Summary of Esat meeting today

Bard

Let me just let it be known, my position has changed slightly from what I said to corkie above. As I posted up earlier on the main Webmaster and Art boards of boards.ie, I'll welcome any submissions for banners for the site. Still, I'd rather that all banners that go into circulation to promote IrelandOffline are "official", as in approved by the committee.

More info: http://www.boards.ie/bulletin/Forum21/HTML/000148.html

I meant no offence, corkie.

Bard

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by eirman:
The break-even number of hours per month is about 40. To avoid losing money with SNL one must spend MORE 40 hours a month on line.

</font>

That makes it the break-even number of hours for the end user, - its not necessarily the break-even number of hours for Esat to make money beyond what they have to pay Eircom. Esat's problem is that SNL became commercially unviable to them.

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">
ESAT are asking us to believe that 90% of their users use between 40 and 75 per month, and that only 10% use more than 75 !

I believe that this assertion is is a lie. The situation is probably the complete
reverse - I would say that 80 - 90% of users stay on line for 75+ hours per month.
</font>

But what are you basing this on? At least Esat have logs to back this up. I know I (and most people I know who use the service) never used anywhere near 75 hours per month on SNL.

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">
I would be prepared to pay more to keep the
service - How about asking ESAT to introduce tiered billing dependent on usage and to treat the period after midnight differently.</font>

I'd be in favour of that also... I'm just curious about in what way exactly you think they should treat the period after midnight differently...

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Bard

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Friends help you move. Real friends help you move bodies.

[This message has been edited by Bard (edited 02-06-2001).]

jd

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">I believe that this assertion is is a lie. The situation is probably the complete
reverse - I would say that 80 - 90% of users stay on line for 75+ hours per month.

</font>

sorry
i'm going to disagree with you there. Whatever about the figures on break even , 75 hours is two hours+ every day.
Without being a smart alec, this product is aimed at home users. part of the attraction (talking to my dad for example) is that they would know exactly how much their internet usage will cost them in a month. ie no horrible surprises if they go online a lot for a while . Talking to my mother, 2 hours a day after he gets home from work is quite enough, thank you :-)
hving seen usage patterns in another isp-the figure seems very plausible.

jd

LegacyUser

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Bard:
More info: http://www.boards.ie/bulletin/Forum21/HTML/000148.html

I meant no offence, corkie.[/B]</font>

None taken it was to prevent circulation of the banner that I had created that I also put
my own url into it.

Otherwise people may have used it but with my url in bed in it! They would not have!

Best regards,
John O Connell.

N.B. I edited my own post above and removed the banner in my post. I then replaced the banner with something else and niall then redited his own post!

LegacyUser

Thank you for the info on the email addresses, but I have to say that the Customer Rep that I spoke to had other ideas.!! He said, yes they will be removed, but that they will introduce some kind of system like 'Hotmail' i.; No pop3 accounts but you can click on an email logo ON THEIR SITE, and access and use mail from there..!! Thats what he said.!!! He even quantified it by saying that such prog's as Outlook Express could not be used. !! The main point here of course is that Pop3 accounts will go, for those who, like me are to be "removed"..!!! I think I would tend to believe some of the "honest" Customer Reps, who seem to sympathise with us, more than I would trust ESAT, or their 'highly' paid Exec's ?? I am already taking the precaution of setting up 'Eircom' pop3 accounts, as I am convinced that one day my Esat mail addresses will be unuseable ?? What do others think ? Strangely enough, when all this 'furor' started up, my Esat bill arrived, and it showed I had used the service for 65 hours only, in the preceeding month, YET, I still received 'THE' letter, and am on the blacklist to be cut off !!!

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LegacyUser

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by angryuser:
Thank you for the info on the email addresses, but I have to say that the Customer Rep that I spoke to had other ideas.!! He said, yes they will be removed</font>

There was quite a bit of discussion on this in ie.comp. The consensus among the 'technical' people there was that Esat will not be able to remove email accounts. For example, there is no direct link between your user account and your email.

I had a previous experience of this. I was originally an IOL user and switched to SNL when it came along. At that stage, I took it for granted that my IOL email account was gone. After Esat took over IOL, I rang them and asked to have my old email address reinstated. When I then accessed the account, I got something like 400 messages that had accumulated in it.

This makes me think that the accounts will still exist, accessing them will be the only potential problem.

Anyway, Sarah McCall the SNL product manager is checking this out and will come back to us.

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Strangely enough, when all this 'furor' started up, my Esat bill arrived, and it showed I had used the service for 65 hours only, in the preceeding month, YET, I still received 'THE' letter, and am on the blacklist to be cut off !!!
</font>

Esat never said what period they had used to identify 'excessive' users but my guess is that it was several months.

Martin Harran



[This message has been edited by o_donnel_abu (edited 02-06-2001).]

Bard

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by corkie:
None taken it was to prevent circulation of the banner that I had created that I also put
my own url into it.

Otherwise people may have used it but with my url in bed in it! They would not have!

Best regards,
John O Connell.

N.B. I edited my own post above and removed the banner in my post. I then replaced the banner with something else and niall then redited his own post!</font>

Thanks John... point appreciated about the URL. And yes... of course ... I edited my post... it'd look a bit silly of me to be complaining about a banner of an ickle kitty cat who doesn't like the smell (... of bull$hit? )

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Bard

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Friends help you move. Real friends help you move bodies.

LegacyUser

Just incase any one is wondering what niall
was reffering to with the kitty.

I overwrote the banner file with another image to kind express my feeling on
reading his post.

You can see the image by
By clicking here :-)

LegacyUser

i am not a happy man at the moment! ive just scribbled Esat off my christmas card list!but at least i just checked and my bill is issued on the 24th... be thankful for small mercies id say!.... Ocean free... here i come!(again)

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Almc ¬/¬

LegacyUser

hey..

it all seems a bit messy to me.
do we even know if this list exists?
they say they'll honour it but will they really..

might just get a nice big bill instead.

LegacyUser

Somebody here metioned about stoping Direct Debit payments on Esat. Well that just what I've done. The customer service rep admitted on the phone to me that Esat weren't providing the service that customers were paying for, but then said that they offered no guarantee of service. Well if thats true then the customer is under no obligation to pay for a service he hasn't received and no court in the country can make him.