Live areas from Smart

ando

Boston wrote:

TBH I've no idea what they mean by coming next week. They are fairly flakey.

sounds a bit hit and miss to me. I can see people being left dangling with no broadband for weeks

bk

lomb wrote:

thing is eircom 'own' their numbers so they shouldnt have to port anything if they dont want to.

No, Eircom don't 'own' their numbers. ComReg 'own' all numbers and allocate number ranges to Eircom, Smart etc. There is no reason why Comreg can't enforce number portability, they already do it for mobile numbers.

WillieFlynn

Here is the reply I received from smart telecom to my questions on number porting and getting their services if a bitstream product currently enabled on the line.

Willie,

Dear William,

Thank you for your Broadband enquiry.

You will have to cancel your existing broadband service prior to receiving
Smart Broadband.

We are currently installing our equipment in the Dolphins Barn exchange and
we will be ready to go live by the end of April.

You can keep your number but you may be aware that Smart Telecom are locked
in a legal battle at present with Eircom.Basically Eircom will not transfer
customers existing phone numbers to Smart Broadband.
Comreg are taking Eircom to the High Court on the 13th April and we await
the outcome.

To halt any delay with our installation of Smart Broadband we can issue our
customers with a new number.This allows us to keep to our commitment of
providing Smart Broadband to the Dolphins Barn exchange by the end of April.

You can of course wait, if keeping your existing number is important to you.
We cannot at present give you an installation date for your Smart
Broadband,pending the result of the Court case.
We expect that it could be late summer. Of course if you register
successfully you will avail of the free line offer. This will apply either
way.

If you have any further queries please contact me.


Kind Regards,

Ciaran Sloan
Smart Broadband Representative

Sponge Bob

WillieFlynn wrote:

You can of course wait, if keeping your existing number is important to you.
We cannot at present give you an installation date for your Smart
Broadband,pending the result of the Court case.
We expect that it could be late summer. Of course if you register
successfully you will avail of the free line offer. This will apply either
way.

A dreadful response , first mentioning a court case on april 13th and then saying that the result will take until late summer . This is a sure sign that the Call Centre management spend all their time in meetings and never do anything customer facing and it bodes ill for Smart in the long run

You can leave Eircom, keep your own number while the 'issues' are sorted and take the new smart number for €64 a month as I explained earlier in this thread .

Entry level Eircom BB (1MB) on top of the fraudulently excessive lire rental from Eircom will cost you €64 a month so you are still better off going to Smart and doubling your bandwidth for less money and getting better contention and no cap .

If you can let your Eircom number go it will only cost €35 a month like the ad sez

Except there IS one small problem, how much do Smart intend to charge for their Voicemail , is it €5 a month or €10 a month ????

seamus

Good figures Muck.

I think Smart have to be transparent and upfront about why and how though. If people asked, "Well why can't I keep my number?", answering "Well, there are technical and paperwork issues at present that we hope to resolve by the summer" leaves the customer feeling like Smart are a bunch of cowboys. The fact of the matter is that it's completely out of Smart's hands, and I don't see why they should cover up or tiptoe around the actual cause.
Using your suggestion when people ask would be a good idea though.

By mention the court case and the "It's eirciom's fault" line, they also piggyback on existing mistrust of eircom, and instantly get the potential customer onside as just another pawn oppressed and abused by eircom.

Sponge Bob

seamus wrote:

By mention the court case and the "It's eirciom's fault" line, they also piggyback on existing mistrust of eircom, and instantly get the potential customer onside as just another pawn oppressed and abused by eircom.

Its a cack response and they are obviously hiding other unpalatable details of their LLU telephony product as well . Otherwise Garfield would have answered the questions I set him in Feb (and since) would he not .....and don't even think of saying you'll get back to me Garfield ?

dub45

WillieFlynn wrote:

Here is the reply I received from smart telecom to my questions on number porting and getting their services if a bitstream product currently enabled on the line.

Willie,

Dear William,

Thank you for your Broadband enquiry.

You will have to cancel your existing broadband service prior to receiving
Smart Broadband...................


If you have any further queries please contact me.


Kind Regards,

Ciaran Sloan
Smart Broadband Representative

Ciaran forgot to mention the 10 days downtime which has been quoted by another Smart csr and has been posted here.

dub45

Boston wrote:

TBH I've no idea what they mean by coming next week. They are fairly flakey. I haven't canceled my utv account either

Fairly flakey? In view of the post from Willie Flynn above which quotes Smart saying your existing contract has to be cancelled and the down time of 10 days quoted by Smart it would seem that you have not got the faintest hope of getting bb from Smart anytime soon?

WillieFlynn

The reason why you have to cancel your existing internet connection before moving to smart must be down to Eircom business decision to fustrate smart. As I can see no technical reason for it because the LLU involves physicaly moving jumper cables, once they pull the plug and reconnect it to smart's equipment, they will have disconnected your existing internet connection. The contract and payment stuff is another issue, which smart have said is up to you to sort out.

The number portablity issue, is a more technical issue and it is possible to see why it would take time to implement from when they decide (or are forced) to. But Eircom is doing what the mobile operators did a while back, where they held out untill the last minute when comreg forced them to implement full number portablity.

All in all, smart have been caught in a difficult position where they have committed themselves to roll out the product and Eircom are doing anything they can to delay them and fustrate compitition. I think Eircom playing silly buggers and it is a delibrate attempt to undermine a compeditor. We must also rember that smart is paying Eircom to colocate their equipment in the exchanges and are rewarded by blatent attempts to stop them using it.

I feel it will only backfire on Eircom in the long run as it will lead to solutions being imposed on them rather than being able to shape the policies to their liking. This is appart from creating even more ill fieeling against them, which will not help in winning back customers in the long run.

The email I posted from smart, who were replying quickly to a series of questions I sent them. Was an honest attempt by one of their employies to address my concerns (with the expected bias towards smart of course but then all companies would do the same). This was better than ringing their customer support lines as they didn't know the answers (one told me he didn't know and gave me a diffent number to try and the other tried to bluff). It would have been nice if smart were more fortcomming with the information than having to ask them the correct questions to find out.

However Eircom have not even responded to a complaint I sent them last week on a different issue within the timeframes given in their complaints procedure listed on their website.

One of the reasons for me thinking of changing to smart is I have heard that give a good service in the business market.

I still think that if every potential smart customer were to ring Eircom about number porting and the bitstream issure, they would sort it out quickly as it would swamp their call centers.

Willei.

dub45

WillieFlynn wrote:

The reason why you have to cancel your existing internet connection before moving to smart must be down to Eircom ..................
I still think that if every potential smart customer were to ring Eircom about number porting and the bitstream issure, they would sort it out quickly as it would swamp their call centers.

Willei.

It is easy to forget that boards users are not typical of internet users generally who dont have a clue about number porting etc etc and unfortunately they are not going to swamp call centres about something that they have not got the foggiest about. I suspect they will blame Smart especially when they start hearing they will have to change their number if they want to go with Smart.

While obviously Eircom are going to do their best to frustrate a competitor a lot of this stuff - even the basic transfer - does not seem to have been anticipated by Smart at all prior to their launch and surely it should have been?

Sponge Bob

I'd email the boss , phil.nolan@eircom.ie

WillieFlynn

I have just been reading the investor relations section of Eircoms website:
http://investorrelations.eircom.net/about/index.htm

and one of the services they offer is
"geographic and non-geographic number portability, which allows customers to keep their telephone numbers regardless of the authorised operator they choose"

dub45

WillieFlynn wrote:

I have just been reading the investor relations section of Eircoms website:
http://investorrelations.eircom.net/about/index.htm

and one of the services they offer is
"geographic and non-geographic number portability, which allows customers to keep their telephone numbers regardless of the authorised operator they choose"

I wonder what the definition of 'authorised operator' is?

What about existing customers of Smart? What happened to their nos when they transferred?

dub45

Sponge Bob wrote:

I'd email the boss , phil.nolan@eircom.ie

Being totallly realistic do you really think that 'Phil' or anyone in his postion is going to be bothered unduly by an email saying ''I wish to protest strongly that you are not facilitating one of your competitors who wishes to take customers from you.''

machalla

You have squarely hit the nail on the head there dub45.

In other news well we got a call from smart yesterday (an email actually since they tried to call on landline and no-one was there).

They will be shipping a dsl-modem to us on monday apparently and we should (with luck) expect to be on their BB system in the next 11 days. We will have to change phone-number but thats not a bother. Also they are giving us €20 call credit due to having to shift phone-number which is better than a kick in the teeth.

This would be for the Dolphins Barn exchange.

So heres hoping theres no new problems.

toil

hey machalla,
when were you asked about changing number?
As in, did they ask you about this when they called you regarding installation?

Cheers,
toil

dub45

machalla wrote:

You have squarely hit the nail on the head there dub45.

In other news well we got a call from smart yesterday (an email actually since they tried to call on landline and no-one was there).

.....................

This would be for the Dolphins Barn exchange.

So heres hoping theres no new problems.

Did you have an existing bb account? Good luck with the installation anyways!

machalla

Yep that would be it. When they called they apparently go through a spiel (I didn't take the call) about the case with Eircom which is due to go to court mid-april. I think they ask you if you want to change number or wait for the number move thing to be sorted out.

Dub, no there was no existing BB on this line as Eircon have claimed all along its not suitable for BB. It appears to be though at least with DSL2. I will wait and see what happens with it.

Moriarty

dub45 wrote:

While obviously Eircom are going to do their best to frustrate a competitor a lot of this stuff - even the basic transfer - does not seem to have been anticipated by Smart at all prior to their launch and surely it should have been?

It was thought about. The thing that is currently tied up in the high court would have sorted out all migration issues from bitstream dsl to llu dsl, along with all the other stuff like number portability. Delaying that framework is a showstopper, and eircom know that full well.

Sponge Bob

The biggest showstopper IMO is that Smart have refused to countenance a post facto manual number port where a bulk manual request is sent into Eircom on the day that a batch of pairs is jumpered over on LLU .

They want full automation or nothing while the customer wants something rather than nothing , even if the port took a month.

The person affected, without a their functioning number at this point, can chase Eircom themselves as it is Eircom that are refusing to release YOUR number not Smart who are refusing to accept it and therefore Eircom must take responsibility.

Nor should you have to pay a penny line rental to Eircom during this time for holding you hostage and yes you can sue Eircom in the small claim court for loss of (pick anything you want) because Eircom never show up in the Small Claims Court anyway .

In the meantime you can spread your new number around to those who need to know it.

gibo_ie

Sponge Bob wrote:

You can leave Eircom, keep your own number while the 'issues' are sorted and take the new smart number for €64 a month as I explained earlier in this thread .

[/b]

OR... you could have your old number forwarded to your new number at a whopping cost of €6 + VAT a month.... or at least that is what they are charging us here because we moved across the city to a new exchange with new numbers....

35 + 6 = 41 ... still less than line rental + broadband from anyone...

dub45

Moriarty wrote:

It was thought about. The thing that is currently tied up in the high court would have sorted out all migration issues from bitstream dsl to llu dsl, along with all the other stuff like number portability. Delaying that framework is a showstopper, and eircom know that full well.

On what do you base your claim that it was thought about? Garfield gave no indication in any of his posts that it had been thought about until the matter was raised here. For instance if it was thought about why didnt Smart ask people to indicate on their application forms whether or not they were already bb customers with an isp? That's an essential piece of information for them to have. Without that they have no indication of the extent of the switching problem.

And this post would not give anyone any confidence in the switching process nor the other recent one from Smart quoting 10 days downtime.

dub45

machalla wrote:

.......................Dub, no there was no existing BB on this line as Eircon have claimed all along its not suitable for BB. It appears to be though at least with DSL2. I will wait and see what happens with it.

Have Smart given any indication as to whether there will be a loss of actual phone service during the switchover?

Sponge Bob

Its €6 + Vat not €20 + Vat is it then ?

Can anyone else find documentation on this because it would mean that the cost of having 2 numbers for 6 months incl 2Mbit BB 'mid port' would be

1. €35 to Smart
2. €6+ Vat = €7.20 to Eircom (I Heard it may be €8 from someone else)
3. €5 worth of local calls forwaded each month from the old number
4. The cost of setting up step 2. above is €30 (thats = €5 a month for 6 Months say )

I make That €53 a month all in for 2Mits (until your number is ported when it drops to €35) instead of €64/€65 as I calculated earlier .

You can bring it to about €49 a month by putting Voicemail on the Eircom line stating your new number and not forwarding the calls .

€49 a month dropping to €35 a month after 6 months is very doable , I wish Smart CS would realise that and communicate adequately but they are probably all in meetings all day which bodes ill for them really

Sponge Bob

dub45 wrote:

I wonder what the definition of 'authorised operator' is?

It would essentially be that which is not other than Authorised my dear fellow

For your sins Its Off to Comreg for some light reading !

Mountjoy Mugger

This (new phone number) is at variance with what Smart's FAQ says on single billing:

http://www.smarttelecom.ie/products/residential/onebillfaq.htm

Sponge Bob

Single Billing =(WLR+CPS) and is totally different to LLU

For your sins Its Off to Comreg for some light reading !

Fidelis

I'm on the Priory exchange in Dublin and I was told that my number would not be affected in any way. The Priory exchange is due to go live in July/August.

aphex™

Fidelis wrote:

I'm on the Priory exchange in Dublin and I was told that my number would not be affected in any way. The Priory exchange is due to go live in July/August.

I suppose the court case would be over by August anyway. Eircon will probably loose.

jbkenn

aphex&#8482 wrote:

I suppose the court case would be over by August anyway. Eircon will probably loose.

It had better be over by August, cos the courts toddle of on their holliers for August, and it could drag on to Xmas

jbkenn