UPC not available yet houses either side have it..

iknorr

So im moving house at the mo.

The house im moving into has UPC broadband either side ( its a terraced house)

The line checker says its not available.

The moving house peeps say its not available, tech support says it s a database mistake and it must be available if the houses either side have it.

So its gone back to the moving house department again.

Has anyone experience in a similar situation.

Is it literally a line running across the roof that they T off of?

lucernarian

This comes up every so often on these forums, it's completely inexplicable to me and it can be hard to get anything done about it from what I've read here. Though in general it's somewhat easier to get things sorted out since UPC have taken over NTL and merged the two. Trying to get NTL or worse, Chorus to listen to something that wasn't on the script was a nightmare.

What can you do about it... Nag them and ask them on twitter and so on. Hopefully they'll see sense and get their database changed by the relevant dept.

Sponge Bob

I know someone who gave up on UPC in Galway and ( paid for and) installed it next door who did not have or want broadband. He _strongly_ considered cutting off the cable that runs along the fascia of his house to get them to listen.

Next door takes the free phonecalls and he ran a CAT 5 cable around the back from the modem. Customer care simply don't listen...whether you get the Limerick lot of the new Indian lot.

lucernarian

How long ago was that SB?!

Is it possible to pretend to UPC that there is a new address there and arrange for a new connection to be wired up? E.g. I live in 4a so can UPC send someone out to wire it up? Then when the techie arrives, set him straight and hopefully he can re-add the address to the database...

It's desperate but it may work!

Sponge Bob

To_be_confirmed wrote: »

Is it possible to pretend to UPC that there is a new address there and arrange for a new connection to be wired up? E.g. I live in 4a so can UPC send someone out to wire it up? Then when the techie arrives, set him straight and hopefully he can re-add the address to the database...

It's desperate but it may work!

It does work, if UPC think that ( hypothetical terrace) Number 10 has BB, 11 no and 12 yes then 11 should give their address as 10b or 12b and the engineer will come out. If the engineer can amend their database later from 10b to 11 or from 12b to 11 then fine, if not just live with it once you get BB installed.

The postie will probably drop the letters into 11 anyway

iknorr

Id be surprised if they fell for that.

Then again, i could just say im renting out the small building at the rear of the house...

ponder ponder...

Sponge Bob

iknorr wrote: »

Id be surprised if they fell for that.

Tell us how it goes, should work easily in a terraced house. The engineer will not fancy leaving without completing an install

lucernarian

The point of the idea is not to fool the technician, it's to fool the database and UPC customer care. When he goes out, you can explain the situation and ask what can be done.

He may mark you off as a successful install on "youraddressnum-a" and you can order UPC broadband then. Indeed, the installer may even setup the broadband when he calls out and sees that there's no work to be done:D

caspa307

my house was the exact same go to one of the upc stands, explain the situation and the guy at the stand will arrange for someone to come out and sortit out i would say is whoever lived there before you refused to have the garden dug up so they could put the lines in as thats what happend to me, you could ring them about it but i got more satisfaction from the stand

iknorr

Got an email reply from UPC sales.

They said theres no cables on my side of the road and all they can offer is satelite tv.

Im sure a next door neightbour has UPC broadband as the signal is fairly strong. The road im on is wide so theres no way it could be from across the road.

Yet the house alongisde me are all listed as having broadband, hd etc and my one just has HD with no broadband.

Something very fishy going on here....

Solair

You'll probably have to ask your neighbours if they have it.

UPC's database is clearly not great.

Knasher

I was in a slightly similar situation. My place was wired for it so when I first moved in I just plugged in my old modem and away I went until the account expired at the end of the month (it was under somebody else's name so they wouldn't let me move it). Despite it working perfectly for me for the bones of a month, they swore black and blue that the line couldn't support it.

Then I went on a wild goose chase trying to get Eircom to install a DSL line, which failed because my line went through a closed up shop that I couldn't get a key for.

In the end I rang up UPC again just to give it another go and they accidentally got my address wrong (I chose not to correct their mistake) and agreed to send out an engineer. Who swore it wouldn't work until I mentioned that I had a modem plugged in and working for a month when I first moved in. Lo and behold I've have it now and it's been 100% reliable ever since.

I do remember when I was ringing them, I was able to pick up UPC wireless signals which led me to believe that I should be able to get it. I mentioned this to the rep and she did a check on my neighbours to see if they had it (she wasn't able to find them in the system though) and that if they had she would push the order through under the assumption that if my neighbours had it I should be able to get it too. Perhaps you should try talking directly with sales and making this argument to them.

lucernarian

iknorr wrote: »

Got an email reply from UPC sales.

They said theres no cables on my side of the road and all they can offer is satelite tv.

Im sure a next door neightbour has UPC broadband as the signal is fairly strong. The road im on is wide so theres no way it could be from across the road.

Yet the house alongisde me are all listed as having broadband, hd etc and my one just has HD with no broadband.

Something very fishy going on here....

You said there was UPC available to either side because you picked up some wifi signals? Hmmm... It might be a good idea to ask the neighbours if they have UPC or if they had similar problems, as Solair said.

There's also the option of publicly mentioning it on twitter or indeed to nag UPC's management by calling them up and asking to speak to them. The main number for their HQ in East Point, Dublin is 01 2458000.

I don't think you'll get anywhere if you just deal with ordinary customer service reps in the sales dept. You'll need to start considering some of the suggestions in this thread.