Bus Eireann WiFi Not Working

foggy_lad

I have used the WiFi on several Bus Eireann services but on each one the same issue arises with the pages not rendering properly for use on mobile smartphones.

When I browse pages on my phone the pages are changed to suit the phones screen and the text is rearranged to suit the width of the screen but when connected to the Bus Eireann WiFi this does not happen so I must scroll across the page to read text etc which makes the service so inconvenient as to be unuseable.

This may be caused by the advertising banner being used across the top of the pages when connected to the WiFi?

Has anyone else experienced this issue? does this happen with all smartphones? It happens with my HTC desire HD and samsung Galaxy S3.

Victor

I would talk to the wi-fi supplier and send them some screenshots.

http://www.fleetconnect.ie/contactus.html

foggy_lad

Victor wrote: »

I would talk to the wi-fi supplier and send them some screenshots.

http://www.fleetconnect.ie/contactus.html

Are Bus Eireann not the ones responsible though? the WiFi is provided as a part of your journey on the bus and advertised as working by Bus Eireann. I have sent a detailed email to Bus Eireann about the issue but would draw the line at contacting a company like fleet connect which I have had no business with. Bus Eireann are the retailer in this instance and they should be responsible for dealing with any issues.

Victor

foggy_lad wrote: »

Are Bus Eireann not the ones responsible though? the WiFi is provided as a part of your journey on the bus and advertised as working by Bus Eireann. I have sent a detailed email to Bus Eireann about the issue but would draw the line at contacting a company like fleet connect which I have had no business with. Bus Eireann are the retailer in this instance and they should be responsible for dealing with any issues.

The kind answer: "Ask and you shall receive! Seek and you shall find! Report the wi-fi problem to the wi-fi supplier and you might get resolution!"

The unkind answer: Bus Éireann don't know how to set clocks and you expect them to be able to diagnose wi-fi problems?

AlekSmart

Victor wrote: »

The kind answer: "Ask and you shall receive! Seek and you shall find! Report the wi-fi problem to the wi-fi supplier and you might get resolution!"

The unkind answer: Bus Éireann don't know how to set clocks and you expect them to be able to diagnose wi-fi problems?

Victor,the principle in Foggy_Lad land is that any CIE group company will ALWAYS be deemed responsible for any event,issue or occuence within a specific radius of the Man himself.

The notion that wi-fi facilities across the Public Transport sector across now virtually 100% outsourced is,at best, inconvienent due to placing the contracting company (BE in this case) at arms length.

Mobile wi-fi on buses and coaches is in it's infancy with many issues arising on a daily basis.

Most users appreciate that when it comes to the tech side,it really does require the Techies to be aware of the issues as they arise.....giving out shyte about the Bus Company's supposed deficiency is a good way of venting to atmosphere,but it will NOT get the wi-fi fixed....your advised approach WILL.....It's up to the Man himself now

Mind you,given Foggy_Lad's well known antipathy to being questioned,challenged or monitored in or about Public Transport he might find this article of interest,as may others......

etchyed

foggy_lad wrote: »

Are Bus Eireann not the ones responsible though? the WiFi is provided as a part of your journey on the bus and advertised as working by Bus Eireann. I have sent a detailed email to Bus Eireann about the issue but would draw the line at contacting a company like fleet connect which I have had no business with. Bus Eireann are the retailer in this instance and they should be responsible for dealing with any issues.

In principle, you're right. Bus Éireann is the company you have purchased a service from, and an advertised part of that service is free WiFi. Legally, it's Bus Éireann you should be dealing with.

To be more pragmatic though, which company do you think will be able to resolve your issue more quickly? As Victor said, you probably have a better chance of getting it fixed (as it's a technical issue) by contacting FleetConnect directly. If they fail to be helpful/resolve the issue, then I would by all means resort to contacting BÉ, with whom you have a contract of sorts (albeit probably one with a get-out clause about their responsibility for provision of extra bells and whistles like WiFi), informing them of any problems you may have had with the company to which they have subcontracted the WiFi.

It all boils down to what your priorities are, do you want to get the WiFi working, or do you want to have a go at Bus Éireann? Because based on past form... I'm sure you know where I'm going with this. I also worry, foggy lad, based on the tone of your writing about CIÉ on Boards, that you might be the kind of person who writes the sort of sort of bile-filled complaint letters that would simply get thrown in the bin at even the most customer-conscious of private companies, let alone CIÉ. But anyway, I wish you well in getting this resolved, it will be to the benefit of everyone if you do.

Sponge Bob

You should complain to the driver, ALWAYS complain to the driver first.

bk

Actually Foggy is correct, he should be complaining to BE who in turn should advise fleet connect.

It is very likely that if you contacted fleet connect directly that they wouldn't do anything as they are probably contracted to only fix bugs reported by BE.

Victor

bk wrote: »

Actually Foggy is correct, he should be complaining to BE who in turn should advise fleet connect.

It is very likely that if you contacted fleet connect directly that they wouldn't do anything as they are probably contracted to only fix bugs reported by BE.

No, there are sign on the buses saying contact Fleet Connect by e-mail, giving a reference number (likely the bus fleet number).

bk

Victor wrote: »

bk wrote: »

Actually Foggy is correct, he should be complaining to BE who in turn should advise fleet connect.

It is very likely that if you contacted fleet connect directly that they wouldn't do anything as they are probably contracted to only fix bugs reported by BE.

No, there are sign on the buses saying contact Fleet Connect by e-mail, giving a reference number (likely the bus fleet number).

Ah didn't know that, that is fair enough so.ust be part of their contract with be so.

parsi

bk wrote: »

Ah didn't know that, that is fair enough so.ust be part of their contract with be so.

It often is - a third-party supplies and maintains the kit and deals with the problems.

I imagine if foggy went into a small coffee shop and had similar issues he would be met with much bemusement on the part of the staff who would suggest that he deal directly with the wifi provider.

Though if it makes him feel better he could show the driver his ticket and say "listen bud I've paid this much for a ticket so I damn well expect wifi to be working".

foggy_lad

Victor wrote: »

bk wrote: »

Actually Foggy is correct, he should be complaining to BE who in turn should advise fleet connect.

It is very likely that if you contacted fleet connect directly that they wouldn't do anything as they are probably contracted to only fix bugs reported by BE.

No, there are sign on the buses saying contact Fleet Connect by e-mail, giving a reference number (likely the bus fleet number).

There was no such sign to be seen on the bus I was on, maybe it had been removed by some idle minded passenger? I will look for those signs and contact the organ grinder in future with the bus/fleet number if it is available on the bus.

Graham

I used to use the BE WiFi every morning on my commute into work.

I stopped a few weeks ago when they began injecting Adverts into the top of every web page loaded. I found the re-rendering of the pages to include the adverts prevented many of them from loading at all.

On the web pages that did load, the top 20% of the mobile browser was filled with an advert. This was only made slightly more annoying by the fact it was always the same single advert, degree courses at DCU iirc.

Shame, it used to be a useful service.

foggy_lad

Graham wrote: »

I used to use the BE WiFi every morning on my commute into work.

I stopped a few weeks ago when they began injecting Adverts into the top of every web page loaded. I found the re-rendering of the pages to include the adverts prevented many of them from loading at all.

On the web pages that did load, the top 20% of the mobile browser was filled with an advert. This was only made slightly more annoying by the fact it was always the same single advert, degree courses at DCU iirc.

Shame, it used to be a useful service.

They have removed those banner adverts from the top of the page now and it works!

Graham

Goog to know, thanks foggy_lad.

I'll give it a go in the morning, I gave up trying after a few days with the ads.

CharlieZeroOne

foggy_lad

Graham wrote: »

Goog to know, thanks foggy_lad.

I'll give it a go in the morning, I gave up trying after a few days with the ads.

Sadly those annoying banner adverts are back! They are not too intrusive if they did not prevent the screen size from rendering properly to fit the sites visited!

the mobile touch site of boards is great on the phone, works great on HTC desire hd as well as on the Samsung galaxy S3 but is useless when used with Bus Eireann WiFi because the page stays as large as a normal 10 inch tablet screen.

I have passed on details to both parties in this venture and also made a complaint to both about the wastefulness of providing a service which very few people can access, but as expected have had no reply and no improvement to the service!

Graham

Can't get the wifi to work at all the last few days, can find the wifi network but never able to load the authentication page.

Tried on 3 separate devices now.

The Idyl Race

Perhaps any customer with wifi issues should seek compensation up to the value of the money they paid for their ticket? That would lead to the effective dealing with of foggy_lad's issue.

hmmm

I'd complain directly to BE, no questions about it. Someone mentioned above Wifi not working in a coffee shop - well in that case I'm not going to complain to the Wifi provider, I'm going to complain to the manager that he is advertising a service that doesn't work. Similarly on the bus.

It's another symptom of our Irish disease about shrugging our shoulders and accepting incompetence and poor service. If BE want to advertise a service, it's their responsibility to monitor that service. Otherwise this ends up like the famous power sockets in the trains that rarely if ever worked.

foggy_lad

The Idyl Race wrote: »

Perhaps any customer with WiFi issues should seek compensation up to the value of the money they paid for their ticket? cost of the journey That would lead to the effective dealing with of foggy_lad's issue.

Are those with free travel not entitled to compensation?

hmmm wrote: »

I'd complain directly to BE, no questions about it. Someone mentioned above Wifi not working in a coffee shop - well in that case I'm not going to complain to the Wifi provider, I'm going to complain to the manager that he is advertising a service that doesn't work. Similarly on the bus.

It's another symptom of our Irish disease about shrugging our shoulders and accepting incompetence and poor service. If BE want to advertise a service, it's their responsibility to monitor that service. Otherwise this ends up like the famous power sockets in the trains that rarely if ever worked.

They have received several complaints but obviously the expertise is not there to fix this issue, they may as well turn it off and not provide WiFi at all if they are only going to cater for those with laptops. Nobody uses a laptop on the bus!

The Idyl Race

foggy_lad wrote: »

Are those with free travel not entitled to compensation?

What did you lose? You didn't pay for your travel, so what compensation should you have then? Free wifi is a perk, not a right.

foggy_lad

The Idyl Race wrote: »

What did you lose? You didn't pay for your travel, so what compensation should you have then? Free wifi is a perk, not a right.

Compensation is not a refund but a payment to cover inconvenience etc when a service is not provided properly or at all, if fare-paying passengers are entitled to refunds for WiFi not working properly then Bus Éireann will soon be in the same financial strife as IE

parsi

foggy_lad wrote: »

Are those with free travel not entitled to compensation?
!

The refund should go to the entity that paid the fare - be it a person, a company or the State.

However I'm not fully convinced about WiFi on buses (or trains). Plenty of tweets about it being poor on aircoach and gobe. All of these share the same wifi provider and are subject to the vagaries of 3G coverage which affect all of us when travelling - both Voda and Three drop frequently on the Cork - Dublin route.

The Idyl Race

foggy_lad wrote: »

Compensation is not a refund but a payment to cover inconvenience etc when a service is not provided properly or at all, if fare-paying passengers are entitled to refunds for WiFi not working properly then Bus Éireann will soon be in the same financial strife as IE

Free travel is a financial black hole in its own right. It should be curtailed by means test, off peak hours and bona fide travel to and from hospital appointments and food shopping, not for the relatively well off to go on jollies all day long at the taxpayers' expense.

Graham

parsi wrote: »

However I'm not fully convinced about WiFi on buses (or trains). Plenty of tweets about it being poor on aircoach and gobe. All of these share the same wifi provider and are subject to the vagaries of 3G coverage which affect all of us when travelling.

To my surprise, when it allows you to connect it actually works quite well.

parsi

Graham wrote: »

To my surprise, when it allows you to connect it actually works quite well.

I was up/down to Dublin today by train and found the wifi to be ok. Going up it had a few breaks but stabilised around Thurles.

Coing home it was poor for a while at the beginning (full train) but did settle down.

Streamed BBC6 radio for most of the journey.

foggy_lad

Graham wrote: »

To my surprise, when it allows you to connect it actually works quite well.

There is no issue with the actual connection on bus Éireann buses, but when they have those ad banners the browser window wont reduce down to fit your mobile phone screen so even sites like the touch version of Boards.ie become useless as you need to scroll across the page continuously to access content and options. Happily the Irish Rail WiFi does not have those ad banners across the top of the screen after you sign in but can sometimes suffer from poor signal which is to be expected as the railway often travels through sparsely populated areas with poor mobile phone coverage.

This thread is about Bus Éireann WiFi which appears to be flawed by the inclusion of the ad banners.

Normal WiFi/Mobile use

Using Bus Éireann WiFi

Pages are too big for the mobile screen.

Graham

You mean banner ad, there's only ever one that injects itself into every web page for days/weeks on end.

It's not just that causing issues at the moment though, it appears that iOS devices with their own data connection are unable to connect to the onboard WiFi.

On the remote possibility that anyone from Bus Eireann ever looks into this thread, I have a few suggestions.

1) Sort out the banner ads, either make them useful/relevant or get rid of them. There really is nothing to be gained by showing me the same banner 60+ times a day, 5 days a week.
2) Relise that now most people using the onboard WiFi are using a mobile device (i.e. not a laptop). The Ads should scale/vanish accordingly.
3) Test the service in the real world using devices representative of the ones your customers use (phones/tablets etc).
4) Join the current century when it comes to feedback. Why can we not contact you via Twitter, Facebook, email???

foggy_lad

It looks like bus Éireann have woken up finally to customer service with their 3 New WiFi access points in Busáras. The connection is flawless and fast enough although YouTube is blocked:(

Also noticed that 5 more blocks of 3seats each have been broken/removed, hopefully these will be repaired and refitted as there are not enough seats at most times.

The Moist Buddha

"Something went wrong. You could try to go back and try again, or restart your device

Error code: 306"

thats all im getting, was connected earlier but now wont connect at all!!