I just signed up for Chorus Digital- should I be afraid?

spongebob

....but nobody really knows for sure yet.

Check out Cablenet (a Chorus Site) which announces a cable 512K service BUT won't TELL anybody where it is. How very very Chorus.

allegedly in the south midlands since the 01 Aug, check out the IrelandOffline forum.

M

ozpass

Yeah right!

You can have the moon-on-a-stick, but god help you if all you want is the 'phone service you've paid for.;)

spongebob

....it ain't me whos's lying here...........

ozpass

Not intended as a criticism of you, Muck (nice down to earth name ) But at the end of the day they could be advertising free holidays on their website- it doesn't mean you're going to get one.

For example, I have a nice receipt stating that I've paid for the installation of a 'phone line, signed by the Chorus rep. who sold it to me, but do I have it installed? Do I feck!

spongebob

Well.....

I would complain to the ODTR right about now, Info Here , in case Chorus try to give some bullsh1t story in their annual report about 100% of phone installations carried out in 10 working days....not that I think that Chorus are liars or anything.......

Make sure you get also compo for all the mobile calls you made instead of local ones.

You must ask the ODTR how to get compo in your complaint , detailing how much the delay cost you and also include any time you took off to be there for Chorus no shows at 0.5 days per (arranged) visit. The first call, to install your TV, shoulda been the only call as that was the arrangement when you signed the contract.
You will be entitled to compo for every minute you spent waiting for them bar that initial half day.

M

ozpass

You know what, Muck? That's bloody excellent advice. Attached is a copy of the email I just sent to the ODTR and cc:'d to Chorus customer service.

I'd be keen to hear what you all think of it- feel free to make suggestions regarding what I'll say to the people at the Consumer Advice Centre when I call in tomorrow.

P.S. The names have been changed to protect the innocent (or should that be guilty-as-sin?!!!!):cool:

spongebob

Thats what I call a complaint.

sceptre

Nice complaint ozpass. Contains a nice rundown of the events.

Hopefully the ODTR will get back to you sharply - if they don't probably worth giving them a call as they're the closest thing we have to a telecoms ombudsman in the country.

I'd guess that Chorus are (or will soon be) in breach of contract, not having fulfilled the install within whatever time they promise (in any case this is hardly more than 28 days so you could just get your money back when they don't bother installing as promised when they don't turn up in the next two weeks - not that this is what you want)

watty

Chorus isn't all bad..
I had trouble with my Eircom phone line. Eircom either couldn't or where unwilling to fix it. So we ordered Chorus's Wireless Loop phone.Contarty to popular belief it is a completely separate system to MMDS. Within 3 days it was installed. The next day the speed was switched higher to allow our modem to go at 49.5K ERROR FREE.

I would only recomment wireless loop (Chorus) though if Eircom can't fix a problem as in many areas it might not be as reliable.

icdg

The Cablenet.ie domain was originally owned by CMI for their service offered in Swords/Malahide...I have heard tell that this service was closed down though, the site disappeared almost on the day Chorus was launched. It seems likely this new site for the new service on offer to ex-Suir Nore Relays customers.

sirlinux

Cablenet.ie is a perfect example of how bad a company chorus is, CMI had a perfectly good cable internet service in swords and malahide many moons ago, as soon chorus bought them thye let most of the tech staff go and shut down the service, there is still no plans to bring it back up, they actually shut down the leased lines to it a few months ago and switched any of the remaining servers over to the unison data centre (and left many people without e-mail service for days). You think with all the fuss for broadband these days they would turn it back on, not a chance.

ozpass

I just received this exciting and informative email from Chorus in response to my complaint to the ODTR (who incidentally haven't responded themselves) which was cc:'d to our chums at Chorus.

I am thoroughly drained from my dealings with this bunch of clowns.

Does anyone have any contacts within the company I can call? I seriously cannot bear the thought of going through 'Customer Service' again.

spongebob

....they still haven;t assigned you a tracking number despite the fact that your complaint....inter alia....included a specific complaint about their non issuance of tracking numbers.

You have now complained to the ODTR and Chorus still won't give you a tracking number...

Ring the ODTR and **** someone in there out of it!!!!!

M

DMC

Originally posted in the attachment by ozpass
Regards

Chorus Administration.

For a second I thought that was......

Chorus (In Administration.)

If only!

ozpass

Or:

Chorus?......Commiserations!

ozpass

Good day ladies and gentlemen! Come and get your latest installment of the hit comedy "Carry On Communicating!"

Chorus have finally buckled under the weight of polite annoyance and given me a complaint number, God bless 'em!

As an aside I just got a reply from the ODTR. God help digital communications in this country if the only existing comms. watchdog doesn't even bother to read customer complaints before replying.

I've attached the response from the ODTR, which contains (in the message body) the original complaint I submitted. Please note the SUBJECT of my original complaint, together with various REFERENCES to a certain company in the complaint itself.

Worth a giggle!:p

P.S. I've blanked out all the names again, for fairness' sake.

DMC

In order to lodge a complaint against eircom with this Office.........

Oh dear!

(Rapidly presses button underneath desk!)

spongebob

If I were you OZ I would 'inform' Eircom that all complaints lodged to the ODTR are 'automatically' logged as complaints against Eircom......whiff of High Court in the air.

On a more serious note, if you do find out that there is such a thing as a Chorus complaints procedure it would probably be worthy of stickying at the top of this forum......you listening ICDG

M

ozpass

Somebody catch me a flying pig!

You'll all no doubt be glad to know that this sorry little chapter in the history of Chorus may at last be reching its conclusion. I just received a 'phone call from a very polite lady who apologised profusely and guaranteed an engineer would be round to install my telephone on Monday.

Apparently the problem was due to 'human error' (no kidding) and they are 'desperately keen to keep me on board'. Chorus? Desperate? I like the sound of that.

I know by now not to count on their word but they appear sincere for once, and they did at least contact me instead of the other way round.

To summarise the whole sorry mess- if you get nowhere, write an email to the ODTR and cc: it to cs:chorus.ie Although the ODTR themselves are a bunch of panhandles (see earlier post) it does appear to galvanise Chorus into action.

I'll let you all know how things turn out, anyway. :rolleyes:

ozpass

Chorus are coming tomorrow to install my 'phone line [YIPPEE] between 11 and 1. I'll let you all know if the bloody thing works or not!!!!

Hilarious quote of the day:

[Chorus Rep.]: There's a note on your account saying 'crap TV quality'. Do you want us to do something about that tomorrow?
[Me]: ***Stunned***

At least the Customer Service Rep. who noted down my original complaint about the picture quality had a sense of humour!

If they quote all complaining customers this accurately, there must be some seriously foul language on their database!:D

DMC

Best of luck mate!

This is turning out to be an epic like Mike65's I love these type of threads!

mike65

Originally posted by DamoDMC
Best of luck mate!

This is turning out to be an epic like Mike65's I love these type of threads!

Jesus Damo, you beat me to it! My thread lasted much longer in time (so far) but ran out of steam at 45 replies however its got 1518 views. Phew!

Mike.

jez

From what I've read NTL provide a very good alternative to Sky.
I have Sky digital (2 boxes). I am getting rid of the Chorus box in October. I take it down to my caravan at weekends at the moment! It comes in handy. However,if only NTL would buy out Chorus wouldn't we have a fantastic,countrywide alternative to Sky,with 5 live and everything plus more decoders. Sounds like Utopia to me .Will it ever happen!!

DMC

Originally posted by jez
However,if only NTL would buy out Chorus wouldn't we have a fantastic,countrywide alternative to Sky,with 5 live and everything plus more decoders. Sounds like Utopia to me .Will it ever happen!!

You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink.

DMC

Originally posted by mike65
Jesus Damo, you beat me to it! My thread lasted much longer in time (so far) but ran out of steam at 45 replies however its got 1518 views. Phew!

Mike, for ozpass's sanity, I hope they dont take as long for him as NTL did for you. We just need Charlton heston to star in the remake

ozpass

Newsflash!

Chorus finally do something right!!!!!!!!!! The engineer came, installed my 'phone, it worked!

Initial internet connections were slow but after a call to CS they actually fixed it.

I am honestly stunned. The Lucent modem thingy they hook your 'phone up to is seriously big and ugly though.

Cool:)
Lets pray for fine weather now:rolleyes:
mm

spongebob

...for time wasted, no shows etc etc.

We are still AGOG as to what Choruses complaints and escalations procedures are.

Hows the TV picture?

M

ozpass

Muck......

Compensation? Tee hee. I should probably push for a reduced bill or something but I can't bear the thought of another call to customer service.

The TV picture is still crappola on the channels that I watch (Sky 1, Discovery etc.) but if you're a fan of LivingTV then you're in business!

A guy's coming to check the picture today but I wont be there so I suspect my girlfriend will be fobbed off with an excuse. I mentioned it to the fella who came to fit the 'phone line and he tried giving me a hilarious explanation of binary data and how the pictures are transmitted. "It's all hundreds and thousands coming through the ariel, mate!"

We'll see how we go, eh?:rolleyes:

ozpass

Bloody Chorus, they just can't seem to get it right for more than 24 hours at a time! The engineer came round yesterday, spent 10 minutes unhooking all my AV equipment, declared the crummy quality "due to the antenna", plugged everything back in incorrectly (necessitating an hour of my time trying to sort it out again) before p***ing off again!

Utterly useless. There's also a mysterious charge of 76 Euro listed on my first bill. It would appear that far from offering me compensation (muck), I have actually been penalised for the aggravation I have suffered at their hands!

I suppose they're justified to a certain extent as their clueless shenanigans are offering more entertainment than the abstract jigsaw puzzle that is the picture on 'Discovery Channel' at the moment.:o