eFibre Order Debacle
I am an existing eircom customer (moved from Vodafone about 4 months ago)
Wednesday 9th October
Rang sales to upgrade to eFibre. Sales rep gave me the option of a visit from installation engineer on either morning or afternoon of Wed 16th. I chose the morning.
Wednesday 16th October
Took morning off work to stay at home to wait for installation engineer who was booked to call between 9am and 1pm. When there was no sign of anyone arriving at 12 I contacted customer support (via online chat facility). They assured me that engineer was indeed booked and on his way and would definitely be there before 1.
At 1:30 there was still no sign of anyone from eircom - I was due in work at 2 so I contacted the online chat support again. I got talking to a different guy this time. He had no clue what I was talking about, said there was an order for eFibre on the account, but no booking for an engineer. I told him that his colleague an hour earlier had confirmed that an engineer was booked. He said that he must've been looking at a different account (WTF?!).
He apologised - said there was nothing he could do and told me to contact 01 701 5609 to organsise a rescheduled visit.
I rang that number - it went straight to hold music, I held for five minutes and then the line went dead. great.
The only other number I could try then was 1800 503 703 (eFibre sales).
I eventually got through to somebody. I had to explain the whole situation from start to finish. It was like it was the first time I had ever spoken to eircom, they had no idea how an engineer had been booked - there was no trace of a booking on my a/c, and wanted to start the process again. In fairness to the girl on the phone she was trying to sort it out. She put me on hold as she said she needed to speak to her supervisor about something......
I was on hold for about 10 minutes......
Eventually somebody else picked up the phone, she had no idea who I was or why I was ringing. She had no idea that I was on hold for somebody else. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
It was 2:30 now and I was due back in work. I had to confirm my bloody a/c number, address, etc again. I had to explain the whole blasted situation yet again.
This was the fourth eircom person I had spoken to. Each time it was like starting from scratch, they didn't seem to be aware of what other contact I had about this issue. She apologised and promised me that another booking for installation would be made. She assured me that somebody from the eFibre team would be in touch from the "escalation team" to confirm installation dates in 3-5 days.
Heard nothing from eircom....
Friday 25th October
Contact support via the chat service, nothing they could really do except tell me to ring eircom as they couldn't see any appointments for my order.
I rang 01 7015609 and explained the situation again. Got a bit pee'd off having to give email address and mobile number AGAIN. They guy I was on to said it was because "the aul system does be a bit slow sometimes" so it's easier for me to call it out than it is for him to find it on the "system" (which I'm beginning to think is the back of fag packet). I'm being referred to the "escalation team" (again) and somebody will be in touch - not sure when, he couldn't confirm anything for me. Said it was because there was a bit of a backlog with eFibre ordering, bank holiday weekend was coming, etc.
"Probably next week sometime"
I randomly got a phone call from Eircom sales at 7pm that evening - sales guy wanted to know if I was interested in geting eVision as I was an eFibre customer. Hilarious. I explained the whole situation to him to see if he could help - he seemed genuine in trying to figure out where it all went wrong. He admitted that the rollout of eFibre in Newbridge was a complete disaster with installations being cancelled for no reason - and that my situation was not unusual. I told him I'd sign up to eVision if he got eFibre sorted for me! He told me he would "escalate" me and somebody would be in touch early next week. If I get escalated any higher I'll get vertigo.
Wednesday 30th October
I received a letter from Eircom welcoming me to eFibre. The letter was dated the 10th October. They said they were delighted to let me know that an engineer had been booked for installation. No date was mentioned on the letter!
Friday 1st November
Contacted eircom via webchat. Was told that the eFibre "system" was down and they had no way of finding out the status of my order. So another week has passed and zero has happened.
Tuesday 4th November
Rang 01 7015609, email sent to supervisor to escalate yet again!
Promised something will happen within 48 hours. Was told that the 48 hours doesn't mean 2 days, it refers to working hours so it could be 5 or 6 days before anything happens.
Friday 8th November
I made a comment on someone else's post about my bad experience so far. Mark kindly PM'd me and confirmed my eFibre order number and asked me to contact 1800 661 622 to talk to the eFibre team. Mark asked me to let him know how I got on. Sweet jehovah, it was hilarious:
<> Phone was answered straightaway, and I confirmed all my details and explained the situation. The person I spoke to said that there was a note on my account and that they were going to transfer me to customer care who would sort me out. Progress at last, or so I thought.
<> The person I got through to seemed a bit startled, like they weren't expecting a call to be transferred. I asked if I was through to "customer care". He got a little bit arsey and said "customer care - no such thing - you are through to customer services!". WTF????
I explained the situation again and he was a bit puzzled, I should not have been put through to him. He said he only deals with broadband issues!?
He tested my line to make sure I could get eFibre (no idea why he did this, made him feel better I suppose). While I was waiting he told me how frustrating his order for eVision was. Told me he was trying to get it in for a month and was having no joy!! Hilarious banter.
He told me he was going to put me back to the eFibre team and that they had to deal with me, and that if they tried to transfer me to customer services again I wasn't to let them as they were lying as only they could deal with me.
<> Back to eFibre, got talking to a helpful girl. Had to explain everything AGAIN. She was puzzled that nobody had contacted me. She told me I would be escalated (where did I hear that before!?) to a manager. She put me on hold for 15 minutes while she checked a few things. My line was tested again (was the previous test done a few minutes ago not visible to her??). She told me the good news was that eFibre up to 70mb should be available when this all gets sorted.
I did lose the head with her at this stage - which wasn't fair on her, but I've kept calm so far. She said she had the same supervisor as the guy I spoke to last Tuesday and that person wasn't in/wasn't available. She said she'd escalate me to a manager and that something would happen, at the latest, on Monday.
I asked if she could at least contact me in some way to let me know what is going on next week in case nobody contacted me. She said that she couldn't send outbound emails to customers (WTF?). She did say she would try to make contact with me next week to give me some sort of update. (on my mobile maybe?)
As I said to Mark in an email, this is only eFibre, it's not life or death so I know it will get sorted eventually. The last girl I spoke to today was nice and was trying to help, but I know there is nothing she can do to help me. I know I'll never speak to her again and I'll have to explain this whole thing again to someone else next week.
Eircom are absolutely infuriating to deal with.
