Do not order broadband from UPC / Chorus / NTL!

musicinmouth

My friend moved to Ireland last week and needs broadband to speak to her family. She doesn’t know anyone in Galway. We decided to place an order with UPC. Now we are really regretting it… and my friend is without Internet and without any sign that UPC will be able to deliver it soon. We would like to cancel our order but they won't let us. We have provided our bank account details already.

Belowis an explanation of what has happened with us. Also, I would be grateful for any advice you may be able to offer. Thanks!

Monday

We placed an order online for the student broadband package. I had previously checked that our address in Galway city centre was covered by their broadband coverage. They took our address and said sure, no problem. I also checked online and it said our address in Galway city centre was fine.

Tuesday

We received an e-mail saying:

Thank you for your online order. Unfortunately your address is not on our system so we cannot process your order at present. I have requested your address be added to the system.

As a result we may not be unable to meet your preferred install date. You will receive an email from us when your address has been created and we can schedule an installation for you.

I e-mailed back asking for clarification. They just sent the same e-mail again.

Thursday

I wanted to find out what the problem was, as I didn’t understand the e-mail… not sure how our address cannot be in their system, as it’s in an established building on a well known Galway city centre street.

Called UPC sales. Was on hold for 15 minutes. Hung up.

Called UPC technical support. Spoke to someone who entered me detail and put me on hold. Five minutes later someone else picked up and I had to start the conversation again. I told her the problem and she put me on hold. Five minutes later a third person picked up and I had to start the conversation again. I explained the problem, he said he needed to look into it but that he wouldn’t put me hold. He said he would call me back within ten minutes. I double checked that he had my phone number. It is now 48 hours later and still no call back.

Friday

Called technical support again. Spoke to someone who at least sounded interested and sympathetic. She found it difficult to find our details in the system. I asked her if we should cancel our order. She said yes that’s probably a good idea, but she couldn’t help me. She said I would need to speak to someone in sales. She said the sales office was closed, but they would get someone to call us first thing in the morning. I took her name and she gave me a reference number to provide to anyone else I spoke to.

Saturday

Sales didn’t call us.

I called Sales. Waited 10 minutes before someone picked up. Spoke to someone who said they can’t help because the order was placed online. I asked to speak to a supervisor. She said sure and then I was returned back to the Main Menu.

I tried the Technical Support team again and provided the number I was given on Friday. They couldn’t do anything with the number. They said they cannot help me because I am not a customer yet. They offered to transfer me to Sales. I asked her not to because they said they couldn’t help me. I asked her to transfer me to a supervisor, but she refused, saying that her supervisor would not be able to help me either.

Farcear

Send an email today confirming that you are cancelling the order, as you are entitled to do within 7 working days without citing any reason whatsoever under the Distance Selling Directive. (EU isn't all bad! )

Call your bank and cancel the direct debit, so UPC cannot take any money from you.

Let UPC worry aobut the rest.

bk

FYI, I believe that under the distance selling act you have a 7 day cooling off period after the service is delivered, so you are well within your rights to cancel.

BTW there is no guarantee that any other ISP would be any better, as an example I'm well into my third week of trying to get Sky and I can tell you some true horror stories about BT.

So I think the title of your post is overly dramatic. Many people sign up to UPC and are very happy with the service, you have just been very unlucky and badly treated.

musicinmouth

Thanks for replies! Still no reply of any kind from UPC, they're unbelievable...

hightower1

Why are you calling their technical support about a new sale?
Of coarse they cant help you their technical support for existing products just like any technical support department. Its like calling dells technical support for a laptop that hasn't arrived yet. I don't blame them for sounding uninterested.

I'd imagine this "not on their system" talk is that the address is not on their system and not how you have taken it as they don't believe the address exists???? Look back over past threads and you'll see its not uncommon for a whole street to have been cabled and "added to their system" bar one house or in your case this building. Its poss the building management didn't allow them to run cables?

Call their sales department, speak to a manager and ask whats happening with the installation. Dont hang up.

donal.hunt

So this seems to be an issue with the way UPC have setup their support systems... If you place an order or report issues online it's taken care of by a totally different team to the folk on the phones!

This is a real pain because when something you did online goes wrong, you want to speak to a human to double-check / fix the issue.

anyway, all that aside...

• ring up sales and tell them you placed an order online only to get an automated message to say your address isn't in the system. Ask them to check if your address now exists (the address they have in the system might have a typo or something silly). Also, ask them how to cancel an order that was placed online.
• If sales are being useless, then just put everything in writing and send them a snail mail (i.e. using an post). Register the letter so you can be sure that they received it.

Be persistent if needs be. Make sure that you're also very clear about what you want (cancel the order) and what you don't want (to be fobbed off again).

vincent coffey

jaysus i am really feeling this.
I am 6 weeks of arguing with UPC to get broadband.
I watched their tech guys run the fibre on my property months ago and was told by the guys that I would have access to the network.
My contract with my current provider has expired so I thought it would be simple enough to switch.
first call I was told that only every second house on my street could be connected (every even number)
I explained the above to the sales agent so they said they would check and get back to me.
I have repeated this scenario every week for the last 6 weeks and I still have no definitive response from these idiots.
From threads I have read on here it appears they run the fibre but then do no update the sales database.
This results in the "computer says no" repsonse from sales.
By my reckoning this will result in a potential reduction in sales of 50% in my area alone (urban dublin/large population)
I do not believe these people know how to run a business at all.