end but the phone was showing coverage..

I am happy with my phone, I am happy with my plan. I just cannot run a business using this network...

I have just paid my first bill and I have offered to buy the phone from them at retail price (phone was free with contract) and to pay my bills up to date.. The last mail I recieved quoted loads of stuff from my contract and basically they say I cannot get out of my contract..

IMO they are not fulfiling their side of the contract by providing me a network that I can use.

Have I got grounds to get out of the contract? Surely I dont have to stay with a company that cant provide me with the service?

what should I do next?

evolutionqy7

Not sure but you might be too late (correct me if im wrong) . When you sign up for bill pay you get 14 days trial period to cancel it and bring it back.

Since your over a month im not sure can you argue with them since your over your trial period.

No network guarantees coverage indoors. Theres a reason why its 99 and it will never be 100% because of black spots in certain areas which occur in each network. Up to you to test it and find the one with best coverage to suit you.

Macspower

yeah your right about the 14 days... they told me I am outside that..

My problem is both indoors and outside as well...

thanks for the input

patrickc

try your sim in another phone for a while and see is it possibly the phone?

i had the same issue with meteor and it turned out was a fauly with the phone

Saint_Mel

Macspower wrote: »

But this is not where the major problem arises. I run a business and am constantly on the road. While travelling around the country the coverage has proven to be constantly terrible once I move anywhere outside a major town.

I must be one of the few people who have never really had any issues with Meteor coverage.

I've traveled the length and breath of the country following my LoI team and, off hand, the only place I can recall having poor reception is going through Granard in Longford.

Henne220

Macspower wrote: »

the person on the other end can never hear me properly with the calls constanlty breaking down.. I live in an area where they claim to have full coverage
While travelling around the country the coverage has proven to be constantly terrible once I move anywhere outside a major town. with calls constantly dropped or I find myself telling someone I will call them back and then driving around like a lunatic looking for a bar of cover to make the call..

It is fine in high coverage areas but very poor outside it..

This is 100% fact, its about time meteor strengthen the quality of their coverage. Well said macspower.

gollywog

I also must be lucky as i always have perfectly acceptable coverage (great in most areas?) and im from the country!

Macspower

the saga continues... Wow they really dont seem to listen to what I'm saying... They continue to speak about the coverage at my address but the problems I'm having are in any low coverage area... (basically a lot of places)

here is the reply I got from them today... are they serious about the cancelation fee being as in the letter below.. ie 85 per month x 17 months = 1445 euro? lol good luck to them trying to enforce this when they cannot provide cover for my phone... I am now keeping logs of dropped calls and the ususal.. "can you hear me??? can you hear me now???" kind of conversations

"Thank you for your reply.

I can confirm that I have forwarded all details that you have provided to our Technical team who will investigate this matter in great detail.

I understand that you wish to purchase the handset as it is not the contract that you are experiencing issues with, the issue is regarding the coverage. Unfortunately purchasing the handset is not a service that we provide in order to release you from the contract. I also can confirm that we cannot accept the return of a handset in order to release you from the contract. I can advise that at the start of every contract, customers have 14 days to cancel if they are dissatisfied with the service or the handset. After this 14 days you will receive a cancellation charge if you wish to break the contract early.

I can confirm that once our Technical team have investigated the issues with your coverage, they will confirm whether the coverage is sufficient at your address. If they confirm that the coverage is insufficient at your address they will be able to leave a note on your account stating that you are eligible to cancel your contract with Meteor without penalties. If they confirm that there are no issues with coverage at your address you will be charged a cancellation fee for breaking the contract early.

This cancellation fee will be calculated with the remaining amount of months on your contract at the time of cancellation multiplied by the monthly commitment."


love the bit about if there are no issues with coverage at your address.... if this was the case we wouldn't be having this conversation

dr ro

can you get someone else's phone that's got a meteor sim in it. And try it in your house or wherever you know you have problems with your own one. If they suggest you try using a different sim or a different phone then maybe there's a problem with both of them. Do you use any equipment that might block a mobile signal. I used to have problems with signal in my house, but it did improve a lot over time. Also, what type of phone is it, are they known for poor signal strength. If its an iphone 4 I think I know what your problem is!

ablelocks

both my wife and I are with Meteor, and have been for over 6 years. Over the last 4 months, the quality of the coverage has significantly deteriorated to the extent that this week we are not even getting missed call notifications or voicemails for upto 4 hours after the call has been made. This is calls to our phones - calls out often don't even connect, or drop before connecting, or drop while talking. My phone is a HTC Legend, hers is a sony c902. There is a marginal improvement if we stand outside, but we didn't have any problems previously, anywhere in the house.

I haven't had any issues anywhere else, so am at a loss to explain the recent deteroriation in coverage - there is a mast within 5kms of our house apparently, and the technical team have yet to come back to us.

Could it be the increase in data traffic on the network? Could wireless networks in the house be interfering with the signal?

We have an extra layer of interiour insulation - I thought this might be the issue, but we moved into the house last april and only started having coverage issues in August / Sept.

I had previously posted here about the excellent coverage, so am now eating my words. I've just set-up my own business, my wife works from home 1-2 days a week and we need decent coverage - the problem is that we both got excellent tarriffs with Meteor - for example I have 300 mins + free meteor calls and texts + 1gb data for €30 month and the equivalent vodafone rate would be €60. We don't have a landline as Eircom won't enable the local exchange for broadband, so don't see the point of having a landline just for calls at the rates they charge.

Mad_Mike

As far as I'm concerned, I wouldn't care what 14 day policies a company have

If they cannot supply me the service I am paying for, I'd let them drag me through every court in the country for it!!! This is disgraceful. If you are paying almost €100 per month for a service and cannot use it, then they should either sort your problem or let you out of contract!

Leaving that to one side for the moment, have you tried what dr_ro suggested?
Would it be possible you have a faulty handset?

Macspower

Mad_Mike wrote: »

As far as I'm concerned, I wouldn't care what 14 day policies a company have

If they cannot supply me the service I am paying for, I'd let them drag me through every court in the country for it!!! This is disgraceful. If you are paying almost €100 per month for a service and cannot use it, then they should either sort your problem or let you out of contract!

Leaving that to one side for the moment, have you tried what dr_ro suggested?
Would it be possible you have a faulty handset?

If I was sure they would drag me to court I would gladly go and put my case before a judge.. but no doubt they would just pass it to a debt collection company and when i refuse to pay they would just damage my credit rating and I would prefer to do it in agreement with them as I need to keep my mobile number..

Macspower

Right It's pain in the ass but I'm starting to keep records from now on of all instances of poor coverage..

eg this is from my online bill

I phones this number and got disconnected as soon as he answered.. this i called back and got 1.33 before getting cut off and then I ran around looking for 1 bar and finshed my call for 15 mins.. but during this there were several "can you hear me moments"
08 Dec 10 23:45 00:00:04 Vodafone 0879104xxx € 0.0000
08 Dec 10 23:45 00:01:33 Vodafone 0879104xxx € 0.0000
08 Dec 10 23:47 00:15:39 Vodafone 0879104xxx € 0.0000

10 dec 10 4pm approx. urlingford co kilkenny.... main m4... had emergency calls only for about 10 mins while i had to use my vodafone to make calls..

I'm just going to keep logs like this to support my claim of poor coverage... As I keep pointing out to them Its a real pity it doesn't work for what I need it for as I'd be delighted with my plan and phone otherwise

KrisW

Are you using a car kit? This is the only way to guarantee acceptable call quality inside a car. A car is a metal box with a bundle of wires running around it.. it's very difficult to get a radio signal in or out of this without an external antenna.

What kind of handset is it? Is it possible to get another same-model one to test if yours is faulty.

After that, it's a (small) legal matter, and this isn't the forum for that kind of advice. To me (not a lawyer) it sounds like non-performance: they are not meeting their side of the bargain, so you shouldn't be bound to yours. But, have a chat to a solicitor - first consult is usually free, and they're gagging for business these days

Macspower

KrisW wrote: »

Are you using a car kit? This is the only way to guarantee acceptable call quality inside a car. A car is a metal box with a bundle of wires running around it.. it's very difficult to get a radio signal in or out of this without an external antenna.

What kind of handset is it? Is it possible to get another same-model one to test if yours is faulty.

After that, it's a (small) legal matter, and this isn't the forum for that kind of advice. To me (not a lawyer) it sounds like non-performance: they are not meeting their side of the bargain, so you shouldn't be bound to yours. But, have a chat to a solicitor - first consult is usually free, and they're gagging for business these days

yes I'm using a car kit while in the car... The kit is a parrot car kit and connects via bluetooth and has an external ariel (stuck to the window T bar type).. I've had it for about a year while on the vodafone network and it work fine.. when I do get connection in a high signal area everything is crystal clear...

Agree with you on the legal thing but I'm still more interested in getting what I have working... good idea about the same phone... I'll go to the shop on Monday and see what they can offer

ablelocks

after posting here on Friday, I called Meteor again. It now turns out that since I called them 2 weeks ago, network coverage in my area is now classified as poor quality. And there's nothing they can do, very sorry, if you want to switch go ahead without penalty.

4 months of them telling me the network is fine and suddenly the story changes to poor quality? I've spoken to a few other meteor customers in the locality and they've also experienced poor coverage over the last number of months. Have meteor downgraded their network?

evolutionqy7

yeah but look at their side of the story. they cant do anything. cant just start handing back handsets and bill pay contracts to any one who says they got **** coverage?

takes time for a big company to move their arse and investigate cause theres thousands of people like you calling everyday.

i think this process would be far faster if people would stop trying to scam companies by saying they have poor coverage in order to get of contract without penalty and keep the phone.

ablelocks

evolutionqy7 wrote: »

yeah but look at their side of the story. they cant do anything. cant just start handing back handsets and bill pay contracts to any one who says they got **** coverage?

takes time for a big company to move their arse and investigate cause theres thousands of people like you calling everyday.

i think this process would be far faster if people would stop trying to scam companies by saying they have poor coverage in order to get of contract without penalty and keep the phone.

neither myself or macspower are attempting this - if you bothered to read our posts, you would know that we both wish to stay with meteor but cannot due to the deterioration of the network quality.

but thanks for your help anyway. your contribution means a lot.

evolutionqy7

Knew well you were gonna say that should have included in the first place.

I don't mean you two are. There's tons of people that are trying to scam. And this makes the case harder for decent folks.

Macspower

Just an update on the saga... I have mailed them now several times and I have offered to buy my handset from them but they keep sending me standard copy and paste replies..

Eventually I got someone on the phone in the waterford office that really tried to help... He contacted tech on my behalf and they asked me to send in a google map with a pin prick of my house and they would look into my case. I did and also sent them a log of dropped calls and he said I shouldn't have a problem once they admit that my coverage is bad... he said they would conduct an investigation and reply to me directly..

following reply.

"I can confirm that our Technical team have investigated the issues with your coverage, they have confirmed that the coverage is sufficient at your address. Since there are no issues with coverage at your address you will be charged a cancellation fee for breaking the contract early.

This cancellation fee will be calculated with the remaining amount of months on your contract at the time of cancellation multiplied by the monthly commitment."

So I spent 3 hours ont he phone with them today... the same nice guy tried his best for me but tech refused to take my calls and instead kept sending the poor lad back onto me to repeat himself again..

My one question to him was "what do I do now! his answer was that tech have said that there are no coverage issues so there is no more they will do... to which I replied please send someone to my address and see if they can make a call...

he suggested in the end that I should contact comreg and get them to do an investigation into my coverage..

Surely this is not their job...

At my wits end with this.. I just want a phone I can use!!!!

evolutionqy7

Macspower wrote: »

Just an update on the saga... I have mailed them now several times and I have offered to buy my handset from them but they keep sending me standard copy and paste replies..

Eventually I got someone on the phone in the waterford office that really tried to help... He contacted tech on my behalf and they asked me to send in a google map with a pin prick of my house and they would look into my case. I did and also sent them a log of dropped calls and he said I shouldn't have a problem once they admit that my coverage is bad... he said they would conduct an investigation and reply to me directly..

following reply.

"I can confirm that our Technical team have investigated the issues with your coverage, they have confirmed that the coverage is sufficient at your address. Since there are no issues with coverage at your address you will be charged a cancellation fee for breaking the contract early.

This cancellation fee will be calculated with the remaining amount of months on your contract at the time of cancellation multiplied by the monthly commitment."

So I spent 3 hours ont he phone with them today... the same nice guy tried his best for me but tech refused to take my calls and instead kept sending the poor lad back onto me to repeat himself again..

My one question to him was "what do I do now! his answer was that tech have said that there are no coverage issues so there is no more they will do... to which I replied please send someone to my address and see if they can make a call...

he suggested in the end that I should contact comreg and get them to do an investigation into my coverage..

Surely this is not their job...

At my wits end with this.. I just want a phone I can use!!!!

Take a video of your phones coverage while walking around the house and stepping outside of it cant do anything then really. You provided real evidence that your having coverage issues. Then ring meteor and ask them for an email to send it to.

But before!
I suggest you contact Consumer Rights for an advice. You can just email them and they will ring you back the next day and wont cost ya a penny

kaiser sauze

Cancel the direct debit and write to them telling them they are not fulfilling their side of the contract by providing you with a useable service. Any further communicaton about this matter should be in writing only and you need to start keeping detailed logs. [Advise them you are doing this so they know they will have to face the reality if they make an issue over it]

The main thing going against you is that you did not cancel within the 14 days, was the service equally poor then or did it get worse?

That being said, the 14 days thing do not absolve them of the responsibility to provide you with a service.

Maental2000

Macspower wrote: »

Just an update on the saga... I have mailed them now several times and I have offered to buy my handset from them but they keep sending me standard copy and paste replies..

Eventually I got someone on the phone in the waterford office that really tried to help... He contacted tech on my behalf and they asked me to send in a google map with a pin prick of my house and they would look into my case. I did and also sent them a log of dropped calls and he said I shouldn't have a problem once they admit that my coverage is bad... he said they would conduct an investigation and reply to me directly..

following reply.

"I can confirm that our Technical team have investigated the issues with your coverage, they have confirmed that the coverage is sufficient at your address. Since there are no issues with coverage at your address you will be charged a cancellation fee for breaking the contract early.

This cancellation fee will be calculated with the remaining amount of months on your contract at the time of cancellation multiplied by the monthly commitment."

So I spent 3 hours ont he phone with them today... the same nice guy tried his best for me but tech refused to take my calls and instead kept sending the poor lad back onto me to repeat himself again..

My one question to him was "what do I do now! his answer was that tech have said that there are no coverage issues so there is no more they will do... to which I replied please send someone to my address and see if they can make a call...

he suggested in the end that I should contact comreg and get them to do an investigation into my coverage..

Surely this is not their job...

At my wits end with this.. I just want a phone I can use!!!!

That's absolutely ludicrous carry on by them. Why don't you use the small claims court to sue them? It's a simple procedure, only costs €15....it does take a few weeks to get sorted but it'll be worth the wait. You should be able to apply online, but if you're court isn't listed then just go into your local district court. Here's a link http://courts.ie/courts.ie/Library3.nsf/PageCurrentWebLookUpTopNav/Small%20Claims%20Procedure
I had to use this last year against meteor over their ridiculous repairs policy and I got the resolution I was seeking.
At the end of the day, you're paying for a service that is not being delivered....which they've already acknowledged!! If I were you, I'd also be claiming that since you've not been getting this service, you are seeking reimbursement on the bills which you have paid.

I hope this helps buddy

TeaServer

Hi,

I'm a Meteor customer and have no real complaints with the coverage in Dublin or even at my parents house in rural Clare.

However, I do sometimes suffer from poor coverage (even in some parts of Dublin) and the reason (I reckon) is that I'm on a 3G site with poor coverage. On my phone (Android) you can select wheter to use 2+3G or 2G/3G only. If I want to be sure have have good cover for voice/sms I switch my phone to only use 2G. I have no issues with coverage then. If I want to use a large amount of mobile data then I switch back to 2G/3G/auto.

If you have an Android handset, it might be worth checking if you have better coverage on 2G only. (Or alternatively, use an old 2G phone to test your signal quality) Not an ideal solution, but might save you the hassle of trying to get out of contract.

Macspower

kaiser sauze wrote: »

Cancel the direct debit and write to them telling them they are not fulfilling their side of the contract by providing you with a useable service. Any further communicaton about this matter should be in writing only and you need to start keeping detailed logs. [Advise them you are doing this so they know they will have to face the reality if they make an issue over it]

The main thing going against you is that you did not cancel within the 14 days, was the service equally poor then or did it get worse?

That being said, the 14 days thing do not absolve them of the responsibility to provide you with a service.

The real problem with the 14 days was that during this time I was working in Dublin and the coverage was fine.. I didn't use it much at home. The issue really came to light when the bad weather started and I ended up working from home for a few days... I knew it was poor before this but didn't realise how bad it was until I constantly had the " can you hear me now conversations" I was onto them again today still requesting a call back from someone in charge and also requesting a point of contact for my claim as every mail I get is only signed meteor customer service and never has a name.. I would imagine I am entitled to this?

Macspower

Maental2000 wrote: »

That's absolutely ludicrous carry on by them. Why don't you use the small claims court to sue them? It's a simple procedure, only costs €15....it does take a few weeks to get sorted but it'll be worth the wait. You should be able to apply online, but if you're court isn't listed then just go into your local district court. Here's a link http://courts.ie/courts.ie/Library3.nsf/PageCurrentWebLookUpTopNav/Small%20Claims%20Procedure
I had to use this last year against meteor over their ridiculous repairs policy and I got the resolution I was seeking.
At the end of the day, you're paying for a service that is not being delivered....which they've already acknowledged!! If I were you, I'd also be claiming that since you've not been getting this service, you are seeking reimbursement on the bills which you have paid.

I hope this helps buddy

I will check out about the small cliams court but I'm not sure it will help as I'm not sure what I'm suing them for... I want to leave my contract and they want to keep me in it... I guess it is up to them to sue me? My main issue is that I want to get back my number as I have it on all my print and everyone knows it now.. a new number would definately cost me business...

thanks for the input

Macspower

really feel like I'm getting blanked now... I actually wonder does anyone actually read my mails...

Do meteor have a rep on here by any chance?

this is the mail I wrote to them yesterday

After several calls to your customer service I still find myself in the same situation...

I spoke to Jack in your waterford office on Friday and again yesterday. and complied with all his requestes to resend emails etc etc.. I later spoke to Kerry and she tells me that your tech department say I should have cover at my address and this now ends the matter... She suggested I get comreg to conduct an investigation into my coverage... surely that is not their job?

Can you please tell me how this ends the matter if I still can't use my phone?

I have requested a call back from someone that can deal with my issue

Also I have requested a point of contact for my complaint which according to comreg I am entitled to. Every time I call I have to repeat my story to a new person.. Please provide a contact name and direct line for my complaint..

I refer to your code of practice you sent me..

5.2.1 Stages of the complaint
The following are the principal stages of the complaint handling process.
Contact by customer
Acknowledgement of the complaint Investigation of the complaint Notification of resolution or Internal escalation
Other

5.2.2 Categories of complaint

The five main categories of complaint are outlined below along with targeted minimum resolution times for each category. Where a resolution can not be reached within these target timescales, Meteor will endeavour to notify the customer periodically of the status of the issue until a resolution is achieved. Billing 5 workings days Network Quality/Coverage Immediate response, restoration of service within 24 hours Roaming 5 working days Handset 10 working days Other 10 working days
5.3 Response times
All complaints will be either acknowledged or responded to within at least two working days. Where possible Meteor will attempt to provide customers with an estimate of the time to resolution that is more precise than the target times outlined above. In the case of an ongoing issue the customer will be notified that the issue has yet to be resolved. On resolution of the issue the customer will be informed of the resolution.

Can you tell me what stage my complain is at?
Can it be escalated internally?
If you are finished with my complaint and don't intend to look any further into it how do I appeal your desision and who is your governing body? ie regulator/ombudsman?

I cannot go on using a phone that doesn't work and I am offering a reasonable way of settling the matter.,. I am not prepared to "buy" my way out of my contract for 1200+ and I am not prepared to keep paying for a service that doesn't work...

Can you tell me the situation if I just refuse to pay my bill? At this stage will you just pass it onto a collection company? or will you go to court? If court is the option I would like to take this option and explain my case to a judge....

I look forward to your reply and a point of contact at your earliest convenience and also still await the call back requested by Kelly in your CSD..

regards

their reply today

Dear Paul,


Thank you for your reply.

I can confirm that you were advised on 17/12/2010 that our Technical Support Team have advised that they have not received any reported coverage issues in the Sallins area or in the area where you live, and based on the call history our Technical Support Team have also advised that they cannot see any issues from the call and text history on your account.

I apologise for any inconvenience caused by this.

If you have any further queries please call customer care or email info@meteor.ie and we will be delighted to assist you.



Regards,



Customer Care Administration Team

Meteor Mobile Communications

Email: info@meteor.ie

Fax: 01 4307013

kaiser sauze

It is clear now that they are not listening to you and trying to get you to suck up and drop the issue, which is what 99% of Paddys do.

Now, if I were in your position, I would do what I said to you in my first post.

The question is whether you have the strength of conviction to see it through until the bitter end, even up to facing them in a court about it?

If it were ever to go to a court, and I highly doubt they would, a judge will never make you pay for a service you are not receiving.

black & white

I would notify them in writing that you consider that you have now exhausted their complaints procedures and are now going to contact the Regulator.

Contact the Regulator and outline your complaint in detail. Tell them that the Meteor procedures are exhausted ( they won't intervene if it's possible for Meteor to take further action)

I had a similar situation with an energy supplier which went on for months and after I took the above steps, I received a call from the supplier within 2 hours assuring me the matter was now settled.

Macspower

Well I have written to them again and today I spent an hour of my time making detialed logs of my coverage and taking screen shots of my phone...

I wont post them all here and there is 60 screenshots in total. 1 every minute for an hour... I have asked them one more time to review my case and if they cant help I will forward my case to comreg.

example of the screenshots...

btw the coverage bar is on the top left... ie non existant... to the left of the 3g or E symbol



the 48/60 of the screenshots show 0 bars and 12 show 1 bar of cover..

the most interesting one was at one stage I got the usual beep beep of a new message and when I check it it sais I had a missed call but the phone had never rang..
nice to have proof



lets see whats comes of it.

Max Power 2010

Quick q, can I ask why it has Vodafone on your screen in your screenshots?