Switching from Eircom to BT

squibs

This seems like the best spot for this. Thanks for reading my rant.

I recently took the plunge and switched over from Eircom to BT to avail of their line rental/broadband/free calls package. The only question I had, and I verified it again with the sales person, was how long would my internet be down. The sales person told me 10 minutes - I would receive a text with my new username and password for the broadband modem, after a 7 day cooldown period, and I'd be up and running right away.

My internet went down on Saturday morning. First BT told me that they would email the relevant dept and get it sorted right away. Tried again on Monday - again promised an email. I couldn't speak directly to the department because they weren't customer facing, and anyway they were off for the bank holiday.

Still no net today. I was told the the order status was not showing as complete in their database and was referred back to sales. Sales said that there was a 15 day turnaround on the switch (remember I had working internet with eircom up to this). They wouldn't tell me why, and wouldn't put me on to a supervisor. They just said that the original sales person had lied to me and tough titty. They refused to cancel the order as they said it wasn't possible until the order had cycled to complete in the database - in 15 days.

Then they changed tack and said they didn't cancel my broadband with eircom (well it certainly wasn't me). After calling eircom, they told me BT had cancelled my broadband (but not my phone) and I needed to take it up with them.

I gave up at that point as I was going to scream abuse if I talked to anybody else. I have been repeatedly lied to now by BT, and it seems like there's nothing I can do but wait. I would appreciate it if anybody can back up my notion that the 15 day outage period is complete bs, or if anybody had a way of getting in contact with somebody in the organisation who can actually help me. :mad:

jor el

I think if you move from one re-seller to another (like UTV - BT) then there is no down time, but since you're moving the line rental and calls to BT aswell there is a downtime. The usual quote is 15 days, it can sometimes be a little shorter, but I'd say 10 days minimum.

Since you've been lied to by BT you can make a formal complaint to them, but it's doubtful you'll get anywhere. You can also bring this complaint to Comreg, but again you'd be as well sending the complaint to Santa for all the good it'll do.

BT are well known for their shoddy customer service and nothing will ever be done about it due to continued government incompetence and regulator ignorance.

If you like, since you've been jerked around by BT, you can cancel the service as soon as they do finally connect you and go back to eircom. But there'll probably be another 15 day downtime on the return leg too so you'll be shooting your self in the foot somewhat just for the satisfaction of not giving them any business.

Nody

jor el wrote:

I think if you move from one re-seller to another (like UTV - BT) then there is no down time, but since you're moving the line rental and calls to BT aswell there is a downtime. The usual quote is 15 days, it can sometimes be a little shorter, but I'd say 10 days minimum.

The reason is because Eircom needs time to unbundle the billing; that is they need to put into their system that the phone calls and internet needs to be billed as two different units, really hard stuff... In short it is Eircom's way to punish people for moving away from them (regardless of whom they go to that don't resell Eircom products directly).

Colonel Sanders

what is our great communications regulator doing to ease the pain of this for people?

PS My guess would be zilch......

squibs

Thanks guys - I'm really surprised that they weren't lying about the 15 days thing. I guess I'll just swallow my bile and wait the 15 days. It would be a lot easier to take if any of the people I spoke to in BT had a consistent story - I really disliked being lied to and passed around like a hot potato. The only consolation is Eircom's customer service was even worse

squibs

Well - looks like my hours on the phone paid off. 2 letters in the mail tpday from BT - one saying we have started to progress your broadband order. The critical passage was "When your BT broadband service goes live you may notice that you are no longer able to access the internet". Yup Sherlock, think I might notice that alright. In other words, they are saying I should not have been disconnected from eircom until I was connected to BT.

The second letter said "Your broadband service is now active"

Fight the power lads, fight the power.