Smart Telecom - It's not magic, just a Smart trick

egan007

It's not magic, just a Smart trick
From Sunday Independent 29May....Bit long but VERY worth the read if you are a smart customer....

SLIGHTLY bored by this week's papers? Not sure what to read over your second cup of tea? Well those of you who subscribe could do worse than taking out a copy of Smart Telecom's latest phone bill, getting a pen and working out how much they may have ripped you off.

Alternatively you can stare out the window and consider the bigger question, also raised by Smart Telecom's phone bills - what we really mean by "time". I think I'll just try and roll both questions into one here though. Consider me Stephen Hawking with a message.

On April 20, according to Smart, I made a call at 15:13:44 lasting 39 seconds. At 15:13:56 I made another telephone call from the same telephone lasting two minutes, 23 seconds.

Therefore, for 27 seconds it appeared I was making two separate phone calls on the same phone to two different people.

I had, according to Smart Telecom, stepped out of the space-time continuum. It is said that many of the great scientific discoveries are made by accident, but it is still something of a shock to find yourself disproving Einstein's Theory of Relativity - hitherto rock solid - while ringing around for house surveyors.

Of course Smart Telecom do use a hypnotist-conjurer type chap in their advertising campaign.

Nevertheless it is prestidigitation of the highest order to bend the otherwise iron laws of time not once but often - as far as the concepts of "once" and "often" retain any meaning when you step into this kind of metaphysical minefield.

For example, again on April 20, at 15:49:27, I made a telephone call lasting 63 seconds. However, in what seems like a ruthless attempt to stave off inflation in the house survey market, I rang somebody else 14 seconds into the first call - fromthe same domestic phone on the same line - and talked to them for one minute,26 seconds.

Therefore, if I am to believe Smart Telecom, I stepped into a parallel universe for 49 seconds on Wednesday April 20, at around ten to four in the afternoon. It beats pulling a Jack of Diamonds out of a woman's bra, I can tell you.

Of course it's not magic. It's just Smart.

I have been with Smart Telecom for about six months now and have no idea how long this inaccurate billing - to put it at its kindest - has been going on. It was just the fact that somebody else ripped me off (bloody house surveyors) that made me check through the bill.

Like most people, I don't have time to go through an itemised account - or at least I thought I didn't before I realised that I am not getting older quite as quickly as I thought, or hitherto expected.

My actual loss, if any, is impossible to quantify. The above examples, which are not exhaustive, only show those occasions when it was literally impossible for me to be making phone calls because I was making a different phone call.

How many calls they have billed me for in the last six months while I was making love, climbing the Eiger, or swimming with Fungi I can only guess.

I rang them up on Friday evening to complain but the message said that they don't work after 5.30pm.

I felt it best to check theold chronometer on my left wrist.

Just to be sure.

rondjon

egan007 wrote:

I rang them up on Friday evening to complain but the message said that they don't work after 5.30pm.

Even if it was before 5.30, he'd have been lucky to get any satisfaction from Smart Telecom.

Along with most of the other new telecom operators, they not only are taking on Eircom, but they're using the same customer service model as Eircom as well.

Treat your customers like crap and hope they go away and stop complaining.

The sooner I can get off the fixed line, the better.

parsi

Good to see that Eircoms owners are happy to document failures with their competitors. Now can we see artciles about Eircoms slimy tactics ?

egan007

parsi wrote:

Good to see that Eircoms owners are happy to document failures with their competitors. Now can we see artciles about Eircoms slimy tactics ?

Independent newspapers own Eircom??????
I doubt that.....
This is a funny post because you are suggesting that Eircom don't get bad mouthed - lol


Now can we see artciles about Eircoms slimy tactics ?
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/search.php
Your wish is granted.....

Of course if you are going to be impartial then you can't believe that smart are a nice and fluffy company just because they have nice adds

Hobart

Tony O'Reilly is a major shareholder in Independant Newspapers and Eircom. His son, Gavin, is the chief exec of the indo. It would not be the first time O'Reilly has used his media outlets to sully the reputation of a competitor in a market he has a major interest in.

Having said that, if the article writyers observations are true, it would seem that smart have an issue with their billing system. Is it a reason to print it in a national newspaper? I dunno.

parsi

@egan007 - see what Hobart said.

I don't recall anybody here posting articles from the Independent Group detailing eircoms underhand tactics...probably because they never do !

I imagine all the providers are equally bad but they don't control a media outlet.

MiniMetro

egan007 wrote:

Of course if you are going to be impartial then you can't believe that smart are a nice and fluffy company just because they have nice adds

They have the worst ads in the world, Keith Barry is a plank of the highest order.

Gordon

Do Smart Telecom actually charge per second?

egan007

Ok before you guys start burning effigies of me
I just copy and pasted an article......

Sleipnir

Gordon wrote:

Do Smart Telecom actually charge per second?

Actually, all Telco's charge on a per second basis.
e.g. if you make a phone call lasting 3 seconds, you will be billed for it.

parsi

egan007 wrote:

Ok before you guys start burning effigies of me
I just copy and pasted an article......

I wasn't slagging you off . I was slagging off the Independent and the fact that their media group is so interconnected that criticism of one part never reaches the press..

the_syco

Hobart wrote:

Is it a reason to print it in a national newspaper? I dunno.

Who else will give a damn? Smart? Also, if anyone else has had the same problem, and they read the article, they see they're not alone.
Do the Indo write articles about Eircom doing anything slimey? Dunno, but do any of ye write a letter to the indo, not being full of flames, but a well thought-out arguement? Dunno, but if ye did, the Indo may cop on that Eircom ain't so fluffy and nice.

Basiclly, speak, or no-one will hear your words.

egan007

oops

feliwilli

I have had a similar problem with meteor. Seems a friend of mine got a call from me in the death hours of the morning, and he couldn't hear anything. this puzzled me as my phone is off at night as a force of habit. I checked my recent calls online, and lo and behold I had made the call. Also the cost of the call was missing from my credit balance.
Anyway, I phoned them, and they acknowledged that my phone was off at the hour in question, but when I told them about the call that was made, they immediately told me that it is not company policy to refund credit.
Sneaky Dealings? Or Leprechauns? :mad:

mambo

And did you know...

Smart Telecom charge at normal rates on public holidays / bank holidays - even on Christmas Day! Bah humbug!

Caveat emptor...

spurious

Indeed they do, but my bills are still substantially lower with Smart than with the devil's spawn Eircom. My broadband connection is also solid as a rock.

Best thing I ever did moving to Smart. The only drawback was the delay in transfer caused by Tony's mates, Eircom. If ComReg had any teeth the fines Eircom would get for deliberately fannying about would shut them down.

We can but hope.