UTV Launch Flat-Rate Internet Package

Kramer

I applied (on line) for the VIP package on 25/09/02, but alas am still waiting

I contacted the help line several times & was told that UTV arte still awaiting "word" from Eircom & one other party???

Who is this other party? Nevada?

And why is it taking so long? 9 working days so far, & nothing now until at least Monday or Tuesday (if at all).

It seems strange as I know of several friends who were "connected" up far quicker than this, & indeed several posters here similiarly.

All the while I'm happily donating money to Eircom.

Anyone else experiencing delays such as this? If so, why?

Friends in the UK have done similiar in the UK, i.e. changed to a "flat rate" (really flat rate - unmetered monthly access for £12.99 or €20.70 per month), & been connected within 20 mins.

Done on-line, no speaking to anyone, no faxing, no nothing. Just CC details & 20 mins later - working.

Why all the lengthy steps involved here?

Where's my UTVip???????????????

Rags

It takes time to change over, when I changed from eircom to esat a couple of months ago it took them 6 weeks to do it grr. Probably cause eircom were delaying them as long as possible.
Was surpriced utv changed me over in 10days. Its not in utvs interest to keep you waiting eh, not making money from it so my guess its eircom.

Btw I happy with utv service so far, no disconnects or dialing problems for me cause I see a few complaining about it :eek:

Kramer

Yes.

I know it's most likely Eircom playing silly buggers, but frustrating.

Still can't understand why it's so simple & quick in the UK (& presumably everywhere else) & why Eircom need to give "approval".

What exactly do Eircom need to do for a changeover?

Why can they delay this so much. Obviously the longer they take the more money they make.

This in itself smacks of "monopolistic" practice.

Cork

Originally posted by trap4
I got the same letter today but what really pissed me off was finding out that BOTH my lines had been requistioned by UTVip.

I specifically instructed UTVip to take ONE of my lines for the Internet service. Granted, when I initially filled in the form on their site I made the mistake of submitting both lines but during a subsequent email chat with Jeff I thought I made it clear that ONLY ONE of the lines was to be used for the UTVip service.

I contacted Jeff early today to 'reassure me that I wouldn't have to pay any charges for this mistake' either to them or Eircom but have not heard back from him yet.

All in all, I'm thrilled to be using the new flat rate service, even though it does appear rather slow at times. But as a whole I applaud UTVip and just hope this little episode doesn't sour the relationship.

If you have 2 lines - can you still sign up for the net with UTV on one line and keep your same telephone service provider?

sceptre

Originally posted by Cork
If you have 2 lines - can you still sign up for the net with UTV on one line and keep your same telephone service provider?

There shouldn't be any reason why not (I'd say "yes" but I don't work for UTV:D)

However (and I'm guessing here), if you have both your lines on the same account (as I suspect most people do), Eircom with all their competence may switch both lines. WOuldn't surprise me in the slightest - for them the account number rather than the phone number seems to be the be all and end all, as my mother used to say*. Just something to watch out for.


*Just the last bit - I don't recall the woman ever having a view on Eircom, CPS or the Internet

trap4

Originally posted by Cork
If you have 2 lines - can you still sign up for the net with UTV on one line and keep your same telephone service provider?

That's what I was told, but it doesn't appear to have worked, whoever mucked it up

OHP

Originally posted by Malcolm
Due to the extremely high uptake and sharp increase in the traffic for both voice and internet our telecoms provider has experienced some capacity problems. An increase in capacity was brought into service today and further scheduled increases have been brought forward to early next week.
This should eleviate the current problems and will prevent them occurring in the future.

OHP

Originally posted by Malcolm
Due to the extremely high uptake and sharp increase in the traffic for both voice and internet our telecoms provider has experienced some capacity problems. An increase in capacity was brought into service today and further scheduled increases have been brought forward to early next week.
This should elevate the current problems and will prevent them occurring in the future.

I find this amusing and somewhat unbelievable TBH. You came to a Country that was Starving for any sort of decent Internet connection / Flatrate and your offer them 150 hours PM for €30 and you didn't expect this sort of reaction? Silly ye! Now if ye were to introduce Broadband. I bet ye would be totally inundated. I wonder how ye would cope with it

OHP

billy the squid

Got a confirmation email well all thenumbers for dialling up and a reference number if i wanted to change my username and all

tried to dial up the utv internet number i get a recording from eircom saying number not in service

dial the 0 111 222 333 and get the dead tone

ring utvip they say my account came back as having incorrect numbers (an AP number whatever that is) of course no one told the customer rep what an AP number was so he couldnt tell me meaning I cannot go to eircom to find out why this AP number is wrong.

so just want question, and I know the UTV people are reading this they replied to the message directly after mine.

Am I going to get nailed for the 7 euro handling charge cos this number appears to them to be wrong, even though the account number and phone number I submitted were correct.

Am I going to get billed 29 99 given that I have a confirmation email and my account has been "activated"(sic)

My reference number is 310003. Why am I asking you to do this through the forum. Because there are more utv people reading this forum than there are working in your customer services centre at the moment.

DeVore

Originally posted by OHP

Originally posted by Malcolm
Due to the extremely high uptake and sharp increase in the traffic for both voice and internet our telecoms provider has experienced some capacity problems. An increase in capacity was brought into service today and further scheduled increases have been brought forward to early next week.
This should elevate the current problems and will prevent them occurring in the future.
I find this amusing and somewhat unbelievable TBH. You came to a Country that was Starving for any sort of decent Internet connection / Flatrate and your offer them 150 hours PM for €30 and you didn't expect this sort of reaction? Silly ye! Now if ye were to introduce Broadband. I bet ye would be totally inundated. I wonder how ye would cope with it

OHP

But but ...but... people in Ireland arent interested in the Internet...








AHAHAHAHAHA!! (God I'm a bitter old man)...



DeV.

Scott Taunton

Originally posted by fcddunne
Am I going to get nailed for the 7 euro handling charge cos this number appears to them to be wrong, even though the account number and phone number I submitted were correct.

Am I going to get billed 29 99 given that I have a confirmation email and my account has been "activated"(sic)

There is only a 7 euro handling charge at the discretion of our administration department following two failed attempts to activate a line. Eircom charge us to activate each line (around 8 euro) and for each failed attempt. We obviously are willing to meet these costs, but at some point need to prevent multiple attempts due purely to erroneous applications.

You'll not get charged this.

Equally, you'll not get charged any of the UTVip subscription until we get this sorted for you. I am sorry that you've been inconvenienced in this way and will seek to ensure that it is looked at as soon as practicable. Unfortunately, the people we need to discuss this matter with in Eircom are uncontactable at weekends, so it may need to be held off until first this Monday. Again, apologies for that.

We work hard to ensure a high level of customer support, but sometimes these probelms are outside of our control. Rest assured that we'll take any issue like this, or other service issues, to the highest level.

Kind regards

Scott Taunton
UTVi

andreio

Scott

My customer ID is 300010 and I had huge problems with international calls. I initially logged a call with you aprox. 10 days ago and I'm still waiting. I had to call cust. support again today and I still can't make the calls.

I bet you will change me the connection fee and the 5 seconds for each of the calls that I couldn't have a decent conversation - do you think this is right?

Andrei

Scott Taunton

Originally posted by OHP
I find this amusing and somewhat unbelievable TBH. You came to a Country that was Starving for any sort of decent Internet connection / Flatrate and your offer them 150 hours PM for €30 and you didn't expect this sort of reaction? Silly ye! Now if ye were to introduce Broadband. I bet ye would be totally inundated. I wonder how ye would cope with it

There have been some minor difficulties with connections to voice and data traffic from a small number of local exchanges. This has meant, as some of you have noticed, that a network busy tone is generated. On redialling, this should be rectified.

We are delighted with the uptake of the service and glad that we've had to increase capacity. This took place over a 24 hour period in direct response to customer feedback, including those posts here at Boards. We will act on any issues of quality and reliability as quickly as we can.

Please accept my apologies to those who were inconvenienced by this issue. We are continuing to work on a number of issues that have been raised, including ping times for gamers and mobile call charges. We may not be able to address every issue every time, but are working to that goal.

Kind regards

Scott Taunton
UTVi

Scott Taunton

Originally posted by andreio
My customer ID is 300010 and I had huge problems with international calls. I initially logged a call with you aprox. 10 days ago and I'm still waiting. I had to call cust. support again today and I still can't make the calls.

Unfortunately we've had some problems pinpointing the exact routes which appear to be less that the standard we expect. Could you please call Malcolm Thompson, Operations Manager on Monday morning (01890 926000) and I will brief him in the meantime. If there is a bad route to a specific destination, I will be seeking a rebate form our provider and will ensure that this is passed on to those affected. We will then, of course, rectify the problem. This will need to be done on a case by case basis so please bear with me, but it strikes me as only fair that a 5 sec call followed by a redial should be a rare occurance and if, as you set out, this is not the case, we will adjust your bill.

Kind regards

Scott Taunton
UTVi

andreio

Thanks Scott
Andrei

gandalf

Well I'm willing to give UTV a chance. I expected issues to crop up when they launched this service and they have. I too have experienced problems getting thru to mobiles and competition 1550 numbers. But what has really converted me to UTV is the feedback and actual effort these guys are putting in.

They have recognised there is a problem and they are working to fix it and wait for it KEEPING THE CUSTOMER INFORMED. This is so rare these days.

Providing they sort out the problems being experienced at the moment within a reasoniable period of time and they maintain the level of customer interaction and respect they show their customers I will be a customer of theirs for a very long time. Infact I look forward to the day when I can get ADSL off them at a competitive rate and not the rip off that Eircom are currently offering. Hopefully the day will come also when I can unbundle my lines totally and not pay the rip off merchants another cent.

Gandalf.

(btw I never experience any problems, engaged lines using the internet connection dialup number)

andreio

OK. I'm willing to wait 2 weeks and see if there is an improvement.

If not, I think I have to go back to Eircon and use Netsmart even if it's more expensive.

jonski

although I'm only connected with them since thursday night , I'm very pleased with the service and the support they offer , and also the interactivity they bring to these boards...they constantly try to solve the problems posted here and listen to the suggestion , implementing these if possible....

scott , seen as how ye like so much to give the public what they want...........what date will I pencil in for my asdl connection....

billy the squid

Account has been properly activated at long last

must have been done either in the last few mins or while I was connected to eircom.net free . would have expected to have been booted off eircom if utv were taking over my calls during a phone call

ando

Unfortunately, the people we need to discuss this matter with in Eircom are uncontactable at weekends

Yeah, I know what you mean. My line belly floped on thursday... I have to wait till monday till I get any action on eircom's part

We are continuing to work on a number of issues that have been raised, including ping times for gamers

I'm so glad to hear that, this issue really does need some attention

OHP

Originally posted by Scott Taunton
There have been some minor difficulties with connections to voice and data traffic from a small number of local exchanges. This has meant, as some of you have noticed, that a network busy tone is generated. On redialling, this should be rectified.

We are delighted with the uptake of the service and glad that we've had to increase capacity. This took place over a 24 hour period in direct response to customer feedback, including those posts here at Boards. We will act on any issues of quality and reliability as quickly as we can.

Please accept my apologies to those who were inconvenienced by this issue. We are continuing to work on a number of issues that have been raised, including ping times for gamers and mobile call charges. We may not be able to address every issue every time, but are working to that goal.

Kind regards

Scott Taunton
UTVi

Scott no need to apologise to anyone here especially me. What ye have done / are doing is way byond anyones expectations. I guess you just didnt realise how STARVED we actually were
I might whinge a bit about Ping times etc. but geeeeeees for €30 a month im willing to live with it. Great work ye guys the service / standard of help that ye are providing to us all is really much appreciated.


OHP

gurramok

Yeah, I know what you mean. My line belly floped on thursday... I have to wait till monday till I get any action on eircom's part

Strange enough my line too went dead on 2 consecutive thursdays. First time last week it was out from early thurs morning until it was mysteriously reconnected at 10pm on sunday.
Who said eircon dont work at weekends ? !!

The 2nd time it went dead on thursday just gone, they came out and reconnected it the following morning.
Many utv hours were lost :mad: , i hope it wont die again

Malcolm

UTVip Internet Access

The charging mechanism for calls starting in peak time and running across into off-peak hours means that customers are charged for the full call duration at peak rates. i.e. internet access starting at 5.50pm and finishing at 8.50pm will be charged at 3 hours of peak duration. (eircom standard charging principal)

With respect to the UTVip account we intend to automatically disconnect customers, who connect in peak-time, at 6.05pm. This is to prevent users running up per minute costs during off-peak times and getting unexpected large bills.

If anyone does not want to be disconnected we can do this on an individual basis (and would be delighted with the extra revenue). If you do not want to avail of this disconnect facility please e-mail me your details at malcolm@u.tv

Thanks,

Serbian

Hey,

Just a quick post. Anyone having trouble accessing the UTV ftp facilities? More specifically, I used to be a DNA user (which then became UTV internet). I am trying to ftp to ftpusers.dnet.co.uk but it keeps on closing the connection.

I have tried mailing UTV tech support, and they helped me get the ftp details, but I haven't heard anything from them about the downtime on the ftp servers.

Anyone care to enlighten me?

Peter

sceptre

Originally posted by Malcolm
With respect to the UTVip account we intend to automatically disconnect customers, who connect in peak-time, at 6.05pm. This is to prevent users running up per minute costs during off-peak times and getting unexpected large bills.

I think that would be an excellent idea Malcolm. It's also something that Esat are doing with their NetSmart offering (though I'm not aware of anyone who's actually been connected to NetSmart yet).

Dustaz

Originally posted by Malcolm
If you do not want to avail of this disconnect facility please e-mail me your details at malcolm@u.tv

Good lord, at the risk of sounding fawning, UTV continues to excel in customer relations. Somehow i cant see eircom disconnecting ppl that dial in at peak times when the off peak rate starts (saving the customer money) by default.

Fair play to you guys

PiE

Sh!t, does that happen with every ISP? Dial in at 5.59 and stay connected till 8.59 and you're charged 3hrs at peak rates?

I never knew that, crap!

sceptre

Originally posted by PiE
Sh!t, does that happen with every ISP? Dial in at 5.59 and stay connected till 8.59 and you're charged 3hrs at peak rates?

If UTV and Esat are both taking these steps it must be the case. On the other hand, I've dialled into NoLimits at 5:30 on Friday and stayed connected for quite a while *cough* till 7:55 Monday *cough* and only been charged for the first half hour (and verified this cost with Esat CS in advance).

I've not done it in quite a while though so the goalposts may well have been moved (plus my phone service has been with Esat if it makes a difference). I'll give them a tinkle and see (just for the sake of my own wallet) if it's still the case just for NoLimits. In my naïvety, I would have assumed that even a call to Guyana started at 5:59 would drop to off-peak when 6pm came around.

ando

got my line back up and running, thx guys

zynaps

Originally posted by sceptre
If UTV and Esat are both taking these steps it must be the case. On the other hand, I've dialled into NoLimits at 5:30 on Friday and stayed connected for quite a while *cough* till 7:55 Monday *cough* and only been charged for the first half hour (and verified this cost with Esat CS in advance).

Yeah, I do that all the time
That might explain the bills of >€80 sometimes from esat :P

Though I don't stay on nearly as much nowadays, luckily...

zynaps