Eircom or Bt

nevaeh-2die-4

Hi

i have eircom at the im happy enough with it, im just not happy at the speeds.

i can get bt 24mb broadband compared to 3mb for pretty much the same price.

has anyone moved from eircom to bt?
and if so how do you find them?
is there broadband any good?
is it good for downloading ?


Thanks

CptSternn

I did, a few things to note however:

24mb speeds only apply if your local exchange is capable of handling these speeds. Normally they give you a 4 meg package (option 3 on their website) and IF your exchange is capable of more (i.e. if the lines in your estate can handle it) then they give you UP TO 24 mb connections. I get six megs, because that is the fastest they say I can get here, and they just upgraded my local change - I could only get 1 meg until they did the upgrade to all the lines in my estate. I also don't think they tell you what speed you will be able to receive before you sign up - they just tell you that you are promised 3 megs, and up to 24 is the exchange in the area is capable.

Also note a few things -

BT has crap billing. I have had problems from day one with them. There are multiple threads here with people complaining about the billing issues. Also, they limit the unlimited service. If you download more than 100 gigs in 30 days they throttle you so you only get 1/4 meg (dialup speed) for the next 30 days. They don't explicitly say this, and you only find out one day when you come home and your connection is slower than dialup.

Of course there are just as many horror stories about Eircom as well here...

nevaeh-2die-4

CptSternn wrote: »

I did, a few things to note however:

24mb speeds only apply if your local exchange is capable of handling these speeds. Normally they give you a 4 meg package (option 3 on their website) and IF your exchange is capable of more (i.e. if the lines in your estate can handle it) then they give you UP TO 24 mb connections. I get six megs, because that is the fastest they say I can get here, and they just upgraded my local change - I could only get 1 meg until they did the upgrade to all the lines in my estate. I also don't think they tell you what speed you will be able to receive before you sign up - they just tell you that you are promised 3 megs, and up to 24 is the exchange in the area is capable.

Also note a few things -

BT has crap billing. I have had problems from day one with them. There are multiple threads here with people complaining about the billing issues. Also, they limit the unlimited service. If you download more than 100 gigs in 30 days they throttle you so you only get 1/4 meg (dialup speed) for the next 30 days. They don't explicitly say this, and you only find out one day when you come home and your connection is slower than dialup.

Of course there are just as many horror stories about Eircom as well here...

Thanks man, i have never had a billing problem with eircom.
after watching that documentary on rte about the poor customer service seeing BT had me apprehensive about making the switch. you confirmed it for me . Cheers

cherrio

I use BT, on the 24mb option.

1. The 24mb is totally dependent on your line and how far you are from it, I only can only get 9.3mb on my line

2. Some people complain (rightly) about billing mistakes, but have been with BT for 3 years and they have never made a mistake on my bill yet.

3. Tech support can be a bit hit or miss. Once you actually get through to someone, then they are usually very good, but queue times can be long.

Over all I am quite positive about BT, and would recommend. Worth a call to the sales team and ask them to do a line test, they should be able to tell you then and there what you max speed would be (which is likely to be 12 - 18mb).

Supposedly the pings are better on the 3mb connection (which is better for gaming), but I was "kicking ass and taking names" last night on Xbox Live in COD 5 no problems at all:p

dub45

CptSternn wrote: »

I did, a few things to note however:

...................................
BT has crap billing. I have had problems from day one with them. There are multiple threads here with people complaining about the billing issues. Also, they limit the unlimited service. If you download more than 100 gigs in 30 days they throttle you so you only get 1/4 meg (dialup speed) for the next 30 days. They don't explicitly say this, and you only find out one day when you come home and your connection is slower than dialup.

Of course there are just as many horror stories about Eircom as well here.

If you mean horror stories about Eircom billing then you are totally wrong. It is rare indeed to find a post on here about wrong Eircom billing which is quite an achievement on Eircom's part given the number of bb customers that they have. I dont doubt that they Eircom errors happen but BT are in a different class and have been for many years in their various incarnations with billing messups.

In any properly run country they would be closed down and not allowed to reopen until they had a proper billing system in place. I dont know how their internal audit people are able in conscience to stand over such a debacle for so long.

Cabaal

If yet to see any real big complaints about Eircom billing on this forum as dub45 has corrected noted, you will however see complaints about "my line can't support Broadband" directed at Eircom which is expected.

In addition you won't see any/many complaints about Eircom and throttling (BT however is another story), so while I hate Eircom with a passion myself it seems they can actually do a few things right

ShooterSF

Thinking of switching from BT to Eircom myself as the folks have eircom phone they dont want to give up and I could save on broadband with a bundle. One question does anyone know if they enforce the 30 Gig monthly limit or is there an unlimited option?

Cabaal

ShooterSF wrote: »

Thinking of switching from BT to Eircom myself as the folks have eircom phone they dont want to give up and I could save on broadband with a bundle. One question does anyone know if they enforce the 30 Gig monthly limit or is there an unlimited option?

They don't have a unlimited option and at present they don't enforce the cap but this may change in the future or if you take the piss...at the end of the day they reserve the right to charge as per T&C's

jenizzle

I have the "24mb" option with BT. TBH, I have nothing but praise for BT. We had an installation issue which lasted over 2 weeks - the team lead called me everyday with updates, and really went out of his way. Also, their callback service is useful if you don't want to hold the line waiting. I always got a callback within the hour. Customer Services had no problems in sorting out the refund we were due straight away.



As for the "unlimited" option - Mine got throttled once as we went over 100gb down and up in a month, it only took 4-5 days to get back to normal. Since then, we've not gone near the limit - not necessarily keeping an eye on it, but haven't been downloading.

syklops

nevaeh-2die-4 wrote: »

Thanks man, i have never had a billing problem with eircom.
after watching that documentary on rte about the poor customer service seeing BT had me apprehensive about making the switch. you confirmed it for me . Cheers

Can I point out that on that program on RTE(Prime Time Investigates) which covered customer service problems with everyone from NTL, Smart, BT and Vodafone, Eircom was not given a mention. At all. Now that says one of 2 things, either they provide excellent service all the time, or the program was not entirely non-biased.

I believe it could be the second one.

dub45

syklops wrote: »

Can I point out that on that program on RTE(Prime Time Investigates) which covered customer service problems with everyone from NTL, Smart, BT and Vodafone, Eircom was not given a mention. At all. Now that says one of 2 things, either they provide excellent service all the time, or the program was not entirely non-biased.

I believe it could be the second one.

And have you any basis for this belief apart from your own prejudice? Otherwise you are calling into question the integrity of the programme makers who did after all give plenty of opportunity on here for people to give them submissions.

Cabaal

dub45 wrote: »

And have you any basis for this belief apart from your own prejudice? Otherwise you are calling into question the integrity of the programme makers who did after all give plenty of opportunity on here for people to give them submissions.

I'd have to agree with this, RTE posted on boards.ie several times asking for people to submit there experiences, the likes of BT and Three were bound to go before Eircom in relation to the likes of billing issues

Speculating about the integrity of prime time is hardly helpful and you have nothing to back this up other then your own personal views

conchubhar1

eh rabble rabble

eh stoopid question - rabble rable - discussed a million times before - rabble rablle

ardmacha

eh rabble rabble

eh stoopid question - rabble rable - discussed a million times before - rabble rablle

Why resurrect a 2 month old thread with this comment?

littleemperor

one other thing worth noting. eircom have signed up with the irish music rights to work a three strikes rule for viewed sites they don't like. after the third you are banned and black listed. i had this in china when i lived there with their great firewall. only half the sites worked, horrible. eircom have started this here. i know it's only for doggy sites now but as anyone can see from around the world, if you give big money an inch they will take a mile. the internet is the only real freedom left and now we can't even view sites with info they don't want us knowing. (music sharing)
just on principle i'm moving to BT. every other country in the world (bar China) has thrown out this stuff but good old eircom went to bed with it.

sorry can't do it.