Iol 3 mth trial/Eircom 2mth trial

jom1133

Hey everyone,
I'm nearing the end of my 3 month free trial with IOl broadband and in Jan I'm leaving my apartment to move elsewhere so won't be taking it full time at the moment but was just wondering if it's going to be possible to get a 2 month trial with eircom after IOL is switched off rather than having to take out 12mth contract? Or do they have record if the line has had a bb connection already?

dahamsta

jom1133 wrote:

Or do they have record if the line has had a bb connection already?

'Fraid so.

MisterAnarchy

I had the 3 month trial with IOL then switched to Eircom for their 2 month trial.
The two month trial is available to anyone, even previous broadband customers.
I signed up 3 weeks ago but I'm still waiting for my modem to be sent out.

the Guru

MisterAnarchy wrote:

I had the 3 month trial with IOL then switched to Eircom for their 2 month trial.
The two month trial is available to anyone, even previous broadband customers.
I signed up 3 weeks ago but I'm still waiting for my modem to be sent out.

It should have been sent out is the billing address and install address the same call 1800 512 128 and ask them

dahamsta

MisterAnarchy wrote:

I had the 3 month trial with IOL then switched to Eircom for their 2 month trial.

My mistake. I wonder how this stands on a competitive front. Surely this gives Eircom an illegal competitive edge?

the Guru

how ????

Please explain

MisterAnarchy

I had the 3 month trial with IOL and it was almost up.
I heard the Eircom ad on the radio and rang them up.
I told the customer service person that I was with IOL but wished to change to Eircom .
I asked if I was eligible for the 2 month free trial and she said yes.
I then repeated that I was an existing IOL customer and she said that didnt matter.
So I cancelled my IOL connection and signed up with Eircom.
I read the terms closely and it doesnt mention that you have to be a new customer .
Only unavailable if you previously availed of Eircoms summer surf deal.

the Guru

Surely this gives Eircom an illegal competitive edge?

Mister I was aware of that but i was wondering what dahamsta meant by the above statement !!!

Surely there there is Nothing illegal there and it can only be good for the consumer

dahamsta

the Guru wrote:

Surely there there is Nothing illegal there and it can only be good for the consumer

Think about it. If you're on the Eircom trial you can't take a trial from any of the other ISP's, because it's tied to the CLI (Calling Line Interface). However if you're with one of the other ISP's you can switch to Eircom for an extra two months free, which creates a massive incentive for people to do that. That's anti-competitive, and although it may be good for the consumer in the short term, it's short-sighted to think in those terms economically.

I'm open to correction on this of course. I'm only projecting based on the information I've been given in this thread.

adam

Zenith74

I'm with EircomBB, IOL said I am entitled to their trial as well even though BB is already on my line. So much for new BB customers only I guess, though I'm not complaining.

Ripwave

dahamsta wrote:

Think about it. If you're on the Eircom trial you can't take a trial from any of the other ISP's, because it's tied to the CLI (Calling Line Interface). However if you're with one of the other ISP's you can switch to Eircom for an extra two months free, which creates a massive incentive for people to do that. That's anti-competitive, and although it may be good for the consumer in the short term, it's short-sighted to think in those terms economically.

It's entirely up to ESAT/IOL and UTV (and others) whether they want to offer their free trial to customers from other services - there's nothing anti-competitive in that.

The only reason eircom might have a competitive edge is because they came to the "no strings free trial" later than the other players, so they're catching some people who might be just finishing their 3 months with ESAT or UTV. But I'm sure that anyone who switches once will be perfectly capable of switching again, at the end of the eircom trial. They might not get another free trial, but they'll still be better off switching to esat or utv (except for that nasty connection fee, of course - maybe free connections will be the next step in this cycle).

dahamsta

Ripwave wrote:

It's entirely up to ESAT/IOL and UTV (and others) whether they want to offer their free trial to customers from other services - there's nothing anti-competitive in that.

I'm afraid not Ripwave, it's against the Ts&Cs of the wholesale offer. Once per CLI. More discussion here. Again though, I'm open to correction.

adam

Ripwave

dahamsta wrote:

I'm afraid not Ripwave, it's against the Ts&Cs of the wholesale offer. Once per CLI. More discussion here. Again though, I'm open to correction.

Eircom wholesale will only give the first provider on the line a rebate - but that doesn't prevent any provider offering any customer an incentive for signing up, even if the provider won't pick up a rebate from eircom wholesale.

The wholesale rebate doesn't go to the customer, and the provider who gets the erbate can spend it any way they want, including dumping it into a central marketnig fund that they use to fund incentives for all customers, or for all customers who are new to that provider. They could even just keep it themselves, and not offer any customer incentives at all, if they wanted.

dahamsta

Your point is well taken Ripwave, but I seem to remember you explaining to us over and over again in the past that the margins are so tight as to make something like this illogical to implement. (I'm referring of course to the "moving/contracts" issue that was discussed at length previously.)

adam

Ripwave

dahamsta wrote:

Your point is well taken Ripwave, but I seem to remember you explaining to us over and over again in the past that the margins are so tight as to make something like this illogical to implement. (I'm referring of course to the "moving/contracts" issue that was discussed at length previously.)

The margins are tight - of the €30 or €33 that you pay ESAT or UTV for DSL, something like €22 goes straight to eircom and €5 goes to the VAT man. I don't know how they expect to make up any shortfall from phonecalls in what is such a cut-throat market (though it's one of the reasons that you can't use CPS over-ride on the UTV Talk offer).

Maybe UTV and ESAT are more worried about wireless broadband and VoIP than we realize - right now they can make some money from people using eircoms wires, but they're probably not going to get a look in from people who dump the wires altogether.