Considering taking BT to court

Khannie

Short story: I've been waiting 12 weeks for EsatBT to provide me with broadband. During that time I would have worked 24 days at home. My estimate is that their failure to provide timely broadband (despite saying that they would) has cost me the following:

6 euro per day petrol
3.60 toll bridge money
4 euro lunch money
2.5 hours time (conservatively, my time is worth around 20 euro per hour, so that's 50 euro).

A total of 63 euro per day x 2 (per week) x 10 weeks (overdue time) = 1260 euro.

If they had told me it would take 12 weeks, I would have declined their offer, but they told me it would take two weeks, so I accepted. I have since lost money as a result, so I think I've a decent case.

After the guy I was dealing with stopped returning my calls, I sent them an email today threatening legal action. I heard nothing back, so I'm now going to actually do something about it.

First off, I'm looking for legal advice. The small claims court is an obvious starting point. What are my chances of recouping some of my losses?

Also, is anyone interested in starting a class action suit? That could get some proper publicity going.

nag

had to wait 6 weeks for my bt bb connection to be reconnected after being told that it would only take 2 weeks. considering that they had all my details from before after being connected with them for over a year. they claimed that it was because there was a backlog of bb orders for the xmas period and that eircom would put the dsl on the line in my exchange when i reached the top of the queue but if they knew that there was a backlog in the first place, why the hell did they tell me that it was only going to take 2 f***in weeks??!!¬!`11

Khannie

Number of people for class action suit: 2

Keep them coming people.

paulm17781

I doubt you have any recourse what so ever. BT don't owe you money and have no contract to say you will have your BB connection in said time. Unless you can prove they have cost you money you have nothing.

eth0_

Do you have no workplace/is your home your workplace? If you have a desk in an office, then you have no case whatsoever.

Even if you work from home all the time, you haven't a hope in hell. I'm sure BT have themselves well covered in cases like these.

Also - do you have the money to spend on legal fees against BT's legal team? It isn't a simple case of taking them to the small claims court you know...

At the end of the day it's probably Eircom who are causing the delay, not BT.

whiskeyman

Don't think you have a case tbh.
No contract = no obligation to act.

Unless you have, in writing, a promise (pre-contract) whereby they state the date of commencement of the service, you'll have very little to go on.

As Etho said, it's probably Eircom that are holding things up.
It was for me anyway... Eircom engineer came on a Wednesday last summer to fix my line... I phoned them (BT) that evening to tell them and they delivered the modem package that Friday.

Khannie

I was repeatedly told that I would have broadband within 2 weeks. It's not eircoms fault. Esat have repeatedly apologised to me for their mistakes. I have outlined how it has cost me money that I wouldn't have had to pay if I went with eircom (for example). Esat said they would provide me with a service within two weeks, they (grossly) failed to do so. They offered to provide me broadband, I accepted, they failed. That failure has cost me time and money.

If it's not going to take 2 weeks, they shouldn't say it will.

Am I willing to pay to take them to court? yes.

Edit: I'm AFK now until Monday (as I have no internet access). Glad to hear all perspectives. Thanks lads.

Khannie

eth0_ wrote:

Do you have no workplace/is your home your workplace? If you have a desk in an office, then you have no case whatsoever.

Just out of interest: Why not? My office is very far away and failure to have broadband has cost me lots of money in petrol and toll bridge costs (ignoring my own time, temporarily).

whiskeyman

Khannie wrote:

I was repeatedly told that I would have broadband within 2 weeks. It's not eircoms fault. Esat have repeatedly apologised to me for their mistakes. I have outlined how it has cost me money that I wouldn't have had to pay if I went with eircom (for example). Esat said they would provide me with a service within two weeks, they (grossly) failed to do so. They offered to provide me broadband, I accepted, they failed. That failure has cost me time and money.

If it's not going to take 2 weeks, they shouldn't say it will.

Am I willing to pay to take them to court? yes.

Edit: I'm AFK now until Monday (as I have no internet access). Glad to hear all perspectives. Thanks lads.

If it's still only some salesperson promising you over the phone you'll have the service within 2 weeks, you just dont have a case.
You needed a written contract - nothing else simply will not do.
I know you infuriated over it, but look at it rationally.
If anything, you'll just lose more money taking the issue further.

Btw, what "mistakes" have BT apologised for?

kaizersoze

Now I'm not a solicitor so I will probably be corrected on this.
The American system of "class action" law suits is not catered for in the Irish legal system so they cannot be taken here.
Secondly, I don't think you have a case for reasons stated earlier.
Annoying as it may be for you I think you'll be wasting your time and money.

Khannie

whiskeyman wrote:

Btw, what "mistakes" have BT apologised for?

It started like this:
I phoned sales. Placed an order for phone conversion and broadband. Two weeks later I phoned back wondering why I hadn't gotten either. They had a record that I had called, but no order had been placed with eircom by them. They apologised. Hahahaha. It went downhill from there.

5 weeks and 3 days ago, I was given a direct line number. I was told that I would have broadband within 2+ 7 to 10 working days (9-11 in total). Here I am 25 working days later (accounting for christmas and the new year holidays). I've only phoned the direct line a few times. As of Wednesday, the guy stopped returning my phone calls.

nag

if any of these types of stories were to be made public though, it might start a change and show up the irish bb system for the shambles that it is

LegacyUser

TBH - I don't think you have a case. Had they started billing you for the service? If you look at their terms of service (which I have to scrutinise before) .. they state really clearly that they will not be held responsible if they do not provide the service by any particular date. You signed this contract when you ordered. Check it out.

Khannie

bubby wrote:

You signed this contract when you ordered. Check it out.

That doesn't sound too good. I didn't sign anything though. They are providing me with telephone services. My broadband modem eventually arrived on the 10th of January. I have been testing the line every day since I got it.

nag

bubby wrote:

.. they state really clearly that they will not be held responsible if they do not provide the service by any particular date. You signed this contract when you ordered. Check it out.

i didnt sign jack sh1t

LegacyUser

nag wrote:

i didnt sign jack sh1t

How did you order broadband? If you sign up online there is a tick box to check. If you signed up over the phone, and a rep didn't advise, then you have a case.

To the original poster. I had the exact same problem as you actually.
I ordered online 12th December - modem arrived 23rd December - the DSL light never came on - BB wouldn't work. They tested the line several times.
Someone in customer services told me I would have to pay a cancellation fee.

I got out of it - see section 3.6 of their terms of service. They are supposed to pre-qualify the service before accepting your order. If they cannot provide the service to you, then the contract is void.

Be very very careful here mate!! I would advise cancelling the direct debit immediately - as they have probably already started taking money.

paulm17781

Khannie wrote:

Just out of interest: Why not? My office is very far away and failure to have broadband has cost me lots of money in petrol and toll bridge costs (ignoring my own time, temporarily).

I have to pay to go to work every day. As do most of us. It is not Esat's fault. Trust me you will be laughed out of court. If BT had said in writing "We guarentee you will have BB service in two weeks" you would have a case. A sales person saying it will do nothing, they are not legally obliged and they did not make you move to said distance from work that it costs so much.

Your options are wait for BB to be active or move. Either way you will not see a cent from BT.

Madong

Khannie wrote:

Short story: I've been waiting 12 weeks for EsatBT to provide me with broadband. During that time I would have worked 24 days at home. My estimate is that their failure to provide timely broadband (despite saying that they would) has cost me the following:

6 euro per day petrol
3.60 toll bridge money
4 euro lunch money
2.5 hours time (conservatively, my time is worth around 20 euro per hour, so that's 50 euro).

A total of 63 euro per day x 2 (per week) x 10 weeks (overdue time) = 1260 euro.

If they had told me it would take 12 weeks, I would have declined their offer, but they told me it would take two weeks, so I accepted. I have since lost money as a result, so I think I've a decent case.

After the guy I was dealing with stopped returning my calls, I sent them an email today threatening legal action. I heard nothing back, so I'm now going to actually do something about it.

First off, I'm looking for legal advice. The small claims court is an obvious starting point. What are my chances of recouping some of my losses?

Also, is anyone interested in starting a class action suit? That could get some proper publicity going.

Do you have a contract signed? if not I dont think you have any recourse, they can blame many "force majure" issues!

Think you don't have a case really, but I'm no solicitor.

RuggieBear

After i cancelled my UTV clicksilver trial and decided to go with BT it took 11 weeks and a day to get reconnected to Broadband!

nag

paulm17781 wrote:

Your options are wait for BB to be active or move. Either way you will not see a cent from BT.

i dont think its really a money issue for Khannie. i think he just wants to show bt up (and maybe eircom too seen as how bt rely on eircom)

paulm17781

nag wrote:

i dont think its really a money issue for Khannie. i think he just wants to show bt up (and maybe eircom too seen as how bt rely on eircom)

Doesn't matter. He legally hasn't a leg to stand on. His point could be he wants to waste his money on a courtcase, it won't get that far.

Madong

nag wrote:

i dont think its really a money issue for Khannie. i think he just wants to show bt up (and maybe eircom too seen as how bt rely on eircom)

I really dont think this would impact BT in anyway, large corporations don't really care.

rsynnott

Khannie wrote:

Number of people for class action suit: 2

Keep them coming people.

Are you... LOCAL?

We don't have class action suits in this country. Fortunately.

WizZard

If you agree to sign up for broadband over the phone, it's supposed to be legally binding. I don't see why it shouldn't work the other way?

I don't see you getting money from them - perhaps free service for a while. But I'd like to see you go ahead with it anyway. It'd be nice to get press on the matter too. Seek the advice of a brave solicitor first, though.

skyhighflyer

Khannie, don't waste any more of your time trying to pursue an unmeritorious action.

If you have no contract, you have no case. Even if you do have a contract (which on the facts seems doubtful) I'm sure BT's lawyers had the foresight to include exemption clauses which they will be able to use to escape liability if an action is taken against them.

Your only other possible action would be in negligence, i.e in claiming that in neglecting to provide you with broadband service in a reasonably timely and efficient manner (as they promised to you) you suffered the economic loss detailed above. Unfortunately for you, you would have in my opinion insurmountable burdens in proving that BT owed you a duty to do so in this case. Further, as in most common law jurisdictions, even if a duty was established, the type of damage you suffered (i.e economic loss unaccompanied by damage to either person or property) is damage of a type which is generally not compensated in the Irish courts.

Although I would point out that class actions of sorts are permitted within the Irish legal system (see for example Bloomer and others v The Law Society of Ireland), that's of no relevance in my opinion to this case.

I'd pursue other avenues of getting what I wanted from BT.. for example Liveline or the director of consumer affairs but I don't think the courts can help you out here.

LegacyUser

Terms and Conditions:

"3.11 BT will use its reasonable efforts to install the Service by the date that it agrees with the Customer, but all dates are estimates only and BT cannot guarantee that it will meet such dates."

nag

WizZard wrote:

If you agree to sign up for broadband over the phone, it's supposed to be legally binding. I don't see why it shouldn't work the other way?

i was just about to post that too. even if i did say that i agree to their conditions over the phone (which im almost positive that i didnt -- and how can you agree to something that isnt read to you over the phone anyway?!) why cant i hold them at their word then too?!

skyhighflyer wrote:

I'd pursue other avenues of getting what I wanted from BT.. for example Liveline or the director of consumer affairs but I don't think the courts can help you out here.

that might actually be a better idea alright

Adeptus Titanicus

Hey Khannie, After I moved arounf April last year I decided to go with BT as Eircom were messing me about in transferring account. Anyway, I got the usual it'll be ready in 4 weeks, but in the end it was 10 weeks before I got a live BB connection in the house. Well actually, I did have a live connection for a day with Eircom, but that's not important.

BT even billed me for about three weeks worth of BB service when there wasn't even a service. I eventually got it back, but not before they overcharged me by another €104!

It was a bloody saga dealing with them. I did get an apology from Pat McCabe after writing a letter and sending a couple of e-mails, but I never did get an explanation as to why something that should have taken 4 weeks took 10. (it also helps explain why I disappeared from the UT scene and never came back :oD ) I considered going elsewhere, but I just couldn't face the disruption and chances that I'd get shafted by yet another incompetant company.

kin9pin

Khannie wrote:

Short story: I've been waiting 12 weeks for EsatBT to provide me with broadband. During that time I would have worked 24 days at home. My estimate is that their failure to provide timely broadband (despite saying that they would) has cost me the following:

6 euro per day petrol
3.60 toll bridge money
4 euro lunch money
2.5 hours time (conservatively, my time is worth around 20 euro per hour, so that's 50 euro).

A total of 63 euro per day x 2 (per week) x 10 weeks (overdue time) = 1260 euro.

If they had told me it would take 12 weeks, I would have declined their offer, but they told me it would take two weeks, so I accepted. I have since lost money as a result, so I think I've a decent case.

After the guy I was dealing with stopped returning my calls, I sent them an email today threatening legal action. I heard nothing back, so I'm now going to actually do something about it.

First off, I'm looking for legal advice. The small claims court is an obvious starting point. What are my chances of recouping some of my losses?

Also, is anyone interested in starting a class action suit? That could get some proper publicity going.

Sorry about this, but are you saying you only ate lunch because you didn't have Broadband??

123

youre complaining about 12 weeks i ordered in december and it came in summer next year

deadl0ck

I understand why you're very mad at BT, but I don't understand why it's any fault of BT's whether you decide to work from home or not...

I just don't get this reasoning...

I was an IT contractor for years and I couldn't claim expenses for driving to and from where I was working, as under law, I can only claim for expenses when it's not my normal place of work. I argued that since I was a limited company, my normal place of work was my home, where I had my own office, but was told that my normal place of work was where my contract was at.
Therefore, I would assume your normal place of work would be considered to be at the office of your employer, not your home.

If they had told me it would take 12 weeks, I would have declined their offer, but they told me it would take two weeks, so I accepted. I have since lost money as a result, so I think I've a decent case

If you had declined their offer wouldn't you still have had to go into work seeing as you didn't have broadband ? therefore, you didn't lose any money.

I not trying to put you down - like I said, I totally unerstand why you so annoyed about this, but I honestly don't follow your reasoning at all....

Charlie

You dont have a hope in hell. Take it from someone who had to study contract law till it hurt last year. Simple answer to your question is that you would have no recourse as you had no contract with bt, whatever form they got you to fill out was not a contract. A contarct with a company like bt is only likely to come into operation when you actually got switched on. Most broadband/t.v/satelite providers operate on this basis.

Charlie

skyhighflyer wrote:

Khannie, don't waste any more of your time trying to pursue an unmeritorious action.

If you have no contract, you have no case. Even if you do have a contract (which on the facts seems doubtful) I'm sure BT's lawyers had the foresight to include exemption clauses which they will be able to use to escape liability if an action is taken against them.

Your only other possible action would be in negligence, i.e in claiming that in neglecting to provide you with broadband service in a reasonably timely and efficient manner (as they promised to you) you suffered the economic loss detailed above. Unfortunately for you, you would have in my opinion insurmountable burdens in proving that BT owed you a duty to do so in this case. Further, as in most common law jurisdictions, even if a duty was established, the type of damage you suffered (i.e economic loss unaccompanied by damage to either person or property) is damage of a type which is generally not compensated in the Irish courts.

Although I would point out that class actions of sorts are permitted within the Irish legal system (see for example Bloomer and others v The Law Society of Ireland), that's of no relevance in my opinion to this case.

I'd pursue other avenues of getting what I wanted from BT.. for example Liveline or the director of consumer affairs but I don't think the courts can help you out here.

Theres not a hope in hell that he'd have a negligence case. There's no way he would be able to prove that BT owed him a duty of care, which is essential to prove negligence.

AARRRGH

You're never going to take BT to court.

What a totally pointless thread.

Laguna

You don't have a leg to stand on khannie, it's quite simply your word against theirs when it comes down to it. What will your response in court be if they use their trump card and say "We never said we'd give it to you in two weeks, we only offer estimates".. where's your evidence, your signed documentation?.

I hardly think you have the grounds to be compensated for buying lunch each day.. that just sounds odd tbh, while you're on that vein of thought you could demand to be compensated for scratching your arse every day you haven't had broadband.

dermot_sheehan

skyhighflyer wrote:

Khannie, don't waste any more of your time trying to pursue an unmeritorious action.

If you have no contract, you have no case. Even if you do have a contract (which on the facts seems doubtful) I'm sure BT's lawyers had the foresight to include exemption clauses which they will be able to use to escape liability if an action is taken against them.

Your only other possible action would be in negligence, i.e in claiming that in neglecting to provide you with broadband service in a reasonably timely and efficient manner (as they promised to you) you suffered the economic loss detailed above. Unfortunately for you, you would have in my opinion insurmountable burdens in proving that BT owed you a duty to do so in this case. Further, as in most common law jurisdictions, even if a duty was established, the type of damage you suffered (i.e economic loss unaccompanied by damage to either person or property) is damage of a type which is generally not compensated in the Irish courts.

Although I would point out that class actions of sorts are permitted within the Irish legal system (see for example Bloomer and others v The Law Society of Ireland), that's of no relevance in my opinion to this case.

I'd pursue other avenues of getting what I wanted from BT.. for example Liveline or the director of consumer affairs but I don't think the courts can help you out here.

Simple legal answer
Since he's suffered pure economic loss so can't sure for negligence. Can't sue for breach of contract as a)There's been no consideration and b) the contract terms specifically excludes liability for late installation.

killbillvol2

[/QUOTE]
Be very very careful here mate!! I would advise cancelling the direct debit immediately - as they have probably already started taking money.[/QUOTE]

I'd go along with that. Their billing dept. has a well earned reputation for billing for services not being provided and then doing SFA about refunding your dosh.

nag

like ive said before, i dont believe that Khannie is looking to be refunded whatever costs he may have incurred as a result of being left connectionless. i believe the point of this thread is just to highlight the imcompetant fools that front themselves as tele-communications providers. it seems pretty clear to me that almost everybody in this country has a tale to tell about broadband woes or at the very least, knows somebody else who has be it that they:

1. cant get bb in the first place
2. had to wait an outrageous length of time to get bb when their told the process should only take two weeks (and it should only take two weeks)
3. were over billed for their service or billed for a service they never received

i find it very disheartening to read all the unsupportive comments here (be they as factually just as they are). the point im trying to get at i suppose is that i find it "typically irish" (as yer man from 'stew' would say) that we just sit around and accept the norm. whatever it is we are told, we just accept it, without question. just because bt (or even eircom for that matter) might be a "large corporation" (as someone has mentioned here), it does not give them the right to come in here and offer the irish public a crap service. the only reason that they do and the only reason they get away with it is, as ive mentioned already, we just accept whatever we're given and never expect/demand to be given anything better

Kristok

Nag you say its disheartening to read all the unsupportive comments well maby people get a bit annoyed when they see people talking about sueing for something stupid like this. For every person on boards who complains theres probably 10 more who never had a problem.

Your accusing the telcos for being imcompetant fools. Have you ever tried to order ntl or sky ? my sister was told she could get ntl and appointments where made to come out and install it and 3 times they never turned up and eventually she was told it wasnt available in her estate. Sky missed 2 appointmens to turn up then didnt have the right bracket to install it when they did. My friend tried to order sky and took two days off work to wait for the installer and he never came. Ntl eventually came out to install cable instead but not after telling him it wasnt available on his road dispite the people before him having it and a ntl box on the wall in his sitting room which he had to point out to them. The point is for every case like them theres loads of people who get it no problem.

Just because there are problems with some people dosnt make a whole industry imcompetant. When you order something over the phone things can sometimes happen its called human error and no person or company can avoid that.

WillieFlynn

I had a problem with BT loosing my order (untill I emailed their CEO). Then Eircom messed up my line for a while........... So in the end I went with netsource who processed my order within an hour of faxing it in to them.....

I'd suggest that you forget about BT and just go elsewhere.

nag

Kristok wrote:

Nag you say its disheartening to read all the unsupportive comments well maby people get a bit annoyed when they see people talking about sueing for something stupid like this

ill say this one more time. i dont believe Khannie is after the money. i believe that he just wants to make a show of bt and strike a blow for consumers. the issue about the money was just to state his case

anyway, i repect your point but that still doesnt excuse them for treating their customers like crap. it appears that everyday there seems to be someone else who is having problems. i can tell you that ive heard plenty of them now and now ive got my very own. plus, i believe that there are many others out there who think they are getting a reliable service but are not just because they dont know any better.

my reference to them being incompetant i suppose is more based around my experiences with eircom who could also be the root of many peoples problems so forgive the loose accusation. but, in this case and in my own, they were certainly incompetant

on a much broader note, why are we not given the same type of service as other european countries? why do we constantly model ourselves against other systems? why cant we be the model for success? its becuase we're irish and nobody give a f*** about anybody else and any ol' thing will do. just through anything out the door to shut 'em up

Kristok

If thats true then thats fine but untill he says so himself we can only assume he is after the money. If hes just after his day in court i dont think this is going to get him anywhere cause im sure a judge will make him pay esats fees for bringing a pointless case (assuming they do that in ireland) Its pointless cases like this that has the courts in this country as bad as america.

Anyhow dont think other countries are any better than ireland ive a cousin in holland and they had the same issues many years ago, telcos are generally considered to be evil because they are big and usually run badly its not just an irish thing.

nag

Kristok wrote:

Anyhow dont think other countries are any better than ireland ive a cousin in holland and they had the same issues many years ago

that only leads me to believe that the situation improved and just as a side note, i know that one thing they do in the netherlands is, if you wish to switch your bb service to another company, theres no downtime _at_all_.

Khannie

Well, thanks for the advice everyone. Seems like I have no case.

Kristok wrote:

I hope you bring this to court and the judge makes you pay esats legal fees for wasting the courts time. I wouldnt be wasting your time with esat im sure theres a wet floor in a shop somewhere you could be slipping on.

Wow, you're really clever. I hope some day the (admitted) incompetence of a company causes you to have to drive 2100Km at rush "hour" through 48 toll booths, taking over a working weeks worth of your time, all at a cost to yourself. We'll see how much on the side of the company you are at that point.

dublindude wrote:

You're never going to take BT to court.

What a totally pointless thread.

I was totally serious about taking them to court if I felt I had a case. I think you'll find that the only pointless thing in this thread is your ridiculous comment. :rolleyes:

kin9pin wrote:

Sorry about this, but are you saying you only ate lunch because you didn't have Broadband??

Haha. No.
Lunch at home is cheaper though. That wasn't really a major issue. It's more the time, stress, inconvenience and other (more measureable) costs like petrol and toll bridge that I wouldn't have otherwise had to pay. Mostly it's the stress of the extra commute. I live a long way from my company's offices. That's why I was working 2 days a week at home in the first place.

As nag correctly pointed out, I don't really give a crap about the money. What I really wanted was some broadband and I was willing to take BT to court to force the issue if I felt it would help me and others not to be lied to ("Just 7-10 more working days"). I feel like if I had just gone with eircom I would have had broadband a long time ago and none of this would have happened.

edit: I just got an apology from BT. The lady said that a "formal investigation" was under way. I wonder how much longer I'll be left.

rsynnott

I don't see what you're getting so worked up about. They seem to have acted within the terms of their contract. If you could sue a telecoms company for taking their time over something, we'd all be constantly in the courts. There's no need to be rude to other people for pointing out the silliness of your proposed lawsuit.

Khannie

rsynnott wrote:

I don't see what you're getting so worked up about.

I'm getting worked up about being told that I'd have bb within two weeks, then being left 12 weeks (so far). The result of that is (like I said) substantial extra stress, substantial lost time and lost money.

rsynnott wrote:

There's no need to be rude to other people for pointing out the silliness of your proposed lawsuit.

I think you'll find that they were rude first, and that I merely replied in kind.

All I did was ask if I had a case. You may feel that asking questions is silly, but I'm glad that I don't.

LegacyUser

Khannie wrote:

I'm getting worked up about being told that I'd have bb within two weeks, then being left 12 weeks (so far). The result of that is (like I said) substantial extra stress, substantial lost time and lost money.



I think you'll find that they were rude first, and that I merely replied in kind.

All I did was ask if I had a case. You may feel that asking questions is silly, but I'm glad that I don't.

Khannie, I know what your saying - but accept it and move on. They are a complete shower.

rsynnott

Khannie wrote:

I'm getting worked up about being told that I'd have bb within two weeks, then being left 12 weeks (so far). The result of that is (like I said) substantial extra stress, substantial lost time and lost money.

You shouldn't have made plans based on something that wasn't even vaguely guaranteed.

Khannie wrote:

I think you'll find that they were rude first, and that I merely replied in kind.

All I did was ask if I had a case. You may feel that asking questions is silly, but I'm glad that I don't.

When they're answered, no need to be rude about it. I don't see that the other posters were particularly rude, to be honest.

Khannie

rsynnott wrote:

I don't see that the other posters were particularly rude, to be honest.

Haha. I KNEW you were going to say that. I think that calling someone a liar and saying that their thread is pointless when they have asked a question is rude. People ask what you would classify as "silly" questions on the computers forum all the time and I answer them, because if you don't know, I think it's fair to ask.

I also consider the following rude on a variety of levels:

I wouldnt be wasting your time with esat im sure theres a wet floor in a shop somewhere you could be slipping on.

.

You may not feel that, but I do. We're obviously different. You clearly would have no problem waiting 12 weeks for broadband when you were repeatedly told that it would be ....sorry about that.....just 2 more....sorry about that.....just 2 more.

Let me point out that bt have formally apologised to me, so they're admitting that they have made a mistake. You obviously feel that they have acted properly since they were "within the terms of their contract". I would like to live in a world where it isn't considered acceptable to wait 12 weeks to get broadband, whether or not it's "within the terms of their contract".

Edit: And I didn't make any plans. I just had to suffer the consequences.

eth0_

Mistake? What mistake? Have they told you WHY you've been waiting? It's just as likely that it's Eircom's f*ck up that's caused this massive delay.

Are you sure she wasn't just apologising because of your long wait, not because BT are admitting liability? :-)

At the end of the day, if broadband was so important to you, you'd have cancelled with BT and gone with another ISP if BT couldn't provide you with DSL within, say, a month. That would have been the rational thing to do...

Khannie

eth0_ wrote:

Mistake? What mistake? Have they told you WHY you've been waiting? It's just as likely that it's Eircom's f*ck up that's caused this massive delay.

It's defo not eircom's fault. The order didn't actually make it to eircom (properly) until around 2 weeks ago. Like I said....the first 2 weeks of waiting was caused by them receiving, but not actually doing anything with my order.

eth0_ wrote:

At the end of the day, if broadband was so important to you, you'd have cancelled with BT and gone with another ISP if BT couldn't provide you with DSL within, say, a month. That would have been the rational thing to do...

Yeah, you're dead right. Hindsight and all that. I didn't want to jeapordise my chances of getting it as quickly as possible though. The main reason I held on was that I made a complaint after 6 weeks and got a really nice phone call from a customer service rep. He apologised and said he would look after it personally. I felt certain at that point that I would have the broadband within two weeks. That was 5 weeks and 5 days ago.