Fastnet / Zone Broadband - Don't bother...

fastnetnomore

I've been a Fastnet customer for about 8 months now and as soon as I can get an alternative broadband service I'll be switching. I've been back on dial up for the last week because Fastnet's satellite is 'down'.....here's a run down of what we've experienced in Julianstown

Service goes down intermittently.......can be gone for 1 hour...or 1 day...depends on the circumstances...this is a regular occurance and you can't get a straight answer from anyone.

When it does go down..... up until recently you couldn't actually reach a live person...:mad: and if you did you were promised a call back as soon as they figured out the problem......never got a call back. Turns out the problem is that they only have ONE techie in IRELAND !!!!!!!

Then we get a lovely email from the Chairman of Fastnet that they have solved the problems...thank you for your patience...etc etc...and here's a number you can call night or day if you have any issues. Within a week of this email our service was down....we call the number given and we end up talking to someone in LONDON !! Who says "looks fine from here.....sorry can't help you"

When our service went down last week here's how it went.

Day 1 - Call customer service and we're told....we'll get back to you.....no call back.
Day 2 - Call the Chairman.....seems the technician will be out to Julianstown to fix the box on the Old Mill some time today.
Day 3 - Call customer service - "no it's not the ariel it's the satellite in France and unfortunately it's a public holiday today so there's nothing we can do"
Day 4...Call Chairman again....still seems to think it's a problem with our connection....even though tech support have a different story....
Day 5...Call Customer service ...."we'll have it fixed tomorrow"
Day 6 - Call Customer service....it'll be fixed by Friday...
Today is Monday...still no service but Fastnet did call US to say it'll be fixed by Wednesday........which Wednesday I wonder...

Interestingly when you call Fastnet now they answer the phone as Zone broadband....wonder if it's because everyone in Julianstown thinks they should pack up and go back to the UK.

fastnetnomore

Quick update - the service eventually came back on Thursday afternoon. Thought we were back in business....but not so...for a few hours there was a significant improvement in speed but by Friday afternoon - we were back to slower than dial up and can't send email......contacted Installation Mgr and Chairman.....no response - par for the course. We're sick of the apologies at this point - just fix it :mad:

fastnetnomore

Two weeks on......can't send email....service is on and off......Fastnet couldn't do anything on Monday because it was a bank holiday in the UK....

Latest excuse...from the 'Chairman'

To follow up. We have traced the service in Julianstown, and have
> determined that a user there has been repeatedly violating our fair
> use policy by uploading and downloading films from illegal film
> sharing web sites. As you can imagine, this kind of abuse uses vast
> amounts of bandwidth and as a result deprives all other users of
> access to service. We have blocked service for this user this evening,
> and that should improve the service. We will be sending a technical
> team to Julianstown to find this person and terminate their service.
> In addition when we have identified this user we will, as is required
> by law, report this person to the FBI/Interpol task force on copyright
> violations. We will be making further upgrades to the facilities in
> Julianstown in the coming weeks with the aim to further improving
> service.

Sponge Bob

can ye not get wireless like Digiweb or Net1 or IceComms out there instead of satellite ???

Donn_Firineach

fastnetnomore wrote: »

I've been a Fastnet customer for about 8 months now and as soon as I can get an alternative broadband service I'll be switching. I've been back on dial up for the last week because Fastnet's satellite is 'down'.....here's a run down of what we've experienced in Julianstown

Service goes down intermittently.......can be gone for 1 hour...or 1 day...depends on the circumstances...this is a regular occurance and you can't get a straight answer from anyone.

When it does go down..... up until recently you couldn't actually reach a live person...:mad: and if you did you were promised a call back as soon as they figured out the problem......never got a call back. Turns out the problem is that they only have ONE techie in IRELAND !!!!!!!

Then we get a lovely email from the Chairman of Fastnet that they have solved the problems...thank you for your patience...etc etc...and here's a number you can call night or day if you have any issues. Within a week of this email our service was down....we call the number given and we end up talking to someone in LONDON !! Who says "looks fine from here.....sorry can't help you"

When our service went down last week here's how it went.

Day 1 - Call customer service and we're told....we'll get back to you.....no call back.
Day 2 - Call the Chairman.....seems the technician will be out to Julianstown to fix the box on the Old Mill some time today.
Day 3 - Call customer service - "no it's not the ariel it's the satellite in France and unfortunately it's a public holiday today so there's nothing we can do"
Day 4...Call Chairman again....still seems to think it's a problem with our connection....even though tech support have a different story....
Day 5...Call Customer service ...."we'll have it fixed tomorrow"
Day 6 - Call Customer service....it'll be fixed by Friday...
Today is Monday...still no service but Fastnet did call US to say it'll be fixed by Wednesday........which Wednesday I wonder...

Interestingly when you call Fastnet now they answer the phone as Zone broadband....wonder if it's because everyone in Julianstown thinks they should pack up and go back to the UK.

Ballyagran in County Limerick has had to put up with this now for 18 months - early on it was reasonably OK - but with change in technical personnel in mid to late 2006 [oul ildana connections] everyting went rapidly downhill FAST -FastNetbroadband or Zonebroadband or whatever they call themselves these days in the same sentence as customer serivice is an oxymoron - FastNetnomore? Quite!

evs67uk

I would love to hear from anyone using Fastnet or Zone (they are the same company).
cheers
M

Donn_Firineach

evs67uk wrote: »

I would love to hear from anyone using Fastnet or Zone (they are the same company).
cheers
M

Stay away from them. They are DIRE DIRE DIRE .............. check out the companies offices - name changes galore ............. UK Directors resigning ............ and customers treated as Cash Cows but provided with no sevice ............. a shower of Charlies!

Marlow

Even though it's wireless, it's always satelite backhaul and that's where the problem lies. It's not really broadband.

Unfortunatly it also seems, that they technically aren't up to par. I've been speaking with people around Milltown, that use their service for free (because the local accesspoint is wide open) and still don't want the service, ie. want decent broadband service and want to pay for it instead.

It migtht be handy enough as a fixed fee replacement to the phone, but it's not broadband.

/Martin