3 months of hell......why will nobody take any responsibility to fix my problem

chewy356

I moved to rural Meath last year and had eircom broadband installed. For 8 months I had a braodband service wich worked, admittadly it was not fast (0.8M) but it worked everyday. 3 months ago a tractor took down the telephone line and since that day I have had no or occasioanlly internmittent service with max download of 0.2M, but most of the time a 5sec ping and 0.01 download (but with up to .57 upload!).


For 3 months I get the same scripted response - reset your router (already replaced twice), downgrade your speed, plugged into main socket?, any other stuff connected, is the DLS ligth on,  and then the excuses start: you are extended reach (my house has not moved! any chance that the repairs done 3 months ago could have increased resistance/attenuation on the line?), and the most recent is that the copper lines corrode over time and that is why I could get a service 3  months ago and today I cannot (I asked him if he was just making this stuff up and he told me to research on google).

Only two people gave even a hint of caring whether the issue was resolved and I have talked to many different agents over the last 3 months. Every time it was back into the same scripted robotic responses again. Every other person who has answered the phone makes me feel like they just want to get a call assigned to someone and once off the phone they will never have to deal with me again.

Coming from an engineering background I cannot believe that there is not a team of experienced engineers who whould be dealing with this tye of issue - clearly it is intermittent and more difficult to fix, but experienced engineers can deal with this. Nobody ever acknowledges that the issue could be in the exhange (swap the ADSL card to rule it out?), and most frustratingly nobody has once bothered to read the history on my account to avoid asking the same questions for the 10th time. 

I am at the point now where I am starting to get angry when I call and I know it is not the fault of the guy on the end of the phone - but what is left for me to do? any ideas? I cannot get 3G reception from any provider and am outside the official NBS electoral areas - If I had a choice of service I would have closed this account 2 months ago! 

eircom: Colm

chewy356 wrote: »

I moved to rural Meath last year and had eircom broadband installed. For 8 months I had a braodband service wich worked, admittadly it was not fast (0.8M) but it worked everyday. 3 months ago a tractor took down the telephone line and since that day I have had no or occasioanlly internmittent service with max download of 0.2M, but most of the time a 5sec ping and 0.01 download (but with up to .57 upload!).


For 3 months I get the same scripted response - reset your router (already replaced twice), downgrade your speed, plugged into main socket?, any other stuff connected, is the DLS ligth on,  and then the excuses start: you are extended reach (my house has not moved! any chance that the repairs done 3 months ago could have increased resistance/attenuation on the line?), and the most recent is that the copper lines corrode over time and that is why I could get a service 3  months ago and today I cannot (I asked him if he was just making this stuff up and he told me to research on google).

Only two people gave even a hint of caring whether the issue was resolved and I have talked to many different agents over the last 3 months. Every time it was back into the same scripted robotic responses again. Every other person who has answered the phone makes me feel like they just want to get a call assigned to someone and once off the phone they will never have to deal with me again.

Coming from an engineering background I cannot believe that there is not a team of experienced engineers who whould be dealing with this tye of issue - clearly it is intermittent and more difficult to fix, but experienced engineers can deal with this. Nobody ever acknowledges that the issue could be in the exhange (swap the ADSL card to rule it out?), and most frustratingly nobody has once bothered to read the history on my account to avoid asking the same questions for the 10th time. 

I am at the point now where I am starting to get angry when I call and I know it is not the fault of the guy on the end of the phone - but what is left for me to do? any ideas? I cannot get 3G reception from any provider and am outside the official NBS electoral areas - If I had a choice of service I would have closed this account 2 months ago! 

Hi chewy356

Can you send me a PM with the Phone no. and I will run some tests on the line.

thanks
Colm

chewy356

eircom: Colm wrote: »

Hi chewy356

Can you send me a PM with the Phone no. and I will run some tests on the line.

thanks
Colm

Colm

for your information and from experience of having tests ran numerous times over last 3 months:

80/90% of the time I have no DSL connection - during this time when the DSL is not connected (as indicated by no light on router and router interface page informing me of such) and the test is ran remotely, the DSL light flashes a number of time as the exchange attempts to make connection and once the test is complete the light goes out again. The person initiating the test tells me my router is connected. 

I then typically volunteer that when the DSL is connected my download is typically 0.2 MB - to which I get a mixed response - about 50% of Eircom customer service reps exclaim and tell me "wow, something is definitely wrong with the line and we will definitely fix this for you" and the other 50% just ignore me and go on about following the script .... 


Also some recent speedtest results from the occasions when it is connected.

13th midnight    .22 down, .27 up, 87 ms ping
17th 7.40 pm     .06 down, .21 up, 1,638 ms ping
17th 7.42 pm     .07 down, .16 up, 2,322 ms ping
20th 6.55 pm     .14 down, .16 up, 116 ms ping
I have tried to get more recent results but connection is more often than not disconnected.

if anyone has a recommendation of an android app which will run and report tests on a regular basis (say hourly) to show how often the DSL is connected then I would welcome the advise.

I would like to reinforce one point from my first post - for 8 months I had a stable working connection set at 1M on your end - it was not fast but it always worked. 3 months ago this stopped. The router has been changed twice. I have not moved house so the distance to the exchange has not changed and by extension the attenuation has not changed due to reach - if attenuation is the cause then it can only have increased due to repair work on the line 3 months ago.

Colm, I am putting all my trust in you as everybody else in Eircom has failed me to date. 

eircom: Alan

chewy356 wrote: »

eircom: Colm wrote: »

Hi chewy356

Can you send me a PM with the Phone no. and I will run some tests on the line.

thanks
Colm

Colm

for your information and from experience of having tests ran numerous times over last 3 months:

80/90% of the time I have no DSL connection - during this time when the DSL is not connected (as indicated by no light on router and router interface page informing me of such) and the test is ran remotely, the DSL light flashes a number of time as the exchange attempts to make connection and once the test is complete the light goes out again. The person initiating the test tells me my router is connected. 

I then typically volunteer that when the DSL is connected my download is typically 0.2 MB - to which I get a mixed response - about 50% of Eircom customer service reps exclaim and tell me "wow, something is definitely wrong with the line and we will definitely fix this for you" and the other 50% just ignore me and go on about following the script .... 


Also some recent speedtest results from the occasions when it is connected.

13th midnight    .22 down, .27 up, 87 ms ping
17th 7.40 pm     .06 down, .21 up, 1,638 ms ping
17th 7.42 pm     .07 down, .16 up, 2,322 ms ping
20th 6.55 pm     .14 down, .16 up, 116 ms ping
I have tried to get more recent results but connection is more often than not disconnected.

if anyone has a recommendation of an android app which will run and report tests on a regular basis (say hourly) to show how often the DSL is connected then I would welcome the advise.

I would like to reinforce one point from my first post - for 8 months I had a stable working connection set at 1M on your end - it was not fast but it always worked. 3 months ago this stopped. The router has been changed twice. I have not moved house so the distance to the exchange has not changed and by extension the attenuation has not changed due to reach - if attenuation is the cause then it can only have increased due to repair work on the line 3 months ago.

Colm, I am putting all my trust in you as everybody else in Eircom has failed me to date. 

Hi chewy356

Colm is not available at present - can you please PM me your landline number & I'll look further in to this for you.

Thanks
Al

chewy356

Dear Eircom 
Colm appears to be on holidays - can another of the team answer my questions below as I have no response from Colm in the last week. Thanks

I appreciate you looking into the history on this - my frustration remains on the basis that the service worked at 1MB for 8 months and now does not. The distance did not change! As an engineer myself the logic does not stack up. I believe the damage to the line which coincided with the start of my problems could be repaired in such a way as to restore the original service, however it looks like at this point in time I have to resign to the fact that I will not get a reliable service from fixed line broadband. Adding to this is that I have been paying for a bb service since march which simply does not work much of the time. one of your colleagues credited one month of fees which is a start, but not really satisfactory given the length of time this has been going on.

Hopefully you can answer some follow on questions for me:

1) can I get credit for the period that the service has not been working?
2) can I exit my contract (phone and bb) without penalty based on service not being fit for purpose anymore? 
3) can you advise when e-fibre cabinets are scheduled to be installed for the areas connected to Balrath exchange (Meath) 
Thanks again for your help.

eircom: Alan

chewy356 wrote: »

Dear Eircom 
Colm appears to be on holidays - can another of the team answer my questions below as I have no response from Colm in the last week. Thanks

I appreciate you looking into the history on this - my frustration remains on the basis that the service worked at 1MB for 8 months and now does not. The distance did not change! As an engineer myself the logic does not stack up. I believe the damage to the line which coincided with the start of my problems could be repaired in such a way as to restore the original service, however it looks like at this point in time I have to resign to the fact that I will not get a reliable service from fixed line broadband. Adding to this is that I have been paying for a bb service since march which simply does not work much of the time. one of your colleagues credited one month of fees which is a start, but not really satisfactory given the length of time this has been going on.

Hopefully you can answer some follow on questions for me:

1) can I get credit for the period that the service has not been working?
2) can I exit my contract (phone and bb) without penalty based on service not being fit for purpose anymore? 
3) can you advise when e-fibre cabinets are scheduled to be installed for the areas connected to Balrath exchange (Meath) 
Thanks again for your help.

Hi chewy356

I can understand the frustration this can cause so I'm going to look in to this case in detail. I will be back to you with an update as soon as my findings are complete.

Thanks
Al

eircom: Alan

chewy356 wrote: »

Dear Eircom 
Colm appears to be on holidays - can another of the team answer my questions below as I have no response from Colm in the last week. Thanks

I appreciate you looking into the history on this - my frustration remains on the basis that the service worked at 1MB for 8 months and now does not. The distance did not change! As an engineer myself the logic does not stack up. I believe the damage to the line which coincided with the start of my problems could be repaired in such a way as to restore the original service, however it looks like at this point in time I have to resign to the fact that I will not get a reliable service from fixed line broadband. Adding to this is that I have been paying for a bb service since march which simply does not work much of the time. one of your colleagues credited one month of fees which is a start, but not really satisfactory given the length of time this has been going on.

Hopefully you can answer some follow on questions for me:

1) can I get credit for the period that the service has not been working?
2) can I exit my contract (phone and bb) without penalty based on service not being fit for purpose anymore? 
3) can you advise when e-fibre cabinets are scheduled to be installed for the areas connected to Balrath exchange (Meath) 
Thanks again for your help.

Hi chewy356

I have taken the time to look in to this in detail and I would like to confirm a few things and offer answers to your questions raised above.

I can confirm that a rebate for the existing service up to this date will not be offered, this is because of the specific condition that all broadband speed is firstly advertised, sold and provided on the terms of ‘up to’ the said speed - this concerns any speed up to the maximum stated.

As a result of discussions with technical support, tests conducted and findings I can confirm that should you wish to cancel this service you will not be held to contract - this is largely due to the fact that there is no scope for improvement to your current speeds and although speeds are advised and provided on the condition of 'up to' we would like to offer this as a good will gesture should you decide to cancel or leave.

In relation to your query surround efibre in your area I would like to confirm that although Balrath is included in eircoms plans for fibre deployment there is yet to be an agreed date on this although all indications point towards that it could be 2016 before we will be able to offer you concrete information and dates surrounding efibre availability in Balrath.

[font=Calibri","sans-serif]Finally, I would like to apologise for the level of disappointment you have experienced so far.[/font] If you have any further queries or concerns to feel free to raise these with me.

Thanks
Al