Speed problem in Athlone.

murphthesmurf

Hi there. I have recently joined Eircom, I live in Athlone, less than 1/2 KM from the nearest Eircom hub in Monksland. I signed up to the 8mb NGB package. When we signed up we were told that we were in an NGB area etc. Now, I understand that when you sign up to these products the speed is only an estimate, and that the speed is 'up to' 8mb and no speed is gauranteed. But as we live so close to the exchange my hopes were high that we'd be getting pretty close to that.
However, we can only get 2.5 - 3.5 !!!! Less than half. I rang technical support, where I am told that our line can only take upto 4mb !! :mad:
I was told nothing of this from the salesman as I would've told him where he can put his 4mb had he told me. I then rang sales to try and cancel my contract, as less than half what I expected to get is just not good enough. The rep spoke to technical support herself. They upped the line to 6mb to see if it would take it and if I could get that speed. I don't get that speed. It increased to 4.5mb, still only half the max speed. I rang technical again, as sales siad that if this doesn't work they may need to upgrade the line. Technical told me that 'no, thats all you can get'. My line 'may' be upgraded sometime in the future, and this 'may' give better speed, but then, they 'may' not.

My 1st question is, if Eircom knows already that this line is shoddy, why haven't they done something about it before now? Secondly, why are they selling 8mb to people, knowing they probably wont get half that??
I am hoping you may be able to pull something out the bag on this one. Is there anything that can be done to improve my speeds?
I have been with Eircom around 6 weeks. The 'cool off' period of 10 days is expired, although the modem didn't arrive untill after the cool off had already expired so what are my options for cancelling the contract, as I am certainly not prepared to pay for a product and only get half of it.
As I said, I am well aware of the 'upto' part of the description, but surely there is a cut off, where your speed is not considered to be 'upto' anything.
One last thing, the 2nd person I spoke to in technical told me that because the line was being pushed to 6mb, I may get intermitant connection problems :eek:. Face - palm.
I could understand these problems if I lived in the sticks, but I don't, we're just on the west side of Athlone, less than half a K from the exchange.
Thanks for you help. Fingers crossed.

eircom: Tony

murphthesmurf wrote: »

Hi there. I have recently joined Eircom, I live in Athlone, less than 1/2 KM from the nearest Eircom hub in Monksland. I signed up to the 8mb NGB package. When we signed up we were told that we were in an NGB area etc. Now, I understand that when you sign up to these products the speed is only an estimate, and that the speed is 'up to' 8mb and no speed is gauranteed. But as we live so close to the exchange my hopes were high that we'd be getting pretty close to that.
However, we can only get 2.5 - 3.5 !!!! Less than half. I rang technical support, where I am told that our line can only take upto 4mb !! :mad:
I was told nothing of this from the salesman as I would've told him where he can put his 4mb had he told me. I then rang sales to try and cancel my contract, as less than half what I expected to get is just not good enough. The rep spoke to technical support herself. They upped the line to 6mb to see if it would take it and if I could get that speed. I don't get that speed. It increased to 4.5mb, still only half the max speed. I rang technical again, as sales siad that if this doesn't work they may need to upgrade the line. Technical told me that 'no, thats all you can get'. My line 'may' be upgraded sometime in the future, and this 'may' give better speed, but then, they 'may' not.

My 1st question is, if Eircom knows already that this line is shoddy, why haven't they done something about it before now? Secondly, why are they selling 8mb to people, knowing they probably wont get half that??
I am hoping you may be able to pull something out the bag on this one. Is there anything that can be done to improve my speeds?
I have been with Eircom around 6 weeks. The 'cool off' period of 10 days is expired, although the modem didn't arrive untill after the cool off had already expired so what are my options for cancelling the contract, as I am certainly not prepared to pay for a product and only get half of it.
As I said, I am well aware of the 'upto' part of the description, but surely there is a cut off, where your speed is not considered to be 'upto' anything.
One last thing, the 2nd person I spoke to in technical told me that because the line was being pushed to 6mb, I may get intermitant connection problems :eek:. Face - palm.
I could understand these problems if I lived in the sticks, but I don't, we're just on the west side of Athlone, less than half a K from the exchange.
Thanks for you help. Fingers crossed.

Hi murphthesmurf

I can certainly check this for you and see if any improvement in speeds can be made here. Can you PM me your tel no?
To answer your question regarding the sale of the service. When ordering a line we can do a pre-qualifing line test which gives us, in most cases, a good idea of possible speeds. As you mention the distance from exchange does affect speeds, as does line or connecting equipment. The cut off is less than 1Mb, but anything lower than 2 or 3 Mb the agent would advise of possible low speed.
I can run some tests and will advise you if speeds can be altered.
Tony

murphthesmurf

Thanks for the reply. I pm'd you the details. The agent never mentioned anything of what we could expect to get. But I already knew where the exchange is so expected a decent speed. I don't believe he actually worked for Eircom, just some company who sell the packages. He was a decent fella, but a bit of extra training for him wouldn't go a miss. His knowledge was the bare minimum.

murphthesmurf

Have you had any luck with this yet? As I haven't had any reply. I have also found that the strength of the wireless signal is very poor. We have an Xbox upstairs and the router in the hallway downstairs and it constantly loses it's signal. Very weak.

eircom: Mark

murphthesmurf wrote: »

Have you had any luck with this yet? As I haven't had any reply. I have also found that the strength of the wireless signal is very poor. We have an Xbox upstairs and the router in the hallway downstairs and it constantly loses it's signal. Very weak.

Hi murphthesmurf,

Sorry about the delay in getting back to you. I PM you there.

Thanks, Mark