Waiting for a pre-qual retest.....

Ba$tard

Hi all,

I am sure I am at least one of many who have been informed that ;
1) their line has failed for DSL pre-qual test from Eircom,
2) have subsequentially disconnected extenstion phones, modems, splitters, etc
3) waiting re-test

and only to be told from Eircom ;
=======================
x that their pre-qual test is run run by a 3rd party
x runs once every month or so
x does not know when they are next scheduled to run
x does not know when last they were run

This is incredible! It means, people like me at home need to disconnect all additional phone connections and cannot go on the internet for over a month just incase the pre-qual test runs while they are on the 'Net which would fail the test again if a modem is connected !!!!

I cannot believe Eircom can be allowed to do something like this to their customers!

Any suggestions to fight these guys in releasing what dates the pre-qual runs?

Thanks, James.

SkepticOne

First I've heard that the tests are done by a third party.

rymus

Originally posted by Ba$tard
Any suggestions

I suggest we go to the pub to make the long wait seem a little shorter.

As someone thats waiting for the magic testing troll to come out from under it's bridge and test my line, I would only be too happy to know when they test the lines.

X. Third party? I thought the engineers did it...
X. Some say every month, some every two weeks. I think it was ComReg that said every two weeks actually
X & X. God bless the eircom biddies, theyre really kept up to speed.

My tried & tested solution for beating the pre-qual tests is simply to wait. Only thing I'm going to get off eircom if I ring them enquiring as to the status of the test is "err, no results yet. The person that made the request will ring you when the results come in". "When will that be?" I cheerfully ask. "Could be anything up to X". Replace X with any one of the answers I've been given so far.

1. Ten days
2. two weeks
3. three weeks
4. we dont know
5. could be a while

The course of DSL installation did never run smoothly!

dahamsta

Originally posted by SkepticOne
First I've heard that the tests are done by a third party.

Maybe Eircom net calling Eircom Plc a third party? After all, they're completely seprate companies. <mug mug>

adam

spongebob

Originally posted by dahamsta
Maybe Eircom net calling Eircom Plc a third party? After all, they're completely seprate companies. <mug mug>

adam

Did yer man in Eircom.Net have a midlands accent ?

M

Ba$tard

Nope

It was a team-lead Eircom technician in Cork who told me a contractor does the DSL line tests/updates the SQL test Database.
I believed him as someone else in the industry told me the same yesterday.
J.

STaN

its a bit crappy alright. I have to wait 4 weeks to get my line tested. Just because it was disconnected for 2 months

Ripwave

Originally posted by Ba$tard
It was a team-lead Eircom technician in Cork who told me a contractor does the DSL line tests/updates the SQL test Database.

"Contractor" doesn't necessarily mean 3rd party - many of the people employed to run Eircoms network are on 1 and 2 year contracts, but are effectively Eircom employees.

Ba$tard

Hi Ripwave,

I am tending to agree with you here. There are actually a bunch of engineers specifically trained & tasked with testing lines with the DSL pulse test. As far as I know Eircom uses the SELP (Single-ended Line probing) technique.

They have to physically go to your loop in the exchange and jumper it to connect it to the pulse equipment and then run a incremental data rate test using a mixed test of Time Domain Reflectometry (latency time) & Frequency Domain Reflectometry (spectrums of frequencies, relative to baud rate) down your line.
When the integrity of the returned data goes below a certain level, at a certain datarate, then that is the maximum band rate of your line. In my case, I'd say about 56kbps

An Eircom DSL Sales drone says that the test runs from your Central Office (Exchange) to your neighbourhood hub, (yes that metal plate in the ground which you kept tripping over as a child in your converse wunners), which I dont believe. I believe it runs all the way to you first terminal in your house and the reflection occurs there, if it can!
This is why some many people have been retested and have successfully passed after removing splitters, power-drawing devices, such as phones with LCDs, etc.

I have removed all my devices and am waiting for a retest. The actual hub in my case is no more that 20 feet from my front door, so if I fail again, I'll took a look for myself!

J.

rymus

Guilty of dragging up old threads & all...


It's now two weeks since I was promised my line test would take "up to two weeks". Rang eircom and was informed that "there are no results yet, ring back next week or the week after and we may have something".

Two weeks eh? Two weeks my ring. So, with the aid of addition we have

at least another two weeks for line test + two weeks I've already waited + at least two weeks for broadband activation = 6 weeks. I know people have waited a lot longer than that and I'm stupid to think that eircom could actually stick to the timeframe they gave me but gimme a break like... at least 4 weeks for some gowl to visit my exchange and press a few buttons? Does that seem unreasonable to anyone else?

Ohh but it's all the fault of the current special offer. Thats the reason it's going to take a month to test my line*

*favorite eircom excuse

Ba$tard

Believe me, this is complete CRAP from eircom.

I now have differing information that the techie does not have to visit exchanges for pre-qual testing.
They only have to visit exchanges to upgrade them.
They run all pre-quals from head office remotely.

Then again, guess what, this info could also be wrong !!!

We need confirmation on this..

Why the hell cant Eircom let us know when the next pre-qual is due...
Can someone of great will and power and fancy words go after Eircom for this on behalf of us?

J,

Ba$tard

Read this top to bottom on left , then top to bottom on right
Have a laugh at this

pete

Can someone of great will and power and fancy words go after Eircom for this on behalf of us?

Like comreg?

arf

Ba$tard

comreg is not great will and power
comreg is fancy words

Ba$tard

Just an update,

Removed the splitters, multiple extension phones and 40ft modem cable and my line passed pre-qual

This leads me to 2 things;

1) eircom people dont realise that the pre-qual SELP test's reflection goes as far as the first loop terminal (i..e inside your phone) in your house, which I thought. They said the local neighbourhood hub.

2) Horrific levels of muppetry driven by undertrained personnel coupled with bad managment and a rodgered call handling system is all what eircom is about.

J.

rymus

Congrats on passing the test Ba$tard, I however am not that lucky. Rang up yesterday afternoon for an update on the test (it's three weeks tomorrow since I ordered a test). I was told that the request for the test had been cancelled as the account details had been changed. Now I did ring 1901 about 3/4 days before that to get my caller ID turned on and that pointless voice mailbox turned off. This apparently constitutes some kind of major change for my phone line. I dont see how they work this one.. The details of my service may have changed but the actual physical line is the exact same and has been since I got it installed, some 4 weeks ago now.

Only reply I could get out of the eircom puniton was "Theres nothing I can do except order a new line test". What really pissed me off is that when I replied "Ohh and I suppose I'll be waiting another 4 weeks for that test" I was given the completely disinterested answer "Maybe".

It would seem, contrary to what others have said, that line tests are run every 4 weeks. Surely if they were run every 2 I would have had my line tested already and be a definate fail or pass.

This just completely takes the eircake

Ba$tard

Rymus,

Disabling call answering on your line just means they need to remove the service from your line by software, which they can do from their big dilbert desks. No physical work is carried out.


From my findings;

1) You cannot order a DSL pre-qual test thru either 1901 or DSL Sales, without someone talking to the actual pre-qual people on behalf of you, while you wait on the phone. 9 times out of 10, the pre-qual team will then tell the OP to go away and tell the customer to wait 4 weeks or so.


2) The pre-qual team work from head office and run their tests remotely. They do not need to be physically at the exchange.


3) It does run ever 4 weeks, but as for when, they will not say.


Its a shambles.

rymus

to add insult to injury.. When I got home at lunchtime my first eircom bill was waiting for me. €89 of which 99c was actual phone calls.

Ba$tard,
What do you think the chances are of actually talking to someone in the pre-qual team though? slim? none?

Just for devilment I'm going to ring them a few times this evening to make sure the request was put in.

Ba$tard

Rymus,

An external customer is not allowed to talk directly to the pre-qual team.

I doubt you have a chance. I had to wait, after kicking up a fuss and issuing an official complaint to Eircom.

Wanna know what your best bet is?
Find out who your local lead technican is, ask him to signal test ( not DSL test) your line and if he says its OK, then tell him your woes. He probably can find out some way internally to talk to the pre-qual Team and try to swing something.

The centralised jackeen drones in head orrifice will do nothing for your cause.

J,

dahamsta

Don't forget the bottle of whiskey or neatly folded €20 note. Works wonders, I'm tellin' ya.

adam

Ba$tard

I'm actually in the process of buying the whiskey

Dont tell anyone

Calibos

Wanna know what your best bet is?

Eh, have a Winback Rep call to your door?? :rolleyes: See Here

rymus

Looks like my line test was performed over the last 24 hours cos yesterday there was no result and today my line is finally passing!

(now lets just hope it continues to pass until I'm staring at my DSL modem)

Line passing & clicksilver ordered within the space of 15 mins. I gots lotsa lost time to catch up on

dahamsta

Fingers crossed rymus.

adam

Raskolnikov

Originally posted by rymus
Looks like my line test was performed over the last 24 hours cos yesterday there was no result and today my line is finally passing!

(now lets just hope it continues to pass until I'm staring at my DSL modem)

Line passing & clicksilver ordered within the space of 15 mins. I gots lotsa lost time to catch up on

So the Carrigaline exchange has been enabled?

rymus

Naw Rask, I'm living in Douglas now.

I wouldnt hold out any hope for Carrigaline anytime in the medium to long term; according to what eircom told me before I moved.

GregLake

The Carrigaline exchange has been enabled. At least it said so when I entered my phone number on both the UTV and IOL broadband tester page yoke.

rymus

yeah, just tested a few phone numbers of my old neighbours about ten mins ago and they all passed. Ironic or what

The ISDN line at my old place didnt pass though, probably cos theres all kindsa stuff like caller ID units plugged into it.

rymus

got my activation date yesterday, 26th November. Exactly 15 working days from the date my order went through

Ba$tard

Rymus, did you get your DSL yesterday?

I got mine yesterday also. Eircom actually beat the 10-day leadtime and turned it around in 2days. Probably very quiet exchange.
Writing from DSL now, IOL BB. Pity they dont allow ICMP

rymus

forgot to repost with the proper date.. I was given the 26th but it was actually activated a week and two days earlier