Smart Update

Bisgrad

Just wanted to give some people an update out there on Smart and how they are getting on since the news yesterday.

I first signed up to Smart at the start of August as I know from friends that they have a great package, unfortunately, I've never been able to witness this for myself.

I've been given excuse after excuse and been blatantly lied to on a number of occasions throughout the past three months whilst hoping my order goes through. Finally last week I saw light at the end of the tunnel. I got a text to say my line had been passed over from Eircom. I called up and was told yep, I'm on a VIP list (I had ensured thing by calling every second day for that past month and a half for an update!) it was now in the hands of the Smart engineers. I would definately have it by Monday, the very latest Tuesday.

Tuesday came and went...still no line activated. I called this morning (wednesday) and demanded to talk to a manager. He finally called me back this evening and finally I got some-one who told me straight what the situation is.

A basic summary is:

- Smarts first priority is to get those people who are paying for the service in/back in action. This will be done over the next two weeks.
- Next Priority is those who have signed up, but not gotten a service yet - ie me. When I asked what that means he told me that there was no way that I would have broadband within the next month, and that despite people telling me differently, the VIP list I had been on is now irrelevant. Unfortunately I had to cancel my order as waiting four months is simply unacceptable for me.
- Finally, satisfied that someone was actually giving it to me straight instead of fobbing me off for a change, and still wanting to get access to what seems to be the best overall package, I asked him when they would be taking on new customers. He admitted that they had taken a decision that the company had to take stock, and would not be taking on any new customers until the new year.

Does this sound suspicious to you? It certainly had the alarm bells ringing in my head. Why refuse orders if you have an infrastructure to work with but are short on cash?

Anyway, this leaves me in an akward position. I need broadband quickly. I live in Dublin 8. I figure BT and Magnet are the next two best packages out there for me to choose from without the outrageous Eircom price? I don't need the phone packages that makes Eircom so expensive.

Can someone please advise me? How quickly can someone get me broadband. I need it by the end of next week at the very latest.

Thanks for your help in advance,

Brian.

MarkR

You'd be better off ringing BT / Digiweb for lead times.

nickm

I was in a similar situation after beeing lied to by Smart. In fact they
pissed me off so much I'm quite happy to see them crash and burn.

Anyway, I went with clearwire because they were able to get me up
and running quickly.

Big mistake.

Clearwire seem to have no bandwidth outside Ireland. This means that
for most websites it's like using a modem. I'm now trying to figure out
how to get out of the 24 month contract I find myself with.

Will probably go with BT or Magnet next.

kaizersoze

If everything goes smoothly, you're looking at a minimum of 10 working days for BT. Don't really know about Magnet but I'd say longer.
Eircom have been known to do it a bit quicker so you may have to bite the bullet and go with them for 6 months if you're that stuck.

RangeR

kaizersoze wrote:

If everything goes smoothly, you're looking at a minimum of 10 working days for BT. Don't really know about Magnet but I'd say longer.
Eircom have been known to do it a bit quicker so you may have to bite the bullet and go with them for 6 months if you're that stuck.

If you do go with another DSL provider and eventually want to change back to Smart, it will cause you nothing but heartache and a shed load of internet downtime.

Another suggestion would be to go with a wireless provider, if you can get a contract less than 12 months. I in no way support Irish Broadband, but if somewhere in between dialup and broadband will get you by [no or little voip, no major online games, don't mind if the connection drops the "odd" time] go with Ripwave until you can get up in Smart. There is no contract so you can just cancel it when Smart is installed.

This is the ONLY time I would recommend going with IBB. To get you over a very short term gap while waiting for another provider.

However, you never said what area you are in, so you might not be in their coverage area.

Hornet

Bisgrad wrote:

Does this sound suspicious to you? It certainly had the alarm bells ringing in my head. Why refuse orders if you have an infrastructure to work with but are short on cash?

Not really suspicious! The Smart broadband offer doesn't make them a lot of money, in fact it is more likely that they LOOSE money with the broadband service alone and banked on making money through phone calls, but even there the margins are EXTREMELY tight.

So adding loss making customers to a loss making company with a huge debt is NOT the right way to go! Therefore it makes sense to take stock and to re-think.

By the way: I would expect that the "no line rental for life" offer will have to be re-considered. - But imagine the additional credibility loss if they will charge line rental for new customers or even for exisiting customers (after all Smart Telecom doesn't exist anymore, so the promise from them does not necessarily bind Callally, which is the new company).

The coming months will be interesting and without a doubt, Smart is NOT on safe grounds yet. But it seems this is the FIRST time in Smart's lifetime that this stock taking and reacting to the pressures of a competitive market is carried out.

-Hornet

dub45

IrishTLR wrote:

If you do go with another DSL provider and eventually want to change back to Smart, it will cause you nothing but heartache and a shed load of internet downtime.

Another suggestion would be to go with a wireless provider, if you can get a contract less than 12 months. I in no way support Irish Broadband, but if somewhere in between dialup and broadband will get you by [no or little voip, no major online games, don't mind if the connection drops the "odd" time] go with Ripwave until you can get up in Smart. There is no contract so you can just cancel it when Smart is installed.

This is the ONLY time I would recommend going with IBB. To get you over a very short term gap while waiting for another provider.

However, you never said what area you are in, so you might not be in their coverage area.

Ironically enough the best isp to go with if you eventually want to go with Smart is probably Eircom as they cancel the bb fairly rapidly as far as I can see from reports on here and the transition should be relatively uncomplicated if not exactly fast.

paulm17781

dub45 wrote:

Ironically enough the best isp to go with if you eventually want to go with Smart is probably Eircom as they cancel the bb fairly rapidly as far as I can see from reports on here and the transition should be relatively uncomplicated if not exactly fast.

But there is still a changeover period. With wireless you can keep it until the Smart service is set up.

dub45

paulm17781 wrote:

But there is still a changeover period. With wireless you can keep it until the Smart service is set up.

Agreed I should have mentioned it as a dsl option.

Moojuice

Why not go with NTL if you can ? No scum sucking €ircon to worry about. Great service (for me) and really well priced.

Morrigan

I've been trying to get through to Smart Telecom all day. It has bee a circle of being on hold for 20 minutes and then getting sent back to the main menu. I have stayed on becuase, like the OP, I signed up just before the spit hit the fan and I am desperate to know whether they are still processing my order or should I jsut give and cancel by email or snail-mail.

Has anyone else been trying to get through to Samrt and had the same problems? Anyone gotten through?

JNive

i posted already on the smart boards about this, where once i got to the top of the queue i was told that hours are 8am to 9:30 am , please leave a callback messages etc.

i ordered mid-september and got my modem and details september 20, and the 10 days was due to end on October4th, needless to say i never got connected, and on the 16th October was told that they needed to wait on more space in the exchange.

Im now told that there are no more space issues there, yet i cant get through on that bloody phone number and in this thread it appears like they dont intend on talking on new customers, even though technically i became a customer the minute i got the modem and account details. come on smart, this isnt exactly good for business. In legal terms however if my service is connected it should be for the terms of pre-October setup.

Sounds like perhaps they might indeed not intend on taking on new customers until they clarify what there product offerings should be now.

Fingers crossed

crol

Bisgrad wrote:

- Finally, satisfied that someone was actually giving it to me straight instead of fobbing me off for a change, and still wanting to get access to what seems to be the best overall package, I asked him when they would be taking on new customers. He admitted that they had taken a decision that the company had to take stock, and would not be taking on any new customers until the new year.

er ... i work for smart (not in customer service though) and i personally know of a number of customers who have been connected in the last few weeks. if smart are not taking on any new customers its news to those guys and to me.

if you pm me the name of whoever (mis)informed you, ill try to work out what the actual problem is.

Tanja

I have been disconnected for 4.5 weeks now...nothing has happened so far..smart people are telling me all the time "you will be reconnected soon" but I dont believe this anymore. Now I think about changing to Eircom..the 30Eur 20gb package..they told me that we should be reconnected within 48 hrs (max.)..can this be true?!?!?!?

Liam Byrne

Tanja, it's DEFINITELY not a 20gb package for €20!

Since eircom are the ones causing most of the delays, I'd be suprised if the small print wasn't the word "should"; if they said "would", then you would have a comeback if they failed.

Given that eircom blatantly lied in all ads related to the effects of the Smart debacle, and also potentially broke the law in approaching known Smart customers in order to win back the custom, I don't think I'd trust them in anything related to getting your custom back from Smart.

Tanja

Liam Byrne wrote:

Tanja, it's DEFINITELY not a 20gb package for €20!

Since eircom are the ones causing most of the delays, I'd be suprised if the small print wasn't the word "should"; if they said "would", then you would have a comeback if they failed.

Given that eircom blatantly lied in all ads related to the effects of the Smart debacle, and also potentially broke the law in approaching known Smart customers in order to win back the custom, I don't think I'd trust them in anything related to getting your custom back from Smart.

Actually I don't care WHO is providing my broadband I just want it to work asap! :-) Smart (or Eircom) dont manage to reconnect me and I definitely waited long enough. Thus it seems as if Eircom (yeah of course I dont like those guys..) could reconnect me in a shorter period of time than anyone else (ntl, bt etc is not available in my area anyways). Not sure if I got sth wrong, but the Eircom Broadband Home Plus is 29.99€ (monthly line rental, 20gb download -> Eircom Website)...are there additional costs?

It would be interesting to know how many Smart bb customers are already reconnected...

Slydice

seems like they're getting it done.

check over on smarts forums:
http://support.smarttelecom.ie/forums/index.php

you see people posting there about no being connected and then they post later that they are connected...:eek:

Liam Byrne

If eircom is available, BT should be (I'm open to correction, but AFAIK BT walked away from LLU so they're generally just eircom resellers ?).

Unfortunately whoever you go to for phone-based broadband, eircom are involved behind the scenes and can pretty much delay as long or as short as they want.

eircom would probably do things faster for themselves alright; just be aware that eircom Broadband Home Plus is 2Mb download speed; the 20Gb is a "download allowance" and has nothing to do with speed.

Foxwood

Tanja wrote:

but the Eircom Broadband Home Plus is 29.99€ (monthly line rental, 20gb download -> Eircom Website)...are there additional costs?

That's €29.99 plus €24.18 Line Rental. Line Rental IS NOT included in the €29.99 price.

Bisgrad

Hornet wrote:

Not really suspicious! The Smart broadband offer doesn't make them a lot of money, in fact it is more likely that they LOOSE money with the broadband service alone and banked on making money through phone calls, but even there the margins are EXTREMELY tight.

So adding loss making customers to a loss making company with a huge debt is NOT the right way to go! Therefore it makes sense to take stock and to re-think.

By the way: I would expect that the "no line rental for life" offer will have to be re-considered. - But imagine the additional credibility loss if they will charge line rental for new customers or even for exisiting customers (after all Smart Telecom doesn't exist anymore, so the promise from them does not necessarily bind Callally, which is the new company).

The coming months will be interesting and without a doubt, Smart is NOT on safe grounds yet. But it seems this is the FIRST time in Smart's lifetime that this stock taking and reacting to the pressures of a competitive market is carried out.

-Hornet

Smart Telecom still exists, Callally just owns it now.

I believe the free line rental for life has been discontinued already.

Get what you're saying about taking stock, if they are in fact making a loss on their product. I just feel the company lost it's money in ramping up for 3g rather than on its broadband.

Bisgrad

dub45 wrote:

Ironically enough the best isp to go with if you eventually want to go with Smart is probably Eircom as they cancel the bb fairly rapidly as far as I can see from reports on here and the transition should be relatively uncomplicated if not exactly fast.

Eircom aren't exactly fans of customers switching to Smart, that was the reason for my delay in the first place!

Bisgrad

Moojuice wrote:

Why not go with NTL if you can ? No scum sucking €ircon to worry about. Great service (for me) and really well priced.

That's what I've done! Being set up next saturday.

Bisgrad

crol wrote:

er ... i work for smart (not in customer service though) and i personally know of a number of customers who have been connected in the last few weeks. if smart are not taking on any new customers its news to those guys and to me.

if you pm me the name of whoever (mis)informed you, ill try to work out what the actual problem is.

I've just heard that Smart are closing their residential sales division. Is this news to you also?

crol

residential sales has a few meanings...

if you mean residential WLR/CPS, then sure, its been widely reported that smart has gotten out of that business.

if you mean residential DSL/LLU, then the opposite is true. there is absolutely no sign of smart moving away from this.

Bisgrad

crol wrote:

residential sales has a few meanings...

if you mean residential WLR/CPS, then sure, its been widely reported that smart has gotten out of that business.

if you mean residential DSL/LLU, then the opposite is true. there is absolutely no sign of smart moving away from this.

Did you get my PM?