eircom - poor customer service

turtleshead

Have had a number of issues with eircom customer service and broadband in the last fortnight.

To give a brief history:

I have the Home Broadband Plus package costing €54 a month and was relatively happy with the service up until 3 weeks ago. In the last 3 weeks it has been down quiet a bit, I work on call 24*7 so sometimes I am required to have to dial in overnight to work on internal IT issues at my workplace.

About 3 weeks ago I was doing some weekend work which required me to be online for an extended period, which isn't out of the norm I usually do this work from home and have never had any issues, about an hour into the work my connection became so slow that I couldn't work (couldnt open google or eircom page to test downnload speed) however it didnt drop fully as I was on a VOIP call which continued. So off I went into the office to work, normally in this work we get an hour or two off when I dont have any tasks, it is handy to work from home as I can get two hours sleep and log back on and work. Due to the fact I had to go to the office I ended up spending 36 hours there (not eircom's issue per se, just the nature of my work) still I would expect my connection to be reasonable to allow me work from home.

Anyway to continue on I logged a call with there broadband team and there inital response and handling was faultless, the agent was knowledgeable and listened, and quickly dispatched an engineer who arrived the following day. The engineer found no fault with the line and said given it was intermittent that it would be difficult to determine the cause but ruled out the Router/Modem as the issue. The engineer logged a call with some Dublin based engineers and a few hours later I had a call from him and he advised that there had been service issues in the area and that they were now resolved with a hardware replacement. The following day I got a call from member of the Broadband technical support team as a follow up to see if the issue was resolved, I advised I hadn't been at home but I would keep an eye on it.

The following couple of days there were no issue until Monday when it went down for a 7 hour period. I rang the following day as I thought the lines wouldn't be open and my call was handled by a very rude tech support rep who talked me through factory resetting my router. The issue continued to reoccur intermittently throughout the Tuesday and Wednesday, again I got called this morning (Thursday) at 4:00am and the service was unavailable, so I had to make my way into the office again, when I returned home at 6:00am the service was still down and only returned at roughly 7:45am.

When I called today all I can say is that I was told that it MAYBE an issue with the router and they would like it to be replaced (despite the original engineer dispatched saying it was unlikely to be an issue with the router) so I asked for a replacement router to be sent....

This is where my issue lies...... They advised that I cause I was out of contract and the replacement router was free I would now be under contract for another 12 months despite the fact that they cannot guarantee it will fix my issue!!!!

Is it just me or does this sound like very poor customer service, asking me to sign up for another 12 months without guaranteeing it resolves my issue? I would have no problem sending the router back if it didnt fix my problem and advised likewise on the phone.

wmpdd3

buy your own router, much cheaper than being stuck in a 12 month contract.

turtleshead

wmpdd3 wrote: »

buy your own router, much cheaper than being stuck in a 12 month contract.

Have resorted to that, have an old piece of kit at home that will work, will just switch to another provider, less than impressed with the customer service experience.

eircom: Mark

turtleshead wrote: »

Have had a number of issues with eircom customer service and broadband in the last fortnight.

To give a brief history:

I have the Home Broadband Plus package costing €54 a month and was relatively happy with the service up until 3 weeks ago. In the last 3 weeks it has been down quiet a bit, I work on call 24*7 so sometimes I am required to have to dial in overnight to work on internal IT issues at my workplace.

About 3 weeks ago I was doing some weekend work which required me to be online for an extended period, which isn't out of the norm I usually do this work from home and have never had any issues, about an hour into the work my connection became so slow that I couldn't work (couldnt open google or eircom page to test downnload speed) however it didnt drop fully as I was on a VOIP call which continued. So off I went into the office to work, normally in this work we get an hour or two off when I dont have any tasks, it is handy to work from home as I can get two hours sleep and log back on and work. Due to the fact I had to go to the office I ended up spending 36 hours there (not eircom's issue per se, just the nature of my work) still I would expect my connection to be reasonable to allow me work from home.

Anyway to continue on I logged a call with there broadband team and there inital response and handling was faultless, the agent was knowledgeable and listened, and quickly dispatched an engineer who arrived the following day. The engineer found no fault with the line and said given it was intermittent that it would be difficult to determine the cause but ruled out the Router/Modem as the issue. The engineer logged a call with some Dublin based engineers and a few hours later I had a call from him and he advised that there had been service issues in the area and that they were now resolved with a hardware replacement. The following day I got a call from member of the Broadband technical support team as a follow up to see if the issue was resolved, I advised I hadn't been at home but I would keep an eye on it.

The following couple of days there were no issue until Monday when it went down for a 7 hour period. I rang the following day as I thought the lines wouldn't be open and my call was handled by a very rude tech support rep who talked me through factory resetting my router. The issue continued to reoccur intermittently throughout the Tuesday and Wednesday, again I got called this morning (Thursday) at 4:00am and the service was unavailable, so I had to make my way into the office again, when I returned home at 6:00am the service was still down and only returned at roughly 7:45am.

When I called today all I can say is that I was told that it MAYBE an issue with the router and they would like it to be replaced (despite the original engineer dispatched saying it was unlikely to be an issue with the router) so I asked for a replacement router to be sent....

This is where my issue lies...... They advised that I cause I was out of contract and the replacement router was free I would now be under contract for another 12 months despite the fact that they cannot guarantee it will fix my issue!!!!

Is it just me or does this sound like very poor customer service, asking me to sign up for another 12 months without guaranteeing it resolves my issue? I would have no problem sending the router back if it didnt fix my problem and advised likewise on the phone.

Hi turtleshead,

Can you PM me with your eircom telephone number and I will look into the case history and run a few checks on your broadband connection.

Thanks, Mark

turtleshead

Hi Mark,

Any update? I provided my account details via PM on the 08/06 as requested but haven't heard anything back.

Thanks,

Mike

eircom: Ant

turtleshead wrote: »

Hi Mark,

Any update? I provided my account details via PM on the 08/06 as requested but haven't heard anything back.

Thanks,

Mike

Mike, thanks for Post. Mark was looking at this for you. I'll check this and advise shortly.

Regards
Ant

SellingJuan

Im still baffled by the fact they dont have a 24hr helpline :O

eircom: Ant

turtleshead wrote: »

Hi Mark,

Any update? I provided my account details via PM on the 08/06 as requested but haven't heard anything back.

Thanks,

Mike

Hi Mike,

I have tried to give you call on your landline and was unable to leave a message.

I've checked your broadband history with Technical Support and see that they have advised you regarding your broadband and modem replacement policy.

Your broadband does appear to be fine at the moment, so this may not be the source of your slow speeds. Your broadband is currently syncing at 3Mb and showing good attainable rates. I've looked at your router and see just the one device connected over Ethernet. All diagnostic tests are passing. I've checked your recent logs and there are currently no multiple Internet connections. Firmware is up to date and firewall is also fine.. Your broadband has also been Alive or solid across the eircom authentication servers for the past 18 hours - online (d:h:m:s).

If possible can you try another speedtest. The expected download per /sec should be 2.5Mb /or 250Kb - with one device connected over Ethernet cable: (i.e : 2.5 MB (or 250KB) is the average speed on a 3MB connection)

Some further advice when testing your Broadband Speed.....

Are you downloading files while running /testing your Broadband speed? If so, this will dramatically reduce speedtest results.
· In many cases where you experience poor results from a speedtest, this can often be attributed to other activity on your PC or another PC/device in the house. In many of these instances there is peer-to-peer (Torrent, Limewire etc) activity downloading/uploading files to/from your PC. This kind of activity can adversely impact your Broadband speed.


Try temporarily disabling your anti-virus or firewall(s), and other applications running on your PC, when testing your speed. See if this improves your broadband overall. You may need to do a step at a time when troubleshooting a slow speed issue.



If you are running a speedtest please ensure that none of the devices connected to your router are downloading/uploading files


Speedtests can be run on the following link:



www.eircom.net/speedtest



Are you using streaming, file-sharing or Peer-to-Peer (P2P) software?

These programs download content in the background, even when minimised. Exit the software completely to ensure it does not affect the speed.
Have you scanned your computer for Spyware?

Spyware and viruses can interfere with internet connection, making it slow and/or unreliable.


If you still have problems with your connection after performing the above steps you need to contact eircom support department for further assistance.

eircom's modem replacement policy is outlined on the following link on our Community Forum : Community.eircom.net

However, as hinted above, I'm not positive that the modem is the source of this issue. I have also tested your phoneline over our fault handling system and these checks are also showing up fine.

Broadband Technical Support : 1890 260260 (locall); Hours : 08:00 - 22:00 (7 days).

Please keep your previous case id /reference from Technical Support, as this will if you need to follow this up.

Let me know if I can advise you further.
Ant

amac_ie

turtleshead wrote: »

Have had a number of issues with eircom customer service and broadband in the last fortnight.

To give a brief history:

I have the Home Broadband Plus package costing €54 a month and was relatively happy with the service up until 3 weeks ago. In the last 3 weeks it has been down quiet a bit, I work on call 24*7 so sometimes I am required to have to dial in overnight to work on internal IT issues at my workplace.

About 3 weeks ago I was doing some weekend work which required me to be online for an extended period, which isn't out of the norm I usually do this work from home and have never had any issues, about an hour into the work my connection became so slow that I couldn't work (couldnt open google or eircom page to test downnload speed) however it didnt drop fully as I was on a VOIP call which continued. So off I went into the office to work, normally in this work we get an hour or two off when I dont have any tasks, it is handy to work from home as I can get two hours sleep and log back on and work. Due to the fact I had to go to the office I ended up spending 36 hours there (not eircom's issue per se, just the nature of my work) still I would expect my connection to be reasonable to allow me work from home.

Anyway to continue on I logged a call with there broadband team and there inital response and handling was faultless, the agent was knowledgeable and listened, and quickly dispatched an engineer who arrived the following day. The engineer found no fault with the line and said given it was intermittent that it would be difficult to determine the cause but ruled out the Router/Modem as the issue. The engineer logged a call with some Dublin based engineers and a few hours later I had a call from him and he advised that there had been service issues in the area and that they were now resolved with a hardware replacement. The following day I got a call from member of the Broadband technical support team as a follow up to see if the issue was resolved, I advised I hadn't been at home but I would keep an eye on it.

The following couple of days there were no issue until Monday when it went down for a 7 hour period. I rang the following day as I thought the lines wouldn't be open and my call was handled by a very rude tech support rep who talked me through factory resetting my router. The issue continued to reoccur intermittently throughout the Tuesday and Wednesday, again I got called this morning (Thursday) at 4:00am and the service was unavailable, so I had to make my way into the office again, when I returned home at 6:00am the service was still down and only returned at roughly 7:45am.

When I called today all I can say is that I was told that it MAYBE an issue with the router and they would like it to be replaced (despite the original engineer dispatched saying it was unlikely to be an issue with the router) so I asked for a replacement router to be sent....

This is where my issue lies...... They advised that I cause I was out of contract and the replacement router was free I would now be under contract for another 12 months despite the fact that they cannot guarantee it will fix my issue!!!!

Is it just me or does this sound like very poor customer service, asking me to sign up for another 12 months without guaranteeing it resolves my issue? I would have no problem sending the router back if it didnt fix my problem and advised likewise on the phone.

I am a new customer to Eircom Broadband, having had the landline for a long time. After having it up and running with decent speed for a few days, it is now out of action.
I sent a fault report in on Friday, 3rd July 2012, though when I logged on to "My Eircom" I note that the system has put down Tuesday, the 7th July 2012 as when the fault was logged.
This is incorrect and obviously gives Eircom more time to fix the fault if they incorrectly say it wasn't logged until 4 days later.
I called Eircom and when I pointed out this incorrect date, they could not offer a decent answer. But they confirmed the problem would be resolved that day (8th July 2012) or definitely the next day....
It is now the after noon of the next day and it is still not working.
I am really dissatisfied with this service and strongly considering changing to another provider.
They have sold me a Broadband service which has been broken for most of the time that I have had it.....is there any shop on the high street that would provide a service like that?

eircom: Mark

amac_ie wrote: »

I am a new customer to Eircom Broadband, having had the landline for a long time. After having it up and running with decent speed for a few days, it is now out of action.
I sent a fault report in on Friday, 3rd July 2012, though when I logged on to "My Eircom" I note that the system has put down Tuesday, the 7th July 2012 as when the fault was logged.
This is incorrect and obviously gives Eircom more time to fix the fault if they incorrectly say it wasn't logged until 4 days later.
I called Eircom and when I pointed out this incorrect date, they could not offer a decent answer. But they confirmed the problem would be resolved that day (8th July 2012) or definitely the next day....
It is now the after noon of the next day and it is still not working.
I am really dissatisfied with this service and strongly considering changing to another provider.
They have sold me a Broadband service which has been broken for most of the time that I have had it.....is there any shop on the high street that would provide a service like that?

Hi amac_ie,

Sorry to hear about the broadband issues you have been getting.

Can you PM me with your tel no or account number and I will look into that for you.

Thanks, Mark

eircom: Mark

amac_ie wrote: »

I am a new customer to Eircom Broadband, having had the landline for a long time. After having it up and running with decent speed for a few days, it is now out of action.
I sent a fault report in on Friday, 3rd July 2012, though when I logged on to "My Eircom" I note that the system has put down Tuesday, the 7th July 2012 as when the fault was logged.
This is incorrect and obviously gives Eircom more time to fix the fault if they incorrectly say it wasn't logged until 4 days later.
I called Eircom and when I pointed out this incorrect date, they could not offer a decent answer. But they confirmed the problem would be resolved that day (8th July 2012) or definitely the next day....
It is now the after noon of the next day and it is still not working.
I am really dissatisfied with this service and strongly considering changing to another provider.
They have sold me a Broadband service which has been broken for most of the time that I have had it.....is there any shop on the high street that would provide a service like that?

Hi amac_ie,

There is a definite issue that was escalated to engineers on the 07/08/12 REF: 11402715 The case has been assigned to a crew and they should hopefully get to it by tomorrow.

I will track it and keep you posted.

Thanks, Mark

amac_ie

Thought I'd update my status with Eircom since my last post....

Well, you guessed it, my Broadband is still down.

My fault which was logged by me on the 4th of August 2012, and erroneously entered as logged on the 7th of August 2012 by Eircom is still the same ie. not working. We have made several calls to Eircom to ask for an update and they say "we are aware of the fault and our technical people are working on it".

My wife called them the other day...
When she got through to Eircom Broadband, they stated that they were aware of the fault and were working on it.
When she asked why it was taking so long.... they actually said that it was delayed because her husband when logging the call had hung up the phone on the Eircom representative.
This was not true. In fact I logged the call on the 4th of August 2012 by using the internet on my phone so I didn't even talk to an Eircom person.

Comreg are certainly going to be informed... it is a process which is worth the extra effort at this stage

desana

turtleshead wrote: »

Have had a number of issues with eircom customer service and broadband in the last fortnight.

To give a brief history:

I have the Home Broadband Plus package costing €54 a month and was relatively happy with the service up until 3 weeks ago. In the last 3 weeks it has been down quiet a bit, I work on call 24*7 so sometimes I am required to have to dial in overnight to work on internal IT issues at my workplace.

About 3 weeks ago I was doing some weekend work which required me to be online for an extended period, which isn't out of the norm I usually do this work from home and have never had any issues, about an hour into the work my connection became so slow that I couldn't work (couldnt open google or eircom page to test downnload speed) however it didnt drop fully as I was on a VOIP call which continued. So off I went into the office to work, normally in this work we get an hour or two off when I dont have any tasks, it is handy to work from home as I can get two hours sleep and log back on and work. Due to the fact I had to go to the office I ended up spending 36 hours there (not eircom's issue per se, just the nature of my work) still I would expect my connection to be reasonable to allow me work from home.

Anyway to continue on I logged a call with there broadband team and there inital response and handling was faultless, the agent was knowledgeable and listened, and quickly dispatched an engineer who arrived the following day. The engineer found no fault with the line and said given it was intermittent that it would be difficult to determine the cause but ruled out the Router/Modem as the issue. The engineer logged a call with some Dublin based engineers and a few hours later I had a call from him and he advised that there had been service issues in the area and that they were now resolved with a hardware replacement. The following day I got a call from member of the Broadband technical support team as a follow up to see if the issue was resolved, I advised I hadn't been at home but I would keep an eye on it.

The following couple of days there were no issue until Monday when it went down for a 7 hour period. I rang the following day as I thought the lines wouldn't be open and my call was handled by a very rude tech support rep who talked me through factory resetting my router. The issue continued to reoccur intermittently throughout the Tuesday and Wednesday, again I got called this morning (Thursday) at 4:00am and the service was unavailable, so I had to make my way into the office again, when I returned home at 6:00am the service was still down and only returned at roughly 7:45am.

When I called today all I can say is that I was told that it MAYBE an issue with the router and they would like it to be replaced (despite the original engineer dispatched saying it was unlikely to be an issue with the router) so I asked for a replacement router to be sent....

This is where my issue lies...... They advised that I cause I was out of contract and the replacement router was free I would now be under contract for another 12 months despite the fact that they cannot guarantee it will fix my issue!!!!

Is it just me or does this sound like very poor customer service, asking me to sign up for another 12 months without guaranteeing it resolves my issue? I would have no problem sending the router back if it didnt fix my problem and advised likewise on the phone.

Yes . EIRCOM have very poor customer service... I
I had been an Eircom customer for some time and noticed that my bills had jumped from approx 40 euro to almost 70 euro per month which was paid by direct debit. I contacted them about this and was advised of a package that would reduce my monthly bill. Also I felt that by staying with Eircom I could expect a smooth transition as I wasn't changing Service Provider and Eircom had all my details including bank account numbers.

From the onset it was disappointing as the transition was far from satisfactory. I first contacted them on July 23 but it took until August 31 for them to change over to the new package. As a customer I felt that Eir had kept me on the older package for longer than necessary so that they could take extra month fees at the higher rate . . In addition when the bill arrived it was in the amount of 104.22 euro which was almost twice package deal that I was sold on July 23 . Eir had not delivered what was promised (thereby breaking any contract) so I decided to phone Eir on Oct 9th and spoke to Stephen to cancel my account. I was told that I could not cancel my phone/broadband as Eircom were having "technical problems". Eventually I was given an email address and emailed them to cancel same.

I again phoned Eir on October 14th to check that everything was in order as I did not want any problems changing to another Provider. I was told by Keane that "there was no outstanding balance". I changed my Provider and expected that to be the end of it.

In early November I received a bill from Eir for €226.82 and again contacted them and spoke to Roberta on November 9. I advised her of my conversation on October 14th with xxxxx. It also became apparent over the duration of the conversation that Eir were having problems with their systems including old/new account numbers, direct debits etc. as the previous bill had not been debited from my account. After an hour I was advised that the pre recorded conversations would be reviewed and that someone would call me back. NOBODY called back. However I did email that same address given to me on Oct 9th querying this same bill and specified the amount €226.82. I received an email on November 18th stating that " I can confirm that there is no outstanding balance on the account". I assumed that Eir had decided that they had made such a mess of my account and incompetent systems and not collecting direct debits which were set up on their systems etc that they had waived same and that the email was confirmation of same.

December 10th I received a bill in the amount €354.77

I spoke to Eir today December 14th. I asked to speak with a manager again. I spoke with xxxx for an hour before she eventually put me through to a superviser/manager xxxxxx. He was rude and had his mind made up about my issue before he even came on to the phone. My reply would be that if EIRCOM have their customers waiting for an hour on the phone CUSTOMERS are going to be FRUSTRATED And if they give Conflicting information Customers have a right to be annoyed. The service from Eircom has been very disappointing. They have admitted more than once the inadequacies of their systems. I was advised today verbally by Eircom would waive their "slap on" fees which bring the invoice amount back to €104.22. Yet I have it in writing that there is no "outstanding balance".

If Eircom had to have set up the package as promised in July, if Eircom had collected their direct debit when they should have, if Eircom had had the courtesy to ring me back when they said they would, if Eircom had not told me on more than one accasion that there was "no outstanding balance", if Eircom wouldn't keep you so long waiting on the phone when a customer has a complaint I wouldn't have an issue with them. I dont know how they are still in business!