Ok Fellas...Whats the Knock on UTV Phone and Internet???

IT Loser

Now that the great news of my phone line being BB enabled has broken, I've been having a look around. The word is that Imagine are Kings of Hidden Costs, BT are the reliable Norman Norm and that Eircom are everybodies worst friend.

So.....I'm looking at UTV and they are offering phone and internet! Has anybody used these guys, are they as good as they make out.

Thanks.

byte

AFAIK, UTV Internet are very strict on their caps though, and do charge for exceeding the cap.

BT are known for their poor accounts dept. Have you checked out Digiweb. Just note that their cap is total uploaded as well as downloaded data.

rymus

If you'd been reading the broadband forum for the past few weeks, you'd know UTV are the one ISP you dont want to sign up to. They are now considered lower than Eircom. BT may have the billing dept. from hell, but that's where all the UTV customers are heading, inlcuding myself.

cgarvey

Moved IoffL > BB .. for better response

fdevine

I had a dial-up account with utv for ages.

What I found/find good, that alot of people dont seem to consider, is that with the UTVTalk option, all your weekend and evening calls are free.

Our eircom bill is now generally just for the line rental. So our phone bill has been reduced to half what it was before.

I am now on 2Mb Clicksilver including UTVTalk (€29.99 p.m.), and I would imagine if I dont go mad downloading/file sharing or gaming, my 12Gb cap should be fine.

The option is there to have the cap removed (terms apply) for an extra €5.99 p.m.

bk

fdevine wrote:

I had a dial-up account with utv for ages.

What I found/find good, that alot of people dont seem to consider, is that with the UTVTalk option, all your weekend and evening calls are free.

UTV 2m €30 + UTV Talk (includes line rental) €24 = €54

A better option is:

BT 2m + Line Rental = €40 + Blueface VoIP €15 = €55

The Blueface VoIP gives you free local and national calls at anytime of the day, inlcuding peak times, so better then UTV Talk. Plus you get the much better cap from BT.

paulm17781

I would even think BT without Blueface would work out cheaper (for most) than Utv including free calls.

audizerstoren

Stay well away from that shower in UTV....Their idea of customer service is to deny responsibility for any problems, deny that you have any rights to good service, deny that complaints have been made unless ,you specify in large letters that it is a complaint ,and even then to ignore all complaints once made !!!

I have spoken to them god knows how many times about the 8 month delay in switching my line rental which they persisitantly blamed on Eircom.They then switched but turned off my internet as the dial up # is " not compatible"
..though this does not appear anywhere in their brochures or contract...most phone calls and emails have been left unanswered. They temporarily gave dialup access while issue was supposedly being sorted... promised to be free of charge. Yet another broken promise! They attempted to collect direct debit overcharging despite being notified and despite yet another promise that they would only collect the corrected amount.

This one will be taken a hell of a lot further, if for nothing else to show the arrogant ignorant sods up there that they cant get away with it!!! I can see from other postings that COMREG arn't the best...but I am like a dog with a bone...won't let go until dead!!!!


STAY WELL CLEAR OF THEM!!!!!!

dub45

I can vouch for the fact that UTV have complete and utter contempt for anyone trying to get money back from them that was wrongly debited in the first place.

In spite of the fact that I emailed them in advance they went ahead and debited me - trying to then get anyone with any degree of responsibility to actually talk to is an incredible experience - i spoke to a girl who told me it was Monday so all the managers are at meetings - I pointed out to her that it was actually Thursday whereupon she replied well its Monday for me cos I was on three day's holidays. When I then reminded her about the Monday meetings not actually being on she told me it did not matter they were still at meetings - she also told me it was Eircom's fault that I had been billed and debited!!!!

I think its a mantra on the walls up there - blame Eircom -blame Eircom - blame Eircom........

dub45

paulm17781 wrote:

I would even think BT without Blueface would work out cheaper (for most) than Utv including free calls.

However the Billing Torment crowd become incredibly expensive in time trouble and stress if the billing goes wrong for you.

No company who knowlingly operates with such a dreadful and manifestly incompetent billing department (and who has done so for so long) and knowlingly causes so much stress etc etc to customers deserves a recommendation

_Kaiser_

Have a read of the latest thread on this here

parsi

As a matter of interest I'm fighting with UTV over direct debits applied after I had finsihed with them.

One of my issues was that I didn't get the 14 days notice specified here http://www.ipso.ie/frames/documents/OriginatorsDay-to-Dayfinal_001.pdf - they claim its only 7 days.

They also claimed that they weren't aware of my voice telephony being moved (by magic).

However they did give a very clear response to my email. Of course my email was a copy of a letter which I mailed them and my bank revoking my DD authority and stating why.

So it may be that if you have issues with them revoke your DD and make sure that they and the bank know why...

dub45

parsi wrote:

As a matter of interest I'm fighting with UTV over direct debits applied after I had finsihed with them.

One of my issues was that I didn't get the 14 days notice specified here http://www.ipso.ie/frames/documents/OriginatorsDay-to-Dayfinal_001.pdf - they claim its only 7 days.

They also claimed that they weren't aware of my voice telephony being moved (by magic).

However they did give a very clear response to my email. Of course my email was a copy of a letter which I mailed them and my bank revoking my DD authority and stating why.

So it may be that if you have issues with them revoke your DD and make sure that they and the bank know why...

If they do not know about it that is not an excuse its incompetence - but it does seem incredible if not surprising that a billing department is not very very familiar with the requirements of the direct debit scheme.

Which brings me back to the very annoying thing about this whole direct debit system - a company can do what it bloodywell likes and there is no sanction whatsover open to the customer.

Your situation again illustrates though that UTV have complete contempt for their customers when it comes to answering emails and dealing with refunds etc.

secret_squirrel

I'm with UTV and have had no problems. They switched my account fairly handily and handled the line rental transfer a couple of months later (which I was expecting)

The only thing i didnt realise when signing up is that they charge a cancellation fee, of €40 or thereabouts.

I should also mention I was previously with BT and had no problems with them too.

The free Ireland and UK calls swing it for me.

dub45

secret_squirrel wrote:

I'm with UTV and have had no problems. They switched my account fairly handily and handled the line rental transfer a couple of months later (which I was expecting)

The only thing i didnt realise when signing up is that they charge a cancellation fee, of €40 or thereabouts.

I should also mention I was previously with BT and had no problems with them too.

The free Ireland and UK calls swing it for me.

With that sort of luck you should definitely buy a lottery ticket!:)

tom_ass19

bk wrote:

UTV 2m €30 + UTV Talk (includes line rental) €24 = €54

A better option is:

BT 2m + Line Rental = €40 + Blueface VoIP €15 = €55

The Blueface VoIP gives you free local and national calls at anytime of the day, inlcuding peak times, so better then UTV Talk. Plus you get the much better cap from BT.

is their any contract, is it 6month or 12month

secret_squirrel

bk wrote:

UTV 2m €30 + UTV Talk (includes line rental) €24 = €54

A better option is:

BT 2m + Line Rental = €40 + Blueface VoIP €15 = €55

The Blueface VoIP gives you free local and national calls at anytime of the day, inlcuding peak times, so better then UTV Talk. Plus you get the much better cap from BT.

Only 1 free UK call a month on UTV would swing it the other way.

ardmacha

Only 1 free UK call a month on UTV would swing it the other way.

only off-peak calls are free and these could be made cheaply using Telestunt or similar, so one call a month would hardly swing it.

parsi

When I was deciding to move I totted up my UTV calls and compared them to the rates on BT. I was paying UTV approx eur14 for my "free" calls but if they were billed they would (on average) come to around eur5-6 per month.

So that clinched it for me. I signed up to Smart076 after moving to BT and am happy with the service.

parsi

To add insult to injury I received a bill tonight for May despite the fact that UTV accept that I finished with them in March ! Thankfully I wrote to the bank a few weeks ago (and UTV) cancelling my direct debit...

BOHSBOHS

utv are trying to bill me for february march and april
even though they had disconnected me for most of this period....

and they have been threatening my mother with "blacklisting" and debt collectors .......

they expect us to pay for a service not provided ?:eek:

their support department has been ignoring me
and they seem to be refusing to transfer me to BT !!!!!!

i cancelled my DDebit to prevent them from continual "ADvance charging" after cancellation and also from charging "cancellation fees" where none should apply like what happened to my friends.

PcP

BOHSBOHS wrote:

and they seem to be refusing to transfer me to BT !!!!!!

They held my port open from February until a couple of weeks ago. You should report it to ComReg, they don't have the power they need to force UTV to release it but at least it will be documented.
I called UTV three weeks ago yesterday and told them I was starting legal action to force them to release my line (ComReg had told me that morning that it was the only option left). I got a callback from UTV that evening saying they would look into it, the open status was removed from my line on the Wednesday morning and I was up and running on BT on the Friday morning.

dub45

BOHSBOHS wrote:

utv are trying to bill me for february march and april
even though they had disconnected me for most of this period....

and they have been threatening my mother with "blacklisting" and debt collectors .......

they expect us to pay for a service not provided ?:eek:

their support department has been ignoring me
and they seem to be refusing to transfer me to BT !!!!!!

i cancelled my DDebit to prevent them from continual "ADvance charging" after cancellation and also from charging "cancellation fees" where none should apply like what happened to my friends.

It would help people to offer suggestions if you could post a coherent account of what exactly has transpired between your goodself and those nice people in UTV which has lead to this unpleasant impasse.

BOHSBOHS

i will provide full details soon dub45!

im currently doing my final exams so will get this mess sorted after

needless to say if a question comes up on extortion ill have plenty of material

parsi

parsi wrote:

To add insult to injury I received a bill tonight for May despite the fact that UTV accept that I finished with them in March ! Thankfully I wrote to the bank a few weeks ago (and UTV) cancelling my direct debit...

And the plot thickens. It turns out that despite being requested to hand over the line by BT in March UTV are still holding it. So I am paying them rental and BT are charging me the full whack for broadband so I'm missing out on the combined benefit of BB OPtion 2 for eur40 per month. BT suggested I go to Comreg. How will the ordinary punter ever benefit from competition if this is the hassle that happens ?

On the plus side the BT guy did confirm (without prompting) that they have creited my bill with the install charge they had debited last time...

iggyman

and if you game online...i strongly recommend you not to go with them..you get ping spikes every 30 seconds or so..and its impossible to play ..im with them now..and i am looking to move to irishbroadband during the summer..

secret_squirrel

iggyman wrote:

irishbroadband

I think the complaint threads on boards for UTV, BT and Eircom combined dont even come close to the IBB complaints!

pjproby

i cancelled the line completely with utv at least 2 months ago now-just noticed that they took a direct debit for april and they emailed the invoice today.