Inept: DSL and the weather

LFCFan

My Dad recently got in touch with someone a bit higher up in Eircom about the ADSL service as he was getting no joy(surprise surprise) from the plebs in Customer Service.

This chap explained to my Dad that one of the main reasons for the slowness of technologies like ADSL getting rolled out in Ireland was because hiderence like the weather and infrastructure etc. My dad went on to tell him about Canada. The largest country in the world that is under snow for the best part of 6 months yet they have managed to provide a very cheap cable internet access product and very quickly. Ireland on the other hand is a small Island that has very moderate weather yet Eircom struggle to provide any sort of a decent service. Yer man of course had no answer to this and eventually he gave in and admitted that Eircom are failing in so many areas that he's actively seeking employment elsewhere. He's had his fill of being managed by so many different managers and being told different things from different people every day and and time he's tried to be helpful to a customer by bringing the matter up with someone senior he gets fobbed off to some other manager and so on and so forth until in the end he has no option but to give up and just tell the customer there is nothing he can do even though he can do it but not without permission and this permission is impossible to get. Passing the buck is rife in Eircon because the managers are so bloody useless at their job, but well paid that they are afraid to make any decisions so just keep passing the responsibilty. Until Eircon cut their workforce in half, outsource their support and customer services and get in a whole new set of managers, we are never going to see them provide this country with anything but sub standard drivel.

Hannibal_12

Originally posted by LFCFan
My Dad recently got in touch with someone a bit higher up in Eircom about the ADSL service as he was getting no joy(surprise surprise) from the plebs in Customer Service.

This chap explained to my Dad that one of the main reasons for the slowness of technologies like ADSL getting rolled out in Ireland was because hiderence like the weather and infrastructure etc. My dad went on to tell him about Canada. The largest country in the world that is under snow for the best part of 6 months yet they have managed to provide a very cheap cable internet access product and very quickly. Ireland on the other hand is a small Island that has very moderate weather yet Eircom struggle to provide any sort of a decent service. Yer man of course had no answer to this and eventually he gave in and admitted that Eircom are failing in so many areas that he's actively seeking employment elsewhere. He's had his fill of being managed by so many different managers and being told different things from different people every day and and time he's tried to be helpful to a customer by bringing the matter up with someone senior he gets fobbed off to some other manager and so on and so forth until in the end he has no option but to give up and just tell the customer there is nothing he can do even though he can do it but not without permission and this permission is impossible to get. Passing the buck is rife in Eircon because the managers are so bloody useless at their job, but well paid that they are afraid to make any decisions so just keep passing the responsibilty. Until Eircon cut their workforce in half, outsource their support and customer services and get in a whole new set of managers, we are never going to see them provide this country with anything but sub standard drivel.

Heres a new one, We dont have DSL in Ireland because of, wait for it, the weather!.
Just read the above and multiply it by a factor of a thousand and you can see why we have no Broadband or FRIACO. I have seen incompetence and avarice before but €ircon should have an entry in the Oxford english dictionary for those words as they truly exemplify them better than anyone else. I'd imagine certain executives from Worldcom will be readying their CV's as we speak and addressing them to €ircon personnel dept.

aidan_dunne

Originally posted by Hannibal_12
Heres a new one, We dont have DSL in Ireland because of, wait for it, the weather!.

Actually, it's not a new one because I also got this excuse before from Eircom as to why DSL was being rolled out so slowly. At the time I nearly collapsed in a combination of laughing and sheer exasperation when I heard this "new" excuse from Eircom. No further explanation was given to this other than "the bad weather in this country prevents us from rolling out DSL faster."

Okay, I suppose Ireland's changeable weather could technically mean it's difficult to do the DSL rollout but as LFC says, if they can do it in a country that's covered in snow for a good portion of the year they should be able to do it here in a bit of wind and rain. Or is it that the Eircom engineers suffer from that Seasonal Affective Disorder or whatever it's called (you know, that S.A.D. thingy) and find thenselves too depressed to get up in the winter mornings to go out and do the upgrading work when they see it's dark and miserable outside and climb back into bed and cover their heads while the country's telecoms infrastructure and, potentially, the economy goes down the drain? I don't know but, believe me, this is not a new excuse from Eircom, just another ridiculous one.

sceptre

It'll be "leaves" next of course.

segadreamcast

Originally posted by sceptre
It'll be "leaves" next of course.

Ack! You got to it first! I was just gonna say 'leaves on the line'!

Well, the real challenge is, of course, to see who can make eircom use it as an excuse first.

"So, any idea when ADSL will be available in my area?"
"Current climates in China have hindered rice growth - so we foresee a June 2006 launch... would you be interested in high-sp..."*Noel hangs up*

Hannibal_12

So we know now that if any €ircon minion spouts the usual tirade of "current climate not right for broadband, lack of interest etc..." he\she is actually referring to the outside temperature and whether or not gloves will be required.
Hell I normally watch Sky News weather because I find the presenter a bit more pleasing to the eye (not Francis Wilson!) than Evelyn Cusack but in the future I'll have a keen eye on the weather here in Drumcondra attempting to ascertain whether the conditions are favourable for DSL.
I think Dublin should be renamed to Punxsutawney and the groundhog could represent €ircon, when it comes out of its office and sees a grey cloud , boom, another 4 years with no broadband. Like Bill Murray in the film, every day is the same at €ircon, no progress.
With a company like that responsible for the future of Telecoms in Ireland I'm not holding my breath for anything decent in the remote future. Think its time to jump ship.

sceptre

Originally posted by Hannibal_12
Hell I normally watch Sky News weather beacuse I find the presenter a bit more pleasing to the eye

So that the cablenet thread doesn't turn into a DSL thread (or Hannibal telling us about his adventures at www.lisaburke.co.uk):), thread split

Hannibal_12

Originally posted by sceptre


So that the cablenet thread doesn't turn into a DSL thread (or Hannibal telling us about his adventures at www.lisaburke.co.uk):), thread split

At least I didn't know the website address . Just had a look at the guestbook. I feel sorry for her, so many lonely psychopathic stalkers to choose from and so little time.

pork99

I feel sorry for her, so many lonely psychopathic stalkers to choose from and so little time.

well the good news is one of her stalkers works with her, which is handy I suppose

niallsmart

The most ridiculous aspect of this explanation is that installing DSL does not involve laying new lines, it runs over existing POTS cables! The only thing that changes is a DSLAM at the exchange and modem at the customer site.

spongebob

Here in the E-Tub, a man is sent out to your door in the rain (while the rest 5-6 of them sit in the lorry ayhtin their sangwiches)

You are not in (nobody told you they were coming) he leaves a card

On the card is a number and when you ring it to reschedule the visit you get a post menopausal biddy screeching and telling you that NO Eircom person called to your door at all, there is no card!

And Eircom does not sell Diesel, I thought everybody knew that.

M

jd

Originally posted by Muck
Here in the E-Tub, a man is sent out to your door in the rain (while the rest 5-6 of them sit in the lorry ayhtin their sangwiches)

That last bit is bull****-most linesmen are 1 to a renault van ... certainly was that way for the guy who installed my isdn...and he was in and out within an hour(he had to patch at the cabinet too as someone forgot to do it)

dunno about the other bit regarding their site visit system or whatever they call it