Broadband users in rural areas.....unite pleeese

tartetatin

I'm very annoyed. No internet during the Christmas. Ran a seped test. 261 pings (you will observe that we are not technically-minded). the killer is that there is a broadband mast (Ripplecom/ Rippleconartists) 100 meters away from us. On hold for up to 18 minutes on the Customer Service line. If you dial for a new business connection, you will be answered within 2 minutes, 18 seconds. Basically, the poor broadband service which we are experiencing is "not showing up" on Ripplecom's monitors. The service looks fine in Limerick or wherever.
I asked them to stop the direct debit until the service is adequate. I asked them to pay for an O2 dongle or somesuch until they can provide a service. I asked them for a timeframe so that we can make provisional arrangements until we have a good service. (Our rating is F). They will get an 'engineer' to look at the situation remotely. Remotely is no good if nobody has actually driven out here and looked at the mast since Ripplecon took the broadband service over.
I need advice from equally frustrated broadband users. I have emailed Ripplecom screenshots to verify that the situation is not exagerated. Please note: I can only send screen shots when the internet is working.
What else can I do? Customer support lady said that our situation is very unusual. Surely not? Am I alone? Can anyone provide me with internet language for dummies? What should I do/say now?
Has anyone else had a similar issue and manage to resolve it?
All advice gratefully received. P.S. we have rebooted, re-routed and stood on our heads whilst singing Blame it on the Bossa Nova. The signal remains bad

Sponge Bob

Contact Comreg and ask comreg what the "formal complaint procedure" is for Ripplecom customers, far as I can see there is none which is against the rules.

Tell Comreg that you want them to stop taking your money until there is a formal complaint procedure.

tartetatin

Good idea Spongebob. What bothers me is that I never hear of too many people who have issues with Ripplecom and I know that I can't be alone in this. Off now to find Comreg.

circos

tartetatin wrote: »

Good idea Spongebob. What bothers me is that I never hear of too many people who have issues with Ripplecom and I know that I can't be alone in this. Off now to find Comreg.

Your not alone. Ripplecom is an amalgamation of various companies. Some people have horrible experiences some have good.

One thing i know for sure is that Comreg wont do much for you. They'll contact ripple via email and ask them has this customer's issue been looked at. Ripple will reply saying yes and thatll be that.

They just don't do that much in relation to wireless broadband companies.

tartetatin

Oh that's such a shame,
I rang Comreg and had high hopes. If that's all they do, I might as well throw my hat at it.
So fed up now.

Sponge Bob

Actually you email Comreg and inform them that Ripple have no "formal complaint" procedures...and ask Comreg why that is??

jbkenn

Sponge Bob wrote: »

Actually you email Comreg and inform them that Ripple have no "formal complaint" procedures...and ask Comreg why that is??

Yean do that, and if Ripplecom have any sense they will tell Comreg to **** off, why? ... because Comreg do nothing, absolutely nothing, like ALL REGULATORS in this country they are ineffectual, they issue assorted press releases, they invite consultations ,and promptly ignore same, they do sweet **** all, they grab their pay cheque, look forward to their pension, and **** you the consumer.
Wake up folks, this is Ireland, the land of the eternal gob****e.

PseudoFamous

tartetatin wrote: »

Ran a seped test. 261 pings

My ping is usually about that, and I'm in Arklow town, which is populous by Irish standards. You're getting a pretty decent service to say you're in a rural area.

tartetatin

Hmmm. My ping ranges from 203 to 574. It's the inconsistency of the service- coupled with the need to reboot daily (if not twice daily) that gets me. The nearest mast is 150m away, but it hasn't been upgraded (physically) since Ripplecom took over the network. In essence, more people have registered with Ripplecom, more people are using the mast. The mast is not equipped to provide for the demand but the company continues to charge on a direct debit basis.
A ping of over 200 doesn't sound great for a relatively urban area such as Arklow. How many mbs are you paying for? How many mbs do you get?

Ricky91t

I'm on a different ISP but wireless too, service can be intermittent and when you're paying €45 for 4mbps connection getting 1.5mbps isn't really very good.

To me it seems the companies are getting over subscribed and the owners are very happy with all their extra profit but don't want to spend extra money to upgrade their backhaul(I think it's called that).

PseudoFamous

tartetatin wrote: »

A ping of over 200 doesn't sound great for a relatively urban area such as Arklow. How many mbs are you paying for? How many mbs do you get?

Paying for 7.2mb/s down, and I get just under that, sometimes. Usually about 4-5mb/s though. On 3 for broadband, because eircom haven't bothered a toss with upgrading the line in my area, despite claiming they have. 3 mast is in clear sight of the window, so coverage is decent. As I said, though, Ping is dire. Funnily enough, as I take it tonight, it's 96ms, which is a stark contrast to the normal 150-300ms I usually deal with.

tartetatin

Pseudo,
This is what annoys me. These broadband 'facilitators' are taking the proverbial, and my/our money whilst they're at it. It's a crappy service and I just don't know what to do about it.

TechnoFreek

PseudoFamous wrote: »

Paying for 7.2mb/s down, and I get just under that, sometimes. Usually about 4-5mb/s though. On 3 for broadband, because eircom haven't bothered a toss with upgrading the line in my area, despite claiming they have. 3 mast is in clear sight of the window, so coverage is decent. As I said, though, Ping is dire. Funnily enough, as I take it tonight, it's 96ms, which is a stark contrast to the normal 150-300ms I usually deal with.

Hey Pseudo, I'm also in arklow (meadowvale)
I'm with eircom on their next gen 8mb package. can only get 2mb tops. I used to be able to get 3 but they dropped me to 2 saying my line wasn't stable at 2.
this is rubbish as i actually always used to get a stable 3.5mb

they refuse to revert the line speed.

I'm not familiar with the 3 package, is that the mobile broadband from 3?
25gb download?

My issue is that I download a lot so while eircom is slow at least I can download freely.

bealtine

TechnoFreek wrote: »

I'm not familiar with the 3 package, is that the mobile broadband from 3?
25gb download?

My issue is that I download a lot so while eircom is slow at least I can download freely.

Even slow DSL is generally better than any 3G offering.

PseudoFamous

TechnoFreek wrote: »

I'm with eircom on their next gen 8mb package. can only get 2mb tops. I used to be able to get 3 but they dropped me to 2 saying my line wasn't stable at 2.
this is rubbish as i actually always used to get a stable 3.5mb

Eircom are saying the same thing to a few friends of mine in Oaklands, I suspect they haven't bothered doing anything to the cabinets in this end of the town to facilitate the bump to 8mb from the 2mb that was common when they last upgraded the line.

TechnoFreek wrote: »

I'm not familiar with the 3 package, is that the mobile broadband from 3?
25gb download?

60GB for €30 a month. It's pretty crap, though. For some reason, we get routed through Dundalk, Monasterevin, Enfield, or Waterford, so ping is ridiculous. As I said, though, the download speed isn't altogether terrible. We're in clear sight of the bloody mast, too.

Debating getting in contact with comreg over this, as ping has increased slightly, and download speeds have decreased, due to more people using 3's network, and there are no other providers giving a service fit for 2012 in the town.

Sponge Bob

A lot of east coast towns are particularly badly off because they could get BBC direct .....so they were never cabled.