Are Eircom the fastest to get broadband up and running?

Thorbar

I'm moving into a new apartement and I want to get broadband. Amazingly Eircom got the line connected in less than a week. I rang them last Thursday told them my address and that although the apartement had never had a phone line installed it had sockets. The pleb in sales told me 1st of June before they could sort it. We rang on Monday to confirm this and they than said 15th of May. Then around a hour later a tech rang back to say they'd do it tomorrow and lo and behold he arrived on time and had it going in a hour or so.

Anyway now that I have a fresh virginal phone line I'm wondering who I'll go on broadband. The prices are close enough between Eircom, BT, Smart and Magnet that I'm willing to go with any of them.

BT is out as I've had them for the last year in my current apartement and due to their awful service I just don't trust them.

I'm drawn to Eircom after they were so quick to set up the phone and I feel they'll be the quickest to get the broadband up and running.

Smart look the cheapest but for some reason I feel they'll take longer to get me set up and I'll be stuck on dial up for a month or two.

Magnet again are tempting but I'm not sure how long they'll take to get going. Also its annoying how they split their prices on the web page to exclude line rental making them look a lot cheaper. Any company willing to stoop to such cheap parlor tricks will probably stab me in the back at some stage.

I'm sorry if there's been a 100 posts covering this exact same topic already, I've had a search but couldn't find anything directly related or recent but I could just be using the wrong strings. Anyone's experience with any of the above mentioned companies in Dublin city center when getting broadband installed or any advice on which to go for would really be appreciated. I want to make this discision quick to cut down on the amount of time I'll be waiting for it but I don't want to get stuck with a ball and chain again like BT.

Sponge Bob

actually NTL and and Clearwire are normally the fastest .

zuma

Go with Smart.

Eircom will scew you around for a month but its worth it!

Short term loss....long term gain!!!

DemonOfTheFall

If you can get NTL in your area I'm sure they would be. We called on a monday afternoon and had it up and running before 9 on thursday morning.

dub45

If you are already committed to paying line rental then Smart is by far your cheapest option even on the basic 29.99 a month sevice with Eircom you will pay in total approx 54.50 a month whereas with Smart you will pay 35 euros - are you in that much of a hurry?

Blaster99

If you want eircom flavoured ADSL and don't want to deal with BT, then Digiweb is probably a decent alternative. They're a good bit cheaper than eircom the last time I looked. eircom does most of the work regardless, so the time to service should be about the same even though in my experience they prioritise their own retail orders.

If you can get Smart I would take the pain of waiting for a while, though, as they're so much cheaper than any eircom alternative and you've access to a much better range of products.

Thorbar

Unfortunately Digiweb aren't live in my area, and NTL don't do broadband on our street either. They're claiming to have all areas live by the end of the year according to one of their sales girls. Funny that I remember hearing the exact same thing last year. Anyway do Eircom not include their line rental prices in their broadband prices? The fecking cheek, what happened to that funny old consumer law that you have to display a complete price to customers?

Looks like its smart and dial up in the mean time, thanks for all the help lads.

dub45

Thorbar wrote:

Unfortunately Digiweb aren't live in my area, and NTL don't do broadband on our street either. They're claiming to have all areas live by the end of the year according to one of their sales girls. Funny that I remember hearing the exact same thing last year. Anyway do Eircom not include their line rental prices in their broadband prices? The fecking cheek, what happened to that funny old consumer law that you have to display a complete price to customers?

Looks like its smart and dial up in the mean time, thanks for all the help lads.

whatever their faults may be Eircom do not make any pretense that their bb products include line rental. And as for that funnly old consumer law dont think the one you are thinking of was ever there after all bb and line renal are two completely differnet services.

incisor71

The day my line finally passed for broadband, I ordered Eircom Home Plus that same morning (a Wednesday morning). By the following Tuesday, the router package had arrived, so I plugged it in that evening. DSL signal was on the line and everything was pre-configured. Happy days. This contrasts sharply to BT Ireland losing my order a couple of times, eventually connecting me 5 weeks after the initial order.

I know I pay line rental on top of my current subscription, but I'd rather that than a repeat scenario of the time lost and the immense frustration resulting from having one company blame the other for the lack of order progression.

MunsterCycling

dub45 wrote:

whatever their faults may be Eircom do not make any pretense that their bb products include line rental. And as for that funnly old consumer law dont think the one you are thinking of was ever there after all bb and line renal are two completely differnet services.

Sorry there dub45, but when you can get BB from eircom and not pay them a line rental charge then thay will be different services, seeing as BB is tied by having to have a line then the inclusive price of the BB service should be advertised as such, if we didn't have such a lame duck government minister in this area then maybe something would be done but that will never happen as long as the failures are in office.

dub45

MunsterCycling wrote:

Sorry there dub45, but when you can get BB from eircom and not pay them a line rental charge then thay will be different services, seeing as BB is tied by having to have a line then the inclusive price of the BB service should be advertised as such, if we didn't have such a lame duck government minister in this area then maybe something would be done but that will never happen as long as the failures are in office.

I must say I dont agree with you at all on that Munster. Dsl is a product you can get when you have a line its as simple as that. For instance you cant watch television without having a tv and a tv license does that mean NTL or Sky should include the cost of a tv and a tv license in their advertising?

Do NTL include the cost of their basic package in their bb advertising?

Do car sellers include insurance and road tax in the price of their cars.

And should the manufacturer of every product that requires electricity factor in the that cost when advertising their goods?

Eircom do not attempt to deceeive a bb purchaser so I cannot see how you can criticise them on this one.

Thorbar

I would agree with Munster based upon the fact when I first looked at Eircom Broadband site I thought their prices were lower than everyone else so I was going to go with them. I was completely misled by their advertising and therefore I consider it both unfair and dangerous. This sort of thing really confuses me, why do companys persue such underhand tactics, whenever I see a company trying something like this I lose all trust in them and avoid dealing with them if at all possible.

Sponge Bob

Thorbar wrote:

why do companys persue such underhand tactics

LOL , its eircom innit. They trained a poodle called Comreg to pretend to regulate them years ago.

go with Digiweb DSL .

dub45

Thorbar wrote:

I would agree with Munster based upon the fact when I first looked at Eircom Broadband site I thought their prices were lower than everyone else so I was going to go with them. I was completely misled by their advertising and therefore I consider it both unfair and dangerous. This sort of thing really confuses me, why do companys persue such underhand tactics, whenever I see a company trying something like this I lose all trust in them and avoid dealing with them if at all possible.

It is not easy to have sympathy for Eircom but in this case I do - I really dont know how you can be a regular on boards and not be aware that Eircom are not cheap for bb - their priciing is a boards obsession to say the least and neither UTV nor Digiweb include line rental in their on line bb advertising nor do NTL include the price of their basic package which is mandatory if you want their bb product.

http://u.tv/utvclicksilver/

http://www.digiweb.ie/athome_broadband_dsl_index.asp?i=1&i2=4&i6=34

http://www.ntl.com/locales/ie/en/athome/internet_cable.html