Out of contract but am being given different information by customer service reps.

gerard1970

I signed up for fibre to the home and TV in December 2016. I'm happy with the FTTH, but I'm being screwed by the 1TB limit.  We're a family of 5 - 2 adults and 3 teenage kids. The kids are always watching netflix and playing on-line games so this is why the 1TB is passed each month.

I had major problems with the TV package - those plug thingies - and despite multiple calls to the customer support and new "plug thingies" being sent out to me, the situation didn't improve. The final suggestion from the support team was to run a cable from the modem to the TV. These are at separate sides of the house and there was no way that my wife was going to allow this to happen. In the end, I bit the bullet and signed up to Sky Q (best decision I've ever made) and had to suck up a number of months paying for a TV service that was useless.  When my contract was up, I called eir to cancel the TV package, so I'm just paying eir for FTTH (as well as the over-usage charge).

I was delighted when I read about the 1TB cap being removed so I called today and asked to get this removed from my account - as had been advised by the eir reps.  I got through in about 5 minutes - which seems to be a lot quicker than others - and I explained to the helpful customer support rep what I needed.  He informed me that the 1TB could only be removed from new contracts so I told him that I was prepared to sign another contract as I was happy with the FTTH. He said he could do this, but as I'm a current customer, that the 1TB limit would still apply because I wouldn't be considered a new customer even though I was signing a new contract. I asked him if he was sure about this so he consulted with some of his colleagues and they confirmed this to him.  

However, he did say that if I added a new service to my account that I'd be considered a new customer and the 1TB limit wouldn't apply. I asked him what "services" I'd have to add and he said either TV or a sim only mobile plan. I told him about my experience with the TV so I wasn't interested in that. He asked me if I'd be interested in their mobile plan. I told him that I was happy with my current mobile plan. He then said that I could sign up for a 30-day rolling contract and this would give me the real unlimited broadband and at the end of the first 30 days that I could call up and cancel the plan. He said that the 1TB wouldn't apply if I removed the mobile sim after the first month. Just to be sure I repeated what he said and asked him to confirm this.  I reminded him that our call was probably being recorded by eir and that I'd be referring to this if I signed up and then cancelled the SIM plan and then found out that the 1TB limit was re-applied. He checked with his colleagues again and confirmed what he had said previously.  I asked how much the 30-day sim only plan was and he said that he didn't know but that he'd pass me on the section that deals with this.

This other department answered after about 15 minutes and I explained the situation to the very helpful lady. She said that I didn't need to add a service to my account. She said that I'd just need to change the phone plan that's part of my current bundle and that the 1TB limit would be removed from the account.  I explained what the previous support agent had told me and she confirmed that if I changed any part of my current bundle that I'd be considered a new customer and the 1TB limit wouldn't apply. My current plan has unlimited calls as well as some minutes to the UK. I never use the phone, so I said that I'd like to downgrade from this. She said the closest to what I'm looking for is the off-peak calls where calls are free between 7:30 pm. and 7:30 am. I was happy with that, so I asked her to go ahead and set up a new contract for me.  She tried to do this, but she said that there was a "pending order" on my account since June. She looked into it and this was my request to remove the TV package from my account. She said that she'd have to get this removed before she could set up the new account for me. However, she couldn't remove this, so she'd have to get somebody else to do this and that she'd call me tomorrow (Thursday).  I told her that I'd be out of the country until Sunday evening so she's going to call me on Monday afternoon to set up the new account.

Tracey, Sarah, Kyle or Thomas, can you confirm which of the agents that I spoke to are correct?  As a current customer, who is OUT of contract, can I 
1. Sign a new contract with my current bundle (FTTH and telephone peak calls) and have the 1TB cap removed;
2. Sign a new contract to keep my FTTH and the off-peak calls and have the 1TB cap removed; or
3. Sign a new contract that has FTTH, call bundle (I don't really care whether it's the peak or off-peak calls) and add a 30 day rolling sim contract and have the 1TB cap removed.

If #3 is correct, could I cancel the sim plan after the first 30 days and still have the 1TB cap removed from the account?

Looking forward to hearing back from you!

eir: Sarah

Hi gerard1970,

I sincerely apologise for the confusion here. Can you PM me with your account details and I can follow this up with the departments you spoke to and get some clarity on this.

I will publicly update you here however as other customers that may wish to avail of the unlimited allowance may find this information helpful.

Thanks,

Sarah

gerard1970

Thanks Sarah! PM just sent there now.

I have no issue with you replying to this thread so others who are eir customers, but out of contract, know what they need to do to get the 1TB cap removed. 

gerard1970

I've seen a few posts similar to mine i.e. existing customer but out of contract and want to know how to get rid of 1TB Fair Usage Policy. 

Here's the reply that Sarah sent to my PM:

"I can see <name of customer service rep removed by me> submitted a request to change your landline package which will also allow change over to unlimited allowance. I contacted her for an update and she has advised that it will take a week to complete however if you exceed your allowance in the meantime she will waive these charges. "


Yesterday I got an email from getmore@eir.ie letting me know that I'm now signed up to the "eir Complete Broadband & Phone" package for €77.98 for 12 months.  There's a "Once Off Charge" of €99.99 mentioned in the email. I don't know what this is about, so I'll be starting another thread about this :)


To me, it looks like that the only way for existing customers, who are out of contract but still have the FUP of 1TB applied, and who want to get the FUP removed from their account, will have to sign a new contract but don't have to add a service. Hopefully Sarah can confirm. 

tuxy

gerard1970 wrote: »

To me, it looks like that the only way for existing customers, who are out of contract but still have the FUP of 1TB applied, and who want to get the FUP removed from their account, will have to sign a new contract but don't have to add a service. Hopefully Sarah can confirm. 

But you did have to move to a different Eir package. So the advice going forward is to try to remove or downgrade your phone package if you can?

The €99.99 is them trying to charge you for a FTTH install again. Perhaps that is part of their "deal" to remove the cap.

Tigerandahalf

78 eur p/m for broadband and phone....they are riding you hard now Gerard.

gerard1970

Tigerandahalf wrote: »

78 eur p/m for broadband and phone....they are riding you hard now Gerard.

It's certainly steep Tigerandahalf, but my "old" package was ~€83 so, technically, this is a "win" for me :rolleyes:. I - my kids actually - consistently went over the 1TB, so I'm saving here too. 

Looking the email again, it looks like they've put me on "eir Talk Mobile world". I assume there's some sort of "free" calls to mobiles in that - which I don't need. I just want the cheapest off-peak package that they have.  I've been trying to look at their website to see what call packages are available, but the eir website is down at the moment. I have 14 days to change this though.

gerard1970

gerard1970 wrote: »

Tigerandahalf wrote: »

78 eur p/m for broadband and phone....they are riding you hard now Gerard.

It's certainly steep Tigerandahalf, but my "old" package was ~€83 so, technically, this is a "win" for me :rolleyes:. I - my kids actually - consistently went over the 1TB, so I'm saving here too. 

Looking the email again, it looks like they've put me on "eir Talk Mobile world". I assume there's some sort of "free" calls to mobiles in that - which I don't need. I just want the cheapest off-peak package that they have.  I've been trying to look at their website to see what call packages are available, but the eir website is down at the moment. I have 14 days to change this though.

The eir site is back up again and I was able to find the pricing.  It looks like the "eir Broadband Talk" is available for €67.99. See attached PDF which has the latest pricing information. 

tuxy

Would a different provider be cheaper for you?
Airwire do 300 mbit with 2TB cap for €60
No setup fees if you already have a ftth line  (18 month contract)

Their main rep is very active on the FTTH thread in the broadband section
https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057499489&page=667&#160;

gerard1970

tuxy wrote: »

Would a different provider be cheaper for you?
Airwire do 300 mbit with 2TB cap for €60
No setup fees if you already have a ftth line  (18 month contract)

Their main rep is very active on the FTTH thread in the broadband section
https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057499489&page=667&#160;

Thanks for sharing Tuxy!

I have FTTH already, but I thought if I was going to switch providers that they'd have to run their own fibre to the house?  

If I were to go with Airwire, would I need to get eir to come out and remove the "box" where the fibre optic cable comes into the house? I'm not sure what this "box" is called, but when I got the FTTH home installed, a Keddington engineer came out, pushed the fibre through some ducting under the house and then connected some sort of a "box" to the fibre optic cable. There's a CAT5 cable then that runs from this "box" into the back of the modem.

Sorry for the non-technical jargon!

tuxy

Eir are two companies, Eir and OpenEir
OpenEir owns the network and equipment and sells the service wholesale to different providers including their own sub division Eir who you are currently with.

So all the equipment you were talking about belongs to OpenEir and will stay in your house. Eir(your current isp) only own the modem and you would have to post it back to them when you switch.
The new provider will just send you a new modem in the post, you plug the Ethernet that was going into the Eir modem into the new one. 

Here's a list of providers that provide service over the OpenEir Ftth network.

https://fibrerollout.ie/rollout-map/where-to-buy-ftth/

I recommened airware as they are very honest about their caps and don't use terms like unlimited when it's just not true.

http://www.airwire.ie/index.php/products/ruralftth

Also if you are unsure of anything post on that thread I linked to in the last post. The lads on there know much more than I do. 

gerard1970

Thanks for that Tuxy! I wasn't aware of that all (as you probably gathered by by stupid questions!!)

tuxy

No problem not really stupid I can understand the confusion.

There are two main residential fiber to the home networks right now Siro(ESB and Vodafone owned) which is aimed more at urban areas
and OpenEir FTTH which is for rural areas. I don't think they overlap so you can either get one or the other or none if you are unlucky.

Any company can provide a service over these networks once they pay the wholesale fee, many of the big companies have held off on providing service over openEir as they claimed the wholesale price was too high. However now that they see that they will lose many customers who will switch from phone lines to fibre in the coming years there is not much choice but pay up. Vodafone and Sky will be offering internet over OpenEir FTTH at some stage, no exact date yet though. 

gerard1970

tuxy wrote: »

No problem not really stupid I can understand the confusion.

There are two main residential fiber to the home networks right now Siro(ESB and Vodafone owned) which is aimed more at urban areas
and OpenEir FTTH which is for rural areas. I don't think they overlap so you can either get one or the other or none if you are unlucky.

Any company can provide a service over these networks once they pay the wholesale fee, many of the big companies have held off on providing service over openEir as they claimed the wholesale price was too high. However now that they see that they will lose many customers who will switch from phone lines to fibre in the coming years there is not much choice but pay up. Vodafone and Sky will be offering internet over OpenEir FTTH at some stage, no exact date yet though. 

That's interesting. I got a mail a couple of weeks ago from Sky about their FTTH offering.  I thought it'd involve running a new cable into the house - but as you explained, that's not the case so I didn't follow up on it. I'll dig up that mail again and see what they're offering. 

tuxy

https://www.independent.ie/business/irish/sky-ends-boycott-of-eirs-fibre-broadband-37193739.html

As far as I know sky have no price or release date. They are known to take a very long time testing before full scale deployment of products

Vodafone have confirmed pricing but no release date.
https://www.boards.ie/ttfthread/2057911098

Sky may be a good option as they do not have a fair usage policy on their other products as far as I know so I would hope FTTH is the same.
Although I'm not sure how good their network is.

Vodafone is still 1TB FUP even for new customers.

Airware is probably the one to go wtih if customer support is important to you. I know someone who is with them and he had some small problems at first that were sorted very fast once he contacted them, this is unfortunately very rare from a telecommunications company. I wish I had but I was stupid and didn't research before signing up to Eir,
. Wasn't thinking straight when I realised I could get fibre after years of slow internet. That said EIr's network is excellent and everything is great once you don't have to contact customer support.

gerard1970

Tuxy, I found that mail from Sky. It was actually sent on May 31st and not a few weeks ago - doesn't time fly when you're enjoying yourself :-)

It was basically a mail asking me to register my interest for Sky fibre.

The subject was Sky Fibre 1Gb is coming soon to your area

And the body was:
[font=Helvetica, sans-serif]We're excited to let you know that our fastest ever Sky Fibre Broadband is coming soon to your area, with superfast speeds of up to 1Gb.

It's up to 10 times faster than standard fibre broadband, so it's ideal for busy homes.

With Sky Fibre 1Gb, you can download, stream and share as much as you like and all at the same time.

Register your interest in Sky Fibre 1Gb today.[/font]

tuxy

That date makes sense it's around the same time they were looking for people to sign up for a free trail so they could test their network. That test is still ongoing so a few lucky bastards are getting free internet.

https://www.boards.ie/ttfthread/2057876951

Could have been you but they were very selective so it was a real lottery.