Blueface just not up to it.

dubadubdub

Is it just me or is blueface a pretty substandard operator?

I had the 6 mth package which included the ATA but the call quality was extremely variable and for the past month the number of times I can't even get a connection seems to have increased, though I've been working from home a bit more often so maybe it's just that I'm actually around to see all the times the little phone icon flashes orange on the ATA!

I hate eircom and the line rental but I need a reliable phone provider and based on my experience blueface is not the solution. Cheap should not equal half the service but in their case it does and it seems that they are getting away with it.

So I'm back with eircom and waiting for the day NTL introduce their own VOIP service - and that's going to be a long wait:(

Colm_OReilly

WARNING: This post is written in post-communication anger. There customer service definitely leaves something to be desired.

Latest incident with them:

Purchased a Netgear ATA from their site after close of business Friday, June 16th.

Monday, June 19th receive email informing me that there would be a 7 day delay due to them being out of stock. Offer to purchase another router/ATA. I'll wait, but thanks.

However, I do get charged for the purchase and delivery on Monday 19th June! That alone annoyed me.

Today, (June 27th) still no sign. Call Blueface 5x before getting through to someone. Get put through to admin. Was told they still didn't have them. Not their fault, I understand, but they felt it necessary to charge my card. I raise this point. Am told that they wouldn't do that. But according to AIB my card was charged the amount on Monday 19th, the same day I'm mailed and told there is a delay. So quite clearly they did. I get an apology and told it's unacceptable. If it's unacceptable what are you doing to rectify the situation?

I'm told that it's a three day turnaround from when Blueface receive the ATA until I get it, by courier. Now, from Dublin to Dublin by courier should take about an hour, from my experience with Cyclone that's generally how long it takes. I'm told the ATA has to be configured. I get that, but after waiting so long, and being charged, it should be made priority. And I can't see how it would take two days to configure an ATA. (If indeed it is a highly lengthly process I'd genuinely like to know). Admin didn't know how long it would take. I ask is there anything that can be done to prioritise my order and speed up the delivery, I get a reassuring "I'll see." I ask when will I find out, I'm told I'll get a call sometime today.

It appears that everytime I make a post here about them they get back to me and treat me better.

Colm

Blaster99

I ordered one of them ATA deals a while ago and it took weeks for it to arrive. Didn't overly bother me, but that's apparently the sort of turnaround time one can expect.

dubadubdub, apart from actual downtime which happens from time to time, I notice that my VoIP phones can't register when latency hits a certain threshold. Seeing as you complain about poor voice quality, could it be that you're suffering from occasional high latency? What ISP are you with?

I guess the thing with VoIP is that it's not like an eircom line that just works fine all the time. VoIP can require a lot of tweaking and often it doesn't work at all due to connection problems outside of your (and Blueface's) control.

I incidentally wouldn't rate Blueface's support all that highly but no worse than anywhere else. Some people in there don't really have a clue but you get that everywhere. Any fixes I've come up with I've researched myself.

paulm17781

I have had no real problems with my Blueface service. If my internet connection misbehaves it gets bad, obviously.

It's a pity to hear their support has gotten so bad. It used to be excellent.

TempestSabre

I'm also on the 6th month package. Call quality was poor to start with and their support didn't really improve it. I upped my NTL from 1MB to 2MB and that did help for a while. Now I find the call quality has deteriotated a lot lately. Its probably the latency of my NTL connection which has been a constant problem for me. At this point though even for social calls its just too much of pain to continue with. I could keep chasing NTL but theres no end to that battle. My phone line fails so that not a alternative for me.

Colm_OReilly

I ordered one of them ATA deals a while ago and it took weeks for it to arrive. Didn't overly bother me, but that's apparently the sort of turnaround time one can expect.

I was told before I ordered that delivery time was ~3 working days.

I incidentally wouldn't rate Blueface's support all that highly but no worse than anywhere else. Some people in there don't really have a clue but you get that everywhere.

So blueface should aim to have their support as poor as a lot of other operators? Being the same crappy level as a lot of other Customer Service departments does not make it acceptable.

I'm not saying that blueface are the only bad experience customer service wise I've had, Viking Direct were much worse.

Gavin1

I have been with Blueface since May 2005. In that time I have had 2 issues with Blueface. The first issue related to call quality and this was resolved after a day or two. The second issue related to a system upgrade on their end which botted me off their system. This happened at 10pm, I mailed tech support got a reply in 20 minutes and by the morning it had been resolved.

I did ring them two weeks ago ranting about dropping calls but this turned out to be NTL(try their customer service and see the difference)

I have nothing only praise for Blueface and my experince to date of their customer service has been excellent.

(I have to qualify the above with I have no tie to Blueface other than they my VOIP provider.)

Freddie59

dubadubdub wrote:

I've been working from home a bit more often so maybe it's just that I'm actually around to see all the times the little phone icon flashes orange on the ATA!(

I have Blueface since December 2005 and they are excellent. Couple of small issues with echo, but these were resolved. Regarding the light flashing - how do you know if your Eircom phone is on or off.....unless you pick up the handset?;)

fatherdougalmag

VOIP is an emerging technology. Blueface are one of a number of companies pioneering VOIP in Ireland. Spend some time on the broadband forum and you'll see people with fundamental broadband connectivity/billing problems. And that's with companies who have been established for many years. Until that's in order VOIP is probably really only for those who can afford to make the move/risk fulltime.

Like others the only issues I've had are with NTL - not Blueface.

Customer service has been good but, admittedly, they could become victims of their own success. As was the case with the shortage of hardware. It was clearly an unprecedented uptake that resulted in that situation (out of stock).

So you're absolutely entitled to air your experiences with BF but you'll probably find that there are a lot of us that have good experiences with BF. Until the underlying broadband infrastructure becomes stable/reliable then VOIP will probably only be a reality to a select few - or many.

Colm_OReilly

Update on my dealings with Blueface.

Got a call on Wednesday (missed) saying the package was sent and asking me to ring back if I wanted reference number - appreciated.

Got package on Thursday morning. All set up for me. Call quality excellent.

Sent email to blueface to see if there was anything else I could do to optimise quality. Got email back explaining how to ensure QoS and also a link to a test.

Downloaded tester, ran tester; was then offered to have Blueface analyse results. Got email back in 20 or so minutes (after 9pm) with analysis of results.

Nice work blueface, you stepped up your game, which is always cool.

Colm

XbLaDe

Ive been with blueface since they launched the 051 area .... about a year and half.

Very few problems, excellent support and they are more then helpful if your doing developement work with Asterisk etc ..

Most of the people I have setup voip have the odd complaint about tthe quality etc .. fact is most of the time is down to either incorrectly configured equipement or little upstream/no qos provisioning.

Solair

I have to say that I've found Blueface technical support absolutely excellent, something I certainly can't say about my ISP.

Any phone calls were answered without long hold times (20+ mins for my ISP) and emails were answered within 25 hours and I always got a totally sensible, technically accurate response not a load of customer service b/s.

Also, their Billing department proactively contacted me to tell me that I had two accounts (Free one with the ATA for IRL and a UK/IRL one that I already had previous to getting the ATA). They were extremely helpful and offered to either give me another phone number for the extra account or to keep them both on the same number etc.

My ISP caused chaos recently and disrupted my BB service due to an admin error.. i.e. UTV accidently told eircom to remove my DSL when I only wanted to get my voicemail disconnected! Anyway, I rang blueface to inform them and they setup call fowarding to my landline that will automatically happen if the DSL/VoIP is down so I never miss a call.

Other than that, I ordered my ATA on a Friday and it arrived on a Monday.

So, I really can't say they're not up to it. I've found them a hungry,enthusiastic company that seem to actually be interested in their customers.

They're an absolutely contrast to other telcos and ISPs I've dealt with and I don't feel that, given my personal experience, that the above comments are fair or reprsentative of most people's experience of blueface.