UPC in Grattan Street/Mount Street Lower

Scon

Has anybody gotten further than me on what's happening with UPC broadband in this area of Dublin 2? Specifically Grattan Court, Grattan Street and Mount Street Lower?

These were all scheduled to go live with Merrion Square and Mount Street Upper back in October. This was postponed back until the end of February and now I can't get any date from UPC as most people you deal with tell you it is 'overdue' on their computers and don't want to push the query further up the line. If I pushed the problem in the past I was able to deal with people laying the cable and that's where I got dates from eventually. Obviously there can be issues with neighbours blocking access but the cable layers seemed to have some idea of when they hoped to resolve that rather than just letting it go.

It's frustrating as every street surrounding this area has now been connected for a few months.

lucernarian

They seem to have given up on a few parts like along parts of nearby Grant Row too or Grand Canal St. Each of the places I've seen have one thing in common: residential apartment/house complexes of varying sizes. I suspect UPC's communication with management companies/landlords is poor. They need to get approval to replace cables within or along the properties of these places and if the management company ignore the letter or call then nothing gets done.

Scon

They seem to have connected all of Verschoyle Court, which is blocks of corporation housing between the two Mount Streets and none of Mount Street Lower is connected, which is a large amount of (mostly) Georgian houses.

Although most of the Georgian houses are business and split up into different tenants, Mount Street Upper is similar and has been connected so I'm thinking the lack of any connection on Mount Street Lower and half of its side-streets might be something to do with the area rather than the types of housing stopping them.

I'm sure the varying sizes has delayed them and made it more complicated but they've managed in very nearby spots.

lucernarian

Scon wrote: »

They seem to have connected all of Verschoyle Court, which is blocks of corporation housing between the two Mount Streets and none of Mount Street Lower is connected, which is a large amount of (mostly) Georgian houses.

Although most of the Georgian houses are business and split up into different tenants, Mount Street Upper is similar and has been connected so I'm thinking the lack of any connection on Mount Street Lower and half of its side-streets might be something to do with the area rather than the types of housing stopping them.

I'm sure the varying sizes has delayed them and made it more complicated but they've managed in very nearby spots.

It's a legacy thing regarding Mount St. Upper and Lower. Most of the two streets have not been cabled, possibly for asthetics or a lack of interest among the solicitors offices and accountancy firms that are scattered on those two streets and the like around the area. Why do you think that every building on Mount St. Upper is cabled?? Going on where the cable trunks lie in the area, I very much doubt this.

There's plenty of georgian housing in other places like Mountjoy Sq which is primarily residential, and that place is almost entirely cabled and broadband enabled.

You need to get on to UPC about this. Or if there's a management company looking after the place in question, get on to them.

Zombrex

Scon wrote: »

Has anybody gotten further than me on what's happening with UPC broadband in this area of Dublin 2? Specifically Grattan Court, Grattan Street and Mount Street Lower?

These were all scheduled to go live with Merrion Square and Mount Street Upper back in October. This was postponed back until the end of February and now I can't get any date from UPC as most people you deal with tell you it is 'overdue' on their computers and don't want to push the query further up the line. If I pushed the problem in the past I was able to deal with people laying the cable and that's where I got dates from eventually. Obviously there can be issues with neighbours blocking access but the cable layers seemed to have some idea of when they hoped to resolve that rather than just letting it go.

It's frustrating as every street surrounding this area has now been connected for a few months.

I live in apt block between Trinity and the Liffey, so it is not just Merrion Square that is fubared at the moment, though I think it is all connected. I complained about this back in Feb and was told that it should be sorted by end of March and I should ring back then to discuss refunds (I was demanding a refund then and there).

Still no sign it is any better, my current speedtest is



It is beyond a joke now, this has been going on for nearly a year (though it only got really bad in November for me).

Anyone recommend the best way for dealing with them? Demand refund? Cancel? Lawsuit (half joking)?

Scon

To_be_confirmed wrote: »

It's a legacy thing regarding Mount St. Upper and Lower. Most of the two streets have not been cabled, possibly for asthetics or a lack of interest among the solicitors offices and accountancy firms that are scattered on those two streets and the like around the area. Why do you think that every building on Mount St. Upper is cabled?? Going on where the cable trunks lie in the area, I very much doubt this.

I randomly selected several street numbers with upc's own address check and they came up as being broadband enabled. You had me check again and I've managed to find one address that isn't. Perhaps there's more but I'm otherwise finding confirmations so it seems to be the majority. It reads a little like you were baffled that I would suggest this. I'm just here to pool knowledge together on this as upc haven't been helpful in that regard and I'm a little frustrated with them constantly missing deadlines. If various cable trunks in the mount street area are common knowledge then, fantastic, I'm about to learn something. Otherwise, maybe we can go a little lighter on correcting mistakes. I'm probably misunderstanding something here but, from the address checker, I haven't found an address on either of the Mount Streets and surrounds that can't get digital HD from UPC. I would have thought this would suggest at least some form of cabling available to these addresses - though not broadband yet.

To_be_confirmed wrote: »

You need to get on to UPC about this. Or if there's a management company looking after the place in question, get on to them.

There's no management company involved here, it's a terrace house. I've been onto UPC about this many times, hence my looking to other customers for any information they've received. If I complain enough about the lack of information I get through to the cable laying division after many calls and emails and get a proposed date. This date passes and then I've back at square one again with no way of picking up where I left off with the last members of staff in the company. I understand delays and that the dates are only proposed but it's been a long time since October and it's fairly disheartening when another new date passes and I hear nothing, knowing there's a lot of calls and emails to go back through to find new information from staff in the call centre who are not trained to have access to information other than telling me that, yes, I do not have broadband at my current address.

Zombrex wrote: »

I live in apt block between Trinity and the Liffey, so it is not just Merrion Square that is fubared at the moment, though I think it is all connected. I complained about this back in Feb and was told that it should be sorted by end of March and I should ring back then to discuss refunds (I was demanding a refund then and there).

Sorry to hear that. I don't think this thread will be much use to you though, it's about the ongoing delays of broadband being brought in around Merrion Square, rather than the quality of it.

Renn

Still no UPC in Merrion Street I'm guessing?

Scon

Nope. And I've given up. Customers aren't meant to know these things and it's too much effort to change that. Still, I would have appreciated any form of update when things changed, considering I was pestering them enough already.

lucernarian

Scon wrote: »

I randomly selected several street numbers with upc's own address check and they came up as being broadband enabled. You had me check again and I've managed to find one address that isn't. Perhaps there's more but I'm otherwise finding confirmations so it seems to be the majority. It reads a little like you were baffled that I would suggest this. I'm just here to pool knowledge together on this as upc haven't been helpful in that regard and I'm a little frustrated with them constantly missing deadlines. If various cable trunks in the mount street area are common knowledge then, fantastic, I'm about to learn something. Otherwise, maybe we can go a little lighter on correcting mistakes. I'm probably misunderstanding something here but, from the address checker, I haven't found an address on either of the Mount Streets and surrounds that can't get digital HD from UPC. I would have thought this would suggest at least some form of cabling available to these addresses - though not broadband yet.




There's no management company involved here, it's a terrace house. I've been onto UPC about this many times, hence my looking to other customers for any information they've received. If I complain enough about the lack of information I get through to the cable laying division after many calls and emails and get a proposed date. This date passes and then I've back at square one again with no way of picking up where I left off with the last members of staff in the company. I understand delays and that the dates are only proposed but it's been a long time since October and it's fairly disheartening when another new date passes and I hear nothing, knowing there's a lot of calls and emails to go back through to find new information from staff in the call centre who are not trained to have access to information other than telling me that, yes, I do not have broadband at my current address.

I never got back to this, I tried addresses in the vicinity of Holles St and also on Merrion Square between Mount St. Upper and Lower junctions and most did not have cable access/were not addresses on UPC's system. Only the Goethe institute got a result (and it was TV only) if I remember correctly. Regarding Grattan St, every single terraced house is already cabled with the newer cable when I looked at the street last month so I can't figure out why it won't show up as broadband enabled. One of the businesses in the newer terraced buildings had their cable going into one of the taps on the new cable so it looks like the cable is switched on too.

I can't fathom why it's not showing up as upgraded and all I can suggest is continual nagging/hope you find someone who is in charge of these things.

Scon

I nagged for 6 months. I would have been ok with letting me know it was due to a refusal of a property to lay cable that was delaying things, but constant new dates and then silence just makes me lose patience. I didn't need to know the property as I'm aware of data protection stopping things like this. I probably have about 20 members of UPC ready to ring me the moment it's ready as that's always how their phonecalls end.

I wasn't checking Holles Street etc. as they're more than one street away from me. Specifically it was Grand Canal Street Lower, Grattan Street, Grattan Court, Love Lane,Mount Street Lower, Verschoyle Court and Mount Street Upper that I was checking. There's broadband available widely in a lot of these (not particular to whether they're apartment blocks, new buildings or old period ones) and then there seems to be a blanket lack of it on Mount Street Lower and Grattan Street. Though nearly every address on these streets was upgraded to allow for Digital HD a few months back so they've some form of new cable.

lucernarian

The digital HD+ enabling shows up for both houses with the new cable and those without the new cable on the UPC checker. Least that's the case on the street I live on. The ones without new cable don't pass for phone or broadband.

There's nothing on Love lane except two apartment complexes and civil service offices and these were all enabled in one swoop straight from a UPC cabinet on Mount St through ducting to the apartments involved. It wouldn't reflect the challenges with on-street (e.g. along walls or roof-to-roof) cabling for the rest of Mount St Lower which has historically never been cabled for the most part. Are there any residential properties on Mount St. Lower (that aren't apartment blocks)?

If you looked around on Grattan St you can see the new cabling, apart from on the ugly concrete building and the Bord Bia building and the Revenue building at the corner. For Grattan Court and also the building with Mammia Mia restaurant, I can't tell if new cable has been ran to it. For all the other terraced houses, the new cable is operational and they're passing on the UPC website when I tried it. I honestly can't figure how any addresses on Grattan St. haven't been upgraded yet.

Have you tried UPC on twitter or the rep here on boards?? I've seen some more successes in getting info that way rather than some phone rep.

Scon

To_be_confirmed wrote: »

It wouldn't reflect the challenges with on-street (e.g. along walls or roof-to-roof) cabling for the rest of Mount St Lower which has historically never been cabled for the most part. Are there any residential properties on Mount St. Lower (that aren't apartment blocks)?

When you say historically has never been cabled - I'm getting ticks for Digital HD to nearly every address I try on Mount Street Lower. But not a single address is getting broadband or phone. Maybe I misunderstood what you meant. From the conversations I had with UPC, all of Mount Street Lower was intended to be wired for broadband for months now. They do offer business broadband too so they must have incentive.

There are a surprising amount of residents on Mount Street Lower. A lot of floors above offices in the townhouses are flats (they come up on daft quite a lot) and the whole of 18-21 was converted into (ridiculously expensive) apartments. With the amount being paid I'm surprised there hasn't been more effort for UPC to get in there. They're all street facing as opposed to being set way back from a road.

I've dealt with a UPC rep on here by PM and, like you say, he was far more helpful than those on the phone by being more direct and giving human answers (and seemed to be much more informed) but ultimately he didn't have access to certain information and that's why I had to go back to phoning.

caff

Any idea of UPC broadband rollout for grants row?