Smart Telecom Delays (NORTH MAIN)

Sam Johnston

Evening all,

It's now the 10th of May, almost 3 months since ordering Smart Telecom's broadband service which was due to arrive in 'April/May', and I have just received the following:

Unfortunately we are experiencing a delay with the North Main exchange.
We are in the process of outlining an update and hope to be able to give you
a timeframe by the end of the week.

So, I've contacted them, been told to wait for a response, which tells me to wait until the end of the week so they can tell me to wait some more. Yet, if I were a new user enquiring at their website today I'd receive:

Your phone number 1878XXXX is in the exchange NORTH MAIN.
Congratulations, Broadband is available to you!
Would you like to avail of this amazing offer?

I did have a trial with U.TV but found it went down (possibly because of my router) more than I would have liked so I've asked that they cancel it, which will see me without broadband within the next few hours/days.

I've had about enough of waiting and am busy researching the alternatives. Presumably I am not the only one in this position - what are the rest of you doing? Traditionally I've supported the 'disruptive' carriers (like when Hutchison 3 bought in $99/month capped mobile contracts in Australia) even through the most annoying teething problems (eg poor coverage) but Smart really are making it difficult for me (and others like me) to back them. I hope there's good news just around the corner!

If anyone has any updates, information, commentary, suggestions, rants, etc. then I'd love to hear about them (especially if there are any Smart people out there who have the inside run on the situation),

Sam

chorus techy

It's not smart's fault, it's eircoms! Eircom are doing whatever the hell they can to sabotage smart telecom's broadband service.

Like myself - Walkinstown exchange - but because I signed up to smart and had my line rental payments through smart also, since last year, eircom now refuse to recognise my line for LLU. Meaning I have to cancel smart, go to eircom, and put in a request for smart broadband, cancel eircom and switch over to smart, get a new number and lose two months line rental! Stupid as it may seem, it's eircom who just don't like competition.

beller b

True Eircom are delaying all they can BUT it is not Eircoms fault Smart announce a specific date that they can,t stick to. It is not Eircoms fault Smart say we can connect you now if you change your number & it is not Eircoms fault that Smart haven't got the common decency to ring thier "customers to be" back when they say they will.. Don't get me wrong I hate Eircom as much as the rest of ye, but I'm starting to think there really is no alternative!!!

chorus techy

You do have some good points there alright. It would be common decency to ring customers, but would you really want to contact customers who are most likely going to give you an earful?

beller b

I wouldn't want to, but I do it every week in my job & I find once you are honest with people & give them a date you CAN do the job they they will be more than happy, afewr all the only reason people wish to give you an earfull is out of frustration because they feel they are being ignored.(I hate nothing more than waiting day in day out for a phone call). Thats the way I feel today & that is why I am ranting on a bit...

peterk19

yea smart seem to have really bad customer service i ordered it for the end of last month and ive heard nothing back not even to tell me my exchange is delayed which apparently it was till the 9th of this month still hearing nothing from them so i presume that was a lie too. sure you know what they say Better the devil you know.
just wondering has anybody heard when the BELCAMP exchange is actually available
Pete

zoro

Just off the phone with a rep - I can get a new phone number, and broadband installed in exactly 12 days from now if I want....

In coolock btw

beller b

I got that response last week zoro. Also told someone will contact you in the next couple of days to arrange modem That was 6 days ago & nothing since.BTW from the people who have been connected it seems it takes 10 day to get connected AFTER you receive your modem so I wonder where that leaves us?
I am a bit annoyed Garfield has nothing to say considering he logs on to read whats happening almost EVERY day!!

zoro

Well I have zero intention of moving from Esat BT at the moment.

2meg down / 128k up is what I have at the moment - and I doubt I'd even move for 256 up ... even if it were completely my choice (still living at home - student life eh?)

I doubt I'd even consider a move until there's a 512k up ... which just isn't going to happen in my life time by the looks of things.
I'm not going to get into the whole "128k up is poo and I wanna warez and pr0n and stuff" arguement - I'm a heavy gamer, and 128 just doesnt fit MY internet activities.

So it's a major selling point for me. Add to that the changing of numbers ... bah!

dub45

beller b wrote:

I wouldn't want to, but I do it every week in my job & I find once you are honest with people & give them a date you CAN do the job they they will be more than happy, afewr all the only reason people wish to give you an earfull is out of frustration because they feel they are being ignored.(I hate nothing more than waiting day in day out for a phone call). Thats the way I feel today & that is why I am ranting on a bit...

I agree with you totally on this - there is nothing as bad as a vacuum - if people know where they stand and a company takes the trouble to keep them informed it builds trust even if the news is bad. There isn't even the need to phone everyone - surely it would be possible to send a group email to all those people on a particular exchange with the latest news? That's hardly rocket science. There is nothing as infuriating as a promised call back that never arrives.

Smart's apparent ongoing failure to communicate with potential customers would certainly give me cause for concern in relation to what customer service will be like when and if they get fully up and going. Then they are going to have to devote resources to the usual day to day customer stuff and the ongoing roll out.

beller b

Dead right dub. The other thing thats annoying me at the moment is that they insist to the point of arguing with you that things are ok & you WILL be connected by such a date.. If such a large percentage of people on Boards are unhappy at the moment I can only imagine how many of the 20000 who have signed up are unhappy! Even if the exchanges ARE to be delayed till the end of may A good move for Smart would be to send out the modems & let people see things are moving along.. A second positive move would be for them to switch over voice to Smart & issue the new numbers this would surley then speed up the BB connection when ready!!! Ignoring people is creating a lot more ploblems for them.. How much of Smarts time is spent answering calls from people who wouldn,t be calling if they were been kept up to date with whats happening. Imagine for a moment what it must be like for people who are not readings boards.ie & haven't a clue about the delays???

mossieh

I think we're now looking at a situation where Garfield and the rest of the Smart crew don't actually know when they're going to be able to connect people. They have probably realised that we are sick of hearing vague promises about connection dates that don't happen and are just saying nothing instead.

A bit of honesty would do some good at this point. Their offer is good enough that people might be willing to wait, but the longer they keep silent, the more it plays into the hands of their competitors. If Eircom are causing the hold-up, why not tell us? Is it possible that it would prejudice any legal proceedings they are involved in? As a previous poster said, it's terrible customer service.

Garfield, if you read this, or the PM I sent you, could you PLEASE let us know what the story is.

beller b

Again Garfield was Online This Morning & again No response.. I rekon that says exactly what Smart thinks of would be customers... Can we start a poll of sadisfaction for Smarts Customer Relations?. I for one am sick of thier lies ,I'm giving them the 12 days they promised to get me connected & thats it. If they had the decency to return calls & give dates they can stick to I wouldn't mind waiting..

TimTim

you guys aren't happy either way.

if they give you a date and for some reason or another they can't make it because of eircom's hassling you moan

They don't give you a date, you moan

**** sakes you can't have it everyway, they are the only company with the balls to do a major roll out like this (And lets not lie its a ****ing massive rollout), what other ISP has put in their own equipment to the exchange, dug fiber to each exchange to allow this and offer it cheaper then all other ISP's? None, thats who. Its a big project it takes time, so give it to them.

If you told the queue for A&E was 1 hour and they didn't get to you in 1 hour you'd moan but if they didn't give you a waiting time and just kept going through patients and you could see it you wouldn't moan.

beller b

Jeez did garfield send you! I agree it is a massive roll out. We are not annoyed about been given a date or not. I have already said I wouldn't mind waiting if they were at least honest ( or even bothered to contact me with thier excuses) . I accept & understand that delays are inevitable. What I do not accept is the way that Smart actually argue with you on the phone when you dare to suggest there is a delay. I spoke to Smart on 28 April & the CSR said "Your exchange (Santry) WILL be live be the end of April). I questioned this saying "there have been a lot of negitive reports about your roll out" again I got the positive 100% reply " I can tell you now " Santry IS on schedule & WILL be live by end of April.. This passed & we then got the date 9th MAY .. At this point, if things were not going to plan why issue a precise date?? We, for the first time didn't get 1st week ,second week or any of that we got MAY 9th..Again when contacted the response to me was " We ARE NOW processing your order. We WILL contact you in the next couple of days to arrange delivery of your modem. That was last week . STILL NO CALL... That is the most annoying bit, if there is another delay fine there is nothing I can do, but a call or even a mail with an update is not too much to ask!!!