Unable to switch to another provider

John

Hello,

Since the beginning of February, I've been attempting to switch from eir to Sky to avail of a deal that was running at the time (and which I have now missed). I have given Sky my UAN and when they checked they said that fibre was available but it was not compatible with their system. I received a switch notice from eir on 15th February 2017 which expires tomorrow.


I have since been back and forward between Sky and eir with eir telling me that there is no problem with my line and Sky saying that there is no change on their side. I have talked to Customer Care, Cancellation Services and Technical Support in eir and no one can give me a reason as to why I cannot switch to Sky. In each case, I have asked whether the fact that I am in a Fibre to Home area would be causing a problem and I was told "No". eir have told to talk to Sky technical support but as I am not a customer there, they cannot help me.

Last week, eir Technical Support suggested I contact open eir (who provide the lines and Sky lease from). open eir got back to me and said that:
"Your line is testing for DSL up to 20 mb  and Fibre to Home service, There is no Fibre to Cabinet service available"
and open eir told me to go back to the other providers. Despite open eir saying that this may be an issue, eir still insist it isn't an issue and I should go back to Sky (which I have, repeatedly). 

Given that I never went looking to upgrade the line and I was never told at the time that it may potentially limit me to only using eir, I
don't understand why it is my problem to resolve. From what I can tell, eir have essentially locked me in as a customer and I am stuck with paying prices that are not competitive (the best offer that eir could give me today was still €7.50 a month more expensive than Sky's current offer). At this point, it is not even the money I could be saving but the way I am being made run around to fix a problem that should be up to the company to find a solution for.

I have tried to make a complaint to COMREG but they require a complaint number from eir to act on, which eir are either not able or not willing to give to me. I have attempted to get one from eir from staff in the Cancellation and Technical Support departments but they tell me they can't. I have also attempted to get one via email (com@eir.ie which was given to me by Technical Support and appears to be a dead/non-existent account) and by phone (I was midway through explaining my story YET AGAIN when the phone cut out - the phone has cut out at least three times when contacting eir but never with Sky) but to no avail. At best I have a case number from Technical Support (2537312).

I am utterly fed up of this and wish it to be resolved as soon as possible. I do not want to have to ring up and spend another 40 minutes of my time banging my head against a wall (the stock eir response is to go back to Sky and tell them they shouldn't receive an error and Sky then try but again receive the same error).

I would appreciate some kind of meaningful resolution to this issue, thank you.

John.

Eir: Pamela

Hi John,

I can understand your frustration completely.

If fibre to the home is available on your line, have you ensured Sky are trying to provide this rather than fibre to the cabinet?

There can sometimes be issues when moving to another provider if the UAN is incorrect, there are any pending orders on the account or a fault on your line.

If you would like to PM me your account number and name I can check if there's anything I can see that may cause any issues moving to another provider.

Thanks,
Pamela

John

Eir: Pamela wrote: »

Hi John,

I can understand your frustration completely.

If fibre to the home is available on your line, have you ensured Sky are trying to provide this rather than fibre to the cabinet?

There can sometimes be issues when moving to another provider if the UAN is incorrect, there are any pending orders on the account or a fault on your line.

If you would like to PM me your account number and name I can check if there's anything I can see that may cause any issues moving to another provider.

Thanks,
Pamela

Hi Pamela,

Sky do not offer fibre to home, I've confirmed my UAN with Sky and eir 2-3 times each, I have no pending orders and eir tell me there are no faults on the line.

I will PM you my details when I get home (I don't have my account number to hand).

eir: Leanne

Hi John, 

We are yet to receive any details. Please feel free to PM us your account number and full name so we can have a look into this for you.

Thanks,
Leanne.

John

eir: Leanne wrote: »

Hi John, 

We are yet to receive any details. Please feel free to PM us your account number and full name so we can have a look into this for you.

Thanks,
Leanne.

Apologies, this is the first time I've been able to sit down with the laptop since my last message outside of work. PMing you now.

Eir: Pamela

That's no problem at all John.

I will look into this as soon as I receive your PM

Thanks,
Pamela.

John

eir: Leanne wrote:

John wrote:

Hi Leanne,

Here are my details as requested:
Full name: [...]
Account number: [...]

Many thanks,
John.

Hi John.

Thank you for your PM. I have had a look into this for you and the only way another provider could not take over your lines is if there was a fault on your line or you were provided with the incorrect UAN number.

I have checked with our support team and there is no fault on your line and your UAN number is [...]. This would be an issue with the order with the other provider and you would have to get in contact with them to resolve this.

Unfortunately, I would be unable to assist you any further in this.

Thanks,
Leanne.

Leanne and Pamela,

I've been hearing variations on this since trying to switch over and I'm honestly not satisfied with the response. It also appears illogical to me, if there is no fault on the line then why would any provider (let alone one I am not currently a customer for) have to resolve it? As far as I can tell from talking to eir, Sky and open eir:
1) My line is set up for fibre to home which Sky doesn't seem to be able to connect to, they get an error when they try to connect.
2) eir upgraded me to this line and are now telling me it is Sky's problem to resolve and to go back to them.
3) Sky tell me it is a problem with eir and I am back running in circles.

I don't really believe that Sky are lying to me, it makes no sense to aggravate someone who you want to take on as a customer.

Changing a phone provider should be as simple as changing any other utility (we routinely change our electricity and gas with no such problems). I do not understand why I am left to solve this - as far as I'm concerned this should be something you and Sky should discuss between yourselves. I am sick of ringing eir, going through the story again and again, only to be either fobbed off with the excuse that it's Sky's problem or, as I mentioned on my main post, have the line disconnect in the middle of talking to someone.

Please provide me with a complaints number as I wish to take this to COMREG, as I intended to do weeks ago. I am unable to get a reply from your complaints department via email and, ironically, the only time I got through to the complaints department on the phone it disconnected in the middle of the call.

eir: Leanne

[font=Times New Roman,serif][font=Verdana,sans-serif]I'm really sorry to hear you feel this way and I can understand your frustration with this. We have taken a look into this and there should be no issues moving your line to another provider. Unfortunately, as we are unaware of the specific issue of why your order is failing [/font][/font]
[font=Times New Roman,serif][font=Verdana,sans-serif] [/font][/font]
[font=Times New Roman,serif][font=Verdana,sans-serif]I do agree this should be a simple process and we have done all we can from our end to ensure you should encounter no issues in moving your service. I'm afraid if another provider is experiencing issues placing an order for you we[/font][font=Verdana,sans-serif] [/font][font=Verdana,sans-serif]would be unable to advise on the cause of this issue as we would not have any access to their systems to determine the root cause of why this order has failed. If the other provider can advise on what the issue is we are more than happy to assist wth this, in the[/font][font=Verdana,sans-serif] [/font][font=Verdana,sans-serif]meantime,[/font][font=Verdana,sans-serif] [/font][font=Verdana,sans-serif]we have done all we can to ensure there are no issues on the account from our side. [/font][/font]
[font=Times New Roman,serif][font=Verdana,sans-serif] [/font][/font]
[font=Times New Roman,serif][font=Verdana,sans-serif]I'm afraid the complaints team do not have a direct line and you would need to log this via this link here https://www.eir.ie/logacomplaint.jsp I'm genuinely sorry I couldn't offer you better news. [/font][/font]
[font=Times New Roman,serif][font=Verdana,sans-serif] [/font][/font]
[font=Times New Roman,serif][font=Verdana,sans-serif]Again apologies,[/font][/font]


[font=Times New Roman,serif][font=Verdana,sans-serif]Thanks,[/font][/font]
[font=Times New Roman,serif][font=Verdana,sans-serif]Leanne.[/font][/font]

eir: Leanne

I'm really sorry to hear you feel this way and I can understand your frustration with this. We have taken a look into this and there should be no issues moving your line to another provider. Unfortunately, as we are unaware of the specific issue of why your order is failing 
 
I do agree this should be a simple process and we have done all we can from our end to ensure you should encounter no issues in moving your service. I'm afraid if another provider is experiencing issues placing an order for you we would be unable to advise on the cause of this issue as we would not have any access to their systems to determine the root cause of why this order has failed. If the other provider can advise on what the issue is we are more than happy to assist wth this, in the meantime, we have done all we can to ensure there are no issues on the account from our side. 
 
I'm afraid the complaints team do not have a direct line and you would need to log this via this link here https://www.eir.ie/logacomplaint.jsp I'm genuinely sorry I couldn't offer you better news. 
 
Again apologies,


Thanks,
Leanne.