Smart - jokers

quad_red

Hey all,
Just thought I'd relate this little Smart debacle.

Reactivated the eircom line into our apt (Harcourt Green, D2) last month and then signed up to Smart broadband after they confirmed that they could provide the service. They sent a direct debit form out within 2 days then told me I'd receive a letter in the first week of Jan telling me when the service would start. A modem would soon follow.

Cue waiting on hold continually in the last few weeks. Oh yeah, you'll be connected soon. The christmas season delayed us, y'know. Oh yeah, you'll get a letter soon 'god willing'. It's the whole 21 day wait thing. 21 working days y'know? Oh yeah, it'll be on soon. Just getting through the Q.

Called them again today, quite irritated. And I was told that 'no no, we can't give you broadband'. Yeah, we thought you were on the Ship Street exchange but you're actually on a subsidiary exchange. Someone should probably have told you that.

Someone like YOU probably f**king should, yeah. :mad:

So we can't get NTL or Smart. And we're left with BT (who are currently ripping my folks off with bogus bills) or the Eircom rip off merchants.

Steffano2002

[SARCASM]God I love Ireland![/SARCASM]

jor el

quad_red wrote:

So we can't get NTL or Smart. And we're left with BT (who are currently ripping my folks off with bogus bills) or the Eircom rip off merchants.

If you are indeed on a sub-exchange then you should check your line status with eircom to see if you can get broadband at all. As far as I'm aware eircom don't put DSL equipment in the sub exchanges and you won't be able to get BB from any provider if your line goes through one of these. Yet another reason to love eircom, comreg, Noel Dempsey and the whole shagging lot of them.

Any chance you're under Digiweb's Metro umbrella?

Cabaal

If its a RSU (Remote Subscriber Unit) then you won't be getting Broadband as Eircom don't enable RSU's for ADSL at present, or atleast last time I checked....

quad_red

Dublin city centre, inbetween banks and financial houses.

And I mightn't be able to get broadband.

You have got to be f**king kidding me. We can't even get wireless cos we've no line of sight.

quad_red

Cabaal wrote:

If its a RSU (Remote Subscriber Unit) then you won't be getting Broadband as Eircom don't enable RSU's for ADSL at present, or atleast last time I checked....

But surely that would turn up in the line checkers??!?!?

Called BT there. They said they're line checker showed we're good to go.

The Eircom website line checker says it's good to go.

And I can pick up (sadly encrypted) wireless networks in our apartment, so someone in the bloody building must have BB (unless i'm picking up a wireless network in one of the offices nearby)

Cabaal

quad_red wrote:

But surely that would turn up in the line checkers??!?!?

Called BT there. They said they're line checker showed we're good to go.

The Eircom website line checker says it's good to go.

And I can pick up (sadly encrypted) wireless networks in our apartment, so someone in the bloody building must have BB (unless i'm picking up a wireless network in one of the offices nearby)

hmm, sounds like you can just get normal bitstream products (eircom wholesales resold ADSL Broadband product), the likes of BT, UTV etc sell this

However just because you can get this doesn't mean you can get Smart or Magnet as these are LLU (Local Loop Unbundling) providers and if they don't have their kit in your exchange then your limited to Eircoms resold product (bitstream) from the likes of BT etc

So your basically limited to IBB, Digiweb, Eircom, BT, UTV, Imagine, Perlico etc (these all provide ADSL packages), while its the same product there are different Fair Usage Policys and caps which each provider.

jor el

quad_red wrote:

Called BT there. They said they're line checker showed we're good to go.
The Eircom website line checker says it's good to go.

That being the case you should be OK for broadband from one of the many mentioned providers. BT are the best priced and they are lenient on the cap. But as you already pointed out, their dodgy billing practices have been, and continue to be, as source of great pain to many people.

Having said that, I'm not sure if there are any broadband companies in this country that haven't had major customer service and billing issues. There are a myriad of threads here pointing out the problems with just about all of them.

quad_red

Thanks for the info guys.

I ordered BB off BT there. The linechecker says 'yeah' but we shall see....

<mumbles about Irish com infrastructure being a joke>