Smart going belly up?

dub45

Sponge Bob wrote:

eircom are attampting to "Winback" 47000 Smart customer overnight (the CPS or CPS + WLR ones) because Smart had done a deal with BT to migrate them all as a package .

Its not personal against smart who were selling these customers off anyway and keeping the LLU customers.

It is personal against BT , eircom don't want them mto get these customer overnight and your service will be restored tomorrow .

The mind doth truly boggle at the thoughts of BT's accounts department taking on 47,000 more customers:eek: :eek: :eek:

Where is Surveys now?

kaizersoze

More. Shares suspended & Dempsey calls on Eircom to reconnect customers.

in addition to the 45,000 land line customers who lost their service, Eircom has also begun the task of disconnecting Smart Telecom's 17,000 broadband customers.

http://www.rte.ie/business/2006/1003/smart.html

dub45

paulm17781 wrote:

It looks to me that Eircom have used Smart's current situation to their own needs. NTL has been so bad lately I was strongly considering moving to Smart. Now I'm not so sure. Congratulation Eircon.... :mad:

If there is a huge amount of money outstanding to Eircom then presumably they have to take action. However Comreg should have anticipated this type of situation arising at some stage (not necessarily with Smart) and put an appropriate procedure in place which allow such a matter to be resolved without holding the blameless customers of the company involved as hostages.

It is outrageous when people are so dependent on the phone that the service can be withdrawn without any notice whatsoever when the customer involved is not to blame except for having moved to a competitor of Eircom.

The fault in this case I believe lies totally with Comreg

I heard on morning Ireland that Eircom is switching off Smarts Broadband this morning...

JJDoherty

Damn! Have SmartTelecom broadband myself & I love it, never had a problem with it. I also think, as most do here, that Eircom have gone outta their road to make life as difficult as possible for SmartTelecom with the LLU issue and ComReg are so toothless that Eircom could do, pretty much, as they please.

Eircom needs to be split, calls and network, to get this behemoth of a company under control and give us the customer some real choice and help introduce some real competition into the marketplace.

Gonna fire off a few emails to ComReg and maybe Newstalk radio etc. to let them know that I think the Eircom/ComReg issue is what has caused these problems.

So angry that I could spit...

designdude

this is really bad I depend up this bb services to earn a living, what should i do, just cancel and get a new provider asap!! or hang on and see who buys them out, im starting to panic

jimmycrackcorm

Solair wrote:

Really it should be an indication that the Government needs to look at serious reform of Comreg as effectively it's utterly failed and seen an alternative telco crash and burn, and possibly splitting eircom in half.

eircom may have just catapolted this issue into the middle of a very rapidly pending general election. 47,000 angry ex Smart customers won't be ignored by any party.

Trouble is that they will blame Smart without realising how badly the inablity to port existing numbers would hit smart. I'm at a loss to understand how Comreg did not or could not force number portability on eircom. After all it is successful in mobiles.

JJDoherty

designdude wrote:

...what should i do, just cancel and get a new provider asap!! or hang on and see who buys them out...

Think it is a case of waiting and seeing for today anyway. SmartTelecom and Eircom are meeting this morning with ComReg to try and come to a resolution. There probably will be more concrete news from ComReg by lunchtime.

Something is going on here that we are not party to, this is a strategic move by Eircom to destabalise SmartTelecom further after recent re-structuring. They are hoping that no matter how this all works out they will get a sizeable chunk of SmartTelecoms customers back! Conspiracy theory anyone?

Gadgetman496

designdude wrote:

this is really bad I depend up this bb services to earn a living, what should i do, just cancel and get a new provider asap!! or hang on and see who buys them out, im starting to panic

Eircom, ComReg & the Government are all caught up in the "Brown envelope" syndrome. Somebody has got to cover the cheques that Bertie had to write yesterday for 90k :mad:

Sponge Bob

designdude wrote:

this is really bad I depend up this bb services to earn a living, what should i do, just cancel and get a new provider asap!! or hang on and see who buys them out, im starting to panic

get a vodafone HSDPA 3g card now .....in case.

contact Comreg on 1890-229 668 or 01-804 9668 to get an explanation of how to port to another LLU carrier if you must, such as Magnet

JJDoherty

The latest news regarding this all can be found on ComRegs website here: http://www.askcomreg.ie/home/update.206.LE.asp

dub45

JJDoherty wrote:

Think it is a case of waiting and seeing for today anyway. SmartTelecom and Eircom are meeting this morning with ComReg to try and come to a resolution. There probably will be more concrete news from ComReg by lunchtime.

Something is going on here that we are not party to, this is a strategic move by Eircom to destabalise SmartTelecom further after recent re-structuring. They are hoping that no matter how this all works out they will get a sizeable chunk of SmartTelecoms customers back! Conspiracy theory anyone?

I wouldn't imagine so. If Smart owe Eircom a lot of money (which has not been denied in any public statement) then Eircom would be obliged to pursue it by all the means at their disposal. Such a pursual is of course potentially in Eircom's interest and this is what should have been recognised by Comreg in advance and a procedure put in place to protect the customers of Smart or any company who found themselves in this sort of situation.

The sad thing for Smart and us customers is that this is probably the tip of the iceberg and chances are there are more creditors out there waiting to take action to get their money.........

mrquiteaguy

I thought that Smart provided their own Broadband exchanges,that they werent a re-seller.
That they therefore have control over providing or disconnecting Broadband customers.

I am wrong?

v10

Just rang Eircon about switching from Smart and was told I'd need to complete an application and may have to wait up to 14 Days

WTF ?

Blub2k4

Does anyone know what the possibility of starting a class action suit against Eircom would be?
I mean if Comreg don't have the Cojones to do it possibly we as customers can punish them for their uncompetitive behaviour, which I might add has been quite obvious since day one.

v10

Blub2k4 wrote:

Does anyone know what the possibility of starting a class action suit against Eircom would be?
I mean if Comreg don't have the Cojones to do it possibly we as customers can punish them for their uncompetitive behaviour, which I might add has been quite obvious since day one.

On what grounds ? I'm no Eircon fan but surely its Smart that are to blame ? Are these companies not bonded with comreg ?

Sponge Bob

go hound your friendly local FF TD blub24

Fallschirmjager

i cannot phone out but can phone in...im on their phone package only...

i will never go back to eircom...i would try anyone else other then eircom, even letter writing

i just read this on comreg

3- If you have broadband provided by Smart Telecom

If you have broadband provided by Smart Telecom this means that:-

* Services including calls to emergency services (999/112) cannot be guaranteed



surely that is way way dodgey...no 999 calls?

JJDoherty

NeiloMac wrote:

If you did'nt pay your bill, Smart would cut you off...I dont think eircom are at fault, they leased lines, the bill was not payed, so the stopped the service,

The difference is that SmartTelecom would not have tried to hinder my ability to generate an income!

There is so much history here regarding Eircom as the dominant operator in the sector and their refusal to move on issues such as phone number portability, universal account numbering, LLU etc. Just look at all the litegation involving Eircom (and ComReg) over the past couple of years, especially Eircom going to court to prevent SmartTelecom gaining access to local exchanges even after ComReg had given permission for SmartTelecom to do so!

Blub2k4

v10 wrote:

On what grounds ? I'm no Eircon fan but surely its Smart that are to blame ? Are these companies not bonded with comreg ?

On the grounds that Eircom have obviously had it in for Smart since day one, I'd consider myself a savvy customer who decided to tough it out and stick with Smart during the "long" transition process when Eircom bounced my application back to Smart twice for no explicable reason. I had to escalate right up to Garfield Connolly to get satisfaction.

Comreg surely appears to be a toothless wonder.

machalla

I just had a look on that Comwreck advisory page that was linked above..

Be aware of this!

http://www.askcomreg.ie/home/update.206.LE.asp

"If you have broadband provided by Smart Telecom this means that:-

* Services including calls to emergency services (999/112) cannot be guaranteed "

Go Eirscum. No warning of withdrawl of services, no alternatives in place. So if the house burns down seems like you might have a case against the Eirscum folks.

jor el

mrquiteaguy wrote:

I thought that Smart provided their own Broadband exchanges,that they werent a re-seller.
That they therefore have control over providing or disconnecting Broadband customers.

I am wrong?

Smart are not a re-seller of broadband, correct and Smart have their own DSL equipment in the exchanges. However, they do pay rental to Eircom for the LLU lines. The line is still owned by Eircom and Smart don't just take over it. Since Eircom put all the investment into the lines in the first place it is only right that they get payment.

The phone only service is different and this is where the bulk of the problem comes from I believe.

Dire times for broadband in Ireland and speaks volumes of the monumental cockups by Noel Dempsey and Comreg. LLU pricing was set to high in the first place and the inability to port numbers is the icing on the cake.

especially Eircom going to court to prevent SmartTelecom gaining access to local exchanges even after ComReg had given permission for SmartTelecom to do so!

I thought the court case was solely to do with the number portability issue, not LLU in general. Eircom were fighting Smart who wanted to take the customers phone number when they switched over. Comreg didn't issue a directive to make Eircom comply, even though it worked in the mobile sector.

Blub2k4

NeiloMac wrote:

If you did'nt pay your bill, Smart would cut you off,

4million is a bit of a bill, the blame is on Smart, Something should have been done sooner,

I dont think eircom are at fault, they leased lines, the bill was not payed, so the stopped the service,

You obviously don't know the history, it does indeed appear as if Smart can't pay their bill, the reason lays however with Eircom and their manipulation of the market and knowledge of how they could damage Smart by knowing the figures on their tight business plan. They knew all they had to do was hinder Smart and sit back and wait.....Free market economy me ass.

<edit>Eircom used to belong to us before the floatation remember, I never got compensated for the sale of my tax assets.

designdude

JJDoherty wrote:

Think it is a case of waiting and seeing for today anyway. SmartTelecom and Eircom are meeting this morning with ComReg to try and come to a resolution. There probably will be more concrete news from ComReg by lunchtime.

Something is going on here that we are not party to, this is a strategic move by Eircom to destabalise SmartTelecom further after recent re-structuring. They are hoping that no matter how this all works out they will get a sizeable chunk of SmartTelecoms customers back! Conspiracy theory anyone?

can anyone recommend a good provider(other than eircom) is magnet any good?

v10

Blub2k4 wrote:

On the grounds that Eircom have obviously had it in for Smart since day one, I'd consider myself a savvy customer who decided to tough it out and stick with Smart during the "long" transition process when Eircom bounced my application back to Smart twice for no explicable reason. I had to escalate right up to Garfield Connolly to get satisfaction.

Comreg surely appears to be a toothless wonder.

I Dunno .. I gave Smart my business .. I've paid my bills and they've not paid theirs. My lines are down today because of Smart not paying their bills. I will be moving away from Smart ASAP and choosing a more reliable provider.

Blub2k4

v10 wrote:

I Dunno .. I gave Smart my business .. I've paid my bills and they've not paid theirs. My lines are down today because of Smart not paying their bills. I will be moving away from Smart ASAP and choosing a more reliable provider.

Are you implying that Smart didn't want your custom? Do you think they wanted it to come to this?

You have a very simplistic view of what has gone on, in a truly competitive market it would not have come to this under any circumstances.

machalla

Magnet used to be netsource. They got taken over last year I think? Or early this year. A friend of mine who is on their business package had trouble with his BB. He could only leave messages on their voicemail as no-one answered the support calls. Eventually after a week the problem turned out to be that he had been cut off by someone else without him even being told! They kept telling him they had to wait on Eirscum to respond to them when he did get to speak to them.

So not too sure about Magnet based on that..

JJDoherty

jor el wrote:

...I thought the court case was solely to do with the number portability issue, not LLU in general. Eircom were fighting Smart who wanted to take the customers phone number when they switched over. Comreg didn't issue a directive to make Eircom comply, even though it worked in the mobile sector.

Ah yeah, you see, many court cases! Think you are on about a different issue. The one I was thinking of was to do with LLU access when Eircom went to court saying they disagreed with ComRegs decision and since they did they should not have to give access to these exchanges to SmartTelecom until an appeals process and been completed! That appeals process is still on-going and so SmartTelecom still have no access to these exchanges despite having been given it by ComReg!

Dr Galen

will it be that easy to move from smart now? I know before when i tried to get out of thier contract they went on about minimum periods etc and wanted 200 notes to buy out of the contract.

I guess it will be a bit harder for them to say the same now though wil it?

dub45

Blub2k4 wrote:

You obviously don't know the history, it does indeed appear as if Smart can't pay their bill, the reason lays however with Eircom and their manipulation of the market and knowledge of how they could damage Smart by knowing the figures on their tight business plan. They knew all they had to do was hinder Smart and sit back and wait.....Free market economy me ass.

<edit>Eircom used to belong to us before the floatation remember, I never got compensated for the sale of my tax assets.

How many times must people be told this? The Governemnt sold Eircom on our behalf and the money they got for the shares compensated the taxpayer for the sale of assets. That money is in the national pension fund so please stop perpetrating this drivel.:rolleyes: