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Adventures in Eircom-Land - Day 6

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  • 06-07-2004 5:45pm
    #1
    oceanclub
    Registered Users Posts: 3,411 ✭✭✭


    So I'm trying to do the following:

    * Move apartment all of 50 yards, and move my phone line
    * Get broadband

    A simply enough task in the pulsing metrosexual datascape that is
    post-Celtic Tiger Dublin city centre, I would have thought.

    Anyway, on the 2nd I rang and told them I'd like to transfer my phone
    to my new address - as I mentioned, all of 50 yards away. It
    turns out I'm in a whole new exchange area, and need a new number
    (how big _are_ these exchange areas?). So I end up having to close
    my old line, and open the line (already installed at my new address).
    I give them the address, and they tell me someone has already
    registered at that address in the previous day or two.

    After a detour to both the letting agent and the apartment management
    company, I get back to Eircom. It turns out they'd only looked up
    the address of the _building_, and not the apartment; someone else
    had registered a phone in another apartment. So, everything is
    straight now.

    I think.

    So today (6th) I decide to check online and see if I'm eligible for
    UTV's Clicksilver broadband service. I enter my new phone number
    and my account number. "Not eligible". Hmm. I think I'd better check
    with Eircom.

    I ring Eircom and tell them my new phone number; I'm told that I have
    a new account number. _But_ they can't tell me over the phone. And,
    oops, they can't mail me to tell me it either; I have to wait for my
    next phone bill (in two months time).

    I try ringing Eircom Broadband directly; they bring up the details associated
    with my new number; however, the details of the _previous_ tenant who used
    that number are on the account. They claim this mightn't be updated for another
    three weeks.

    They _then_ mention that my new phone number is only "temporary". When I ask
    what on earth this means, the operator started babbling (it's the best
    example of the word I've encountered) about how some numbers are permanent
    and some are temporary, and the temporary ones are temporary, etc.

    When I ask why, when I got my new numbers, I wasn't told it was temporary
    (after all, I might have gone and ordered 1000 business cards to replace
    the ones I'd've had to thrash because I had to change my number in the first
    place), the ramifications just didn't sink in. then the operator changed her
    mind and said that she "thought" my number was permanent after all. No, I've
    no idea what made her change her mind.

    So, after a few days:

    * I have a new phone line alright - but since it was installed
    my new flat already, this is hardly a feat

    * A stranger's details are on my new account

    * I don't know the account number, and they can't tell me
    'til the bill comes out

    * I have a temporary phone number. Or a permanent one. Whatever that
    means.

    * I may be entitled to broadband. Or, I may not. The ominous clicking
    sounds on the line when I dial a number don't inspire confidence.

    P.


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    #2
    dahamsta
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 16,659 ✭✭✭✭dahamsta


    Originally posted by oceanclub
    how big _are_ these exchange areas?
    Depends on the location. Obviously they tend to be smaller in urban areas, where there'll be more lines per square foot.

    When I moved a couple of months ago, Eircom efficiently activated my line in a few days. But it didn't work. So I rang them and told them, and they said it did. So I went back into the flat and plugged in an old-fashioned phone, just to be sure. It didn't work. So I rang them and told them, and they said it did. I told them it didn't, they told me it did.

    So I explained that the building had recently been refurbished, and asked if that might have something to do with it. So they checked and told me that the line wasn't working, and it was probably because the building had recently been refurbished. They would have to send a guy out to look at it. They didn't. I rang them and told them, and they said they did. I said...

    Anyway, to cut a long story short, after a lot of finagling and, well... lying, I eventually got the DDI for the guy I needed to talk to. He came to my gaff, and I waited for him to hook the line up to the internal wiring. Unfortunately he couldn't, because there was no line. Nothing. They had to take a completely new line off the gaff across the road and hook the whole house up.

    There you go, a whole new definition for the word "activated". Geniuses.

    adam


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    #3
    impr0v
    Registered Users Posts: 2,647 ✭✭✭impr0v


    small tasks seem to become a mammoth undertaking with eircom.

    I encountered the account number problem before and got around it the irish way, i.e. talked to a friend of someone i knew that worked in a regional office and was able to get it off their system and give it to me on the qt. things became smoother once i got hold of it, so if you have any scope for doing something similar i would do so. being the employee heavy beast eircom is, it should be easy enough to find someone.


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    #4
    shinzon
    Registered Users Posts: 5,458 ✭✭✭shinzon


    ye gotta love eircoms sense of humour you really do

    I wonder will this permanently temporarily be solved sometime in the termporarily permanent future

    Shin


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    #5
    istep
    Registered Users Posts: 233 ✭✭istep


    aaaah it makes you proud to be irish:D


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    #6
    istep
    Registered Users Posts: 233 ✭✭istep


    Think we should launch a new word dedicated to our friends in eircon "gob****ery ! "


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    #7
    alleepally
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,027 ✭✭✭alleepally


    Pure brilliance. Great post oceanclub. It's a pity there's not a consumer programme on RTE with stories like this. There used to be one a few years ago, it's time they brought it back. I think it was called 'Streetwise'.


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    #8
    dahamsta
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 16,659 ✭✭✭✭dahamsta


    Heh, alleepally used the words "RTE" and "Streetwise" in the same paragraph.


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    #9
    mike65
    Closed Accounts Posts: 88,978 ✭✭✭✭mike65


    No mocking! This thread reminds me of my NTHell experience...which I got over with counciling (thank God for BUPA).


    Mike.


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    #10
    spongebob
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,143 ✭✭✭spongebob


    you should email that to the big cheese, phil.nolan@eircom.ie .

    M


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    #11
    oceanclub
    Registered Users Posts: 3,411 ✭✭✭oceanclub


    Originally posted by Muck
    you should email that to the big cheese, phil.nolan@eircom.ie .

    Thanks, I just did. :) Got the following reply:

    --
    Mr. Moloney

    Thank you for your note. We have asked the Customer Care Manager for the CEO's office to investigate the matters you have raised and to revert to you as soon as possible.

    Regards.

    Alwyin Mannion
    PA to Dr. Philip Nolan.
    --

    I doubt it'll make a blind bit of difference, but it's amusing all the same.

    I will of course keep everyone updated...

    P.


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    #12
    Sleipnir
    Registered Users Posts: 5,514 ✭✭✭Sleipnir


    I just got off the phone to an Eircom business salesperson who was very annoyed that I, a customer, would have the gall to ring them.

    "I was actually in the middle of something when you rang, you know. I'm very busy"


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    #13
    shinzon
    Registered Users Posts: 5,458 ✭✭✭shinzon


    Originally posted by oceanclub
    Thanks, I just did. :) Got the following reply:

    --
    Mr. Moloney

    Thank you for your note. We have asked the Customer Care Manager for the CEO's office to investigate the matters you have raised and to revert to you as soon as possible.

    Regards.

    Alwyin Mannion
    PA to Dr. Philip Nolan.
    --

    I doubt it'll make a blind bit of difference, but it's amusing all the same.

    I will of course keep everyone updated...

    P.

    Ah you should be hearing from Philomena lonergan anytime soon so, thats if shes still the Ceos Customer Care manager

    Shin


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    #14
    _Kaiser_
    Registered Users Posts: 28,716 ✭✭✭✭_Kaiser_



    .....and to revert to you as soon as possible

    Ahhhhhh!!! There's that word again! It's RESPOND/REPLY...who came up with "REVERT"??? :mad:


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    #15
    spongebob
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,143 ✭✭✭spongebob


    Philomena can tell you useful things ....such as your top secret new account number that you never asked for in the first place :D

    Do keep us up to date on this farrago

    M


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    #16
    oceanclub
    Registered Users Posts: 3,411 ✭✭✭oceanclub


    Originally posted by Sleipnir
    I just got off the phone to an Eircom business salesperson who was very annoyed that I, a customer, would have the gall to ring them.

    "I was actually in the middle of something when you rang, you know. I'm very busy"

    :D You know, we really need a site totally devoted to Eircom problems. Some kind of Wiki-enabled site which people could update with their own tales of woe....

    P.


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    #17
    spongebob
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,143 ✭✭✭spongebob


    see the Irelandoffline Board Here . If it was not for Eircom there woulda been no IoffL Board

    M


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    #18
    impr0v
    Registered Users Posts: 2,647 ✭✭✭impr0v


    Originally posted by Kaiser2000

    Ahhhhhh!!! There's that word again! It's RESPOND/REPLY...who came up with "REVERT"??? :mad: [/B]

    When dealing with a customer, the word 'retard' is toward the front of their minds, so when the vocab processor goes looking for a consumer friendly word which would communicate 'think about getting back to you about this when i could be bothered', it returns 'revert' due to the phonetic similarity.


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    #19
    MrVestek
    Registered Users Posts: 9,198 ✭✭✭MrVestek


    Alls i can say is... i'm glad i never had to deal with these people. Although in saying that whenever i have to call up NTL i have to call and talk to at least 10 people before i get someone who will actually sympathise and help.


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    #20
    oceanclub
    Registered Users Posts: 3,411 ✭✭✭oceanclub


    You might be interested in the continuing saga, which can be found at:

    http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=185721

    Regards,

    P.


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