UPC Broadband question

currythis

My contract with Irish Broadband(no landline in the house) is up at the end of the month and I'm thinking of going to upc for broadband as the irish broadband is quite slow and pretty pricey at 26 quid per month!Is UPC's broadband any good and is it easily installed?Also if I were to order it this week would it be installed by the end of the month?Thanks in advance!

Infoanon

I would recommend UPC broadband service - never had any real issues with it and the speed is exactly what it should be.

I assume you are looking at their broadband service and not their TV service.

2 things to watchout for :

Know what speed you want - they will try to sell you the most expensive package and check your TV reception afterwards especially if you have dodgy BBC2 reception.

byte

Mod Note: Thread moved to Broadband.

dub45

I would suggest that you do a search here as there is a lot to read about UPC.

As the poster states above some people have excellent bb While others have poor quality and it really is impossible to know in advance which you are likely to get. If you are lucky then thats it sorted - faster speeds than anyone else at the moment.

However, and it is a big however, they have dire, awful you name it, customer service. You only have to make one call (apart from to their sales dept of course) to realise that they simply do not want to deal with you as a customer as the system is unapologetically set up to make sure that you have as little contact with a staff member as is possible. You really have to try very hard to be as bad as they are in the area of customer service.

They are also notorious for not turning up for appointments.

So you pays your money and takes your chances.

vibe666

having said that, most of the other ISP's you could choose won't have much better customer service and won't give you the same speeds UPC are offering.

add to that the possibility of (up to) 120mbps breoadband from them by the end of this year and it's a pretty attractive offer, assuming as dub45 says, it works fine for you out of the box.

dub45

vibe666 wrote: »

having said that, most of the other ISP's you could choose won't have much better customer service and won't give you the same speeds UPC are offering.

add to that the possibility of (up to) 120mbps breoadband from them by the end of this year and it's a pretty attractive offer, assuming as dub45 says, it works fine for you out of the box.

I really dont think any of the others could be quite as bad as UPC no matter hwo hard they tried:)

_Sidhe_

dub45 wrote: »

I really dont think any of the others could be quite as bad as UPC no matter hwo hard they tried:)

God you really do have a problem don't you.

I can barely remember a post you've made since I started posting here myself that didn't mention UPC's customer service.

Yes, everyone has just as bad call centers.

I've had God knows ow many problems with Eircom.
Just for the sake of it, as I've never really rang UPC for tech issues, I thought I'd try now.

2 minutes to get through.
I asked a basic question about mail servers was given them straight away an asked if I wanted to be guided in setting them up.

Oh the horror.

The only thing that did annoy me was being offered the phone service at the end of the call.

But what company doesn't do that nowadays.

Why don't you try that Dub.
I've head nothing but bad reports on the call center here, but I've hear lots of crap on internet forums.

Lvbrs

Hi. I've had UPC Broadband Value Package for 3 years. Only ever went down twice. Admittedly,the first time was over Christmas, and their CS team told me it was a faulty cable modem and would need an engineer call out which would take a week. It came back the next day and it was in fact a general problem in the area.

The speed is good, 3Mb being the lowest speed they offer.

I must admit the Technical support team only seem to know the basics of support,as in rebooting the modem etc and I always get the impression that they are reading from a very basic script. They need real IT Desktop support people in there, who can specialise in the BB / Technical area but have a good IT foundation.

Having said that I have found them to be pretty OK really, just not very well trained technically, which I guess is what a customer needs at the end of the day.

On the call outs: The engineers are not actually employed by UPC as far as I know. When i had BB installed adn then Digtal+ ther was no problem. But i subsequently reported a TV signal fault and was left waiting all day, only to find ,again, that it was a fault in my area. The engineer or UPC should have contacted me to let me know.( Apparently the engineer cancelled the call but I was left hanging around.)

hightower1

Lvbrs wrote: »

Hi. I've had UPC Broadband Value Package for 3 years. Only ever went down twice. Admittedly,the first time was over Christmas, and their CS team told me it was a faulty cable modem and would need an engineer call out which would take a week. It came back the next day and it was in fact a general problem in the area.

The speed is good, 3Mb being the lowest speed they offer.

I must admit the Technical support team only seem to know the basics of support,as in rebooting the modem etc and I always get the impression that they are reading from a very basic script. They need real IT Desktop support people in there, who can specialise in the BB / Technical area but have a good IT foundation.

Having said that I have found them to be pretty OK really, just not very well trained technically, which I guess is what a customer needs at the end of the day.

On the call outs: The engineers are not actually employed by UPC as far as I know. When i had BB installed adn then Digtal+ ther was no problem. But i subsequently reported a TV signal fault and was left waiting all day, only to find ,again, that it was a fault in my area. The engineer or UPC should have contacted me to let me know.( Apparently the engineer cancelled the call but I was left hanging around.)

I think a lot of people would ring a technical support department these days and expect support to run as far as their software? the mandate for a lot of these departments are to ensure the supply of broadband into a customers house not the use or displaying of such.

In UPC's case they will service and investigate connection problems into and exiting their modem, they wont cover routers/hardware/software. I think thats fair enough considering the term ISP. They will only supply the means to connect and the connection nothing more or less.

The reasons for this are at least three fold. Firstly it allows for a shorter average turn around time on the average call to a tech department and in turn improving customer flow and wait times.
Secondly it means they need only train agents on their systems and not hardware/software issues, OS troubleshooting etc.
Finally it would be very difficult to try and staff an department with I.T graduates with incentives of rota hours, 25k per year salary and never ending work loads? Given the choice and considering you were an I.T graduate would you work in an ISP tech support department or a private in house I.T department with better pay, hours and work load?

As you say that they could do with hiring more qualified agents would you be prepared to foot the cost of this? Considering the pay increase may mean your call to that department may be charged?

UPC have gone one step further and staggered that choice by introducing their partnership with Cobweb technologies, allowing all network issues or modem issues being supported by their own agents with in house training and tools or then should the issue being found with any hardware/software supplying you with Cobweb techs details at a paid rate. At which stage the decision is entirely up to the customer to contact them and carry on trouble shooting but being completely aware there is a cost from that point.

Any other ISP's solution would be to say sorry, our modem is working and supplying connection its your equipment. UPC liaise with Cobweb tech and allow you to continue troubleshooting your equipment issues with I.T trained specialists that don't have to reply on recycled information but can hear it directly from your ISP!



I have to say when I first was suggested to call a 95c per min number I was taken back but when I thought about it.... it allows them to keep costs low and pass on savings, get through to their tech support quicker, get 1st class IT support on my equipment immediately(not having to haul it do pc world) and most importantly the transition from free modem support to paid IT support is MY choice.:)


P.S. I hope you are listening DUB 45, I think in anyones opinion that its great customer support.

IIMII

So as not to start a new thread, can anyone confirm that you can plug your existing phone handset into the UPC port if I were to ditch BT and get UPC? Is there any noticable difference in call quality? I take it their offering is VOIP?

Similarly, could I plug my Sky+ box into the UPC socket (so it can do it's dial in and out tasks) as you would with a normal telephone line?

_Sidhe_

IIMII wrote: »

So as not to start a new thread, can anyone confirm that you can plug your existing phone handset into the UPC port if I were to ditch BT and get UPC? Is there any noticable difference in call quality? I take it their offering is VOIP?

Similarly, could I plug my Sky+ box into the UPC socket (so it can do it's dial in and out tasks) as you would with a normal telephone line?

As long as the phone is VOIP capable it'll work.
Some older DECT phones aren't.

UPC's service is, and isn't VOIP.
It technically is, but as the call never leaves their own network, they can control the signal.
This means that you don't get the intermitant issues that you would through a traditional VOIP service.
As long as there's no service issues, the quality is pretty much identical to an analogue (Eircom) system.
Of course if the Broadband or power goes, so does your phone (although nearly everyone uses DECT phones nowadays anyway so the power thing is the same).

You can use Sky boxes the same way as normal.

dub45

hightower1 wrote: »

I think a lot of people would ring a technical support department these days and expect support to run as far as their software? the mandate for a lot of these departments are to ensure the supply of broadband into a customers house not the use or displaying of such.

In UPC's case they will service and investigate connection problems into and exiting their modem, they wont cover routers/hardware/software. I think thats fair enough considering the term ISP. They will only supply the means to connect and the connection nothing more or less.

The reasons for this are at least three fold. Firstly it allows for a shorter average turn around time on the average call to a tech department and in turn improving customer flow and wait times.
Secondly it means they need only train agents on their systems and not hardware/software issues, OS troubleshooting etc.
Finally it would be very difficult to try and staff an department with I.T graduates with incentives of rota hours, 25k per year salary and never ending work loads? Given the choice and considering you were an I.T graduate would you work in an ISP tech support department or a private in house I.T department with better pay, hours and work load?

As you say that they could do with hiring more qualified agents would you be prepared to foot the cost of this? Considering the pay increase may mean your call to that department may be charged?

UPC have gone one step further and staggered that choice by introducing their partnership with Cobweb technologies, allowing all network issues or modem issues being supported by their own agents with in house training and tools or then should the issue being found with any hardware/software supplying you with Cobweb techs details at a paid rate. At which stage the decision is entirely up to the customer to contact them and carry on trouble shooting but being completely aware there is a cost from that point.

Any other ISP's solution would be to say sorry, our modem is working and supplying connection its your equipment. UPC liaise with Cobweb tech and allow you to continue troubleshooting your equipment issues with I.T trained specialists that don't have to reply on recycled information but can hear it directly from your ISP!



I have to say when I first was suggested to call a 95c per min number I was taken back but when I thought about it.... it allows them to keep costs low and pass on savings, get through to their tech support quicker, get 1st class IT support on my equipment immediately(not having to haul it do pc world) and most importantly the transition from free modem support to paid IT support is MY choice.:)


P.S. I hope you are listening DUB 45, I think in anyones opinion that its great customer support.

On the contrary I have very serious reservations about an ISP offering this type of service to unsuspecting customers. A service which has no quality levels built in as far as I can see in reading the terms and conditions. For example there appears to be no guarantee or undertaking that a 'technician' will end a call after a certain period of time?

I dont know how you can call charging someone 95c a minute for a service which may not work at all for you 'great customer support'? There is absolutely no incentive for the 'technician' to get the problem solved quickly in fact quite the reverse.

It would be very easy for an inexperienced person to spend up to 20 mins or so on such a line. At least if you pay a 'technician' to call out they are there and can deal easilly with what can be an an awkward situation for a newbie and so on but I really don't agree with this type of thing being done over the phone. And I would think that irrespective of whichever ISP was doing it.

dub45

_Sidhe_ wrote: »

God you really do have a problem don't you.

I can barely remember a post you've made since I started posting here myself that didn't mention UPC's customer service.

Yes, everyone has just as bad call centers.

I've had God knows ow many problems with Eircom.
Just for the sake of it, as I've never really rang UPC for tech issues, I thought I'd try now.

2 minutes to get through.
I asked a basic question about mail servers was given them straight away an asked if I wanted to be guided in setting them up.

Oh the horror.

The only thing that did annoy me was being offered the phone service at the end of the call.

But what company doesn't do that nowadays.

Why don't you try that Dub.
I've head nothing but bad reports on the call center here, but I've hear lots of crap on internet forums.

I have a problem with lousy customer service wherever it comes from! And I can assure you I have made loads of posts that managed to ignore the joke that is UPC's customer service. And remember customer service covers more than tech issues.

hightower1

dub45 wrote: »

On the contrary I have very serious reservations about an ISP offering this type of service to unsuspecting customers. A service which has no quality levels built in as far as I can see in reading the terms and conditions.

Sorry? Unsuspecting? It would be very strange for a UPC agent to give a contact number of a PC support call center without first advising a customer of that there is a PC related issue? I believe at that point the customer is very much suspecting a PC issue.

In relation to the quality levels, of which service are you unclear about? UPC's broadband quality levels are outlined in there terms and conditions ,free to anyone to read on their site. http://www.upc.ie/termsandconditions/

In fact in their second paragraph they outline it as ....

2.2 In supplying the Services we will always use our reasonable skill and care but are
unable to guarantee fault free performance. The Services are provided on a best efforts basis and we do not warrant that any connection to, transmission over, or results of the
Equipment or the Services will meet your requirements or will provide uninterrupted use
or will operate as required or at any minimum speed, or error free. We can not
guarantee minimum bandwidth delivered to you and we can not guarantee that all data
traffic can be transported complete and without delay. If a fault occurs you should notify
us by contacting our customer management centre. If you are unable to access the
Services, you remain liable to pay all Charges that would otherwise apply.




In short, should a problem with your modem/connection arise they will make every effort to resolve the problem in a timely manor. I fail to see how you overlooked this as it is the very start of UPC's terms and conditions and is quite clear what they hold their quality levels to.

If you are relating to their partnership with Cobweb Technologies or "Premium service" as they name it all information again can be found on their website under .... http://www.upc.ie/service/?cid=123&aid=84

It is very clear what each stage of the service will cover and what they aim to achieve with a caller.


So both their website outlines their quality levels, different grounds covered by both technical support departments/premium support level.





[/QUOTE]It would be very easy for an inexperienced person to spend up to 20 mins or so on such a line. At least if you pay a person to call out they are there and can deal with awkward situations and so on but I really don't agree with this type of thing being done over the phone. And I would think that irrespective of whichever ISP was doing it.[/QUOTE]

Up to twenty mins as your example states is €19, a minimum book in charge with pc world is €50 eur as is the average call out charge for a PC repair technician. ALL of these services will not guarantee a solution to a particular issue and will charge no matter the outcome. The only difference is that their premium line as I have already stated has two clear advantages... 1.It is immediate support and 2. The relevant information on the problem and connection are communicated direct form the ISP and not re communicated from ISP to PC owner to IT support.

You are of coarse entitled to not agree with this type of thing being done over the phone but bear in mind that it is a level being offered by "terrible customer service" that no other ISP offers, is aimed at immediate solution to a persons problem and is chosen by the caller. All three aspects of universally agreed foundations of good customer support.

dub45

hightower1 wrote: »

Sorry? Unsuspecting? It would be very strange for a UPC agent to give a contact number of a PC support call center without first advising a customer of that there is a PC related issue? I believe at that point the customer is very much suspecting a PC issue.

In the first place there is no guarantee that the problem is in fact with the pc. And I used ''unsuspecting'' in the sense that I doubt if many people realise how much such a call may cost them and how unsatisfactory such calls can be.

hightower1 wrote: »

In relation to the quality levels, of which service are you unclear about?


If you are relating to their partnership with Cobweb Technologies or "Premium service" as they name it all information again can be found on their website under .... http://www.upc.ie/service/?cid=123&aid=84

It is very clear what each stage of the service will cover and what they aim to achieve with a caller.

Can you tell me then exactly what an inexperienced person can expect from a referral from UPC's support desk to this wonderful 95c a minute service?

Are customers encouraged to read the Terms and Conditions before calling this service? Is this service as diligent as UPC themselves in ensuring that it is the account holder that they are talking to?

And why is this service which most people will be referred to presumably as a result of ringing UPC with an internet connection problem offering advice on everything from printers to pdas and scanners not to mention 'all third party software' All third party software? that is some claim to make.

It would be very easy for an inexperienced person to spend up to 20 mins or so on such a line. At least if you pay a person to call out they are there and can deal with awkward situations and so on but I really don't agree with this type of thing being done over the phone. And I would think that irrespective of whichever ISP was doing it.

hightower1 wrote: »

Up to twenty mins as your example states is €19, a minimum book in charge with pc world is €50 eur as is the average call out charge for a PC repair technician. ALL of these services will not guarantee a solution to a particular issue and will charge no matter the outcome.

The difference is that the person who opts for the pc repair technician can get a quote or indeed quotes and a fair idea of what the problem will cost to cure. And the technician will deal with the problem themselves at first hand. A call to a premium line offers no question of obtaining an estimate or expert hands on attention. I took the example of 20 minute as a relatively short call given that the website says that they work through a series of steps.

hightower1 wrote: »

The only difference is that their premium line as I have already stated has two clear advantages... 1.It is immediate support and 2. The relevant information on the problem and connection are communicated direct form the ISP and not re communicated from ISP to PC owner to IT support.

That presupposes a ready and quick diagnosis and the ability of perhaps a very inexperienced person to implement it. It would be very interesting to know how much the average call to this wonderful support service rakes in and how satisfactory the service overall is as viewed by customers. I would also be very interested to know the average length of calls.

hightower1 wrote: »

You are of coarse entitled to not agree with this type of thing being done over the phone but bear in mind that it is a level being offered by "terrible customer service" that no other ISP offers, is aimed at immediate solution to a persons problem and is chosen by the caller. All three aspects of universally agreed foundations of good customer support.

I don't agree that this is customer service or support at all. I am very dubious about the referral of a customer with a problem which may or may not be the isp's to solve to a paid service operated by that same isp. I would be very interested to know what instructions are given to UPC's staff as to how far they should go in attempting to solve a problem before referring it to this paid service. In my view it is to other isps' credit that they do not engage in this type of referral.

And in my view Smart offer a far better service to their customers via their on line forums where the expertise of Smart staff and customers are available to customers with problems totally free of course!!

_Sidhe_

dub45 wrote: »

I don't agree that this is customer service or support at all. I am very dubious about the referral of a customer with a problem which may or may not be the isp's to solve to a paid service operated by that same isp. I would be very interested to know what instructions are given to UPC's staff as to how far they should go in attempting to solve a problem before referring it to this paid service. In my view it is to other isps' credit that they do not engage in this type of referral.

And in my view Smart offer a far better service to their customers via their on line forums where the expertise of Smart staff and customers are available to customers with problems totally free of course!!

So what you're saying is that you, a moderator, are going around constantly advising customers that have no experience of UPC that they have terrible Customer Service (not bad now, but terrible) based on what you admit are your completely unsubstansiated worries.

You admit to having no experience on the matter, and no idea how it works, but freely assume and alledge with no proof, evidence or reason, because you personally don't like UPC.

Thanks you.

That answers alot.


P.S: And yes, Smart probably dop have the best support, and their website is a great concept.
But Smart being the best, doesn't make UPC the worst.
BT/Eircom/Imagine/Perlico/Vodafone etc don't have support forums.
Are they "terrible" customer service?

dub45

_Sidhe_ wrote: »

So what you're saying is that you, a moderator, are going around constantly advising customers that have no experience of UPC that they have terrible Customer Service (not bad now, but terrible) based on what you admit are your completely unsubstansiated worries.

You admit to having no experience on the matter, and no idea how it works, but freely assume and alledge with no proof, evidence or reason, because you personally don't like UPC.

Thanks you.

That answers alot.


P.S: And yes, Smart probably dop have the best support, and their website is a great concept.
But Smart being the best, doesn't make UPC the worst.
BT/Eircom/Imagine/Perlico/Vodafone etc don't have support forums.
Are they "terrible" customer service?

Sadly in your blind love for UPC you appear either unwilling or unable to address my concerns.

My concerns about UPC's customer service are not related to the material you quote above. The material you quote above is in relation to UPC's relationship with their technical support partners. And it is information that as a non employee of UPC I have no access to.

I would expect that anyone who gave any consideraton to such a commerical relationship (even the most avid fan of UPC) would have serious concerns about the possiblities for abuse. And it completely escapes me as to how anyone can consider paying 95c a minute to be customer service? Particularly when there is no information available as to the qualifications of the people giving this 'technical advice'.

My concerns about UPC customer service are based on direct personal experience and those of others whom I have spoken to; reading many many posts here - easily found via a search and if you want to add more material you only have to do a google search. Even the wikipedia article on them gives newspaper references to their poor customer service.

There are none so blind as those who will not see or will only see what they want to see.

Incidentally being a moderator does not preclude me from posting on anyone's customer service.

hightower1

So Dub45, can I just clarify something?

If a caller has no internet connection....

They call UPC...

The agent will determen if the problem is the
modem/network/router/hardware/software through remote testing....

If the issue is router/hardware/software you belive that good customer service of at least better service is to say "sorry, not our problem" ?

Instead of adding "but I can give you a number for a IT support line at a premium rate?" ?



You feel that an ISP giving less options to a paying customer in relation to a non service issue is better customer service?

Upc are by no means perfect but in my opinion they are compeditive, innovative and are genuinly a driving force in broadband supply in this country.

_Sidhe_

dub45 wrote: »

Sadly in your blind love for UPC you appear either unwilling or unable to address my concerns.

My concerns about UPC's customer service are not related to the material you quote above. The material you quote above is in relation to UPC's relationship with their technical support partners. And it is information that as a non employee of UPC I have no access to.

I would expect that anyone who gave any consideraton to such a commerical relationship (even the most avid fan of UPC) would have serious concerns about the possiblities for abuse. And it completely escapes as to how anyone can consider paying 95c a minute to be customer service? Particularly when there is no information available as to the qualifications of the people giving this 'technical advice'.

My concerns about UPC customer service are based on direct personal experience and those of others whom I have spoken to; reading many many posts here - easily found via a search and if you want to add more material you only have to do a google search. Even the wikipedia article on them gives newspaper references to their poor customer service.

There are none so blind as those who will not see or will only see what they want to see.

Incidentally being a moderator does not preclude me from posting on anyone's customer service.

And blind hatred seems to blind you even more so.
You're posting your concern as fact.
That is my problem.
You are not saying that UPC's service is bad because......
You are saying it is bad becasue maybe this might be the case.

That is not on.


And yes, you will find loads of people saying UPC is bad.
Just like you'll find loads of people saying that the world was created in 6 days 6,000 years ago.
And loads of people who say that America "liberated" Iraq.
etc...
etc...
etc...

The internet is full of people spreading oppinions as fact.
You should know, as you've just proven yourself as one of them.

And being a moderator doesn't preclude you from anyhing.
but it should preclude you from the bias that you would penalise others for.

Hey, I've got a quote for you.
Can't for the life of me remember where I heard it, but it sums up your attitude in this matter perfectly.

There are none so blind as those who will not see or will only see what they want to see.

dub45

hightower1 wrote: »

So Dub45, can I just clarify something?

If a caller has no internet connection....

They call UPC...

The agent will determen if the problem is the
modem/network/router/hardware/software through remote testing....

If the issue is router/hardware/software you belive that good customer service of at least better service is to say "sorry, not our problem" ?

Instead of adding "but I can give you a number for a IT support line at a premium rate?" ?


You feel that an ISP giving less options to a paying customer in relation to a non service issue is better customer service?

I belived that an isp has a responsibility to do as much as possible to deliver the broadband signal that the customer is paying for to the customers modem or router. Any equipment supplied by the isp should also be supported.

If the isp's support has genuinely exhausted all the options in relation to that obligation then there is nothing wrong with pointing out that the customer needs to seek help elsewhere. You will find posts from me on boards pointing out that I believe that customers expect far too much from their isps.

However I have concerns about an isp only giving out a number for a service that they have a commercial relationshp with. And I have explained those concerns elsewhere in the thread. And giving a customer that number, to my mind anyways, cannot be described as customer service in any form unless it is given with a clear indication that there is a commercial relationship involved and that there are plenty of alternatives.

hightower1 wrote: »

Upc are by no means perfect but in my opinion they are compeditive, innovative and are genuinly a driving force in broadband supply in this country.

You are entitled to your opinion but unfortunately they still have lousy customer service!

dub45

_Sidhe_ wrote: »

And blind hatred seems to blind you even more so.
You're posting your concern as fact.
That is my problem.
You are not saying that UPC's service is bad because......
You are saying it is bad becasue maybe this might be the case.

That is not on.


And yes, you will find loads of people saying UPC is bad.
Just like you'll find loads of people saying that the world was created in 6 days 6,000 years ago.
And loads of people who say that America "liberated" Iraq.
etc...
etc...
etc...

The internet is full of people spreading oppinions as fact.
You should know, as you've just proven yourself as one of them.

And being a moderator doesn't preclude you from anyhing.
but it should preclude you from the bias that you would penalise others for.

Hey, I've got a quote for you.
Can't for the life of me remember where I heard it, but it sums up your attitude in this matter perfectly.

There are none so blind as those who will not see or will only see what they want to see.

And how exactly does this rant advance your argument that UPC give good customer service?

Below is a quote from an article by Conor Pope in the Irish Times of Saturday 13th 2008

But which company has attracted the most complaints? Aer Lingus? Ryanair? BT Ireland? While these have featured, certainly, they don't come close to matching the unenviable record of NTL - or UPC, to give it its title since 2006.

Since the beginning of this year alone we have had more than 50 readers contact us in connection with the company. Many complained about service appointments not being kept, others were dismayed at the cluelessness of call centre operatives and the failure of the company to return calls, while more expressed bafflement at the difficulties encountered when trying to sign up to NTL.

Earlier this week UPC's managing director, Robert Dunn, told The Irish Times that he believed the company's customer service was good - but he accepted "there is a reasonable amount of room for improvement" and that the service offered by UPC is "not quite the finished article".

He admits the company "got a bit of a bad name" in late 2006 when the National Consumer Agency intervened after the volume of complaints grew so loud. The migration of Chorus into UPC in 2007 "caused a bit of problem for us", he adds.

However, Dunn maintains there has been a steady improvement since that rocky start and says the company is spending €30-€40 million annually on upgrading its networks to improve the TV and broadband packages it offers and to introduce a telephone service. "As you go through that upgrade it is a little bit of a bumpy road."

"Can it be better? Yes, I will be frank, of course it can. I want it to be better and I believe we are on a strong upward path. At the end of the day, people have choices. If I don't keep them happy they will go to Sky or they will go to Eircom or another provider," he says.

And I suppose that article is all part of the vile conspiracy against UPC?

garbage bin

DUB45
I am a moderator in a PC website and I don't have the liberty to speak my mind and say so many bad thing about a company that I do not represent.
Someone, specially UPC SHOULD GET ON TO BOARDS.IE AND GET YOU KICKED OUT OR HAVE IT REPRIMANDED

Now, the only reason why I'm writing this is that I am a customer with UPC and I find that the BB services are the best I ever had, and I had before other companies, (BT, DIGIWEB and Other providers from different countries), I had a bad experience with the above providers.

I rang all the customer services, BT customer services were horrendous. I was 2 months with them and that was enough.
Digiweb was not the best either. was slow and there was not even a tech out if I had issues
NTL/UPC was as far the best I've came across with. Had service call for next available day when modem stopped working and since then no other issues what so ever.
None of the providers will support any 3rd party devices (routers, computers, Switch)
Is how we say in our forum, They make it they support it. Which means.... Netgear makes, netgear supports....
You can't expect a company to provide a support for something they are not responsible for...

As you are an employee and as such an official represntative on boards.ie your personal opinions are represeting that of boards.ie, I am aware that all mod's employeed by boards are allowed post but its extremelly irregular to allow a openly expressed emplyee or moderator to air his personal opinions on the public forum.

dub45

I am not an employee of boards.

As regards UPC and ''the many bad things'' that I have said about them - I have said that they have lousy customer service and produced evidence for it. (and by the way the web is full of it if you want more)

I have pointed out and, it is documented here, that some people get great bb speeds from them and others don't and there is no way to know in advance of signing up which camp you will fall into.

Given that UPC sell Netgear routers to people then I believe they should support those routers.

I have pointed out that I have concerns about the commercial relationship between UPC and their 'pay as you' go technology partners and given reasons for those concerns. That's all.

rikili

I have to back up DUB45, I had so many issues with NTL (especially with TV, and Channel 4). and the customer service is the worse. I had to cancel with them and go to Sky, and have broadband from BT... I don't say that BT's customer service is excellent, but it's much better than NTL. With NTL I had to go up to management (here in Ireland, and I had a manger calling me from the UK) to get my issue sorted, and then not a single apology or here’s a month free after having my TV service disrupted for more than 3 weeks!!!!
Also after taking a day off for their technician to come and fix my issue, he didn't show up, neither did he call to cancel the call. So I had to take another day off for them to show up and fix my issue which took around 3 weeks, and 2 calls to managers to have it fixed.

To add insult to injury, after cancelling my account with them (I sent a letter, and faxed it, and rang their customer service to make sure they received my cancellation letter and my fax), I still received threatening letters for not having paid. and when I ring the Customer service they tell me that my account is not active therefore I shouldn't be receiving requests for payment, but still their billing service asking me to pay !!!

One last word, for hightower1, from your posts it looks like you work for NTL, so instead of arguing, please read people’s posts and take it as a feedback not an attack, and try to fix these issues. Exchanging words on Forums won't change people’s perception of NTL, but actions to improve NTL's customer service will change that. We have nothing against NTL, we were just victims of a very bad service for which we paid money but didn't get what we paid for!

hightower1

rikili wrote: »

One last word, for hightower1, from your posts it looks like you work for NTL, so instead of arguing, please read people’s posts and take it as a feedback not an attack, and try to fix these issues. Exchanging words on Forums won't change people’s perception of NTL, but actions to improve NTL's customer service will change that. We have nothing against NTL, we were just victims of a very bad service for which we paid money but didn't get what we paid for!

I am not a UPC employee just a happy customer who is very interested in the progress of broadband sales and implimentation in Ireland. I am in fact involved in the field of tech support and I would challenge anyone who would speak critically of the field, not just of one ISP to do the job for a single day and maintain their attidudes. In fact I have defended many ISP's here (even though its not an ISP tech support department I work for) simply because it is the whiners and complainers that wouldnt last a day in the job they have.



Also DUB 45 you listed as a moderator here and that would have been appointed to you by Borads.ie this makes you a rep of their company. As such your personal opinions can be taken as the same of that of the forum whom appointed you a moderator. As was said to you previously posting opinion here is for users not moderators. From a legal standpoint UPC would be well within their rights to report you for this via the contuct us option so I dunno how wise it is to post opinion logged in as a moderator? perhaps logging in as a user might be better?
Whatever about differnce of opinions no one wants poor advertisments for boards here agreed?

Blindpew

dub45 called it right. UPC don't seem to employ any real people, androids are all that I ever got to speak with, or else they were people pretending to be androids putting on a funny voice.
There are too many rules and regulations and terms and conditions, if a man is right he's right and people shouldn't try to defend the indefensible.

dub45

hightower1 wrote: »

I am not a UPC employee just a happy customer who is very interested in the progress of broadband sales and implimentation in Ireland. I am in fact involved in the field of tech support and I would challenge anyone who would speak critically of the field, not just of one ISP to do the job for a single day and maintain their attidudes. In fact I have defended many ISP's here (even though its not an ISP tech support department I work for) simply because it is the whiners and complainers that wouldnt last a day in the job they have.

Also DUB 45 you listed as a moderator here and that would have been appointed to you by Borads.ie this makes you a rep of their company. As such your personal opinions can be taken as the same of that of the forum whom appointed you a moderator. As was said to you previously posting opinion here is for users not moderators. From a legal standpoint UPC would be well within their rights to report you for this via the contuct us option so I dunno how wise it is to post opinion logged in as a moderator? perhaps logging in as a user might be better?
Whatever about differnce of opinions no one wants poor advertisments for boards here agreed?

Moderators regularly express their opinions on boards. I am certainly not a representative of boards - my only function as a mod is to keep an eye on the wireless forum.

Are you suggesting that UPC should report me for pointing out what is already in profusion in the public domain? ie comment on their poor customer service? Given that their senior management reps have already acknowledged shortcomings in this area that would be rich indeed!

And as you appear to have forgotten or ignored, anything I have written here about upc I have substantiated or given reasons for my concerns.

_Sidhe_

Digital Media Awards 2008

Best internet provider

Winner: UPC Ireland

Digital Media Awards 2009

Best internet provider

Winner: UPC Ireland


Irish Contact Center And Shared Services Awards 2008

Best Training Programme

Winner: UPC

Best Technical Support Center/Helpdesk

Runner up: UPC

Best Use Of Technology

Winner UPC





So there you go Dub.

5 minutes of googling found me that, just like you.

So the UPC Technical Support team is the runner up in the Irish Call Centers award thingies, and UPC is the Digital Media awards best ISP for two years running.

Amazing what you can find on the internet isn't it.
So some people here, and one or two journalists on a slow news day, come out and say something.
And you ignore the fact that UPC BB and their support are currently winning awards.
Funny that.


And as for the Netgear routers.
PC World / Harvey Normans / Amazon etc all sell the routers too.
As too Virgin Media in the UK.
And any other number of cable BB proviers world wide.
And none of them service the routers either.
But of course that's all UPC's fault too.:rolleyes:

I wish you'd told me sooner.
When I had Virgin Broadband in England it should have been UPC I was ringing up to complain to.


You also talk about with UPC you don't know whether you'll have a good or bad connection before you join.
Name one provider that you do?
If you dont know how far you are from the local exchange, how do you know what kind of speeds you'll get?
And if you discover that you're only getting 1 mb on a 3mb line, will you have to wait a week or too for it to be fixed, like with UPC, or have Eircom/BT/etc tell you tough, we only say up to.
If you simply have a bad copper line, will Eircom come out and relay it?
Will BT or Vodafone?
No.

So your point is completely moot.
Nobody knows what kind of a line or connection you'll get before it's installed.
You're just singling out UPC.
Again.



And Rikili
Quick question.
You were phoned by a UPC manager from the UK.
That's funny, cause UPC aren't in the UK.
And even if they were, all UPC companies (UPC Ireland/Holland/Romania/Poland/etc) are completlely seperate.
UPC Ireland don't have managers in the UK, unless they're on holidays.

So you wouldn't be talking about NTL by any chance.
The company that UPC bought out in 2006 or so.
Or the call center they used to have, in Waterford wasn't it, which is closed now.
And has been for about 2-3 years.

I'm sorry my friend, but Marathon is now Snickers.

And it would just be silly if you were advising somebody on your oppinion of a dead company.
And exactly what I've been saying all along.
People blaming UPC for NTL's problems.

dub45

The Digital Media Awards 2009 were sponsored by 3, Connect-World, The Digital Hub, Design Communications, Think Event Design & Installation and UPC Ireland.

What a coincidence!

http://www.digitalmedia.ie/2009/index.html

And for anyone who doesn't know a company actually pays to enter this 'competition'.

Meanwhile even hardened boardsies were incredulous:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055502968&highlight=digital+media+awards

Blindpew

Blindpew wrote: »

dub45 called it right. UPC don't seem to employ any real people, androids are all that I ever got to speak with, or else they were people pretending to be androids putting on a funny voice.
There are too many rules and regulations and terms and conditions, if a man is right he's right and people shouldn't try to defend the indefensible.

Its a good thing that only the very gullible blindly believe what they read on web forums! Ive read the bloated posts in this thread and they have only served to confirm the widely held belief that a majority of people who use these and other forums will gladly hide behind their anonymity and pretty much say anything that they may think will help them win an arguement and make the other guy look ridiculous.

The only help we can give the op on the topic that can not be taken as biased is our own personal experience with upc and absolutely nothing else. No press releases, no hearsay, no quotes from other threads, no awards, no possible future scenarios should be proposed as evidence that upc are a collective leviathan or that they are demi-gods.

My experience: They were very poor as ntl, unreliable service and very poor customer support. As UPC it has been a pleasure to deal with them, moved house, new install in 3 days, upgraded package done with ease over the phone.

vibe666

garbage bin wrote: »

DUB45
I am a moderator in a PC website and I don't have the liberty to speak my mind and say so many bad thing about a company that I do not represent.
Someone, specially UPC SHOULD GET ON TO BOARDS.IE AND GET YOU KICKED OUT OR HAVE IT REPRIMANDED

sorry, but that is wrong on just about every level.

exactly what website are you a moderator on? you don't have to make it public, just send me a PM with the name of the website and your user ID for that site and I can confirm that for everybody here.

forgive my skepticism, but I would expect a moderator of any forum to know at least the most basic things about modship, such as that mods are simply users with elevated rights on the particular sub-forum they are a mod of and are no different than any other user on any other part of that forum.

i'd also expect them to know that mods do not get paid for what they do and are not employees of the forum, but voluneers made up of experienced users who have proved themselves in that particular area of the forum.

a mod would also know that making threats towards other posters is against the rules AND that IP addresses of all posts are logged by the forum and visible to mods of that forum and that logging in using multiple accounts is also against the rules and will usually get you an instant ban.

not to mention that a mod would know how to write a post without throwing unnecessary formatting around in the post multiple times creating a complete mess for others to try and quote from. :rolleyes:

like every other user here, Dub45 is perfectly entitled to voice his opinions and experience of any ISP without being threatened. this is Ireland after all not China.

jor el

garbage bin wrote: »

I am a moderator in a PC website

...

As you are an employee and as such an official represntative on boards.ie

Maybe you get paid to be a mod on your forum, but the mods here don't. Dub is also not a mod of this forum. I find you trolling un-amusing, so you're banned.

Cabaal

jor el wrote: »

Maybe you get paid to be a mod on your forum, but the mods here don't. Dub is also not a mod of this forum. I find you trolling un-amusing, so you're banned.

Beat me to it
To clarify because dub is not a mod in this forum he is treated as a normal user here, he does not get special treatment.

The very fact that you had bringing such a discussion into this thread has meant you got yourself banned, if you want to discuss boards.ie, mods and how they work then take it to help desk.

Don't just assume you know how a site works,

_Sidhe_

dub45 wrote: »

And I suppose that article is all part of the vile conspiracy against UPC?

dub45 wrote: »

What a coincidence!

http://www.digitalmedia.ie/2009/index.html

And for anyone who doesn't know a company actually pays to enter this 'competition'.

:D:D


Oh the irony.

vibe666

_Sidhe_ wrote: »

Oh the irony.

how so?

do you mean that it's ironic that the award in your previous post was won in a UPC sponsored competition?

_Sidhe_

vibe666 wrote: »

how so?

do you mean that it's ironic that the award in your previous post was won in a UPC sponsored competition?

The irony of somebody pretentiosly and smuggly implying that people who defend UPC are infering that there's some conspiracy, while less than a page later, gladly implying his own conspiracy.


Or maybe I was talking about how yet again Dub refused to address any points that he couldn't answer.
Such as How I listed 5 awards, and he only countered 2 of them.
The most important one that he conveniently forgot, being UPC Technical Support finishing runner up in the Irish Contact Center And Shared Media Awards.

Or did UPC sponsor that as well?:rolleyes:


Take your pick.

dub45

david7536 wrote: »

Its a good thing that only the very gullible blindly believe what they read on web forums! Ive read the bloated posts in this thread and they have only served to confirm the widely held belief that a majority of people who use these and other forums will gladly hide behind their anonymity and pretty much say anything that they may think will help them win an arguement and make the other guy look ridiculous.

The only help we can give the op on the topic that can not be taken as biased is our own personal experience with upc and absolutely nothing else. No press releases, no hearsay, no quotes from other threads, no awards, no possible future scenarios should be proposed as evidence that upc are a collective leviathan or that they are demi-gods.

My experience: They were very poor as ntl, unreliable service and very poor customer support. As UPC it has been a pleasure to deal with them, moved house, new install in 3 days, upgraded package done with ease over the phone.

Firstly people post anonymously on boards, as you are doing here yourseslf incidentally, because thats the way it works.

On the other hand if you genuinely believe this:

Its a good thing that only the very gullible blindly believe what they read on web forums!

Then how can you expect anyone to believe this:

david7536 wrote: »

My experience: They were very poor as ntl, unreliable service and very poor customer support. As UPC it has been a pleasure to deal with them, moved house, new install in 3 days, upgraded package done with ease over the phone.

Except the very gullible of course!

_Sidhe_

Yes Dub.
Fail to address a posters valid points again.
Just return with a "witty" response

Hope that works out well for you.

hightower1

dub45 wrote: »

What a coincidence!

http://www.digitalmedia.ie/2009/index.html

And for anyone who doesn't know a company actually pays to enter this 'competition'.

Meanwhile even hardened boardsies were incredulous:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055502968&highlight=digital+media+awards

Are you seriously implying that UPC bought the award???? LOL I'm sorry but thats hilarious!

By that logic they "out bet" 3, not to mention to get a majorit vote they would have had to bettered the so called money put up by 3,the digital hub,Vantage club and connect world!
Wow that makes shed loads of sense and is definitely not paranoid in anyway! lol.


If the people who were happy with UPC's service were as outspoken as the crackpots who hold a grudge with NTL your ears would bleed with the praise lol.

Dub if you dont mind me saying it seems like you had a run in with NTL at some stage and heard an answer you simply didn't like, took that personally and are now stuck in a "you against the machine" fantasy land.


Its no skin off my nose what you think of them as at the end of the day all they do for me is supply my tv and internet but ya have to admit how ..... ah hem..... "intense" ..... you seem about them?

All I have to say on this thread is from personal experience over a number of years with them is that they have excellent value,products, good customer service and helpful staff. Their customer base seems to be mixed with the majority of people happy with their service to the point where they dont need to give it a second thought and the small percent who weren't happy and took this as a personal attack.


Ether way they are here to stay and no amount of bad mouthing or "warning off" from the small amount with bad experiences from NTL is going to have any effect on their uptake or bottom line in any way at all.

vibe666

hightower1 wrote: »

Are you seriously implying that UPC bought the award???? LOL I'm sorry but thats hilarious!

how so exactly?

there is a clear conflict of interests for any company (in any sector) who is one of the main sponsors of an industry event to be nominated for awards in that event, regardless of whether or not they actually win anything.

nobody is saying specifically that they paid directly to win an award, but it is highly irregular for a major sponsor of an event to be nominated in it and it is easy to see how in such events that organisers would feel obliged throw their sponsors a bone, so to speak.

hightower1 wrote: »

All I have to say on this thread is from personal experience over a number of years with them is that they have excellent value,products, good customer service and helpful staff. Their customer base seems to be mixed with the majority of people happy with their service to the point where they dont need to give it a second thought and the small percent who weren't happy and took this as a personal attack.

Ether way they are here to stay and no amount of bad mouthing or "warning off" from the small amount with bad experiences from NTL is going to have any effect on their uptake or bottom line in any way at all.

interesting to note though, that despite all the money UPC are pumping into the company in Ireland that overall they LOST 5200 customers in Q1 2009.

BUT, that is your own personal experience and you are very lucky because from my own personal experience having been a customer of NTL (twice), chorus AND UPC at various different times in 3 different addresses, the overwhelming majority of my billing, customer service AND technical support experience with them has been negative.

unfortunately, every single time I have used them it has been out of necessity rather than choice.

both times with NTL in apartments in Dublin for my TV as they were the only option open to me and bot times I had multiple billing and service issues with them, the time with chorus (again with billing and service issues) was so I could get TV because at the time sky were demanding either a landline or a 200€ deposit when we moved into a new house and most recently because UPC were the only ones able to offer me broadband faster than eircom's 7.6mbps DSL and I was leaving BT due to their own poor customer service.

I'm happy to say that the engineer who installed my 20mbps cable did a decent enough job and was actually the same guy who installed my chorus tv 3 years previously and he did a good job then too and was quick, friendly and helpful both times.

BUT I've had to call UPC 5 times since I signed up in november last year. 4 times when my broadband went down (all external issues) and once to ask if they did a UK landlines call package (turns out they are about the only phone provider in Ireland who don't).

the first time it had been down for 3 hours on a friday afternoon and when I called them I was told (after some initial testing) that there were no issues in my area so it must be on my line and she would have to send out a technician on the monday. later that evening my next door neighbour mentioned to me in passing that this ntl broadband and phone were down too so I called back and an automated message told me there WERE problems in my area etc. etc. and would be fixed as soon as possible. I cancelled my engineer visit and about the same time the following day it was back up again but I had been without broadband and phone for approx. 24 hours. Sunday night I got an automated call confirming my engineer visit, despite me already cancelling it with them. i cancelled it again.

it went down again the following weekend and i called and they said an engineer was already on his way to fix it and that they knew what the problem was this time (i.e. same as lst time, but it wasn't permanently fixed) and it was all sorted in about 4-5 hours total, but was another 4 hours with no broadband and phone (during the day at the weekend).

it went down again a couple of months later and when I was explaining to the support person on the phone that I had already performed all the usual checks (poweroff etc.) was checking the modem and that the downstream was fine but that the upstream was not syncing she didn't know what I was talking about. I mentioned the scientific atlanta modem by name that they had supplied me with during install and that i was checking the config in it and that was what I had found and she didn't even know what it was and went away to check with someone (WTF???). at this point I hung up out of frustration and left it. my broadband was back the following morning around 8am (again a saturday morning).

the next time it went down I called up but the person i got through to had such a thick indian accent that I could only understand about 1/3 of what he was trying to tell me and I had to hang up after a few minutes. I'm pretty well travelled and have gotten pretty good at understanding people who do not speak english as their first language and actually regularly speak to colleagues in india on conference calls at work, so for this guys accent to be so thick that I couldn't understand what he was saying is a pretty poor choice of employee on UPC's part. a reasonable command of the english language needs to be a pre-requisite for providing telephone support in that language imho. my broadband was back up again the following morning, again a saturday (starting to look like a pattern).

the last time I called it was to ask about UK landline calls as my phone bill with UPC is actually about 1/3 higher than it was with BT due to the UK bundle I had with them. the girl was very firendly and as helpful as she could possibly be, but since UPC are (afaik) the only landline provider in Ireland who don't offer a UK landlines call package she could not actually help me.

That is my own personal experience of UPC in the last 6 months or so since I signed up and I have had many, much worse problems with chorus and NTL before them since I first dealt with them in or around 2002.

no irrational hatred, no conspiracy theories, just one persons very poor experiences with NTL?Chorus/UPC in it's various different guises over the last few years.

In addition to that, in the time I, Dub45 and many others have been using boards.ie we have all seen hundreds of people with similar or worse issues with the company and their agents.

they have pretty much the worst customer service history in ireland and whilst it may have improved since UPC took over they are still pretty damn far from perfect at this point in time which is something you only need to look at in this very forum to see that a significant number of people are still having various issues with them (comparitively speaking, compared to their % market share) so telling people they are great just doesn't work as it's plainly untrue for a large portion of people.

i don't doubt that they have many satisfied customers, but whatever the percentage is between satisfied and unsatisfied it still does not compare well to other companies and I find it much much easier to believe problems posted on here from real users with real issues with the company and it's services than what a UPC sponsored award ceremony says, but maybe I'm just part of a larger conspiracy. :rolleyes:

dub45

I am one of the rare people who has lived in the same house all my life so my family initially and then I have been a customer of theirs through all their various incarnations. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTL_Ireland

So I have personal experience of all of them. There is no doubt in my mind at all that UPC are considerably worse than any of the earlier pre 'computer customer service incarnations'.

I listen to FM radio a lot and with the earlier companies if there was any problem at all you could actually ring up and speak to the guys who looked after the radio side of things. A couple of years ago (in the NTL time) there was an going problem with constants disruptions from digital hash type noise on the radio. I rang them umpteen times and they did not even know that they supplied an fm service!!! I had to make a complaint to Comreg who actually supplied me with a number to talk to the radio people. The staff there had actually been anxious to talk to customers to try and isolate the problem.

UPC have just taken on this mess and in my experience made it worse. A couple of months ago I rang up to report a tv fault in the area. Having got through the enter your account or a telephone number nonsense I was then answered by one of the most inept people I have ever had the misfortune to deal with. Firstly i was asked was I sure I was a customer of theirs!!!

I was then told that there had been disruptions in the area due to work carried out and there was nothing wrong. When I disputed this i was told that there had been a fault earlier in the day but it was now fixed. I pointed out I was looking at a blank screen and was told they would have to arrange an engineer call out or they could not log the call as a fault. I pointed out that I had checked with several neighbours blah blah and was told that didnt matter I would have to arrange an appointment etc etc.

It really is very difficult to be that bad.

jor el

OK, enough with the bickering on this thread. No one has to respond to what's posted, take their silence in whatever way you want, but stop with the snide comments.

I have no personal experience of UPC (except the Chorus part of it some years back), but the consumer issues forum has had it's fair share of complaints about UPC's lack of service. It's always the same thing too, waiting weeks for an engineer visit, they never turn up on the day they're booked for, waiting ages on hold to talk to them, never getting the promised call-back, etc.

All in all, I'd be very skeptical about any award ceremony that you pay to enter, and has no clear independent overseer.

dub45

jor el wrote: »

OK, enough with the bickering on this thread. No one has to respond to what's posted, take their silence in whatever way you want, but stop with the snide comments.

I have no personal experience of UPC (except the Chorus part of it some years back), but the consumer issues forum has had it's fair share of complaints about UPC's lack of service. It's always the same thing too, waiting weeks for an engineer visit, they never turn up on the day they're booked for, waiting ages on hold to talk to them, never getting the promised call-back, etc.

All in all, I'd be very skeptical about any award ceremony that you pay to enter, and has no clear independent overseer.

Reading the page about the awards it essentially looks like an industry love in (irrespective of the winner). Surely any award that is to be respected by the public should give the criteria that it is awarded on and who the judges are.

I remember first becoming sceptical about these type of awards a few years ago when UTV won it after an absolutely disastrous period of customer service and boards being full of complaints about them. Whereas there were many years that they were fully deserving of any such award the year they won it certainly wasnt one of them.

Nehaxak

dub45 wrote: »

Surely any award that is to be respected by the public should give the criteria that it is awarded on and who the judges are.

+1. I think a FOI request would be well in order to find this information out if not readily available.

hightower1

dub45 wrote: »

Surely any award that is to be respected by the public should give the criteria that it is awarded on and who the judges are.

Have you read the site? They have all this information a click away....

Internet Service Provider

This award is open to all ISPs/Telcos servicing the digital media space.

Entries will be judged on the following criteria
Strategy 30%
Results 30%
Product Range 40%

Source:http://www.digitalmedia.ie/2009/categories1.html

dub45 wrote: »

I remember first becoming sceptical about these type of awards a few years ago when UTV won it after an absolutely disastrous period of customer service and boards being full of complaints about them. Whereas there were many years that they were fully deserving of any such award the year they won it certainly wasnt one of them.

And again you have done no research here before posting because the Judges even has its own section on the page....


Aphra Kerr Lecturer in the Department of Sociology in NUI Maynooth
Barry Bodeker Creative Director, First Impression
Brian Greene Senior Producer, TalkingVoices.com
Cameron Ross Managing Director, Newmedia
Damien Mulley Technology Columnist for the Sunday Tribune and Organiser of the Irish Blog Awards & Irish Web Awards
Dr. Stephen Brennan Director of Marketing and Strategy, Digital Hub Development Agency
Dusty Rhodes Managing Director, Digital Audio Productions
Eamon McGrane Media Consultant and Journalist
Emmet Ryan Journalist and Media Consultant
Irene Gahan Head of Marketing & Operations for New Media Lottery Services in Ireland & the UK
Jim Friars CEO Irish Computer Society/ICS Skills and chairman of the ECDL Foundation Ltd.
Katherine Meenan Director, Connect-World
Martin Murray Managing Director, Interactive Return
Nicky Gogan Director of Darklight Film Festival and Filmmaker
Ray Walsh Senior Development advisor, Enterprise Ireland
Rhona Bradshaw Head of Marketing, UPC Ireland
Ronan Harris Director of Online Sales and Operations
Sinead Murnane Managing Partner of digital media consultants, Doop
Tom Hayes CEO Lightbox
Tracy Fahey Head of Dept. of Humanities in IT Carlow & Immediate Past President of the Institute of Designers in Ireland

Source:http://www.digitalmedia.ie/2009/index-2.html



Obviously all of these people believe you are wrong in your opinion.

dub45

hightower1 wrote: »

Have you read the site? They have all this information a click away....

Internet Service Provider

This award is open to all ISPs/Telcos servicing the digital media space.

Entries will be judged on the following criteria
Strategy 30%
Results 30%
Product Range 40%

Source:http://www.digitalmedia.ie/2009/categories1.html





And again you have done no research here before posting because the Judges even has its own section on the page....


Aphra Kerr Lecturer in the Department of Sociology in NUI Maynooth
Barry Bodeker Creative Director, First Impression
Brian Greene Senior Producer, TalkingVoices.com
Cameron Ross Managing Director, Newmedia
Damien Mulley Technology Columnist for the Sunday Tribune and Organiser of the Irish Blog Awards & Irish Web Awards
Dr. Stephen Brennan Director of Marketing and Strategy, Digital Hub Development Agency
Dusty Rhodes Managing Director, Digital Audio Productions
Eamon McGrane Media Consultant and Journalist
Emmet Ryan Journalist and Media Consultant
Irene Gahan Head of Marketing & Operations for New Media Lottery Services in Ireland & the UK
Jim Friars CEO Irish Computer Society/ICS Skills and chairman of the ECDL Foundation Ltd.
Katherine Meenan Director, Connect-World
Martin Murray Managing Director, Interactive Return
Nicky Gogan Director of Darklight Film Festival and Filmmaker
Ray Walsh Senior Development advisor, Enterprise Ireland
Rhona Bradshaw Head of Marketing, UPC Ireland
Ronan Harris Director of Online Sales and Operations
Sinead Murnane Managing Partner of digital media consultants, Doop
Tom Hayes CEO Lightbox
Tracy Fahey Head of Dept. of Humanities in IT Carlow & Immediate Past President of the Institute of Designers in Ireland

Source:http://www.digitalmedia.ie/2009/index-2.html



Obviously all of these people believe you are wrong in your opinion.

Thanks for that information you have confirmed my scepticism. the criteria are meaningless in that they are not defined and the 'competitors' make their own case?. And how can any panel of judges be taken seriously when the Head of Marketing UPC can participate? And not one typical consumer type representative there:(

hightower1

The criteria are not defined? They are self explanatory?

Strategy - Marketing and business development strategy

Results - The turnover over the above category

Product range - ????? does that need explaining??? REALLY?


And you say that as ONE out of TWENTY judges working for the winner voids the result??? Nonsense.

Also you mention that there are no customer representatives here? Again I ask have you actually read the facts that you blatenly denied even existed in the first place? (I find it hard to believe you did not see the stand alone judges section on the website)

Damien Mulley - Columnist for the Sunday Tribune and Organiser of the Irish Blog Awards
Emmet Ryan - Journalist and Media Consultant
Brian Greene - Senior Producer, TalkingVoices.com
Eamon McGrane - Media consultant and journalist

All of these Judges work for public media! Or are you saying now that news media is controlled by UPC also lol?! If news media does not represent the public I dont know who does!

The great UPC global conspiracy unfolds! Ah haaaa!

dub45

hightower1 wrote: »

The criteria are not defined? They are self explanatory?

Strategy - Marketing and business development strategy

Results - The turnover over the above category

Product range - ????? does that need explaining??? REALLY?

That's your interpretation of the criteria. And none of your interpretations necessarily make for a good isp. Do people say ''hey thats a great strategy and you have a great product range: a cheap product, a middle range product and a luxury product great stuff full marks

Oh and you have made tons of money but is it though cutting back on customer service for example?

hightower1 wrote: »

And you say that as ONE out of TWENTY judges working for the winner voids the result??? Nonsense.

So you have the winning company as co sponsors and the marketing manager as one of the judges - you couldn't invent it if you tried!!!:rolleyes:

hightower1 wrote: »

Also you mention that there are no customer representatives here? Again I ask have you actually read the facts that you blatenly denied even existed in the first place? (I find it hard to believe you did not see the stand alone judges section on the website)

Damien Mulley - Columnist for the Sunday Tribune and Organiser of the Irish Blog Awards
Emmet Ryan - Journalist and Media Consultant
Brian Greene - Senior Producer, TalkingVoices.com
Eamon McGrane - Media consultant and journalist

All of these Judges work for public media! Or are you saying now that news media is controlled by UPC also lol?! If news media does not represent the public I dont know who does!

The great UPC global conspiracy unfolds! Ah haaaa!

And how can we know who if any of those judges has actually used the isps involved and for how long? Has there been any data gathered in an attempt to judge their actual performance on a day to day basis? Have they spoken to any customers of isps?

And how can any award be taken seriously with 3 on the short list? Unless of course there were only five entrants!

hightower1

LOl ok, first you say they have poor customer service....
You are then shows they have won awards for best ISP...

The you claim it was rigged as they sponsor the event...
You are then shown that FOUR other companies also sponsor the event.

You then claim its rigged again as there is no information on the judges or criteria....
You are then shown that they do in fact list all of this on the website.

Then you claim it is still rigged as ONE of the TWENTY judges is a UPC employee.....
You are then reminded that the other NINETEEN judges are not.....

Again you claim its rigged as there has been no customer representation on the judging panel....
You are then pointed out that FOUR of the judges are journalists or in public media so their lively hood is based on representing the public.



Now you want to know what ISP's the judges have???? Are you serious????
I don't know how concise you need a decision to be in every day life but I for one am completely satisfied that the whole affair is put to bed. This stance you have bangs of Viki Pollard "Ya but no but ya but"

You have been proven wrong on five separate occasions with nothing but plain and readily available facts with nothing more than speculation as a retort. Until you find pictures of UPC's CEO handing brown envelopes out like party favors at the event, Bills from all 20 judges houses showing their home ISP's and for a finish reveal the true identity of UPC's CEO to be none other than Cenetor Palpatine aka the sith lord himself.... I think the case is closed.

vibe666

_Sidhe_ wrote: »

Yes Dub.
Fail to address a posters valid points again.

and yet the pro UPC camp does exactly the same thing in ignoring mine and Dub45's personal experiences of UPC as well as the hundreds of threads on boards.ie (that are there to see for anyone willing to look) of users having various issues with them, from broadband to phone and TV and are happy to base their cast iron immovable views on nothing but their own limited experience of themselves and a couple of their friends and a couple of industry awards, some of which were sponsored by the company in question. would people pay any attention to the Oscars if film companies were allowed to sponsor the event? no I think not, which is why they are not allowed to.

the thing here is that I can happily agree that you have had the best customer services experience in the world EVER and that does not preclude me from still being able to say 100% hand on heart truthfully that UPC suck at customer service because I have had poor experiences with them (which I have already detailed on the previous page and have seen time and time again on boards.ie from other users with issues) BUT you have to totally discount mine, Dub's and those hundreds of users with issues for your viewpoint to be an accurate depiction of the truth.

you are, of course entitled to hold whatever opinion you like, it's a free country after all, but you need to accept that despite your positive views there are a whole bunch of people on here and around Ireland who strongly disagree with you and have had a great deal of bad experiences, both with UPC's previous incarnations and it's current one.

this forum has proved time and time again that people will see whatever they want to see, all the way from religion to politics and everything in between and the only thing that's been proved so far is that people will always disagree on SOMETHING no matter what.

I think the only real way of settling it would be for boards to do their own broadband awards ceremony and have it's members (i.e. the actual users of broadband) do the judging based on their own experiences and then we'd see a true picture. maybe mods could set up a poll with posting disabled so we could get a good look of who has what opinions of what ISP.

other than that you're just going to have one group of people who think they are brilliant and another who think they aren't, all working from their own personal experience and every thread just turns into a tit for tat argument that ends up missing the point entirely.

OP (if you haven't already been scared off): people obviously disagree on whether or not UPC are good and in what areas so just have a read through and see what you think and make up your own mind and whatever you decide, just let everyone know how your experiences went.

EDIT: fleshed it out a bit.

_Sidhe_

But that's just it Vibe.
I haven't had bad experiences with UPC, so I don't make asumptions.
You have, so you state, and I quote, to say 100% hand on heart truthfully that UPC suck at customer service because I have had poor experiences with them.
So you've had a bad experience, so they suck.
I'm sorry, but I didn't know that you were their only customer.

The simple fact of that matter here, is that people who have problems complain.
People who don't have problems, don't praise.
How many Joe Duffy shows are about people ringing up to praise companies?
When you get a company with hundreds of thousands of customers, and a few hundred complain, then because the hundreds of thousands don't praise, everyting looks skewed.
It's basic logic.

You had a problem.
I'm very sorry for you.
I didn't.
And because I tend to post in forums, I have no problem with saying that.
But there are thousands upon thousands who don't have problems who don't come onto forums to praise.

You come out and say that other ISP's don't get as many complaints.
Yes.
They don't have a many customers!
The only one who compares is Eircom, and they get every bit as many complaints as UPC.
(I'm reffering to all of UPC's services of course, seeing as TV has been brought into this).

And no, this forum having an awards ceremony would mean diddly squat.
Because as I said, the people who generaly post on forums, are the type who complain.
All the hundreds of thousands of happy customers wouldn't be represented.
A fact that you seem incapable of accepting.

UPC have a lot of problems.
They bought two terribly ran companies, in a country that relied a lot on MMDS, had to completely relay the network, and at the same time, keep on track with the "fibre power" roll out.
Yes, UPC could have tried to fix all of the Customer Service problems.
But if they had, there's no way that they would have been able to be ready to roll out 120mb Broadband by next year.
And ye would have just been complaining about that instead.

Take you for instance.
You roll out a catalogue of your bad experience with UPC.
And in it, you admit to hanging up yourself twice!
That sums up everything to me.
They may have bad Customer service.
But you may also be a bad customer.
You complain about how you told the agent on the phone that you've already ran all the checks and she asked you to do them again.
What do you expect?
You could be lying through your teeth, as I'm sure a lot of customers she deals with every day are.
You know your way around a computer, but most people who ring her up probably don't.
I remember a friend calling me up before and saying her broadband wasn't working, I've had to call to her house God knows how many times before for simple things, so I asked her if she'd rebooted everything.
She insisted that she had, so I asked her exacly what she'd done.
To which she replied that she'd gone into Control panel....lets just say I stopped her right there.
She HAS to ask you to go through all the checks with her on the line, so she can verify it.
Again, that's simple common sense.
And you complain about UPC having an employee who's English wasn't great.
Hey I agree with you.
But do UPC have a whole department in India/Pakistan like a certain telephone/BB company?
If your example of UPC's "bad service" is one agent, then by your definition, Eircom must be terrible.

But going back to Dub.
Are you going to answer my question yet?
You want to go all Mulder and Scully on the Digital media awards (not to mention ask for the judges life stories, shoe sizes, and what they had for dinner!), grand.
In a way I can see your point.
Even if nothing untowards happened.
It does look a bit dodgy.
So, I'll ask you again.

Irish Contact Centre And Shared Services Awards 2008

The technical support that you were asked about in the first place, came second.

Now.
Let me guess.
The CEO of UPC is actually going out with the CCMA heads mother.:rolleyes:



What it all comes down to is this.
As I have said here a good few times.
In the past I have had horrible, horrible, experiences with Eircom.
Ones that would make your experiences with UPC look like a Sunday stroll.
But if someone asks me my opinion on them, I'll say that they should ask somebody else, as my bad experiences will cloud my judgement.
In fact, I've said that very thing here only a few months back.
I had horrible experiences.
I know that I'm in the minority.
So I wouldn't do what you (Dub) did at the start of this thread, and state that they have horrible customer service.

But hey, that's just me.
I try and be reasonable.