Smart employee happy to answer questions on bb rollout

fintan

A question for Garfield

Rang broadband sales two weeks ago, they checked my exchange and its live. Explained I had my telephone bill / broadband with esat and line rental with eircom and that I am happy to get a new telephone number.

Sales rep said, not a problem, print off the form from the website, sign it and post it in. Will be about three weeks from when we receive the form.

So printed everything off and sent it in. Two weeks later havent heard a thing, so rang customer service to make sure they received everything ok.

Customer service said that they had received everything and are waiting on eircom, me trying to be helpful explained that my line rental was with eircom and calls / broadband with esat, she said that I may need to move back to eircom before I can move to smart, but she isnt sure and will call me back.

So whats the story? Do i have to cancel esat, move back to eircom (which will take at least three weeks) and then wait another three weeks to get up on smart?

Sponge Bob

fintan wrote:

So whats the story? Do i have to cancel esat, move back to eircom (which will take at least three weeks) and then wait another three weeks to get up on smart?

cancel ESAT yes , Smart cannot move till you do .

beller b

Cancel Esat(Sorry BT), Move back to Eircom,cancel Eircom & sign up for Smart.... By the time you get your BB back we'll all be on 1gb up/down ... Considering I was waiting over 3 months for Smart after cancelling Eircom, & only 9 days for BT after cancelling Smart I'd stick with BT. (No lies from BT either)

Morkin

beller b wrote:

Cancel Esat(Sorry BT), Move back to Eircom,cancel Eircom & sign up for Smart.... By the time you get your BB back we'll all be on 1gb up/down ... Considering I was waiting over 3 months for Smart after cancelling Eircom, & only 9 days for BT after cancelling Smart I'd stick with BT. (No lies from BT either)

They're not SMART; just slow.

(Man I hate their ads)

M.

fintan

So they lied to me orginally ( I actually spoke too two different sales reps and they both said the exact same thing) and they then expect to have my business?????

not a hope! i'll stay with esat

chorus techy

Morkin wrote:

They're not SMART; just slow.

(Man I hate their ads)

M.

I know, and I thought it was all eircons doing - I've had my form in nearly three weeks now, and have been told on three occasions (after 3 phone calls to smart HQ) that someone would contact me later that day. That was nearly a week ago and still no sign of a modem or a phonecall. So much for the "12 working days" to get me up and running - I haven't evem had a new number issued yet. Irish Broadband is looking pretty good option at this stage - 4 months for smart is just far too long to wait for BB :mad:

juliuspret

Honestly it is eircom's fault as they have Smart(and all their money) tied up in court.

But their customer service is dire as they dont have any real broadband connections to service...no customers<=>no money!!!

Even though, in my current location, Smart will never unbundle my exchange...but if unbundling Dublin/Cork/Galway/Limerick causes eircom to reduce their prices and increase speed them I'm all for Smart unbundling and the sooner the better.

chorus techy

I know it is €ircons fault, but only to a certain extent - the BS of needing an €ircon account number for LLU is the big delay, but what annoys me most is that I was promised to be connected within 12 working days of submission and smart having received a form with valid €ircon account number - they have got this form over 2 weeks ago as whenever I call up they tell me that they have it - but tell me they forward my details onto whoever sends out the modems and that I should expect a call from that person. But I have got nothing, and no details of getting a new number etc. etc. I'm still with €ircon for all my calls - this is smarts fault and only smarts fault.

juliuspret

Stalling tactics by Smart I'm afraid.

Smart realise that BT have, at this time, a very competitive package for their 1Mbit product(as most people dont care if its 1Mbit or 2Mbit as long as its broadband) and are afraid you'll jump ship.

Personially I hope Smart suceed in LLU for obvious reasons, but with eircom and their poor customer treatment, it could come at a high price!!!

beller b

fintan wrote:

So they lied to me orginally ( I actually spoke too two different sales reps and they both said the exact same thing) and they then expect to have my business?????

not a hope! i'll stay with esat

Lies is the one thing they are good at....It suits Smart to let everyone go on blaming Eircom (& believe me , I hate Eircom as much as the rest of ye) but They have cocked up them selves making promises they can't keep... Its not Eircoms fault that Smart announce a date for an exchange to go live & Smarts equipment is not even in the exchange..

chorus techy

Aye - they're not exactly trying to exploit "word of mouth" as a selling tactic here. All I've heard about smart BB so far is stories of weeks waiting to be connected and roll out dates being pushed back again and again...

jor el

juliuspret wrote:

Honestly it is eircom's fault as they have Smart(and all their money) tied up in court.

Isn't that just with the porting of phone numbers though? The delay from Smart is that they haven't got the equipment in the exchanges to offer broadband yet. I love a good Eircom bashing as much as the next man but in this case Smart need to take their share of blame for the delays.

I checked my number in Limerick on Smart's website again today and it says BB available May/June, so one day left till that timeframe is gone. As far as I know they haven't yet unbundled that exchange either.

beller b

There are still the exchanges on the March/April dates that have not got equipment installed yet...Friday is 1st of July & Smart still show this for Santry
"Your phone number 1862**** is in the exchange SANTRY.
Congratulations, Broadband IS available to you! It WILL BE available in MAY.*
Would you like to avail of this amazing offer?"
Maybe because Smart BB is NOT available in City West they are having problems updating thier site

half_life_man

i'm not sure which is the person that works for smart so here's my problem anyway. I received my modem on the 9th june and set it up. Smart said it wud take 10 workin days for them to connect us to thier server. It's been over 2 weeks and still no broadband. I rang them up and they said it had something to with eircom not transfering the phone lines. The green light is still flashin and i'm gettin sick of lookin at it. Do you know how long it will be b4 i get broadband?
Thanks for your help.

beller b

half_life_man wrote:

i'm not sure which is the person that works for smart so here's my problem anyway. I received my modem on the 9th june and set it up. Smart said it wud take 10 workin days for them to connect us to thier server. It's been over 2 weeks and still no broadband. I rang them up and they said it had something to with eircom not transfering the phone lines. The green light is still flashin and i'm gettin sick of lookin at it. Do you know how long it will be b4 i get broadband?
Thanks for your help.

Eh!!! pick a number between 1 & 100..... I got up to 99 then rang BT.....

chorus techy

half_life_man wrote:

Do you know how long it will be b4 i get broadband?
Thanks for your help.

Consider youreself lucky - at least you got a modem! I've been waiting nearly three weeks now, and still no word about a modem, or changing the phone line over. Rang them five times and on all five occasions I was told they would ring me back, but still I am sitting here waiting in vain...

juliuspret

Smart need to take on as many customers as possible to make money for their investors.
So anything slowing them up will cause them to take on a lower number of customers.

Less Customers = Lower Profit

So if they cant pay dividends to investors(first priority) then they cant invest in equipment.
Basically if eircom causes Smart to slow down takeup of customers enough then they will eventually go bust.

As I said before Smart are trying their best to delay the movement of possible customers into 6month contracts with eircom/BT...as most people would probable stay with eircom/BT as its made extremely difficult for the average computer user to move around.

Makes me sick!

chorus techy

Delaying to try and stop customers from churning onto rivals?! Well they're not exactly doing a great job - if I don't get mine sorted shortly, its off to BT Ireland for meself, and I know quite a lot of "potential" customers who have, or will move onto rivals to smart simply because smart take their merry time about issuing modems.

beller b

Agreed ! dirty tactics by Eircom... But as stated before

1) Not eircoms fault Smart Announce Dates for exchange to go live before putting equipment in place
2) Not eircoms fault Smart Lie to customers about same equipment being in place
3) Not Eircoms fault Smart lie to customers with "Connection with in 12 days" when equipment is not even in the exchange
4) Not Eircoms fault Smart launched thier product too early...
I wish we could blame eircom on all the above & all the other problems we have..but it is at least partially Smarts fault also & it is time they were mature enough to admit it & start being honest.It will stand to them more in the future . I for one would have had no problem if I was told Smart BB would not be available till even the end of the year but this cheap tactic of putting customers off week by week & trying to make fools of them has turned me off them compleatly....

chorus techy

beller b wrote:

I for one would have had no problem if I was told Smart BB would not be available till even the end of the year but this cheap tactic of putting customers off week by week & trying to make fools of them has turned me off them compleatly....

Nor would I - all I want is for them to actually ring me back when they say they will, and give me a smart modem. I'll be gone away for two weeks shortly so I don't care if it takes that long to switch the line, I just want the modem so that its all ready to go. And my exchange has been live for months now. It's ridiculous at this stage - people aren't as stupid as smart obviously think they are...

beller b

Are you sure the exchange IS live????? with the ammount of lies they are spewing at the moment its hard to know!

chorus techy

beller b wrote:

Are you sure the exchange IS live????? with the ammount of lies they are spewing at the moment its hard to know!

Well the website says it is, and the CS says it is too. Its the Walkinstown exchange. I bloody well hope they're not telling me more lies! :mad:

sleur

Got the modem today. Of course line isn't transferred over at all, still gonna take up to 10 days. Why couldn't they have told me this would happen AFTER waiting 12 days for the poxy modem to be sent out? Cowboys i tells ya.

beller b

Wouldn't bank on it .. They told me my order was being processed & I WOULD be connected within 12 days... And that was without there even being any equipment in the exchange (Santry). Never mind shipping the modem//

chorus techy

beller b wrote:

Wouldn't bank on it .. They told me my order was being processed & I WOULD be connected within 12 days... And that was without there even being any equipment in the exchange (Santry). Never mind shipping the modem//

Methinks I'll give BT a buzz. BB for €15 per month? Its worth paying extra compared to having to wait for god knows how much longer for smart to get their act together.

half_life_man

sleur wrote:

Got the modem today. Of course line isn't transferred over at all, still gonna take up to 10 days. Why couldn't they have told me this would happen AFTER waiting 12 days for the poxy modem to be sent out? Cowboys i tells ya.

I think ur going to be waiting a lot longer than 10 days for ur line to get transferred. I have my modem connected up and its ready. i've now been waitin nearly 3 weeks. I'm in the coolock exchange. It might b faster for u if ur in a different exchance.

sleur

half_life_man wrote:

I think ur going to be waiting a lot longer than 10 days for ur line to get transferred. I have my modem connected up and its ready. i've now been waitin nearly 3 weeks. I'm in the coolock exchange. It might b faster for u if ur in a different exchance.

On the crown alley exchange. anyone up and running on that already?

beller b

UNBELIVEABLE!!! these exchanges are supposed to be live & they still can't connect people in any sort of reasonable time.... There is something your not been told..