A challenge.......

FranknFurter

Ok, heres a challenge.....
Currently we are using "eircom broadband home professional" for broadband and their "Eircom TalkTime Anytime" option for calls, which is all well and good, no problems with the service itself..........

BUT.........

As we make a lot of mobile calls etc, and including the broadband service , we are ending up with bi-monthly bills of 600+ euro every two months, (yes, I know its unbelievable but its true).

The main issue is the cap, there is no realistic way we can stay under their 30gig cap, therfore the cost goes insane.

Any math whizz's out there suggest any cheaper provider options?
(Remember, main issues are needs a higher or no cap, decent speeds, and reasonable call rates or the free national landline calls option).

Clondalkin / dublin 22 area

b

Valentia

Everybody else apart from UTV! Eircom are robbers.

FranknFurter

Valentia,
I agree.
It was a ridiculous bill.
Problem is, finding a reasonably priced provider with no cap seems to be impossible.

b

ardmacha

Well UTV will give you an unlimited option and free off-peak lanline calls. Then you could look at VOIP packages or Telestunt type operations to cut the cost of other types of calls.

Valentia

I suppose in the circumstances UTV are your best bet. For €6 per month extra you get an unlimited cap. If you make a lot to mobile calls, there is no real solution though UTV are marginally cheaper than Eircon for them I think. UTV do free local and UK calls in the evening and all weekend.

BTW I don't think BT charge for going over the cap.

Sponge Bob

BT will give you BB (1Mbits) Line Rental and unlimited landline calls but have a HISTORY of redefining "unlimited" downwards when it suits them.

They probably do not want to have this hassle again so I would be inclined to recommend them now.

For mobile calls you may try telestunt or voipbuster or even a pure voip service, if you want to do heavy voip usage you may be best with the 2Mbit package for the 256k upload (BT €55 a month unlimited landline and line rental) and have a good shufty at the Boards VOIP forum which is here .

€600 a bill is almost criminal though

Remember that eircom will hound you to come back so be prepared to record all these telemarketing calls and complain bitterly to the data protection commissioner when the no winback period is over...starting either 4 or 6 months after you leave them for BT.

They willl promise you the earth and will not deliver of course....but be prepared to record everything and use it to get some compo from them.

If you are ex directory and in the NDD database (do not call database) within 4 months then you will have such a strong case

FranknFurter

Just had a look at both utv & bt........

Maybe Im missing somthing, but I dont see any uncapped options, just 10-30gig caps??

Anyone have a link to an ad for their uncapped service?
(Im not being lazy, I truly cant see it,... then again, its 2am and Iv been up since 4am this morning, I may be a little tired )

b

[edit] I do see that UTV have a buisness option that is uncapped, but its 140 per month and thats for net, not calls!! Is that seriously the cheapest? Sheesh, we truly are getting ripped off compared to other countries. [/edit]

dub45

Is this the first post on boards to record that Eircom have charged for going over the cap?

FranknFurter

dub45 wrote:

Is this the first post on boards to record that Eircom have charged for going over the cap?

I doubt it,....but much as it kills me, I have to say.
When I say we "went over the cap" what I actually mean is we went WAAAY over the cap, in fact, we probably (at least) went about 7 or 8 times the cap.

b

Valentia

FranknFurter wrote:

Just had a look at both utv & bt........

Maybe Im missing somthing, [/edit]

Yes you are I cant provide a direct link but if you look under Clicksilver residentisl on UTV You will see this under the cap for the 1,2 & 3 Mb packs: " Unlimited Option available for only €5.99 after your first 3 months".

I think that is just badly worded and that it is available immediately but will be charged for after 3 months for new customers.. The pack is available for €40/month (excluding line rental) and includes UTV Talk. The cheaper 3 months option is only available to new BB customers, i.e. ppl that haven't had BB from any provider.

dub45

Valentia wrote:

Everybody else apart from UTV! Eircom are robbers.

Given that are Eircom dont often charge for going over the cap (in fact this is the first ever post I have seen where a person states they have been charged for going over theh cap and the poster subsequently states :

When I say we "went over the cap" what I actually mean is we went WAAAY over the cap, in fact, we probably (at least) went about 7 or 8 times the cap.

It is completely wrong to state that Eircom are robbers and such claims dont do anyone any favours at all. In fact the behaviour of the posters is what should be getting called into question - the cap is there and the poster knows it. What can anyone be downloading legally which necessitates 8g a day?

Downloading to such a degree is going to affect other users service and thats what should be getting highlighted.

Valentia

I'm not talking about the cap. It is just a statement of fact. Their charges for everything, BB in particular, are outrageous. They are also the people responsible for one of the highest line rental charges in the world. In retrospect "robbers" is being kind.

dub45

Valentia wrote:

I'm not talking about the cap. It is just a statement of fact. Their charges for everything, BB in particular, are outrageous.

Well with the exception of the line rental nobody has to pay any of their other charges. People who pay them have chosen to pay them in the full knowledge of what the charges are so they cannot be called robbers.

spurious

Get Smart.
http://www.smarttelecom.ie/broadbandplusfeatures.php
No line rental - truly unlimited Downloads. Discounts to mobiles. Variety of download speeds available.

But above all, the satisfaction that you have nothing to pay to Eircom.

Valentia

What? People are being ripped off (robbed) every day. The logic eludes me.

dub45

Valentia wrote:

What? People are being ripped off (robbed) every day. The logic eludes me.

To rob is to take something without permission its as simple as that how can that logic elude you?

There is a world of difference between rip off and rob.

jesus_thats_gre

Just get one of Eircom's business packages. Not exactly a dramatic change but its still an improvement:

eircom broadband business enhanced

Monthy rental - €169 (ex VAT)
Download/ upload speeds - 5M/512k*

Modem - FREE - wifi modem
Allowance: Download - Unlimited

Am sure if you look at the business packages provided by BT or Netsource you would save a fortune.

Valentia

Excuese us for a sec. So con men are not robbers? Eircom are using the ignorance of Joe Public to con them into paying exhorbitant charges. Many many people don't even know that there is an alternative.

Are there businesses paying thousands a year for 1 mega leased lines from Eircom and have Eircom told them there is an alternative called ADSL? Yes and No are the answers to the real life senario I mention. Jazus if you even knew the half of it. They are the biggest disaster ever to hit this country and all with the goodwill of the present government. Where else would they get away with it?

Apologists like yourself don't do them any harm either.

dub45

Valentia wrote:

Excuese us for a sec. So con men are not robbers? Eircom are using the ignorance of Joe Public to con them into paying exhorbitant charges. Many many people don't even know that there is an alternative.

Are there businesses paying thousands a year for 1 mega leased lines from Eircom and have Eircom told them there is an alternative called ADSL? Yes and No are the answers to the real life senario I mention. Jazus if you even knew the half of it. They are the biggest disaster ever to hit this country and all with the goodwill of the present government. Where else would they get away with it?

Apologists like yourself don't do them any harm either.

I am not apologising for them at all ( I have no interest in Eircom one way or the other) you called them robbers and I pointed out that you have no justficiation for that claim.

It is not up to Eircom to tell people about alternatives - if you bring an expensive product to the checkout in your supermarked do you call them conmen or robbers if they dont tell you there is a cheaper product in the store?

Calling Eircom conmen on the basis that they do not tell people about alternatives or that the use joe public's ignorance is simply nonsense.

Theres a zillion ads out there telling joe public about alternatives.

Hotblack Desiato

Valentia wrote:

Are there businesses paying thousands a year for 1 mega leased lines from Eircom and have Eircom told them there is an alternative called ADSL?

To be fair, you can't really compare a leased line to a contended ADSL connection.

Also, you can't blame Eircom (and no, I don't like them either) for maximising profits/revenues within the law. They'd be letting their shareholders down if they did any less.

The start, and end, of all of our telecoms problems in this country is ComReg. If Eircom or any other provider is doing something unfair it's only because the regulator is allowing them to.

FranknFurter

dub45 wrote:

In fact the behaviour of the posters is what should be getting called into question - the cap is there and the poster knows it. What can anyone be downloading legally which necessitates 8g a day?

Actually, there are plenty of situations that require downloading over 8g a day. And its not that simple, 8g a day may mean a single download and / or backup of 56g a week. Very easy to do without too much thought, if you are'nt used to caps being an issue, actually.

Valentia & spongebob, thanks for that, Ill give them a buzz tomorrow and enquire.

Jesus_thats_gre, thanks for that idea too, I had seen that, problem is at 169 euro per MONTH, it would'nt be practical, there are months when our usage wouldnt be as high,... aside from that, I have a bit of a problem paying 100 euro for the "no cap" service alone, I mean, other countries have no cap as the norm, and their packages are half what we get here in Ireland.

As for the rest of it, I already said, they were perfectly within their rights to do this.

Im not a big eircom fan, I still think broadband prices in this country stink and have a long ways to go before they come in line with other countries.
I already said it was purely my own doing, AND I have no problem with them enforcing rules I signed up to.

All I was asking for here was other options.

(So if you guys want to have a "Do eircom suck" or not argument, please take it to the appropriate thread).

b

cgarvey

I think you're being naive in expecting a no-cap service for under a hundred quid. There aren't that many services in near EU that do that. Many will advertise "unlimited", but have an AUP to limit over use.

I'd guess that even with the top rated DSL connection (169+VAT from eircom, a small bit cheaper from their bitstream resellers), running 8Gb/GB (you don't say which, but I'll assume the latter) will make most DSL providers a bit squirmish.

UTV do offer an unlimited service, but there is an AUP which will limit you, if you are a heavy peak-time user. They do claim there'll be no restriction for off peak usage, though.

Most ISPs will have such an AUP. It makes sense to protect the vast majority of customers from the tiny minority of heavy users, such as yourselves.

Can you tell us more about your excess charges (you seem to be the first eircom customer being charged, around here)? How much over were you? What were you charged (for going over)? Have you been going over the cap for months before the 1st excess charge? Had you been contacted about it?

If you really are an 8GB/day user, then I'd go down the route of eircom's unlimited 169+VAT. You say over 100 quid is not practical, but I'm guessing you'll find the UTV experience disappointing, and most wireless providers will have caps in place, or a fairly strict AUP. Like it or not, you're the customer nobody wants! If you want true unlimited, then you'll have to pay. Otherwise you're on a contended service, so any (contended service) ISP is going to have to limit the impact you have on other customers. Is a reduction in usage an option? Could you go for a cheap "unlimited" option (such as UTV) and cut down usage a bit so you're not on the radar?

Please do tell us more about the excess charges.

.cg

Sponge Bob

DSL Caps etc .

FranknFurter wrote:

problem is at 169 euro per MONTH, it would'nt be practical, there are months when our usage wouldnt be as high,... aside from that,

I had not realised when I originally posted that you were one of those rare examples where eircom had billed you for dogging the cap ...which does happen on occasion but I have been assured by a very reliable source that your usage must be truly excessive . BT could take the same view and with good reason it seems .

Many of these excessive overbills occur where a 'business' is obviously paying for a 'home' connection , is that what you are up to ???? If so make sure the DD comes from your personal account and then eircom may decide that a home user with a home package will not incur further charges even if they bust the cap ....if you know what I mean .

You would be advised to look at the UTV 'unlimited' option which will also require that you move your calls to them as well....meaining my earlier advice is null bar the VoIP aspects for Mobile calls etc.

FranknFurter

cgarvey wrote:

Most ISPs will have such an AUP. It makes sense to protect the vast majority of customers from the tiny minority of heavy users, such as yourselves.Can you tell us more about your excess charges (you seem to be the first eircom customer being charged, around here)? How much over were you? What were you charged (for going over)? Have you been going over the cap for months before the 1st excess charge? Had you been contacted about it?

If you really are an 8GB/day user, then I'd go down the route of eircom's unlimited 169+VAT. You say over 100 quid is not practical, but I'm guessing you'll find the UTV experience disappointing, and most wireless providers will have caps in place, or a fairly strict AUP. Like it or not, you're the customer nobody wants! If you want true unlimited, then you'll have to pay. Otherwise you're on a contended service, so any (contended service) ISP is going to have to limit the impact you have on other customers. Is a reduction in usage an option? Could you go for a cheap "unlimited" option (such as UTV) and cut down usage a bit so you're not on the radar?
Please do tell us more about the excess charges.
.cg

Well, theres only so much I can go into at the moment, but we are'nt breaking any laws. There are various reasons we use so much, all legit.

Basically, the bill was spread over several months, they didnt charge us for going over the cap until the last bill when they suddenly charged us for going over the cap for two "billing periods" (if you see what I mean).

I had to call them and eventually find somone in there who could explain the bill to me, it looked strange as it wasnt marked "for going over cap" etc, it was just under the regular broadband cost, instead of the regular cost it had the full cost. (including "penalty").

I had pretty much expected it, and just called to confirm it.

We wouldnt be 8GB per *day* users, there are days when we barely hit 500mbs (often less actually). But there are also days when we could easilly have to download 8gigs.

I spose as you say, we probably are "the customer nobody wants"

I think we'll just stick with eircom and see where the next bill ends up now that we are being more mindfull. And take it from there.

Sponge bob; No I assure you, we aint a buisness (yet):p, just picked the "eircom broadband home professional" as it seemed it was most suitable at the time, we didnt expect our download requirment to be so high at the time.

Anyways, thanks for all the info guys, as we have the bill cleared now we will just have to guage it by watching how much the next bill is.

Be warned though, looks like eircon are actually starting to charge for this now.

b

Sponge Bob

but you are the first home user on a home package who got hit for excess charges ....that I know of.

as they retroactively went after you for 4 months, lets say jan feb march apr , can you give us an idea of cap , amount actually downloaded and % over for each of those

eg

Jan - 24Gb - 36Gb - 50%

and fiddle them a bit to disguise them but it woud be educational for the rest of us.

oh and how far into the contract were you in 'Jan' the first of these months, I hear months one and two attract no attention.

dub45

Sponge Bob wrote:

but you are the first home user on a home package who got hit for excess charges ....that I know of.

as they retroactively went after you for 4 months, lets say jan feb march apr , can you give us an idea of cap , amount actually downloaded and % over for each of those

eg

Jan - 24Gb - 36Gb - 50%

and fiddle them a bit to disguise them but it woud be educational for the rest of us.

oh and how far into the contract were you in 'Jan' the first of these months, I hear months one and two attract no attention.

And had you received any warnings from them about your usage?