Eir Broadband - am I particularly unlucky

Unclebumble

Hi all,
Just wondering if I am particularly unlucky with Eir Broadband or are they always this bad?

Here’s my story - it’s a long one going back to Oct 2018
Hi
I signed up for Eir broadband account on October 4th 2018 in the ILAC Centre shop and was given an installation date of 9th October
At the time I signed up in the Eir store in Ilac Centre, Dublin the assistant was not able to select the 100mb option from the menu and had to select the 150 option instead. He told me to just let someone know when I was contacted about the install so I'm doing that now.

I had a visit on the 9th and it was agreed that additional work needed to be done to get the line in as a rural area and no available phone posts to use to run the line in on.

On the 11th of October I received a text from Eir to confirm that a forecasted install date would be sent to me.
On Monday the 14th of January I received another text saying order on hold as additional works by a third party are required.

I did ring 1901 as instructed in the text but my account number isn't being recognised so can not get past the first options on the keypad.


On the 17th of January I had a visit from KN Group, out of the blue, no text, no email, no phone call, luckily I was there, and he showed me where the telephone pole was to be located, we agreed on this and I was getting very excited that my long awaited broadband install was finally going to happen. An hour later I went out to check on the progress but the installer had left and no work carried out.

I subsequently rang Eir to find out when I could expect installation and was told that my expected install date was 30th of March 2019.

On the 29th of March, having heard nothing more from Eir I rang 1901 to enquire, I was told that I was scheduled for Saturday March 30th and when I explained that I would be working that day, ( I had received no notification that this was happening or I would have happily taken a days leave to be home) I was given a number to ring for Open Eir to re-arrange my install.

I rang this number I was given, 015366550 and was told that Open Eir did not work on Saturdays and they had no instructions from Eir to do an install at my address. They advised me to get back on to Eir and helpfully redirected my call.

I spoke to Adrian who told me that the 30th of March was the date the install was "forecast" to be done by and not an actual date of install. He also told me that he couldn't tell me when I could expect install until the 30th of March had passed.

I did express my confusion that if the forecast date was by the 30th of March but had not happened and I would have to wait until AFTER the 30th - the forecast install date - before I could get information on my actual install date. He told me that it was Eir Wholesale who organised the installations but I could not be transferred to them to request information on a date to install and Adrian himself could not speak to anyone in Eir Wholesale to find out when this might be.

I then rang Eir Open again and asked if I could speak to someone in Eir Wholesale to figure out if I was listed anywhere in anyones system to be set up with the service I signed up for in October 2018. I was very helpfully transferred to.......Adrian again. After some discussion where I tried to establish if anyone, anywhere could tell me if I was in the system, in line, anywhere to be given an install date it would appear I am not. My final dealings with Adrian ended in me asking if there was no-one, anywhere, who could tell me anything, and he agreed that there was no-one.

The following Tuesday I rang Eir again and retold my story. Someone did ring me back and gave me the forecast install date of June 30th. I explained my concern that open eir don't know I've laid piping to run the cable through and their computer will just keep pushing out my install date as my records say waiting on underground cable issue to be resolved.

On the 24th of April I used webchat to enquire about status of my install but they were not able to help me. I rang 1901 again and this time the person I spoke to was able to contact open eir who told him they would send someone out to do a survey and ensure the ducting for the underground cable had been done. They will not however let me know when so I can be there to show them the work which may be a problem but is at least some small progress.

Can you please give me an update on this and when I might expect the installation to take place or if there is anything else I need to do to get things moved on. I apologise for the length of this email, but it probably takes less time to read this than for me to be on hold to Eir waiting to speak to someone who knows what is going on.

ADDITIONAL:
In May I received a call to tell me that due to the length of time my installation was cancelled and a new one done, I received a second box, engineer came out on the 17th of May, asked "where is the post", I told him there was no post, but we both wholeheartedly agreed that a post was indeed needed, he took photos said he would pas on the information and left.

The next I heard was on 3rd July I got a phone call to say my install had been updated to be done by.......drum roll, the 30th of September 2019. Told me an engineer would be out in the next couple of weeks to do the installation of the post that is needed.

I next received an email on 1st of July telling me my bill was available and it was to be €59.99 I received a text message on Monday the 8th of July to tell me my latest bill was available and a direct debit would be take on or around the 12th of July. What this bill is for I am at a loss to know as I have not yet received any service from Eir.

In addition I should not be charged €59.99 as what I signed up for was a 100mb deal for €39.99, see paragraph one above!

I eventually found an email for eir customer complaints and emailed on the 10th of July, I received a phone call from Ayo very promptly and a follow up email, stating the €59.99 would be waived off my account - see email below

ccm@eir.ie <ccm@eir.ie>
To:........

12 Jul at 15:40

Dear .......,

Thank you for taking my call earlier today.

I completely understand your frustration in this matter.

On behalf of eir, I would like to express my sincerest apology for any inconvenience caused regarding this issue.

There is no forecast date yet for the done that needed to be done before the fibre installation can go through, please be advised we will contact you as soon as there is forecast date.

And also I have waived the €59.99 off your account and as soon as the installation is done reply my email and let us know and we look after you.

Thanks

Regards

Ayo


On the 16th of July I noticed that the €59.99 had indeed been taken from my account so I emailed Ayo again. He again apologised and advised me to get a refund form from BOI to get the money returned. I really don't see why the customer has to go to the trouble of this to get back money that was never authorised in the first place, but however having dealt with Eir for this length of time I wasn't going down that rabbit hole. I got the form from the bank but when going to fill in I realised I never signed up for a direct debit, the amount deducted on my account is a POS, my card details taken way back in October now being used to take money from m account.

I again emailed Ayo yesterday asking what Eir planned to do to rectify this.

ZENER

Life is too short to deal with Eir. The company I work for have nearly 50 houses in different parts of the country. We have always dealt with Three for DSL and never had an issue, we can call them to report a fault and get a line checked without the Eir nonsense of having to provide an account number or only dealing with the contract holder. No fuss, extremely helpful and prompt.

We were keen to get fibre to some of the houses and at the time we could only deal with Eir for this service. We agreed to get one of the houses done and after 2 months of phoning we were pulling our hair out ! They wouldn't talk to us (IT) only the "customer" who was a person working in the house whose name was given as a point of contact but ended up being the only name on the contract. We contacted their sales team and the guy who we initially contacted and threatened to pull the other 15 possible contracts if he didn't sort it within 24 hours. We eventually got it sorted after the house being without any essential (medical reason) communications for almost 2 weeks. It turned out their was a line problem, a fault they couldn't sort because they couldn't find the cable coming into the house ! I visited the house and found it within 5 minutes - outside at the gable end which is visible as you come in the gate.

Fortunately the Fibre sales opened up and now Three and RippleCom can provide everything need so we use these now. I can recommend RippleCom highly, great communication and turn up when they say they will. Three are great for their CS for home broadband.

My advice - Cancel the order and the DD and give Three or RippleCom a call and tell them you have the pipe laid already and see if they can help.

Ken

cameramonkey

I dealt with Eir for a number of phones lines. they are incompetent. If you have loads of time and want to waste it keep your Eir account, if you value your sanity and time drop Eir.

ED E

ZENER wrote: »

Life is too short to deal with Eir. The company I work for have nearly 50 houses in different parts of the country. We have always dealt with Three for DSL and never had an issue, we can call them to report a fault and get a line checked without the Eir nonsense of having to provide an account number or only dealing with the contract holder. No fuss, extremely helpful and prompt.

Haha, Three DSL IS Eir. Its a whitelabel product.

antix80

Tl;dr
Eir wasnt available for a long time
Now it is and theyre overcharging

Solution. Phone 1901 during business hours. I believe option 4 is the cancellation option that puts you through to the loyalty team who can apply the reduction to the agreed amount.

If you post all that waffle in an email to eir id say they're well within their rights to print the email off, shred it and post it back to you.

ZENER

ED E wrote: »

Haha, Three DSL IS Eir. Its a whitelabel product.

You’re on the ball tonight eh ?!

Three customer service is NOT Eir. Most of the delays are caused by being unable to find someone to talk to you without producing your family history and sacrificing a testicle, my experience of Three is much better and less stressful.

KN Networks do the premises connection and they can be hit and miss too.

Ken

ED E

Three staff can't do anything, they're just acting as an intermediary.

Deleted User

Unlucky? Nope, it's Eir's M.O.
The trees in the way, 10 months ago, were not even the issue. The line was meant to have been sunk years ago, based on a complaint from ESB Networks. The phone line was run perpendicular to a power line about half a metre below it.
There was already ducting running outside my property right up to the Fibre junction but they would not send anyone out to break into it until I became an arsehole about it, even though their own site engineer insisted on the overhead line coming down and into that ducting, due to the powerline.

The Blue Emboldened text below may help...

Deleted User wrote: »

They came out, signed me up, came to install, saw tree branches pushing on the line, came back with dude to cut branches, neighbour said "cut away", tree cutter refused to cut an eir(com) positioned line as a foot over boundary into neighbour's property. Install stalls.

Sky mail me saying that eir have taken control of my line and service ending in 2 weeks. Called eir and they confirm.

So now I can't stay with current provider, as eir own the line again, and eir won't complete the install.

****

And 9 Months later...

Deleted User wrote: »

OK so my install date has been pushed out repeatedly (by 3 months) over the past nine months.
Got sick of it, seeing next Sept being the install projection (an entire year after every one of my neighbours), last month, so started elevating it to every avenue I could think of.

Eir were useless and no way of contacting Open Eir.
Local councilors also useless, barring one who got me in contact with the local broadband officer (who has been chasing)
ComReg, well also useless.
Minister and Junior Minister of Comms, absolutely nothing.

Went through local TD's and only one bothered to do anything with it, in terms of getting info. They actually had ComReg reply that they would ask Eir for a reason. Further than I got, to be fair.

At the same time I sent a mail to Catherine Murphy's office, on a long shot. I am in East Cork Constituency so not expecting anything. Her office replied that day and within a week they had a mail back, from OpenEir, with an install date by the end of this week. Thought "Believe that when I see it" and I saw it today.

Now I am not sure if it was an unlikely coincidence or what but of everyone I contacted I only seemed to get movement when Deputy Murphy's office got involved and there was an immediate work date put in place and it has been stuck to.

Deleted User wrote: »

So now that the trench was dug into the ducting I apparently have an install date of next Monday.

Again, will believe when I see it

Deleted User wrote: »

OK I believe it.




150 at the minute, cancelling that and going to push it to 350Mb (It's cheaper for some reason)



It's a full FTTH 1Gb line.
Only took 9 months, and about 2 after I really started to make noise and, frankly, become obnoxious to whomever I spoke to on calls. I hate that I had to become an absolute dickhead to random people but it seems that is the only way to get this done.
That and getting several TD's questioning them (at the opportune time, making their €1 Billion claim)

Just saw a mail in my Spam box, from last week.
Minister Bruton's office came back wanting to take it further also (fair is fair) but immediate action award goes to the SocDems (and me not even in her constituency)

kodaline78

I have a 12 month broadband only contract with Eir which ends on the 7th of September 2019. My query is do I have to contact Eir if I move to another Broadband provider. I am currently paying 40 euro a month but this shoots up to 61per month after the 7th of September so I will be leaving Eir. Thanks.:)

kodaline78

kodaline78 wrote: »

I have a 12 month broadband only contract with Eir which ends on the 7th of September 2019. My query is do I have to contact Eir if I move to another Broadband provider. I am currently paying 40 euro a month but this shoots up to 61per month after the 7th of September so I will be leaving Eir. Thanks.:)

Yeah you just leave afterwards. Beware connection fees when moving, can be (I think) upwards of €150

tuxy

Deleted User wrote: »

Yeah you just leave afterwards. Beware connection fees when moving, can be (I think) upwards of €150

Which providers have introduced connection fees to switch on VDSL?

kodaline78

Hi I am not leaving my accommodation just going to change to another broadband provider. Is it worth contacting eir to try a get a better deal of them.