Eircom vs Esat BT

Phester

Hi people. I know this was addressed some time ago before the offers came into effect.

I am looking to fianlly get broadband and now I'm unsure which package is better.
Esat option 2
€30 per month
2Meg
Download limit of 20GB per month
Wireless modem upgrade €40
connection fee €40
Six month minimum term

Eircom comparitable product
FREE Netopia wi-fi modem.
FREE eircom broadband guardian.
€39.99 per month
Free at the moment Once-off connection €29.99
2Meg
Monthly megabyte allowance: 20 GB download and unlimited upload.

So I would like the wifi option. And budgeting for 6months eircom are cheaper. Esat only become cheaper after month 8. At which time I am guessign there will be more compitition in the market. Any views

Should I condider the cap on esat 20gig total vs eircoms unlimited Up. or does this have little effect for ordinary surfers. with maybe alittle bit torrent.

kaizersoze

You seem to be forgetting the line rental side of things or have you a reason for leaving it out?
BT option 2 including line rental is €40p/m
The eircom equivilant is €39.99 plus line rental (€24.18) = €64.17p/m

viking

kaizersoze wrote:

BT option 2 including line rental is €40p/m
The eircom equivilant is €39.99 plus line rental (€24.18) = €64.17p/m

Seems to be pretty obvious as to whats the better value. BT must be selling BB at cost or at a loss.

Can anyone tell me if there is an operator other than eircom that will provide BB to you without requiring you to change your voice calls to them?

zuma

Phester wrote:

So I would like the wifi option. And budgeting for 6months eircom are cheaper. Esat only become cheaper after month 8. At which time I am guessign there will be more compitition in the market. Any views

Should I condider the cap on esat 20gig total vs eircoms unlimited Up. or does this have little effect for ordinary surfers. with maybe alittle bit torrent.

BT's CAP is 20GB download and another 20Gb for upload!

Where do you think this competition will come from in 1 years time anyway....comreg are incompetent and eircom have a very good legal department that can freeze LLU for years and years to come!!!

kco3d

Is it possible to pay the €40 per month for bb/line rental and then change telephone provider to smart, paying cost of calls to smart and line rental to bt??

If you opt for the extra €10 line rental do you have to stick with bt's telphone service.

kaizersoze

kco3d wrote:

Is it possible to pay the €40 per month for bb/line rental and then change telephone provider to smart, paying cost of calls to smart and line rental to bt??

If you opt for the extra €10 line rental do you have to stick with bt's telphone service.

Not that I know of. If you take the discounted line rental from BT you have to take the calls aswell. You can of course take the BB and have your calls and rental with who ever you like.

mayotom

I use Cinergi Broadband.
€15:99
1MB
5GB download alowance

The next one up I think is
€24:99
2MB
10GB Download
.

red dave

zuma wrote:

BT's CAP is 20GB download and another 20Gb for upload

my understanding is that it's 20GB for both inclusive not 20GB each. For last month with little or no downloading and hardly any time spent online I reeached 7GB so BT's cap (if your planning to download a bit) will be easily exceeded

viking

Can't seem to access Cinergi.ie, working for anyone else?

mayotom

viking wrote:

Can't seem to access Cinergi.ie, working for anyone else?

It appears to be down at the moment.,
I have a pdf file of all the details if anybody wants me to mail it to them





www.cinergi.ie/

Phester

Ya I left out the line rental inclusive because the parents refuse to use that route. So I want to have the bill seperate. Had a bad experience with esat BT in the past with a dead line from time to time and the phone not ringing in the house even thought the caller was getting a ring tone. I know this was a while back when eircom (may) have been screwing up your line to hamper the competition.

kaizersoze

red dave wrote:

my understanding is that it's 20GB for both inclusive not 20GB each. For last month with little or no downloading and hardly any time spent online I reeached 7GB so BT's cap (if your planning to download a bit) will be easily exceeded

Your understanding is incorrect:p .
From the BT website:

Question: [FONT=Arial, Helvetica]With Broadband Plus is there going to be a data transfer limit?[/FONT] Answer:
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica]You are entitled to a free transfer limit of up to 30 Gigabytes of data in any given month.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica]If you go over this generous limit then we reserve the right to charge you for any additional data (at 3cent inc VAT per MB).[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica]You will be entitled to use 30GB in either direction without penalty. i.e. you can upload 30GB and download 30GB in the same month without penalty. However if you upload 4GB and download 31GB then your account will be suspended.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica]This data allowance is calculated at the end of every 24 hrs and if you are consistently above this amount we reserve the right to suspend or permanently disconnect your account during the first month you go over it.[/FONT]

Gurgle

mayotom wrote:

I use Cinergi Broadband.
€15:99
1MB
5GB download alowance

If you have a fixed phone line then BT is essentially the same price at €15.84 for 2Mb with 20GB limit.

Sapele

My opinion would be to stay well clear of Esat BT. They still owe me nearly 600 euro after billing my credit card and taking the money from my Direct Debit. They are a complete nightmare to deal with; I've never experienced anything like them..... avoid them at all costs, they are a bad company!! :eek:

Phester

I have heard of people having a bad time with accounts in Esat. I am wondering is the only way to get broadband off them to get a Direct debit or can you pay by laser so something. I know that the line rental + braodband has to be paid by DD but im not sure about broad band only?

Has anyone actually solved the incorrect billing issue with esat. Are they impossible to deal with?

mayotom

Phester wrote:

I have heard of people having a bad time with accounts in Esat. I am wondering is the only way to get broadband off them to get a Direct debit or can you pay by laser so something. I know that the line rental + braodband has to be paid by DD but im not sure about broad band only?

Has anyone actually solved the incorrect billing issue with esat. Are they impossible to deal with?

Had a problems with them last year. they are imposible to get through to. stay on hold for half an hour then get put through to a voicemail. and never get called back. you have to call from your home phone before 6pm( I think they go home at 4 or 5 nobody ever answers)
Who's home at that time

DonkeyStyle \o/

mayotom wrote:

Had a problems with them last year. they are imposible to get through to. stay on hold for half an hour then get put through to a voicemail. and never get called back. you have to call from your home phone before 6pm( I think they go home at 4 or 5 nobody ever answers)
Who's home at that time

Yep, lazy shower of **** the lot of them.
They like to waffle on about how great their cusomer service is, but in my experience it has been nothing short of dire.

edanto

Sapele, what happened with BT? Did they take e600 from your credit card/account before the first bill even arrived?
I'm comparing Eircom and BT at the moment (only two providers) and if I knew a bit more about what you went through, that might swing the decision.
cheers

@Phester - I asked them this morning if it is possible to pay by cheque etc and they can only process an order with cc or dd.

the gobbler

the owe me 200 euro still, we are back with eircom since november, and the still charge me for broadband..they agreed a refund at the start of january, i am still being billed,,i called up 3 times in the last month,each time they said there was a problem with the refund,so they resubmitted it..i called back yesterday and there was another problem,the line was still not cancelled and refund error again...i am being so patient with them..i dunno why,this has been going on since the end of july..so my advice as i give to everyone...stay well away from BT,check any of my posts for the complete painful details..it has been a nightmare. i just want to get on with my life and not be calling them every week,stressin' me out BIG time. i really can't understand why people still consider BT after reading all these boards..maybe it's the price??? maybe they think 'well, that won't happen to me',thats what i thought,,so please for the love of god...BT NO!,,pick someone else...magnet/NTL/Digiweb/Eircom/UTV,,,take peoples advice on board here,,no IBB or BT.

Gurgle

Phester wrote:

Has anyone actually solved the incorrect billing issue with esat. Are they impossible to deal with?

Yep, I got mine sorted out - It took 4 months though and a lot of time on the phone.

Sapele

edanto, I was going to copy and paste one of my last posts on the board but you should find what happened on this page near the bottom:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=303618&page=5

What’s happened since that post; I contacted Comreg about the case, who said they would contact BT on my behalf. Within a few days of doing this I got a letter from BT, telling me the case would be investigated. A few days later I got an email telling me the payment had at last been found (wow) and my account had been credited.

I told them the money must be returned to me and that I was not using the BT broadband after this month, as im paid up until Mar 24th. They have told me a cheque will be issued to me and that I will get it within 10 working days.

Right, my observations on it; BT only bothered when comreg contacted them, they never once returned several promised callbacks to me. It is impossible to contact the person in complaints or payment trace who is dealing with it. They don't answer emails. The numbers they give out go constantly to voicemail. In fact, the letter I received from BT when comreg contacted them is signed by one person who says I should contact her if I have any questions. The number she gives me is not her number, when I ring the number it goes straight to the voicemail of another BT complaints officer. They are unbelievable. I have told them that I want the interest that the €563 would have been earning in my account covered, they told me they won't do that. Until I receive the cheque I wont believe it. When I log in to view my bill online, my bill STILL says I owe BT €818. But when I talk to a 1904 operator they tell me my account is in credit of €563. They haven’t a clue what they’re doing, or either they are criminally insane. I've asked them to correct this about 15 times.. Dear oh dear, avoid them like you would H5N1....

I'm usually a very mild mannered person, ive been shocked by BT's attitude.

Since I’ve now being looking out for BT issues, I have read on a number of occasions that BT will continue to bill you by DD even when you have cancelled the service. I asked my bank about this and they said it is possible for companies to put through a DD payment as a first payment, but a letter cancelling the DD to the bank should cover you, and the bank can then cancel the payment or even pull the money back if they manage to take it from your account.

What ever you decide good luck, just be warned ... in my opinion esatBT are a bad company

edanto

Wow - what a shower of bas***ds. Thing is, I'm between them and Eircom and we have had awful trouble with Eircom over the years (once we were charged for several calls that had apparently been made at the exact same time) and there's a big difference in price for the cheapest BB package.

I wish I didn't have to pick one of them, but because of where mum's house is, that's the choice.

I think I'll make the leap with BT - keeping a good record of everyone that I talk to and checking that the bills go out every month. If they miss a beat, I'll ignore the email/ticket system (they seem to as well) and go for the jugular (politely of course).

I just hope taking this risk is worth the e20 saving a month. But I feel well warned and I'm pretty sure I can handle them.

Good luck in the small claims court if you decide to go, all you need do is fill out the form and present the correspondence - they probably won't even show up.

the gobbler

edanto...it is up to you at the end of the day what you want to do.
Personally, if i knew what i knew now,i would happily pay the extra 20euro a month, and am doing so with eircom,there has not been a hiccup since we went back to eircom..all billing correct and present which is a huge load off my mind,,,although eircom is a rip off..they are still better than that shower of knobends at BT.

Wickerman1

Both of them are a shower of w**kers. But you could be lucky. A friend of mine got connected to Esat within a week, no hassle. I have been trying to sign up to Esat for 3 weeks so far and still have not received anything.
The level of Customer Service and Tech Support is poor in both, but you must bear in mind, these people are in low paid un-rewarding jobs and are put in the front line to take the bullets for crap senior management b*strd’s who have no idea of their customers needs nor care as long as the bucks are flowing in.

I think Esat is the better of both evils. Eircom are just a complete pack of thieving B*strds with a dismal uncaring service.
Even in this day and age they are blatantly ripping off their customers with overpriced phone charges and a broadband service inferior to all their competitors.
The end is nigh! Eircom RIP

Phester

But if I am only getting broadband. Is it not possible to instruct my bank to only allow x amount out of my account per month. That way they cant take out more than they are supposed to?

Gurgle

Phester wrote:

But if I am only getting broadband. Is it not possible to instruct my bank to only allow x amount out of my account per month. That way they cant take out more than they are supposed to?

They don't do the broadband deal unless you're getting calls through them as well.

kaizersoze

Gurgle wrote:

They don't do the broadband deal unless you're getting calls through them as well.

Yes they do. You can take BB on it's own without calls or line rental. If you take their BB and line rental bundle then you must take calls aswell.

Gurgle

kaizersoze wrote:

If you take their BB and line rental bundle then you must take calls aswell.

Yeah, thats what I was talking about.
Thats the cheap deal.

Sapele

Phester wrote:

But if I am only getting broadband. Is it not possible to instruct my bank to only allow x amount out of my account per month. That way they cant take out more than they are supposed to?

I believe giving esatBT access to your current account is dangerous. If your billing goes wrong (unfortunately this happens quite a lot) be prepared for a major headache at the very least trying to get it sorted out.

This represents you when you find your billing is wrong again :eek:
This is the billing rep you talk to
This is you for the remainder of your time with esat :mad:

Well it happened to me, don't discount it happening to you 2 !!

thebeast

Esat BT's customer service and billing are an absolute disgrace. They clearly don't give a flying f* about their customers. Avoid them at all costs. It took 4 months to get BB set up, another 3 months to get the first bill which was wrong. The bill you 2 months in advance and insist on a 150 eur deposit with no t&c's. Useless shower of w*ers. Comreg would close them down if they had any balls.

god's toy

Gurgle wrote:

Yeah, thats what I was talking about.
Thats the cheap deal.

I suggest you read up on that... you are wrong.

philologos

viking wrote:

Seems to be pretty obvious as to whats the better value. BT must be selling BB at cost or at a loss.

I doubt it very much, things are cheaper when you rent in bulk...
so therefore they must be getting it at a reasonably cheap price

kaizersoze

god's toy wrote:

I suggest you read up on that... you are wrong.

Blank statements like that aren't much help to the discussion. Please elaborate.

federerfan

Eircom:
Pseudo state organization. Actually private company used to rip off the Irish public several times. Staffed by middle aged women.

Esat:
Pseudo sleek and cool organization. Actually completely overwhelmed by demand. Unable to cope. Staffed by incompetents.


All of above learned by personal experience..


YOU CHOOSE

muffler

Im with BtIreland (esat/bt) and find the prices great but as everyone else has said the billing and customer care is nothing short of criminal. The lions share of the problems all seem to be with new customers so if you are prepared to ride the storm then go for it.

I had several problems with them in the past and had to go to Comreg on one occasion and it was resolved almost instantly. On another occasion when I contacted them about a particular bill I got this guy who told me that he could not answer my query as he did not have permission to access my account. Unbelievable!!! After a bit of sweet talking he eventually confirmed that he was student doing part time work. This is the type of people who are supposed to help you in the evenings and at weekends.

The only thing I can say in their defence is that they have given me quite a lot of hours free on the old BB. I think I have received about 3 or 4 different 2 monthly periods of free broadband as "a gesture of good will"

kaizersoze

I haven't had a problem with BT at all. Billing is spot on, connection solid and CS helpful and pleasant.

philologos

kaizersoze wrote:

I haven't had a problem with BT at all. Billing is spot on, connection solid and CS helpful and pleasant.

likewise but maybe that was because i subscribed in summer 2003 nearly at the start of the broadband rollout

Gurgle

god's toy wrote:

I suggest you read up on that... you are wrong.

Excellent, a helpful and informative post.
Thank you for taking the time to correct my misconceptions and misreading of Esat's website.

Willymuncher

I'm another one of those customers who has never had a billing issue, I hope you're lucky enough to be the same.

rsynnott

mayotom wrote:

It appears to be down at the moment.,
I have a pdf file of all the details if anybody wants me to mail it to them





www.cinergi.ie/

Not really the best sign, is it?