Complaint letter to Eircom -

sticker

Hey, I realise it's not typically a broadband issue, but it's connection doesn't happen without a line in to begin with. (I'd prefer not to go satelite) and NTL aren't up in my area.

Here's the letter I sent yesterday; I'd appreciate any thoughts or advice

Thanks in Advance...


Dear Sir / Madam

In early January I moved into a new development in Clonee and contacted Eircom as a new customer asking to have a line installed. I was also interested in a Broadband connection. I was told an Engineer would call within 24 hours. This happened on THREE occasions, after hearing nothing each time, I was forced to call back. The fourth time I was told that ‘no-one in Eircom would tell you an engineer would contact you.’ Essentially calling me a liar. I realise that new developments have certain infrastructure problems in terms of laying cabling etc., but the site main office is literally next door to my house and it has FOUR phone lines in place.

I was told on my fifth call in early February that March 30th was the forecasted date of line implementation. I called again on March 30th to be told it would be April 20th and this morning told that June was the new forecasted date. I am a web designer by profession, so I'm losing money wach week I'm without the facility of the internet. I find it incredible that it takes this long to install lines in an estate entirely surrounded by housing that has lines installed for some time. I would also note that your support staff are extremely condescending over the phone. They spoke over me when I attemped to explain my grievance, at points raising their voices to silence me etc. I need not remind you that as a potential customer, an air of respect should be extended. Was it not for the fact that Eircom have a monopoly in the telecommunications sector, I would go elsewhere.

Please explore why the lines are taking so long, especially when my next door neighbour has the facility of four phone lines. The site foreman that worked on our completed estate tells me that as far as he is aware it would take 15 minutes for an Eircom engineer to set up my line (after inspecting the box outside my house and the box on the house itself. I have found all my dealings with Eircom to be totally unprofessional and If this situation doesn’t improve, particularly the manner of your call staff, I will be reporting the situation to Comreg.

Regards

Eircom Ref: XXXXXXX

TerrorFirmer

Hell yeah, stick it to them!!

Fair enough, it sounds like you had every right to write the letter in any case, and it sounds good!

Stalfos

This seems like a job for Ireland Offine,
Battling the evil Eircom day in, day out

Sucks for yea man, I know of people with similar problems with Eircom

sticker

MobileInfantry wrote:

Hell yeah, stick it to them!!

Fair enough, it sounds like you had every right to write the letter in any case, and it sounds good!

Cheers MobileInfantry, Dunno if it'll do any good, just browsing the boards, it seems you need to get on Morning Ireland to get a problem solved!

jonski

By the second phone call , when you are finished talking to the "first line" eircom person ask for their name and ask to speak to a supervisor , take the name of the supervisor and write down exactly what they said .

Then e-mail ( I know , no conn , but go to a friends house or web cafe ) paul.brennan@comreg.ie and phil.nolan@eircom.ie . I had a problem with bitstream port transfer and this got it sorted fairly quickly , can't remember who gave me the e-mail addys , think it was Muck , but I was very grateful for them . On the phone , try , try , try to be as patient as possible , you catch more flies with honey . Not easy I know , but these people you are talking to have no authority to get you connected themselves .

Good luck and keep us posted .

sticker

jonski wrote:

By the second phone call , when you are finished talking to the "first line" eircom person ask for their name and ask to speak to a supervisor , take the name of the supervisor and write down exactly what they said .

Then e-mail ( I know , no conn , but go to a friends house or web cafe ) paul.brennan@comreg.ie and phil.nolan@eircom.ie . I had a problem with bitstream port transfer and this got it sorted fairly quickly , can't remember who gave me the e-mail addys , think it was Muck , but I was very grateful for them . On the phone , try , try , try to be as patient as possible , you catch more flies with honey . Not easy I know , but these people you are talking to have no authority to get you connected themselves .

Good luck and keep us posted .

Will do. Appreciate the advice all. I'll keep you aprised of any change. By the way paulbrennan@comreg.ie seems to be dead, the company email is bouncing her back.

jonski

check again , its paul.brennan , the . is important .

sticker

jonski wrote:

check again , its paul.brennan , the . is important .

You're right! My mistake - Sent him a mail - Thanks again...

With any new large development, the lines are typicaly already laid. Its just a matter of connecting them at the exchange.

Sponge Bob

ronoc wrote:

With any new large development, the lines are typicaly already laid. Its just a matter of connecting them at the exchange.

What makes you think there is an exchange ?

Sponge Bob

Sponge Bob wrote:

What makes you think there is an exchange ?

There must be one somewhere !

moloneyg

well it is eircom, you never know the exchange could be scheduled to be build in 2056, all they ask is if you stay on hold till then :-)


Gerry

Dr_MalPractice

moloneyg wrote:

well it is eircom, you never know the exchange could be scheduled to be build in 2056, all they ask is if you stay on hold till then :-)


Gerry

yeah, i hear it's the most ambitious new exchange ever. They're building it on mars!!

Sponge Bob

The fact that 50,000 houses are to be built in new suburb X within 5 years according to zoning and all that does NOT mean that an exchange will be built or even planned.

One should always check with Eircom in writing before you buy a house in an outer suburb or a new suburb. Its less of an issue in an already developed area but if the new development is sizeable vis a vis whats there already , such as a huge estate in a small village in Meath , then its prudent to check .

The good news (if any) is that Comreg recently decided that once you apply you will only have to wait one year for a line.

If you are moving into a house in April next year and have the house address already then apply for the line now and the line should be there for you in April 2006 or if not Comreg may do something

HTH

TomTom

Aye Comreg is the place to go for complaints. See if you can get a copy of their charter for eircom, if eircom are in breech of any of comregs rules they they will move fairly quickly

Infini

Agreed. Let them know of the bull they gave you and comreg will sort the slackers out.

sticker

Sponge Bob wrote:

The fact that 50,000 houses are to be built in new suburb X within 5 years according to zoning and all that does NOT mean that an exchange will be built or even planned.

One should always check with Eircom in writing before you buy a house in an outer suburb or a new suburb. Its less of an issue in an already developed area but if the new development is sizeable vis a vis whats there already , such as a huge estate in a small village in Meath , then its prudent to check .

The good news (if any) is that Comreg recently decided that once you apply you will only have to wait one year for a line.

If you are moving into a house in April next year and have the house address already then apply for the line now and the line should be there for you in April 2006 or if not Comreg may do something

HTH

My estate is sourrounded by older housing that has lines installed. So I'd be fairly confident that I'm near an exchange. The nearest house that's over three years old is 100 yards away. Not to mention that the site office is 20 yards away me with 4 lines installed....

sticker

Got a call from Eircom this afternoon; It'll be June before the cables are laid, and could be July before lines can be activated... Bugger.

He said there's absolutely no possibility of an earlier connection date.

All my sites are now on hold until that date.

I put it to him that the immediate sourrounding area has lines in for some years - Aparantly it doesn't make a difference.

Also the two site offices in the houses literaly beside me which have 8 phone lines in total are only "builder lines" and makes no difference to my delay.

It's well frustrating to hear cables need laying and my next door neighbour has 4 lines to play with.

Dero

sticker wrote:

It's well frustrating to hear cables need laying and my next door neighbour has 4 lines to play with.

Time to start tunnelling then...

GoneShootin

Your site are NOT on hold, if you really need to get online, use:

mobile phone as a modem
gsm mobile connect card

theres a god few options open to you:

netcafe


etc
etc

Cryos

GoneShootin wrote:

Your site are NOT on hold, if you really need to get online, use:

mobile phone as a modem
gsm mobile connect card

theres a god few options open to you:

netcafe


etc
etc

Lol thers not that great of money in web design if he goes mobile connect he will have no money !!! i can sympathise with the guy as we do websites aswell!!

Sponge Bob

sticker wrote:

Got a call from Eircom this afternoon; It'll be June before the cables are laid, and could be July before lines can be activated... Bugger.

Sticker.

If you wrote to them and they rang you instead of writing back I would warn you of one thing .

Eircom do generally stick to their written committments but in this case there is no written commitment and there is no record of that phone call you got either

Get the install date/schedule in writing if you want a telephone line by July and if they refuse to write that down then you can forget about July 2005 and plan for July 2006.

HTH

sticker

GoneShootin wrote:

Your site are NOT on hold, if you really need to get online, use:

mobile phone as a modem
gsm mobile connect card

theres a god few options open to you:

netcafe


etc
etc

I suppose I could use my mates pc to upload. It's just frustrating without the web -

sticker

Sponge Bob wrote:

Sticker.

If you wrote to them and they rang you instead of writing back I would warn you of one thing .

Eircom do generally stick to their written committments but in this case there is no written commitment and there is no record of that phone call you got either

Get the install date/schedule in writing if you want a telephone line by July and if they refuse to write that down then you can forget about July 2005 and plan for July 2006.

HTH

I'm coming to terms with the fact that it'll be done when its done...

COMREG tell me that inside a year, Eircom can take their time. It's just a shame I have to wait so long when I'm sourrounded by active lines. Thanks again everyones advice and input.

NIBBS

I moved into a new phase of a 4 year old estate in Swords just before Christmas and it took 6 months to get the phone line connected, so much bloody hassle involved, including having to order the line three times and numerous contacts and complaints.............
....anyway, finally we got the line sorted last month, they also gauranteed before Christmas that the line would be installed by end Jan at the latest, thinking (stupidly) that a new line in an area that is broadband enabled, I've a friend in another phase of the development who's line passes the line test, I do the test and no, nada, nothing, what a pain in the ass......of course Eircom being the lovely people they are then tried to charge me for the line despite the fact that they are fitting lines for free during the period they installed mine and all of the cock ups, so they have promised I'll get a credit on the next bill - but I'll believe it when I see it........

anyway, just stick with it :rolleyes: , I've been in the same situation, I dont' think there are any other options where Broadband is concerned and they keep telling different stories of when the line will be installed......patience of a Saint required (even for them to respond to complaints)....they are such a nightmare to deal with.....got herself to contact them once aswell and there were two girls talking about a wedding they were going to instead of talking to her.....laughable


Is there anything I can do about my line failing the test ?????
I was going to just start complaining again, but decided I'd leave it a couple of weeks........

antoinolachtnai

If you have good relations with the builder, I would try applying for ADSL on one of his lines.

mp3guy

as far as i know, if you want to get anywhere with eircom, you have to threaten to brick them

GoneShootin

Blitz wrote:

Lol thers not that great of money in web design if he goes mobile connect he will have no money !!! i can sympathise with the guy as we do websites aswell!!

Well then ye must be **** at business management then if ye are making no money from it. My point is that if he needs to do business, there are options open. He is not essentially strangled by eircom.

Dades

Sticker,

Have you checked to see if Irish Broadband cover your area?
You might be able to get Ripwave, and wouldn't have to sign a 12 month contract.

G'luck.

Orion

The Atheist wrote:

Sticker,

Have you checked to see if Irish Broadband cover your area?
You might be able to get Ripwave, and wouldn't have to sign a 12 month contract.
G'luck.

That's a good point. A colleague in work lives in Clonee and uses Ripwave.

sticker

The Atheist wrote:

Sticker,

Have you checked to see if Irish Broadband cover your area?
You might be able to get Ripwave, and wouldn't have to sign a 12 month contract.

G'luck.

A Mate here in the job just recommended me the exact same option. I'll look into it and let you know! Cheers.