Good bye UPC, I'm outta here!

TheGrump

After many confusing phone calls and being repeatedly lied to by UPC customer support, I've decided to vote with my feet and ditch UPC.

I've moved my TV to Sky, so now I need to get a new broadband provider. Any suggestions for the best provider in the Dublin 16 (knocklyon) area? I'm looking at speeds of around 8MB. I know I could just compare prices, but my main aim is to get a good service with decent speed (neither of which I got from UPC)

iknorr

Strange, id rank UPC as the best service in Ireland....

garden_snapper

I would have to second that.

iknorr wrote: »

Strange, id rank UPC as the best service in Ireland....

Quandary

Im with the OP on this one - their service isnt a patch on Sky & I found the broadband bandwidth kept getting hammered in the evenings.

I changed 2 years ago after much frustration.

Now have Sky & Smart Telecom broadband + i've never looked back.

seamus

Your only other option is DSL, none of which are likely to get you 8Mb in reality.

I too would rank UPC as the best service you can get. I have a 10Mb line which I generally get 12Mb down/1.5Mb up on.

Customer service is hit-and-miss, but thankfully we don't have much reason to call them. Been a couple of outages last year, but each time there was an automated message saying they were aware of it, which obviously saved me having to wait to talk to someone.

TouchingVirus

The difference between their service and customer service can be miles apart at times.

seamus wrote: »

I too would rank UPC as the best service you can get. I have a 10Mb line which I generally get 12Mb down/1.5Mb up on.

Fairly sure they don't do the 10Mb package any more, anybody on it was given a free upgrade to 15Mb down, 1.5Mb up - that explains your speeds (and mine )

listermint

UPC ive found has had the best service around tbh, never really called the customer service line.

Im moving apartment soon and sadly no upc in new place. nightmare. Il miss my 15Mb line alot.

Cant see getting anywhere close. DSL it looks like , expensive

Sparky

Never had an issue with UPC at all.
Anytime I needed to deal with UPC on a customer level and a technical level, they were always pleasant.

Customer service can be different for everyone as well as connections and what you expect out of both.

TheGrump

Without going into too much details, in the the past year they have

1. stopped sending me bills, I did not ask for this
2. I have to access bills online, I was told I should have gotten a passord when I registered. I have never registerd, therfore I have no password. They will not give me a password.
3. They increased their prices without telling me
4. They increased my broadband without consulting me, and are now charging me for the privelage.
5. They took €80 from my account and won't tell me why. They told me to look at my bill, but I don't have one.
6. As of this month they charge me monthly instead of 2 monthly, when I asked why, they said they have been doing this for the last 6 months. They have not been doing this for 6 months, but they still haven't told me why. Again they sent no letter to inform me that they changed my billing.
7. All of this information took about 20 minutes to get out of the customer support person and I am still none the wiser. I asked to speak to their supervisor but the supervisor was out of the office. They always say this, they just won't let you speak to them. I insisted that they get the supervisor to call back. THat was 5 days ago, still no call back

That's the end of my rant.

dub45

TheGrump wrote: »

Without going into too much details, in the the past year they have

1. stopped sending me bills, I did not ask for this
2. I have to access bills online, I was told I should have gotten a passord when I registered. I have never registerd, therfore I have no password. They will not give me a password.
3. They increased their prices without telling me
4. They increased my broadband without consulting me, and are now charging me for the privelage.
5. They took €80 from my account and won't tell me why. They told me to look at my bill, but I don't have one.
6. As of this month they charge me monthly instead of 2 monthly, when I asked why, they said they have been doing this for the last 6 months. They have not been doing this for 6 months, but they still haven't told me why. Again they sent no letter to inform me that they changed my billing.
7. All of this information took about 20 minutes to get out of the customer support person and I am still none the wiser. I asked to speak to their supervisor but the supervisor was out of the office. They always say this, they just won't let you speak to them. I insisted that they get the supervisor to call back. THat was 5 days ago, still no call back

That's the end of my rant.

They increased their prices without telling anyone except those customers who read the Irish Independent or who happen to visit the website and who are lucky enough to notice a "price notice" down in the bottom right hand corner.

Comreg are now advising that such behaviour is against the law!!!!

http://askcomreg.ie/tell_us/phone_and_broadband_contracts.247.LE.asp

Changes to a contract
Your service provider may wish to change the terms and conditions of its service, including changes to the prices it charges. By law it may do so but it must notify you of the change at the same time at least one month in advance. The service provider must advise you that you have the right to end the contract without penalty if you do not accept the change to the contract.

TheGrump

Yeah I read about that on the web after all these problems. Against the law or not it is a terrible way to treat your customers:mad:

The only way to deal with this sort of thing is to vote with your feet, that's why I'm going somewhere eles for my broadband/TV

I also forgot to mention that last year they upgraded their tv, my decoder couldn't handle the added information and stopped working. It took them 2 weeks to come out to my house. The technician that came out gave me a new decoder, and no more probs, but he told me that hundreds of people had been affected. No apology from UPC and no refund for the time I was without a TV

TouchingVirus

TheGrump wrote: »

Without going into too much details, in the the past year they have

1. stopped sending me bills, I did not ask for this
2. I have to access bills online, I was told I should have gotten a passord when I registered. I have never registerd, therfore I have no password. They will not give me a password.
3. They increased their prices without telling me
4. They increased my broadband without consulting me, and are now charging me for the privelage.
5. They took €80 from my account and won't tell me why. They told me to look at my bill, but I don't have one.
6. As of this month they charge me monthly instead of 2 monthly, when I asked why, they said they have been doing this for the last 6 months. They have not been doing this for 6 months, but they still haven't told me why. Again they sent no letter to inform me that they changed my billing.
7. All of this information took about 20 minutes to get out of the customer support person and I am still none the wiser. I asked to speak to their supervisor but the supervisor was out of the office. They always say this, they just won't let you speak to them. I insisted that they get the supervisor to call back. THat was 5 days ago, still no call back

That's the end of my rant.

#4 - Possibly related to #5? Other than that we've been upgraded from old expired packages (10Mbit) to the new one (15Mbit) at no extra cost and requiring no extra contractual agreement.

#5 - could be the old "UPC Broadband Fibre Power Extreme" package that you get put onto for a month when you exceed your download limit (250GB). If you keep your usage low the following month on the Extreme package you get put back onto your normal package.

#6 - Billing Monthly, it's been that way for about a year now with ourselves. As far as I know there was no change request, it was just done.

dub45

TouchingVirus wrote: »

#4 - Possibly related to #5? Other than that we've been upgraded from old expired packages (10Mbit) to the new one (15Mbit) at no extra cost and requiring no extra contractual agreement.

#5 - could be the old "UPC Broadband Fibre Power Extreme" package that you get put onto for a month when you exceed your download limit (250GB). If you keep your usage low the following month on the Extreme package you get put back onto your normal package.

#6 - Billing Monthly, it's been that way for about a year now with ourselves. As far as I know there was no change request, it was just done.

A billing cycle should not be changed without informing customers in advance of any such change.

It should not be up to contributors on boards to speculate on what a company is doing a customer has a right to know exactly why charges are being made. And again any reputable company should be only too willing to explain charges on a customers account.

dub45

TheGrump wrote: »

Without going into too much details, in the the past year they have

1. stopped sending me bills, I did not ask for this
2. I have to access bills online, I was told I should have gotten a passord when I registered. I have never registerd, therfore I have no password. They will not give me a password.
3. They increased their prices without telling me
4. They increased my broadband without consulting me, and are now charging me for the privelage.
5. They took €80 from my account and won't tell me why. They told me to look at my bill, but I don't have one.
6. As of this month they charge me monthly instead of 2 monthly, when I asked why, they said they have been doing this for the last 6 months. They have not been doing this for 6 months, but they still haven't told me why. Again they sent no letter to inform me that they changed my billing.
7. All of this information took about 20 minutes to get out of the customer support person and I am still none the wiser. I asked to speak to their supervisor but the supervisor was out of the office. They always say this, they just won't let you speak to them. I insisted that they get the supervisor to call back. THat was 5 days ago, still no call back

That's the end of my rant.

If you are paying by direct debit then you are entitled to 14 days clear notice of any proposed charges on your bill. And if they took 80 euros (or any amount for that matter) without the proper notification then you are entitled to a refund from your bank. This is provided for under the dd system although dont expect your bank to know this:rolleyes:

Contact IPSO (www.ipso.ie) and make your complaint.

It would seem that UPC exploit the dd system to make lots of money for themselves so the very least they could to is comply with the basic terms of that scheme.

Kinetic^

listermint wrote: »

never really called the customer service line.

Lucky you. I had 1 person tell me you couldn't use numbers in your SSID, then the next day had someone tell me you couldn't use letters in your SSID.

I lol'd at them, cancelled within 30 days. Never ever again. Eircom are pricey but it's worked 99% of the time since I signed up in 2005.

Inquitus

If you need phone+internet+TV then UPC is streets ahead.

Sky > UPC for TV alone granted.

Only Magnet can rival the BB, and they have no penetration except the odd development here and there. Eircom / Smart etc. aren't even at the races.

The phone is way better value then eircom and there's no line rental.

The combo package is soo much cheaper than a Sky + Eircom / Whoever alternative.

Ricky91t

I'd agree, I have sky in my home home and UPC in my student home. Sky is a lot better by far but then, Sky + 3mb broadband is costing about €50, where as UPC is €55 for a lot quicker connection and the same TV package!

TheGrump

I agree that purely on a cost basis that the UPC broadband+TV bundle is the cheapest, that's why I have stayed with UPC for so long, but at some stage enough is enough and you have to take a stand against shoddy companies. It's just a pity that there is such limited choice for good broadband providers.

Fighting Irish

iknorr wrote: »

Strange, id rank UPC as the best service in Ireland....

Their broadband yes, their tv package no

iknorr

Apologies i should have stated that i only use UPC for broadband.

But for what its worth....

I had 2 issues with UPC, one was regarding the issue with Wifi signal strenght. That was resolved efficiently after 2 calls and an email, with a solution that i couldnt have even imagine i was to be offered. Im not going to give details as it is a unique case but i was more than impressed.
The other issue is still an open issue since the first week in december. I didnt follow it up at all (got caught up in all the christmas hype), until yesterday. Im waiting for a reply from the person dealing with both complaints.

I had similar issues with eircom. Now compare UPC service with Eircoms below.
Since February last year to October i was back and forth with eircoms "tech support"-usually me ringing them after they never "returned the phonecall"
It started from the first day of connection my 7mb broadband was 0.8mb with a ping counted in seconds not ms. this continued for over 2 months.
. I had a bunch of problems with Eircoms Zyxel Router, i provided logs, error reports and detailed info that a product tester should have been employed to do. I also tested some "new" firmware for them. I ended opting to opt out of contract due to their router being not fit for purpose- i have an email from eircom tech support saying theres no fix for the problems-they couldnt do anything more to help and it was an issue with their router. Only to be told by the manager in the cancellations departed that no email was sent saying this. No problems exist with any equipment and she doesnt care what tech support told me. She was awful. A horrible person that I hope rots in hell.
So after being treated like sh*t by their cancellation department and tech support i remembered about the letter about NGB saying due to a change in terms and conditions I can opt out of contract without penalty.
The cancellations department also denied that this letter was sent out. I offered to email it to this awful woman but she was having none of it but said she would look into it and proceed with the cancellation if she found that the letter was sent.
The next thing i know is that my broadband and phone were disconnected and a bill was issued for the remainder of the contract.
I returned a call and again they denied that a letter was sent. Again i offered to send the email or a copy to eircom. Eventually they said ok we will clear off the account and no charges will be issued.
That was a few weeks ago. Im still waiting for the "final bill"-where based on what i have on email they actually ow me money due to a refund i got for the first 2-3 months where broadband was unusable in my apartment due to eircoms upgrading shanigans.

Thats my dealing with both companies. Based entirely on that i choose UPC.
Now compare prices to eircom. UPC wins hands down.
Compare Speeds and download allowance. Again UPC wins.

quad_red

UPC broadband - very fast, very reliable, very good value.

UPC digital tv plus record - buggy, slow menus, poor image quality, have had numerous set top boxes replaced.

For me, broadband is far more important and I'm a happy customer as a result.

the_galway_fry

imm with the op ,anyone but upc will do me for broadband due to shocking cs.
what are our options instead of going down the line of telling us what your opinion of upc is...

jor el

the_galway_fry wrote: »

what are our options instead of going down the line of telling us what your opinion of upc is...

In terms of speed and price; none. The alternatives are slower and more expensive. Most Irish ISPs have very poor customer service departments, so changing from UPC to someone else is unlikely to make nay improvement. The only company coming close to UPC on speed is Magnet, where their LLU is available. This is highly limited, and speed is determined by the line quality and length, with probably less than about 30% of LLU lines actually being able to get anything in excess of 10Mbps.

If there's nothing wrong with the broadband, then you should try to put up with whatever CS problems there are, or keep trying to work through it. If there's nothing wrong with the broadband, then you shouldn't have to deal with CS anyway.

Switching provider is not necessarily going to lead to an instant happy solution. You may end up getting less, paying more, and still have to deal with similar crappy customer service.

Treehouse72

I have found UPC to be very, very good to deal with wrt customer service, arriving for appointments on time, fixing problems, price etc. in my last 2 years dealing with them.

Before that, the old NTL were the most obnoxious and incompetent crowd imaginable, so hats off to UPC for turning that around, in my case anyway.

useded

I had UPC last year and as I was in charge of paying the bill (uni house), I have a fair deal of knowledge in regards to their customer service.

Their customer service isn't great. You'll get through faster if you call the number that isn't free, naturally. If you use their free-phone service, you can be waiting more than fifteen minutes after a treacherous routine of pushing buttons and dealing with phone robots. That being said, everything that they do is within contract and although they may deduct large fees for not having money in your account if using a direct debit, their service is pretty much unmatchable in Ireland. They're on top of the broadband game and they know it!

All in all, I found UPC a wee bit stressful but the signal quality definitely made up for it!

dub45

useded wrote: »

I had UPC last year and as I was in charge of paying the bill (uni house), I have a fair deal of knowledge in regards to their customer service.

Their customer service isn't great. You'll get through faster if you call the number that isn't free, naturally. If you use their free-phone service, you can be waiting more than fifteen minutes after a treacherous routine of pushing buttons and dealing with phone robots. That being said, everything that they do is within contract and although they may deduct large fees for not having money in your account if using a direct debit, their service is pretty much unmatchable in Ireland. They're on top of the broadband game and they know it!

All in all, I found UPC a wee bit stressful but the signal quality definitely made up for it!

Everything that they do is most certainly not within contract the most notorious example being increasing their prices without telling people in advance as per their very own Terms and Conditions. Not only is it not within contract but according to Comreg it is illegal.

Charging people large sums of money when a direct debit is missed is not within contract either. And not advising people of the possibility of such fees when they sign up for direct debit (or at any other stage) can surely be considered as devious to put it charitably?

billyboy01

TheGrump wrote: »

Without going into too much details, in the the past year they have

1. stopped sending me bills, I did not ask for this
2. I have to access bills online, I was told I should have gotten a passord when I registered. I have never registerd, therfore I have no password. They will not give me a password.
3. They increased their prices without telling me
4. They increased my broadband without consulting me, and are now charging me for the privelage.
5. They took €80 from my account and won't tell me why. They told me to look at my bill, but I don't have one.
6. As of this month they charge me monthly instead of 2 monthly, when I asked why, they said they have been doing this for the last 6 months. They have not been doing this for 6 months, but they still haven't told me why. Again they sent no letter to inform me that they changed my billing.
7. All of this information took about 20 minutes to get out of the customer support person and I am still none the wiser. I asked to speak to their supervisor but the supervisor was out of the office. They always say this, they just won't let you speak to them. I insisted that they get the supervisor to call back. THat was 5 days ago, still no call back

That's the end of my rant.

They did the same sh1t to me before Christmas, especially the 80 quid crap without a valid reason, also the cable TV freezes a lot. So I left them thanks to the 4th of Jan price rise without charge, thanks to boards for informing me in time:)! I cancelled my Direct Debit first, just in case they try to screw me! Last bill will be payed in the Post Office.

Now I have TV with FreeSat HD for UK channels with Free DTT for RTE etc.., and Magnet BB for phone and Internet with similar BB
speeds and similar price!

lucernarian

jor el wrote: »

In terms of speed and price; none. The alternatives are slower and more expensive. Most Irish ISPs have very poor customer service departments, so changing from UPC to someone else is unlikely to make nay improvement. The only company coming close to UPC on speed is Magnet, where their LLU is available. This is highly limited, and speed is determined by the line quality and length, with probably less than about 30% of LLU lines actually being able to get anything in excess of 10Mbps.

If there's nothing wrong with the broadband, then you should try to put up with whatever CS problems there are, or keep trying to work through it. If there's nothing wrong with the broadband, then you shouldn't have to deal with CS anyway.

Switching provider is not necessarily going to lead to an instant happy solution. You may end up getting less, paying more, and still have to deal with similar crappy customer service.

I think people should change provider if one company in particular is not treating them correctly. Even if reputation is on the side of the company. The issues that the OP refer to could well be cured by moving elsewhere. It's not simply a case of "how good customer service is", it can come down to some companies being able to provide better service in some areas because of how the product pricing is structured or what type of technology is in use.

I have never heard of complaints about eircom billing except in the realm of inconsistencies with excessive usage and also in terms of how much exactly it costs for eircom to fix a problem that's the customer's responsibility.

Being charged extra money inexplicably is never justified by good technical service.

Also, the OP's issue is being forgotten by some of the posters, there's been as much stuff dedicated to sticking up for UPC than helping the OP out in dealing with the various issues.

OP, do you have any sort of traditional phone line in the house with a dial tone? If service was cancelled on it, does it have a "soft" dialtone?

You can get Digiweb Metro for €40 per month for the 8mbit package. If you sign up to an ADSL2+ provider and are near the Ballyboden neck of the woods I think, you'd have a very good chance of even higher speeds than that.

TheGrump

To_be_confirmed wrote: »

I think people should change provider if one company in particular is not treating them correctly. Even if reputation is on the side of the company. The issues that the OP refer to could well be cured by moving elsewhere. It's not simply a case of "how good customer service is", it can come down to some companies being able to provide better service in some areas because of how the product pricing is structured or what type of technology is in use.

I have never heard of complaints about eircom billing except in the realm of inconsistencies with excessive usage and also in terms of how much exactly it costs for eircom to fix a problem that's the customer's responsibility.

Being charged extra money inexplicably is never justified by good technical service.

Also, the OP's issue is being forgotten by some of the posters, there's been as much stuff dedicated to sticking up for UPC than helping the OP out in dealing with the various issues.

OP, do you have any sort of traditional phone line in the house with a dial tone? If service was cancelled on it, does it have a "soft" dialtone?

You can get Digiweb Metro for €40 per month for the 8mbit package. If you sign up to an ADSL2+ provider and are near the Ballyboden neck of the woods I think, you'd have a very good chance of even higher speeds than that.

I agree with a lot of people here about the fact that if I move to another provider they may have equally poor customer service. However I believe the only way to teach a company about their poor customer service is to hit them where it hurts and stop using their product/service. I have since spoken to one or two other customer service people about cancelling and one woman in particular was unbelievably rude on the phone, so that is the final nail in the coffin. Amongst many other things, when she tried to transfer me to the cancellation team there was no answer, so I told her to leave me on hold, I didn't mind waiting. Her response was that she was not allowed to leave me on hold for more than 60 seconds. I said I didn't mind but she insisted she could not do it.

Anyway, looks like Magnet might be the only way to go.

Another issue is that I don't have or want a landline in my house and SKy say they can't give me multiroom viewing wihtout one. I don't get this at all

lucernarian

what about the digiweb metro option? no line needed.

Nody

TheGrump wrote: »

Amongst many other things, when she tried to transfer me to the cancellation team there was no answer, so I told her to leave me on hold, I didn't mind waiting. Her response was that she was not allowed to leave me on hold for more than 60 seconds. I said I didn't mind but she insisted she could not do it.

Company policy for monitoring most likely; anyone put on hold for more then 60s would get scored down/fail the monthly review.

Another issue is that I don't have or want a landline in my house and SKy say they can't give me multiroom viewing wihtout one. I don't get this at all

If I remember correctly it has to do with the card in the box being updated/checked by Sky. There was/is ways around it with doing a one time update etc. but all of those would require a regular phone line I think