Stuck in Limbo between eircom and Smart

Solair

I'm in a bit of a nightmareish limbo between eircom and Smart Telecom.

Basically the story so far:

Order submitted: 31/01/2006
Stage 1 Reached : 02/02/2006
Stage 2 Reached : 08/02/2006
Stage 3 Reached : 08/02/2006
Modem dispatched and received OK

Customer care advised me of eircom ETA of 21/02/2006.
Nothing happened.
Rang customer care every day for updates.
Nothing happened.
Then informed of new connection date 10/03/2006 !
This has now passed and nothing has happened.

Rang today and was told there was a message from eircom that they had tried to contact me on 3 occasions and I hadn't answered. So, they abandoned / canceled my order!
Checked Caller ID log: no calls from unrecognised / private numbers
Checked voicemail: no messages from eircom.

Rang eircom customer care: checked if they had a mobile number on file for me, they do and it is correct.

Rang eircom customer care (complaints) 1-800-671444. Was transfered to wholesale and then to some other nameless department. Was advised that, yes indeed they had phoned me and that I didn't answer so smart would now need to re-submit the order!

I sent eircom a long formal complaint by email which they have given me a receipt for. I've also CC'd this to smart telecom c/care for the record.
In the email I basically outlined my frustration and disappointment with their quality of service and advised that I expected a rapid resolution of this situation or I will be taking the issue to ComReg, Minister for Communication's office, the media etc etc.

I really don't have the time / patience for this kind of utter nonsense. They need to get their act together. It's ridiculous to cancel an order because I didn't answer the phone!

I am at my witts end at this stage.

Should I just abandon the whole thing and forget it?

I checked the line with eircom's own line checker before ordering smart telecom broadband, to make sure that the physical wires would support DSL ok. It passed with flying colours. I can't understand why eircom needed to ring me so urgently that it would impact upon my order!?


I've also posted this message in Smart Telecom's own help forums.
To be fair to smart, they've answered all of my questions. The entire problem seems to be on eircom's side.

Any ideas?

Location : Dublin 4 - Beggar's Bush Exchange. Within a stones throw of it. I now feel like throwing stones at it! Or possibly rocks!

Sponge Bob

But Solair, unless you had an existing BB service , or Phonewatch, on your line after the order date then eircom had NO BUSINESS with you and should have processed the order they got from Smart.

Can you clarify that for us and clarify why they said they felt they had to contact you .

I'll wager they did so while they knew you were out working too

When contacting you did they ever, or could they , leave a voicemail or did the caller ID of a number that you could ring and get thru to a specific person on ....and not a munged 1800 code... appear on your caller ID unit.

Solair

There's absolutely no explanation whatsoever as to why they felt the sudden urge to call me. I have now diverted my calls to my mobile, so there is no excuse if they attempt this one again.

Incidently, they also cancelled my voicemail for no apparent reason.

I rang ComReg - got no where, but they were very nice.. although that's not really much use.

Rang the Dept of Communications and got blunt honesty that I was totally shocked at. Basically, they outlined that they were very unhappy with the current situation and that eircom was behaving in a very self-serving way, as they are entitled to do as a private company...

Anyway, I'm hoping my formal letter of complaint gets somewhere.

Sponge Bob

So eircom had no reason to ring you but rang you to get an excuse to delay your LLU because Comreg accept this bull**** as part of one of their interminable processes that they pull out of their holes rather than do anything useful .

Send Comreg an email tonight , cc phil.nolan@eircom.ie telling then you want functioning LLU by close of business on the 16th or you will take Eircom and their collobarators in Comreg to the EU Competition Commissioner and Information Society commissioner .

Do so even if fingers are pulled out by the 16th. Bastards.

If Comreg tolerates these frivolous excuses from eircom like ' oh we rang you about emm umm nothing but we rang you ' then LLU and every other form of competition is ****ed from a height.

Solair

I just sent him a copy of my letter to eircom outlining the problem and backed it up with a threat of creating as big a PR stink as I can muster.

Solair

I got a reply from his office. Seems it's being taken rather seriously.
Shouldn't have to resort to this kind of stuff to get something simple like LLU organised in an exchange that's definitely got the Smart equipment installed already. I mean, I can't imagine the technical staff are snowed under with LLU applications to be quite honest. Most people are still going bit stream.