Smart going belly up?

designdude

machalla wrote:

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..

thx i guess that them out of the question then

dub45

Blub2k4 wrote:

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.

Given the nonsense you wrote above do you know what is going on?

Does anyone know how long Eircom have been pursuing Smart for this money?

Eircom have behaved as other companies would have behaved in their postion in the economy they find themselves in. That's not to defend them it is simply to state the obvious.

JJDoherty

dub45 wrote:

Given the nonsense you wrote above do you know what is going on? Does anyone know how long Eircom have been pursuing Smart for this money? Eircom have behaved as other companies would have behaved in their postion in the economy they find themselves in. That's not to defend them it is simply to state the obvious.

Eircom are owed €1.7million in arrears. €4million in total. No it has not been stated if and for how long Eircom have been seeking this money but no prior mediation has been carried out by ComReg on this matter!

Eircom are persuing the monies which they are owed and that is indeed fair enough however it is the manner in which Eircom has fought the opening up of the market to competitors at every turn, doing their upmost to hinder fair and free access to the market considering their designated position as the dominate operator, that is what sticks in most peoples throats. ComReg are so toothless and therefore unable to stop such anti-competative behaviour and the first of the new telcos to have entered the market is stumbling, how many more after this?

Fallschirmjager

Blub2k4 wrote:

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.

bluk, i think that is a wee bit unfair...v10 i guess is running a business..fair or unfair doesnt really come into it when he cannot contact anyone. i agree with you that it is disgraceful that the market can be shafted by eircom, but i like v10 will be moving...i like smart, nevr had an issue until now...but i am not gonna be paying smart for a service they aint supplying...

guess i may have to give perlico or one of the other mobs out therer a chance to impress..

Noelie

Smart demise could be blamed on Eircom, but only in the sense that Eircom wouldn't let people port their number to Smart accounts, Having to change your phone put alot of people off changing, I know i would of changed my dad's account to smart if we could have kept our number.

Although it is no ones fault but Smart's that they didn't pay eircom what they owed them.

Blub2k4

dub45 wrote:

Given the nonsense you wrote above do you know what is going on?

Does anyone know how long Eircom have been pursuing Smart for this money?

Eircom have behaved as other companies would have behaved in their postion in the economy they find themselves in. That's not to defend them it is simply to state the obvious.

Ok so maybe I was wrong on the compensation point, but it's suiting your argument now to distract from the original point, and yes you have defended Eircom.

It is not competitive and not on.

PixelTrawler

one of the audio clips here http://www.rte.ie/business/2006/1003/smart.html says about 650 BB customers already affected with the rest to be shut off over the "next few days and weeks"

Its at the end of the clip by Christopher McKevitt - go to 2:40 mins into it

J.S. Pill

I saw someone suggest trying to dial 13666 before you make an outbound call to route the call through eircom. This will only work if you have your line rental from eircom and a bill for calls from Smart (i.e. you have Smart on CPS as opposed to WLR) to the best of my knowledge (very few people have their accounts set like this understandably).

I worked for Imagine telecom during the summer and the head guy there told us that Perlico might be in a bit of trouble too owing to the fact that they have incredibly thin margins. Anyone know anything about this?

Fallschirmjager

J.S. Pill wrote:

I saw someone suggest trying to dial 13666 before you make an outbound call to route the call through eircom. This will only work if you have your line rental from eircom and a bill for calls from Smart (i.e. you have Smart on CPS as opposed to WLR) to the best of my knowledge (very few people have their accounts set like this understandably).

I worked for Imagine telecom during the summer and the head guy there told us that Perlico might be in a bit of trouble too owing to the fact that they have incredibly thin margins. Anyone know anything about this?

haha..jeeze, from the frying pan etc...i was just going to call them!!!

flamegrill

Magnet LLU and Magnet business are two seperate entities. Magnet LLU broadband is similar to smarts, better funded, isn't practically free and makes financial sense.

Magnet business, is what netsource was rebranded as. We've used magnet business for 3 years (as netsource) and have had no faults or unplanned broadband outages. NO more so than other bitstream operators.

I'd recomend anyone using smart to call magnet and see if you can move to them. its the only other viable option.

inode

look what eircom have already got up on their page http://www.eircom.ie/cgi-bin/bvsm/bveircom/mainPage.jsp

and now they are gonna disconnect my broadband. F**K THEM!

shayser

Letterkenny residential service starting to going down.

machalla

With regard to Magnet, I'm not a customer but my above post about the treatment of my friend (who was one of Netsources earliest customers) still stands. I used to be a Netsource customer a few years back.

I was pretty shocked at how bad the response time was. Only when things escalated quite a bit did he get an appropriate response. Still anyone used to Smarts customer service won't see any difference between them I'd say. Apart from their forums and GarfieldConnoly on here it was almost non-existent.

petes

flamegrill wrote:

Magnet LLU and Magnet business are two seperate entities. Magnet LLU broadband is similar to smarts, better funded, isn't practically free and makes financial sense.

Magnet business, is what netsource was rebranded as. We've used magnet business for 3 years (as netsource) and have had no faults or unplanned broadband outages. NO more so than other bitstream operators.

I'd recomend anyone using smart to call magnet and see if you can move to them. its the only other viable option.

Would agree with this. We have been using Magnet Business (Netsource) for the past two years. No problems at all.

skywalker

Tristrame wrote:

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

Out of curiosity how is it they have control over the broadband? Doesnt llu mean smart are using their own equipment etc and have nothing to do with eircom.

Brendan552004

I cannot make outgoing calls on my Smart Telecom, my broadband is on Eircom so I still have an outgoing Eircom line.

Smart broadband seems to be disconnected, we will be losing postings from Smart broadband customers, until this mess is sorted out.

Smart owe Eircom 4 million, they were meeting with Eircom 9AM this morning. The last time I had an arguement with Eircom, they had cut me off, I received their post dated bill 2 days after they had cut me off. I got no satisfaction from either Eircom or the regulator. I do not hold out much hope for Smart.

I received a letter from Eircom yesterday dated 29th August !!! it was re my broadband line, it said further to our recent conversation your business account is now on Eircom Business Circles. Funny thing, I have never had a conversation with them authorising any changes, the letter came with a 4 page booklet of terms and conditions stating that if I wish to opt out I had to give 14 days notice in writing.

Some friends of mine have also received digital phones from Eircom for signing up to some service or other. They never agreed to sign up for anything. When they contacted Eircom they were asked to return the phones, they would not pay for the postage, they all still have the phones.

What is a good alternative to Smart?

Brendan

shayser wrote:

Phone's are affected now.

Was chatting to an Eircom employee who says business broadband will be cut off this week.

http://www.rte.ie/news/2006/1002/smart.html


Edit: more here http://www.rte.ie/business/2006/1002/smart.html

Sponge Bob

flamegrill wrote:

I'd recomend anyone using smart to call magnet and see if you can move to them. its the only other viable option.

eircom will not release the LLU lines to Magnet until they have "Gone Back" to eircom.

Comreg will not make eircom transfer the copper pair to existing Magnet gear in the same exchange in order to give the customer some continuity or near continuity of service, Comreg will simply allow eircom to disconnect the pairs and make Magnet start the 6-8 weeks LLU process from scratch ....after you pay eircom to reconnect the pair .

eircom want to crash Smart before the court decision on the 3g licence ....due next week. !!!!

Chaz

byte wrote:

If only Digiweb Metro was in Letterkenny...

Its on its way.

Diver79

Not too sure where I stand here,

On one side there is Eircom, doing its best to make it difficult for Smart to Provide a service, so it can win back lost customers.
On the other side is Smart, a company that has poor customer services, questionable direct debit practices and instable BB (probably due to LLU issue).
Then there is Comreg, cant say much about them as they dont seem to do anything.
Regardless of sides, I am sick of dealing with Eircom and Smart. Both have left me down in the past. Comreg should take more control of these issues so the customer doesnt end up losing out.

Axl

You can blame Eircom, Comreg, <Insert Other Name here> until the cows come home.

The simple reality is that Smart had to know the risks taking into account Comreg's lack of power and Eircom's dominance in the market place.

It is easy to lay blame, the bottom line, if Smart had pulled this off, they would have been praised. They took a risk that has seeminly not paid off.

It is not good for anyone in the market place that this is happening.

paulm17781

Sponge Bob wrote:

eircom want to crash Smart before the court decision on the 3g licence ....due next week. !!!!

While I am well aware it was Smart not paying Eircon caused this problem, I thought the timing of this was quite convinient, what with all the media caverage about financial difficulties. I didn't realise that the license decision was next week. That explains a lot.

Prisoner6409

dub45 wrote:

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:

Well if that's the case how was it that a few ppl became very wealthy from the whole debacle while the majority of Eircom's long standing customers who bought shares lost out. The millions these guys made did not go into the exchequer and left Eircom stripped leaving their ability to invest in the infastructure necessary to develop a comprehensive BB service in doubt. We have all been living with the consequences since. The whole thing was handled very badly by the Govt.

bk

Anyone know how this will effect Smart Vision customers (Fibre To The Home customers)?

Such customers have no other option then Smart as typically they don't have a normal phone line or TV cable point!!!!

619C

If Eircom do reconnect all the Smart customers do Smart have to pay one reconnection fee or 47,000 reconnection fees????

Sponge Bob

Smart FIBRE customers are not affected save where they also have phone services on that fibre.

If all you have is FIBRE and data services on that fibre then you are not affected in the least. Of course eircom hopes you will be affected before the licence decision.

If anyone knows that judge then ask him to hurry up one way or another , even if it was only a one paragraph decision.

zenith

Sponge Bob wrote:

If all you have is FIBRE and data services on that fibre then you are not affected in the least. Of course eircom hopes you will be affected before the licence decision.

Also, where Smart have used licenced radio links to provide you with service.

bk

Sponge Bob wrote:

Smart FIBRE customers are not affected save where they also have phone services on that fibre.

Thanks, I don't have it yet, but I'm moving into a new apartment in a few months that is an all Smart affair. It is pretty worrying that you might not have any TV, BB or phone service in a new apartment and no way to get one!!!!

The phone service is fine, I'd planned on using Blueface anyway.

dub45

Prisoner6409 wrote:

Well if that's the case how was it that a few ppl became very wealthy from the whole debacle while the majority of Eircom's long standing customers who bought shares lost out. The millions these guys made did not go into the exchequer and left Eircom stripped leaving their ability to invest in the infastructure necessary to develop a comprehensive BB service in doubt. We have all been living with the consequences since. The whole thing was handled very badly by the Govt.

With a little bit of research you can easily find this out. Once the Government sold Eircom it was out there in the big capitalist world simple as that.

dub45

JJDoherty wrote:

Eircom are owed €1.7million in arrears. €4million in total. No it has not been stated if and for how long Eircom have been seeking this money but no prior mediation has been carried out by ComReg on this matter!

Eircom are persuing the monies which they are owed and that is indeed fair enough however it is the manner in which Eircom has fought the opening up of the market to competitors at every turn, doing their upmost to hinder fair and free access to the market considering their designated position as the dominate operator, that is what sticks in most peoples throats. ComReg are so toothless and therefore unable to stop such anti-competative behaviour and the first of the new telcos to have entered the market is stumbling, how many more after this?

It may stick in people's throats but in the environment that we are in there is nothing wrong with the way they have behaved - they have been allowed to behave in that way by Comreg's failure and the Government's failure.

If Eircom have not been as aggressive as possible and using all means open to them they would not have been protecting their shareholder's interest.

That is the capitalist system.

And that is to state the obvious not to defend Eircom.

If you ran a small business and you had a resource that a new competitor opening beside you needed wouldnt you do your damndest to make it as difficult as possible for him to get it?

dub45

619C wrote:

If Eircom do reconnect all the Smart customers do Smart have to pay one reconnection fee or 47,000 reconnection fees????

The 47,000 are not llu customers so it doesnt arise.