New house - old broadband

Twizzler

Hi,
I was wondering if anyone has had a similar experience as the one I'm about to describe, & if so, I would love to hear the outcome of it.
I have just bought a house & I need broadband ASAP because I work from home. For various reasons that I won't go into, I want to get Eircom broadband in the house rather than any other provider. When I rang Eircom to set up the connection, they said there was a Magnet line blocking the broadband from being set up by them. They said they can't proceed without the Magnet line being cancelled. However, I rang Magnet & as the previous owner of the house was the owner of the Magnet account, they cannot tell me anything about the status of the account for data protection reasons. The Magnet line is active, but I do not know if the previous owner has cancelled it & the request just hasn't been processed, if the previous owner hasn't cancelled it at all for whatever reason (seems highly unlikely, but it is a possibility), or if there is money owed to the account. I was told that if money is owed, the line will be blocked until that bill is paid. As the previous owner only moved out last week, I asked if a bill was pending & if for that reason the line will be blocked until such time as the bill is issued, & was told they can't tell me that. I have contacted the previous owner but haven't heard back yet. My hands are tied it seems but in the meantime, I effectively have no home office until this is sorted & I have no timeframe to provide my workplace with as to when this will be resolved. I can continue with using the current Magnet offering, but I have been through the details of what is available in my area and it's suitable for light Internet usage, whereas I need to be able to upload large files to a network server etc. and the package I'm currently on with Eircom in the home I'm about to move out of is much better than Magnet's offering. In theory, if there is a bill left unpaid, this could go on indefinitely & nobody will give me any details because it's not my account. If anyone has been through a similar situation & has any suggestions for how to move this on, I would be grateful. It is currently looking like Magnet is my only option, but not only is the package they are offering for my area not suitable, it is not cost-effective at all & I can get a much, much better deal with Eircom. I really don't want to accept Magnet's offering just because it's the easy option, then find out further down the line that it's not good enough for my requirements and I'll have to change again. Thanks in advance for any replies.

murphaph

As a last resort you could order a new phone line and use that for broadband but it's a crap solution for what should be easily fixed.

ED E

They wont release the line until the account is closed out, you need to chase down the previous tenant ASAP or go for the second line option(if its possible) to bypass the issue.

pizzahead77

Get your solicitor to confirm with the previous owner's solicitor what the story is with the Magnet account or get them to write to both Magent and Eircom to prove that you are the new owner of the house and get them to release the line.

It will be up to Magnet to chase down the money owed to them - they shouldn't be allowed to block releasing the line to you.

Johnboy1951

I would just order a new line with broadband in my own name .... in most areas that can be done quickly.

.... provided of course you have not made any use of the existing line ....

AlanS181824

Get hold of a Magnet router and see can you connect to the internet maybe?

Unfortunate situation to be in OP!