Netsource DSL and Eircom Delay

Damian

I signed up for DSL with netsource on the 24th April and I am not yet connected. So far it has been an exercise in frustration. Not due to any fault of Netsource, they have been great, but thanks to our old friends in Eircom.

My letter of complaint to Eircom (below) tells the sad tale in it's entirety. I have sent it to their general complains e-mail. If anyone has a e-mail address of anyone in Eircom worth sending this to, please let me know.

Has anyone had a similar experience?

======================================

Dear Sirs,

I have a comlaint in relation to your provision of wholesale DSL.

I have not signed up for DSL with yourselves but with netsource. However I have a complaint in relation to Eircom's handing over of my line to Netsource.

I submitted my application to Netsource on 24th April. They informed me that setting up DSL would take 11 working days, which included 10 working days for Eircom to enable and release the line.

Today, the 20th May, 16 working days (excluding bank holidays) after

placing my order, Eircom have not yet released my line.

I understand that there can be difficulties from time to time and things can sometimes run over by a day or two. However 6 days is excessive. Unfortunately this is not my only complaint.

Eircom informed Netsource that my line would be released on Monday the 12th May. When this did not happen, I contacted Netsource, who contacted Eircom. Eircom informed Netsource, who informed me in writing, that my line was a 'top priority' and would be done the following morning. My line was not done the following morning.

There then followed a week, of me contacting Netsource, who then contacted Eircom, several times a day for status updates. Every day Eircom reported that my line was now a 'top priority' and would be done the following morning. This has not yet happened.

However, it gets worse. This moring I recieved a call from Netsource, informing me that Eircom have informed them that my order has 'gotten lost' on Eircom's system and that the only thing that could be done is to resubmit the order and start the 10 day wait again from today. I queried that surely, Eircom, having admitting having initially recieving the order, and having promised delivery daily for a week, would place my order at the top of the queue. Netsource informed me that no, Eircom will not do that and the only option is to go back to square one.

This beggers belief. I just cannot understand how this is possible. I would like an explaination as to how you can;
a) Report every day for 6 woring days that my (already overdue) line was a 'top priority' that would be done the following morning.
b) Then turn around and say actually we have now lost your order on the system and you must start again.

As you would expect, I am extreamly annoyed by this. I would like
a) an explaination as to how this has happened.
b) a date by which my line will be done, and I do not expect it to be a wait of anything near 10 days.

My details are as follows.
Phone number: xxxxx
Eircom Account:
xxxxx
E-Mail damiansullivan@eircom.net


I would like a response to this by the close of business this evening, otherwise I shall be lodging a complaint with the Commision for Communications Regulation.


Regards,

Damian O'Suilleabhain

BlackFlag

My friend has more or less same problem about Eircom handing over her line.........order was lost etc and dates put back.

echomadman

I'm in the same boat at the moment.
I haven't been hassling netsource about it too much yet, I believe them when they say eircom are screwing around.
I dont like the sound of his "eircom have lost your order business" though.
I do know for a fact that eircom customers are up and running here in ennis,

Maybe i'd better give Netsource another call.....

Jorinn

I put my order in on the 9th, eircom are scheduled to activate my line on the 23rd, not too bad.

However this sems vaguely stupid, My line was still active well after I was kicked from the trial. I just didn't ahve a l/p. Unfortunatly won't have new modem for a while to check.

DaithiSurfer

my order was lost TWICE by Eircom.
11 days apart , very suspect

Damian

Not bas at all Jorinn when you consider that my order of 24 April, is now due for activation on 3 June. :rolleyes:

Fergus

Maybe Ireland will finally reach where the US has been for a few years..

The telecom act granted DSL Local Exchange Carriers (DLECs) the use of infrastructure belonging to their competitors, the incumbent carriers. In addition, the act attempted to spell out just what incumbents must do to comply.

It was clear from the start the DLECS faced an uphill battle. "The ILECs owned the copper, they owned the central office space, they owned the customers," he says.

The kindest comment about the incumbents comes from Gartner analyst Jay Pultz, who says, "They followed the letter of the law, but they didn't go out of their way. They certainly didn't make it easy on their new foes, who had to come to them for everything from access to central offices, in which they needed to install equipment, to order-taking systems, to installation requests."

Many think Pultz is being overly generous. "There were a million dirty tricks," says a source with more than two decades of experience in the telecommunications industry who requested anonymity. Lots of times a DLEC would go out to a central office on a weekend to install equipment and find the doors locked. "There were orders 'lost' - truckloads of orders," the source says.

The DLECs filed many lawsuits and complaints with state public utility commissions. The complaints span a range of issues, from allegations that one party has failed to follow a billing agreement to allegations of "LEC slamming."

The California ISP Association (CISPA) claims ILECs use their control of the last-mile infrastructure to favor their own ISPs and to hobble competitors - which has resulted in SBC Communications controlling 90% of the DSL business in the state.

Full article here

Damian

Interesting article, great if we were at that stage

But it's probably more likely that eircom doesn't have the wit to play dirty tricks and is just unbelieveable incompetent.

I wonder how many orders for Eircom DSL 'get lost' ?

echomadman

Optimistic predictions are not unanimous. Martin McDermott, senior vice president at New Paradigm Resources Group in Chicago, says, "DSL was a good technology in the late '80s, when it was invented. . . . Now, for business, T-1s are so inexpensive.'"

oh god that hurts to read after getting this months phone bill

m1ke

My line was due to be activated on the 16th. Of course, it wasn't. About 8 phonecalls later to netsource I was just continually fobbed off, again and again.... They took a leaf out of eircoms book, promised to call be back many and numerous times but never did.

No wonder the broadband numbers are total shyte in this country, the ****ing massive obstacles placed in your way to getting it installed make it a joke and a waste of time for your average joe.

aodh_rua

Ordered on April 25 - Eircom initiallly screwed up so things were delayed, then finally they said that the line was enabled last Friday. Netsource sent a guy out today, and whaddya know - the line is still not ready.

C'mon Eircom - this just isn't on. Its absolutely not on that you can *abuse* your position to damage competitors by not giving them a level playing field!

I think I am going to complain to ComReg too - although they'll just set up a committee or someother bureaucratic timewaster!

----

Tony

shinzon

this whole broadband situation is just getting intolerable, eircom are just ****wits with the intelligence of an amoeba, its amazing that in this day and age a company can get away with this level of abuse of its powers

Why oh why have we not got a regulatory body that has the powers to force eircom to do whatever the customer wishes it to do.

I know comreg is there and every now and then they do come through but not on a regular basis

Dammit i h8 bloody eircom, shower of ****ing gob****es

Shin

delop

Ill bet that Eircom have never lost or failed to send out a bill... I wonder what would happen if I afew people who got setup with their DSl, then had a problem with the Post where their Checks for payment of Line rental kept getting lost .... Im sure Eircom would be very patient....

dahamsta

Ok, that's four solid reports of "lost" orders from three people in a very short space of time. There's very little doubt in my mind that these orders have either been sidelined or intentionally deleted. There's also very little doubt in my mind that the frequency of these losses creates a very strong possibility that "losses" have been recommended as a matter of policy.

Someone had to "lose" these orders, and someone had to tell them to do it. Those people are breaking the law if they carry out those actions, and breaking the law if they don't report them to the authorities. I hope they realise that, and I hope they realise that someday, it'll come out. If ComReg or the Competition Authority find out who they are, they'll be finished. If I find out, the potential for actual bodily harm is very high.

Never forget: We know where you live.

adam

Damian

mental note : never cross dahamsta

DaithiSurfer

I forgot to tell you, my friend who lives accross the road from me also had his order lost.
So thats five.

Rancid

Pretty much the same story here.. (Black Flag mentioned my dilemma earlier in this thread)...

Ordered Netsource on Thurs 17th April.
Tue 22nd April supplied them with Cease Order number on my line, which I got after 5 phone calls to Eircom.

Estimated connection date was 12th May due to the many bank holidays.

However... my cease order wasn't processed by Eircom until 8th/9th May which automatically delayed my connection date even further.

I now have a "promised" (ie. not confirmed) connection date of 22nd May.

I'm convinced that my order was "sidelined" by Eircom, or at least delayed significantly...
I had a split line for over 3 years which Eircom recently replaced with a full line and immediately *OFFERED* me adsl, an offer I declined after 7 days consideration, for obvious reasons, the main one being Netsource's much better offer.
However, Eircom had marked my line "PENDING"....which necessitated the Cease Order....which caused the ongoing delays I've described above!

Interesting too, is the fact that with the advent of adsl... suddenly Eircom could provide the new cable which was *impossible* for years before????

SkepticOne

Follow the example of the top poster. All reports of orders 'lost' or otherwise delayed should also be sent to ComReg.

If you get no satisfactory explanation from the operator, just fill in this form:

http://www.comreg.ie/sections/complaints_form.asp

Follow up a few days later by phoning 1890 229 668 to make sure they are investigating.

Scruff

It certainly does seem €ircon are up to dirty tricks.
Is this an issue Dave should raise on his next radio interview??

Urban Weigl

This all reminds me about the time I ordered ISDN from Eircom last year. They kept delaying, promising an engineer would come out the following morning, nothing would happen, and so on.

Finally they lost my order.

I had to place a new order.

They lost my order again. And so on.

When an engineer finally did arrive, he basically told me to **** off he won't bother installing it because I'm too far from the exchange. Finally managed to get him to test the line, not a single error, not that far from the exchange (only 4 miles, RADSL works that far even!).

So about a hundred phone calls and two months of waiting and I got ISDN. I realize this isn't directly related, but I think it's relevant as it is another example of Eircom "losing" orders, delaying, etc..

CutterIE

Hum? I should have had my line enabled by eircom 4 working days ago, called netsource yet again today who have said that my line will be enabled before the weekend.

If eircom have lost my fxxking order I will have a nose-bleed !!

I'm also going to move my phone call charges from eircom to esat tomorrow. I guess this is the only way I can get my own back on eircom, I know that I will still pay them for my line rental.

The infrastructure in this country is the disgrace of europe.

Cheers

Damian

SNAP!

I was also just sitting here fuming and plotting moving my voice calls business to anyone else!

nahdoic

I got the exact same call from netsource this morning. Oh we're very sorry, after all this waiting and more waiting, you're going to have another 10 working days. But you're a top priority now on both ends, but it will still take 10 working days. There's nothing we can do about that. We're as disgusted as you are ... yadi yadi da.

I'm completely disgusted at both netsource and eircom.

nahdoic

how are we supposed to lodge a complaint with comreg SkepticOne?

Our primary point of contact is with netsource, and they don't seem to be able to have the balls to force eircom to get these orders put through right now.

... I'm all ready for making phone calls, writing letters and sending e-mails.

shinzon

Originally posted by nahdoic
how are we supposed to lodge a complaint with comreg SkepticOne?

Our primary point of contact is with netsource, and they don't seem to be able to have the balls to force eircom to get these orders put through right now.

... I'm all ready for making phone calls, writing letters and sending e-mails.

Go here

http://www.comreg.ie/sections/complaints_form.asp

regards

shin

nahdoic

yes I did read SkepticOne's post were he kindly gave the URL, I was concerned about the procedure which comreg have to adhere to, and if it is fundamentally pointless sending in a complaint to comreg about this.

netsource already know about this ... our complaint is with eircom really. but netsource being our primary point of contact, we can only complain about their service.

shinzon

Originally posted by nahdoic
yes I did read SkepticOne's post were he kindly gave the URL, I was concerned about the procedure which comreg have to adhere to, and if it is fundamentally pointless sending in a complaint to comreg about this.

netsource already know about this ... our complaint is with eircom really. but netsource being our primary point of contact, we can only complain about their service.

there has been many complaints made to comreg about eircoms policies regarding broadband that have been upheld, i myself have a complaint in and fully expect at the end of it to have eircom fully comply with comregs edicts as regards my case.

Hey all it takes is an e-mail ye aint got nothing to lose

regards

Shin

specific case here

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=&threadid=94165

was to do with isdn but hey he won with comregs help

nahdoic

I intend fully to complain, i'd just like to be smart about it, no point wasting my time.

That example was of a direct customer of eircom, and after he exhausted all avenues of complaint contacted comreg. At which point, comreg can take it up, not before.

SkepticOne

Originally posted by nahdoic
how are we supposed to lodge a complaint with comreg SkepticOne?

Our primary point of contact is with netsource, and they don't seem to be able to have the balls to force eircom to get these orders put through right now.

... I'm all ready for making phone calls, writing letters and sending e-mails.

I'm aware that strictly speaking, ComReg might come back and say that this is a matter between Netsource and Eircom and it is up to Netsource to complain to ComReg if they don't feel they are getting the right service from Eircom.

However, if you are being sent 'round the houses' by either Netsource or Eircom and have already made representations to the companies concerned and not got decent answers then you have cause to complain, IMHO.

My main purpose in putting that link there is to make ComReg aware of the general issues affecting the consumer in trying to get DSL. Whether Netsource or Eircom is at the subject should not really matter in this regard. The important thing is that ComReg are being told about what is going on by ordinary consumers. If Netsource are telling the truth, this should add to their case (assuming they have made a complaint).

Ultimately, yes, Netsource should be sorting everything out for the consumer and should not be placing the blame on other companies.

RapierX

I ordered on the 22nd of April. On the phone today to Nicola, she says I'll we switched on this friday, however I havent recieved my pack yet. Ive also to buy my router...Based in Limerick.

CutterIE

Would'nt it be funny if all this waiting and being fxxked about pushed someone over the edge and they when down to the eircom offices and went all postal on their arse's.

AHAHAH That would make my fxxking week!!