UTV not increasing caps

Stark

Got a letter in the post from the ASAI today.

It reads:

The function of the Advertising Standards Authority for Ireland is to promote the highest standards of advertising and to enforce the Codes of Advertising Standards and of Sales Promotion Practice. We are prepared to investigate complaints about advertising that may be considered to be in breach of the Codes.

The Code of Advertising Standards applies to advertisements which are defined as paid for commerical communications and it is a characteristic of an advertisement that the advertiser pays of rewards a thrid party to communicate his message. In these circumstances it is not considered that the Code covers web site content as such but merely advertisements in paid for space within web sites. In general, other matters posted on a company's own web site are not covered by the Code.

In these circumstances it is not considered that there are grounds for a formal investigation under our Code of Advertising Standards.

Yours sincerely,

Orla Twomey,
ASSISTANT CHIEF EXECUTIVE".

Surely this can't mean companies are given free reign to put whatever false information they like on their websites? Is there another law that company websites are covered under?

julius

Stark wrote:

Got a letter in the post from the ASAI today.

It reads:



Surely this can't mean companies are given free reign to put whatever false information they like on their websites? Is there another law that company websites are covered under?

Whats holding UTV back from saying they are 40 times faster than Eircom now????

If pressed on the matter by the ASAi they can just say they were referring to eircoms "Dial-Up" service and of course not their broadband.

Is there any regulator with teeth in Ireland or have they all been castrated by the government in favour of big business??!!??!!??

Valentia

Sully04 wrote:

She acknowledged

Carl is a "he".

Sully04 wrote:

And they wouldnt even tell us what the plan was with UTV at all untill a few days AFTER the upgrade. All other ISPS told BEFORE the upgrade. .

They announced it on 4th April, the official date of the upgrade.

BTW the "double caps" is gone off the site now.

Patrick, on the newsgroup, has asked for suggestions on tweaking their product. Perhaps reasoned responses to his request would be more productive.

Has anybody noticed that with all the customers that UTV have it's the same few who jump in complaining.....again and again and again.............

beer enigma

Are they gradually rolling out the speed increase ? - mine seems slower than ever !!! :mad:

I've spoken with Patrick before - he's actually a nice guy, but I guess just has to tow the company line.

geecee

I'm with UTV on the Beggars Bush exchange.

I'm one of the silent majority who are not happy with UTV but seldom complain...
My connection has been soooooo sloooooooow since the "upgrade" on Monday

UTV speedtest tells me i'm connecting at 33 kbits/sec
Thanks UTV for a great service as usual!

At least my contract is up!
As soon as I return from my hols i'll be sending that cancellation notice, unless UTV supstantially improve the caps

Dinner

Did you try switch to PPOA as opposed to PPOE. Thats work for alot of people including myself.

Sully

Valentia wrote:

Carl is a "he".



They announced it on 4th April, the official date of the upgrade.

BTW the "double caps" is gone off the site now.

Patrick, on the newsgroup, has asked for suggestions on tweaking their product. Perhaps reasoned responses to his request would be more productive.

Has anybody noticed that with all the customers that UTV have it's the same few who jump in complaining.....again and again and again.............

Yes im aware that Carl is a he, it was a slip of the "keyboard" as such, only noticed I refered to him as a she now. Was already told I got the name wrong :P Which I keep doing.

The announcment was made after the upgrade, they wouldnt say what they where doing like other ISPS before the upgrade.

Also; its a lot more then a "few" complaining.

_Kaiser_

They (UTV) do seem to have implemented single billing tho - finally!

I got my final eircom bill online yesterday:

You are in credit by €-11.18

That must be a first! How would I claim that back?

AdMMM

Can I just intrude on you UTV users for a moment?

I've made the observation that the majority of you seem to have a major disliking towards UTV. Can I just remind you that UTV are the RyanAir of Irish ISPS complete with long delays to be connected and to have gain sufficent technical support to satisfy any query that you may have. Now I'm guessing that the majority of you guys chose UTV for their low price and inviting telephone service. What else should you expect from UTV though when you (UTV Customers) are paying lower prices than other BB customer on a different ISP in Ireland?

If you feel that UTV aren't offering you sufficent service, then you should seriously start considering leaving an extra €10 part from your wallet every month and move to another ISP because quiet frankly you're all getting what you're paying for!

[/rant]

_Kaiser_

|.Murderer.| wrote:

Can I just intrude on you UTV users for a moment?

I've made the observation that the majority of you seem to have a major disliking towards UTV. Can I just remind you that UTV are the RyanAir of Irish ISPS complete with long delays to be connected and to have gain sufficent technical support to satisfy any query that you may have. Now I'm guessing that the majority of you guys chose UTV for their low price and inviting telephone service. What else should you expect from UTV though when you (UTV Customers) are paying lower prices than other BB customer on a different ISP in Ireland?

If you feel that UTV aren't offering you sufficent service, then you should seriously start considering leaving an extra €10 part from your wallet every month and move to another ISP because quiet frankly you're all getting what you're paying for!

[/rant]

I disagree.. while I understand the point you're making, UTV entered the market and set prices that would (presumably) allow them to compete effectively, cover their costs - INCLUDING support - and make a profit as well.

"Just cause it's cheap" is no excuse for poor service though. Or would you prefer that we continue to pay inflated prices and further prove that this is indeed "Rip-Off Ireland"???

Subc

|.Murderer.| wrote:

Can I just intrude on you UTV users for a moment?

I've made the observation that the majority of you seem to have a major disliking towards UTV. Can I just remind you that UTV are the RyanAir of Irish ISPS complete with long delays to be connected and to have gain sufficent technical support to satisfy any query that you may have. Now I'm guessing that the majority of you guys chose UTV for their low price and inviting telephone service. What else should you expect from UTV though when you (UTV Customers) are paying lower prices than other BB customer on a different ISP in Ireland?

If you feel that UTV aren't offering you sufficent service, then you should seriously start considering leaving an extra €10 part from your wallet every month and move to another ISP because quiet frankly you're all getting what you're paying for!

[/rant]

yes and lets start paying 50euros a month for 56k + 10mb cap after all its what were paying for lol

please man either you release a product for 50euros and it works or you release a 40 euro product thats slower but works. Not a 40 euro product thats the same as the 50 but since u pay less it doesnt always work.

AdMMM

They would have set their prices to have operated on a small profit margin. One of the first things that is cut-down is technical support.

I'm merely saying that you can't keep comparing UTV to Eircom/IOL/<any other BB provider> simply because of the price you are presently paying.

It's like trying to compare PoundShop Pens to Bic pens. You can go on and on about how your poundshop pen barely ever works but at the end of the day, you get what to pay for.

Lets not blame UTV for Ripoff Ireland... UTV have to pay Eircom the wholesale cost for every connection.

Boston

Lets not pretend its the low cost ryan air equivalent. It isn't, they just had a different business package to others, Esat are actually cheaper by 5 euro a month for a similiar offer(though I can't find info on caps).

dub45

Boston wrote:

Lets not pretend its the low cost ryan air equivalent. It isn't, they just had a different business package to others, Esat are actually cheaper by 5 euro a month for a similiar offer(though I can't find info on caps).

Indeed! Ryan air make a virtue of their no frills approach. UTV have never adopted a no frills approach in their advertising. In fact until recently (unless I am very much mistaken) they made a claim on their website about their unprecedented technical support. Murder refers to UTV's low margin but neglects their low cost base which allows them to be quite profitable as their 2003 annual report states:

Internet operating margins rose to 22% from 15% in 2002

and

New Media operating profits trebled to almost £0.9m (2002: £0.3m)

The full 2004 report is not available yet but the interim statement says:

New Media
Revenues in this division grew by an impressive 56% in the 6 months under review, with much of that growth driven by an increase in broadband customers. As I have previously stated, greater broadband penetration is our key objective but customer acquisition costs do reduce margins in the early stages. Despite these costs and a one-off credit of £0.14m in the comparative figure new media operating profits were maintained at the same level as last year.

Murderer states

It's like trying to compare PoundShop Pens to Bic pens. You can go on and on about how your poundshop pen barely ever works but at the end of the day, you get what to pay for

Yes but the poundshop presumably is not reselling Bic Pens at a cheaper price. UTV are selling exactly the same product as Iol or Eircom. UTV do not state a lesser level of technical support is the 'cost' to the customer of a lower monthly subscription. In fact a lot of customer loyalty that exists for UTV was generated by customer contact in the good old days. And in fairness when the support group is attended to on a regular basis it would be very hard to match that level anywhere.

BY the logic of murderer's argument Smart first 100.000 customers should expect very little indeed and definitely wont have any basis for complaints.

litirspam

Just out of interest. How much would it cost to cancel subscription with UTV if I was to move to another provider?

Stark

At least my contract is up!
As soon as I return from my hols i'll be sending that cancellation notice, unless UTV supstantially improve the caps

Remember you need to give them a month's notice of cancellation or they automatically enter you into another 12 month contract.

PcP

You sure about that? I was under the impression it went into a monthly rolling contract once the 12 months is up..

dub45

Stark wrote:

Remember you need to give them a month's notice of cancellation or they automatically enter you into another 12 month contract.

No thats not the case AFAIK. Once you complete the first 12 month contract you are on a rolling month's contract.(Although after several looks I cannot find this in the Terms and Conditions)

iano

dub45 wrote:

No thats not the case AFAIK. Once you complete the first 12 month contract you are on a rolling month's contract.(Although after several looks I cannot find this in the Terms and Conditions)

From Clicksilver T&Cs
16. TERM AND TERMINATION
16.1 This Agreement may be terminated as follows ... :
16.1.1 by either of us on 28 days notice, ... ;
...
16.1.3 If you give notice of termination of this Agreement ... during the Minimum Period and the Service has been made available for you to use, you must pay all Charges payable during the Minimum Period.

dub45

iano wrote:

From Clicksilver T&Cs
16. TERM AND TERMINATION
16.1 This Agreement may be terminated as follows ... :
16.1.1 by either of us on 28 days notice, ... ;
...
16.1.3 If you give notice of termination of this Agreement ... during the Minimum Period and the Service has been made available for you to use, you must pay all Charges payable during the Minimum Period.

Well spotted:)

Boston

I Really don't know about switching, I mean I'll be honest I really demanded very very little from my broadband connection. Allways on, a resonable speed and a resonable cap. UTV have delivered all that for me. Now I know it's probably because I'm on summerhill exchange, which afaik is one of the most modern exchanges in the country, completely rebuilt after the privatisation, but that is my experience. That said this 2mb does feel really lifeless with out the upload speed as well, and if some ISP was to increase upload speed I think I'd change, but none are offering at the moment.

PiE

OT but...

Kaiser2000 wrote:

That must be a first! How would I claim that back?

Minus €11? Doesn't that mean you owe €11?

Murderer, it's like dub45 said... UTV aren't offering a reduced quality package at a reduced rate. They're offering the same package as Eircom/IOL/Etc and marketing it as such.

rsynnott

|.Murderer.| wrote:

Can I just intrude on you UTV users for a moment?

I've made the observation that the majority of you seem to have a major disliking towards UTV. Can I just remind you that UTV are the RyanAir of Irish ISPS complete with long delays to be connected and to have gain sufficent technical support to satisfy any query that you may have. Now I'm guessing that the majority of you guys chose UTV for their low price and inviting telephone service. What else should you expect from UTV though when you (UTV Customers) are paying lower prices than other BB customer on a different ISP in Ireland?

If you feel that UTV aren't offering you sufficent service, then you should seriously start considering leaving an extra €10 part from your wallet every month and move to another ISP because quiet frankly you're all getting what you're paying for!

[/rant]

It's a cheap service. That doesn't give it a right to lie about what it provides, which it was doing there for a few days. If Ryanair said they'd fly you to Paris for the same price Aer Lingus would fily you to London, but instead meant that they'd kick you out the door 30,000 feet over London, that wouldn't be acceptable. Not even if it was in the small print.

No-one was complaining about UTV's poor service (never used them, so can't comment) here. They were complaining about the false advertisment.

is_that_so

iano wrote:

From Clicksilver T&Cs
16. TERM AND TERMINATION
16.1 This Agreement may be terminated as follows ... :
16.1.1 by either of us on 28 days notice, ... ;
...
16.1.3 If you give notice of termination of this Agreement ... during the Minimum Period and the Service has been made available for you to use, you must pay all Charges payable during the Minimum Period.

Called them a week or so ago and was told that termination AFTER 12 months is no problem. I recall when I signed up that it was 12 months followed by 1 month rolloing contract. Guess it's just subject to 16.1.1

Stark

Boston wrote:

I Really don't know about switching, I mean I'll be honest I really demanded very very little from my broadband connection. Allways on, a resonable speed and a resonable cap. UTV have delivered all that for me. Now I know it's probably because I'm on summerhill exchange, which afaik is one of the most modern exchanges in the country, completely rebuilt after the privatisation, but that is my experience. That said this 2mb does feel really lifeless with out the upload speed as well, and if some ISP was to increase upload speed I think I'd change, but none are offering at the moment.

Don't know if they're available in your area but www.irishbroadband.ie offer a symmetrical 1Mbit/s service with unlimited cap which will soon be upgraded to 2Mbit/s.

Also NTL have a 1.5Mbits/256kpbs offering with 30GB cap which will be upgraded soon (details yet to be announced).

Boston

I'm within range of 5 of their station, all of which are blocked. Besides, and forgive me I can't remember the word cause I'm asleep, isn't there service half something or other, meaning you tend to get 1Mbit/s either on the upload or download not both. Also I've been told that it's now 1.5Mbit/s despite being sold as 1Mbit/s.

_Kaiser_

PiE wrote:

OT but...

Minus €11? Doesn't that mean you owe €11?

Well it specifically says "You are in credit by" and then the amount, so I think it's just eircom being as clear as mud again.

Must ring em and query it - anyone have a direct number cause I HATE their VRU system!

(PS: Sorry for going slightly OT here)

Boston

Having talked to a friend, it's fully sysmetric now, none of that half duplex ****e, and he also mentioned he's on 1.5 Mbit/s now. while he should be on 1Mbit/s. So fuk it I'm getting IBB, rang them up and it's nay problem.