Eircom now cheapest for calls?

DaithiSurfer · 09-01-2004 10:00pm #1

I had an Eircon ass on the phone today. He said that thier call charges are now
among other charges i asked him about which all seemed to be cheaper than UTV.
1c per minute local evening
Call setup is now 3.3c
O2 Day is 18c/min eve 14c we 11c

He wanted to sign me straight away and was really pushy so i told him i was busy and he could call out Monday for the laugh.

If they were cheaper i would go with them, but i Checked Eircoms site and there was nothing about these new rates there.

Anyone know anything about this?

oneweb · 09-01-2004 10:03pm

Hah, €ircon have a rep for telling you any lies they can to hook you back. Filthy dirty, downright disgusting lies!

€ircon's 6.35c minimum call charge
EsatBT (Advantage) 6.05c minimum call charge
UTV 3.87c call setup

Vartec13636 15c call setup

Urban Weigl · 09-01-2004 11:51pm

VarTec do not charge a call setup fee, however the minimum call charge with them on international calls is 15 cents. As international calls are more expensive than local usually anyway, this does not really amount to anything.

Anyway, Eircom were lying to you. They are not the cheapest by far. They are probably the most expensive. Esat BT are cheaper for ALL calls (they guarantee it), UTV are something like 25% cheaper, VarTec are cheaper A LOT cheaper for international calls... 6 cent a minute to the UK and USA, and 8 cents a minute to most of europe, Australia, New Zealand and so on.

Ripwave · 10-01-2004 1:59am

Originally posted by DaithiSurfer
He wanted to sign me straight away and was really pushy so i told him i was busy and he could call out Monday for the laugh.

That'd be Monday, the first of April, would it?

seamus · 10-01-2004 2:20am

Originally posted by DaithiSurfer
I had an Eircon ass on the phone today. He said that thier call charges are now
among other charges i asked him about which all seemed to be cheaper than UTV.
1c per minute local evening
Call setup is now 3.3c
O2 Day is 18c/min eve 14c we 11c

He's lying. Eircom sales are scum, and don't let them tell you any different.

Even if eircom was 1c per min eves (they're 1.27c), they'd still be dearer than UTV (0.95c).
There's been nothing to say that their minimum charge has dropped.
Afaik, they're the correct O2 rates - but there's one little flaw.....O2 are a mobile operator. IIRC, EsatBT are cheaper than eircom.

sceptre · 10-01-2004 2:43am

Originally posted by seamus
He's lying. Eircom sales are scum, and don't let them tell you any different.

Damn, I wanted to say that.

Oh what the hell...

He's lying. Eircom sales are scum, and don't let them tell you any different.

As I said the last time this kind of topic came up, what makes it worse is that he's a bad liar.

I'd love to see people collect names of these liars, dates, locations, that kind of thing. What we could do with them I'm not all that sure, but a list sent to Phil Nolan at Eircom (who'll disavow all knowledge), to comreg (who'll do the idiot routine) and perhaps some of the more reputable newspapers and the likes of newstalk106 and Matt Cooper would at least be a start to get these liars off people's doorsteps and phonelines.

... and yet again I'm waiting for a single call from an agent of any company. That high-decibel whistle and my "Your pants are on Fire, you lying scumbag" song are just going to waste...

dahamsta · 10-01-2004 9:59am

Oooh, oooh, I'll do it! Next time someone posts about Eircom sales promises here, tell them to email the details to me - adam AT beecher DOT net - and I'll keep it in a spreadsheet. I could have a great time with a dataset like that!

And the rest of you, keep a notebook by the phone and note the date, time, place and name next time they call, doorstep or stop you somewhere! Don't forget to GET A NAME!

adam

Mad Mike · 10-01-2004 10:57am

I think Eircom just might be cheaper for a lot of people. Is this a first? Please read this long post - it has some real data.

Before I went with UTV in June 2003 I used a couple of months of Eircom bills to make a very nerdy spreadsheet comparing UTV and Eircom call charges. I tried to include everything (min call charges, options discounts, setup charges etc.). The results may surprise you a little bit:

For Local and national calls Eircom was a bit cheaper. It would actually depend on the exact mix of long versus short calls but the Eircom "Options" discounts make a significant impact particularly if you avail of the freebies like free call answering.

UTV and Eircom were almost identical for calls to mobiles.

For international calls UTV would be cheaper but in reality neither UTV or Eircom is even at the races for international calls. Go with someone like Vartec or one of the prepaid cards and you can save €10 or more on a single call.

Needless to say for internet UTV just blew Eircom away and these savings more than outweighed the difference in voice calls.

Here for reference is a summary:
All charges include VAT and the Eircom options discounts. Call answering is free with Eircom options but has to be paid for for with UTV. Eircom charges from Bill, UTV charges from spreadsheet calculation.

Local and National Voice Calls: Eircom: €25.67, UTV €27.79
Calls to mobiles: Eircom €12.17, UTV €12.27
International Calls: Eircom €0, UTV €0 (We're not stupid:) )
Internet: Eircom €47.39, UTV €21.08
Charge for Call Answering: Eircom €0.00; UTV €2.71

The Eircom Internet charge comes from one of the rare 1890 numbers that had no monthly service charge (I don't know if these are available any more). The UTV charge comes from the €9.99 per month for 30 hours. We used just over 60 hours during the two month period.

After 6 months of experience I can say that for us the above scenario appears to have borne out. UTV are dearer for (local and national) voice calls but much cheaper for internet (even for moderate use). A big warning though if you exceed your UTV cap it gets expensive. The cost per call for going over the cap is even more than we were paying for the old 1890 number especially during the daytime.

I know this will sound like heresy but it may be that for the very many people out there who are only casual users of the internet (no daytime use and less than 1 hour a day) the cheapest combo could be as follows: Eircom for local and national voice calls, Eircom €9.99 for 25 off peak hours and someone cheap for international calls. The thing is I reckon an awful lot of ordinary people ( the sort that don't suscribe to Boards) may well fall into this category.

DaithiSurfer · 18-01-2004 2:05pm

Ok he called up and sat down as if i had agreed to change back to eircon already.
He had a card with him which sowed only a few call prices on it.
Indeed it was 1c a minute in the evening for one of his options.
So i said 'Oh thats good, doesw it include vat?'
'oh yes it includes the vat' he said.
'then why does it say 'all charges not including vat below at the bottom of the page where your finger is covering'
'oh i didnt realise it didnt include vat' he says, 'but sure its not that much difference anyway and you dont want the hassle of 2 bills anyway, so here's the form i just need your signature'.
'Get the **** out of my house and dont come back you lieing bollox you'
'but but ....'
'do you want me to hit you?'

Then he left.
Honestly thats the way the conversation went. How can they get away with lieing like this.
I did call and complain about him but they didnt seem bothered.
He then called into the next door neighbour so i phoned her and told her what to ask him while he was there.
He tried the same lies with her and didnt know it was me on the phone. he thought it was her husband, so i called in after the lie about the vat and read the riot act to him.
She called to complain too and got nowhere.

But the point is some people wont ask about the vat etc and will only check his prices on one call and then will be conned into going back to more expensive calls.

My advise. If these assholes call to you. show them into a nice cold room and tell them you have a meeting or are on an important call or something and leave them there on their own for an hour or so. Then come back and say ' i have to go out now but you can call back next week'. and i fthey do then do the same again.
Waste the ****ers time.

donhughberto · 18-01-2004 2:19pm

I remember Eircom bills of 200 quid for 2 months coming in, i switched to UTV, got the internet deal which i use alot for work and socail, 24.99 a month, last bill was 34 quid and about 15 mobile calls in that and 6 or 7 normal calls. I will never ever go back to eircom and i told the rep who landed at my door one day and he agreed he couldn't beat the UTV prices!

Mad Mike · 18-01-2004 2:51pm

Shoddy practises in Eircom's door to door sales force are nothing new. A while back we opted to use another carrier for some categories of call and subsequently received a visit from an Eircom rep wanting to know if we wished to change back. conversation went something like this:

Eircom Rep: Eircocom ... great value ... sign up

Me: No Thank you. I have done my homework and I know I am getting the best deal.

Eircom Rep: Fair Enough. Well in that case I notice that our records are not up to date - could you just sign this form please (under the X) so that I can update records (said very pleasantly)

Me: (Foolishly) OK - and signs on dotted line.

Me: (Sudden realsiation of what I have just done) - Hold it can I read that a bit more carefully (I wrench the clipboard out of his hands)

It quickly becomes apparent that what I have just signed is a carrier preselect authorisation which effectively puts all of my calls back to Eircom. Luckily I am holding the clipboard - I tear out the form - and put it out of reach.

Me: (Stunned)This form allows you to transfer me back to Eircom.

Him: (A little bit worrried) No No No its just to update our records.

Me: But it says here in black and white - I hereby authorise etc. etc. all calls to Eircom.

Him (bluffing) Thats only the paperwork - I'll sort it out when I get back to the office.

Me: (Fuming) You tried to trick me into transferring back to Eircom - I am going to make a complaint and I am using this form as evidence.

Him: (Worried) I'll have to check with my boss about this.

Me: OK

Him: Rings boss and talks on mobile.

Me: (during his phoine call) I want to talk to your boss now to register my complaint.

Him (In shock) hands over phone

Me: Makes complaint to Eircom boss - who issues platitudes.

Him: (Angry now after ticking off from boss) Why did you do that - Now I am in trouble.

Me: (Righteous) Well I warn you now that some of our neigbours are Garda Siochana - If you try that trick on them you'll likely end up in jail.

He: Slinks off (defeated)

I kept the form as evidence fully intending to complain to comreg but of course I never did.

mike65 · 18-01-2004 3:05pm

Scan or photograph that piece of paper I'd love to see it!

Mike.

donhughberto · 18-01-2004 3:20pm

Me too and i know someone within eircom who would like to see it as well, you didn't get this guys name for the record, you should be sueing for this!

yellum · 18-01-2004 3:39pm

Jesus Christ Mad Mike. Thats unreal. I think you should catalog all this, scan in the form and put it online. Let the world see Eircoms sales techniques.

If you want webspace then let me know. I'll happily give some.

DaithiSurfer · 18-01-2004 5:40pm

Is there any irish version of watchdog?
I would imagine if this kind of stuff was put on tv that would be the end of Eircom

Mad Mike · 18-01-2004 8:50pm

Originally posted by mike65
Scan or photograph that piece of paper I'd love to see it!

Mike.

This was more than a year and several clean out's ago. I had a quick look and couldn't find it - will do a more thorough search but I don't hold out much hope of finding it now.

I know I know - I should have reported it at the time but I felt somewhat appeased by the fact that miscreant obviously got a ticking off from his boss when I returned his mobile to him. Of course I don't know whether the boss was upset because his employee tried to trick me or because his employee was caught trying to trick me.

spongebob · 18-01-2004 9:43pm

The Boss of the Winback program is Alan Cox , acox@eircom.ie

M

oneweb · 18-01-2004 10:10pm

Originally posted by DaithiSurfer
Is there any irish version of watchdog?
I would imagine if this kind of stuff was put on tv that would be the end of Eircom

No, it's pretty much impossible - because of the fact that RTE and TV3 are both sponsored by advertisers. They're not likely to make issue with one of their advertisers. (Apparently there was a version of watchdog a few years ago?)

seamus · 19-01-2004 1:36am

Esat's team seem a little nicer. One called around on Friday evening (I think they were just going door to door). After my brothe informed him that I was the only one that used the line, I came to the door...

Esat: That's a bit strange isn't it? You're the only one who uses the phone?

Me: Not really, we have no phone.

Esat: No phone?

Me: I use the line purely for internet access.

Esat: Ah right. And what would your normal monthly bill be? If you don't mind me asking?

Me: Well, I'm with UTV and pay €25 for flat rate access.

Esat: Oh right......that sounds, eh...pretty good. How many hours do you get for that?

Me: 180 hours, day or night.

Esat (starts making a note on a piece of card): Oh.....well....eh.....yeah....that's...erm....pretty good....uh...in fact that's really good.....

Me: I would get DSL but I don't qualify.

Esat: Oh right. Well....eh....cheers for that....take it easy. (Heads next door)

I sounded more like the one giving the sales pitch.

Eircom now cheapest for calls?

Comments