My Eircom Daydream

digitalsnub

My Eircom Daydream is that I phone up and ask for broadband. The person on the other end tells me my line doesn't pass, but then instead of leaving it says that they will send an engineer round the next day to examine the line between my house and the exchange and try everything possible to get me connected. They do this and I get broadband.

The (happy) end.

While I'm here... early December last when I was phoning Eircom trying to get a FWA connection, I got put through to broadband sales, I asked about getting fixed wireless access... the guy on the other end said "We have wireless modems for sale", I politely said that wasn't what I was after, that I was reading about FWA on eircom's website... he put me on hold... then a few seconds later I got a recorded message along the lines of "due to an unexpected emergency the switchboard has been shut down, goodbye" and I was disconnected... no joke...

cgarvey

Good to hear on the DSL front. Not surprised at all on the FWA front. They seem very reluctant to sell it.

Were you made sign up for the DSL before they sent an engineer? (I realise you might have been happy to, just wondering if it was a requirement)

digitalsnub

Hi, unfortunatly it's only a daydream, wishful thinking about how I'd like my dealings with eircom to go:(

I've asked eircom's sales people if it's possible to have a technician check my line/exchange and they just maintain that if the checker doesn't work, that's it... they should be forced to try setup DSL if a customer on an enabled exchange asks for it...

Before posting this I lost my password for this forum, it took me about 10 minutes to get it thanks to this slowass connection...

cgarvey

Ah right, sorry.. thought the dream had come true!

Well they do have an alleged "amber program". That is, if you are connected to an enabled exchange (are you?), and live within the distance limitation (artificially low in eircom's case), then if you commit to a DSL order, they'll send out an engineer to do a best-effort install (at no extra cost). So if you are connected to an enabled exchange it's worth enquiring about this Amber Program.

.cg

dub45

Yes I can confirm the above - a friend of mine lives in an apartment in an oldish house in Fairview with very dodgy lines and while it took a lot of persistence and a very willing engineer (who literally spent ages trying to get a decent signal despite lousy wiring which wasn't Eircom's fault incidentally) he now has broadband albeit not wonderful speeds. He had been told over the years that he would never get bb in his particular situation.

digitalsnub

I'm 6km from an enabled exchange...I'll sign up in advance for halfspeed broadband if that's what it takes to get the line sorted... But the online system doesn't allow me beyond the line checker, I've asked the phone sales people before but its been "it says your lines not suitable" and thats it... If I say 'amber program' will they know what I'm on about?!

cgarvey

digitalsnub wrote:

If I say 'amber program' will they know what I'm on about?!

Anecdotally, it's very hit and miss (you may need to call back a couple of times to get someone who has heard of it)

dub45

cgarvey wrote:

Anecdotally, it's very hit and miss (you may need to call back a couple of times to get someone who has heard of it)

A letter to the Chief Executive got the ball rolling in the case I mentioned above.

Stench Blossoms

digitalsnub wrote:

I'm 6km from an enabled exchange...I'll sign up in advance for halfspeed broadband if that's what it takes to get the line sorted... But the online system doesn't allow me beyond the line checker, I've asked the phone sales people before but its been "it says your lines not suitable" and thats it... If I say 'amber program' will they know what I'm on about?!

The results of the lines test in eircom are either:
Pre-qual fail,
Sucess/Warning (ie amber),
or Sucess.

So you can't ask to be put on the amber program. You could however be asked to be put on the list for wimax. Where are you based?