will eircom.net ever be FRIACO?

yankinlk

The reason I ask is this:

AT a customer site yesterday, I found they had installed an ISDN line 2 years previous but were unhappy with the speed of "highspeed". After investigation, I discovered they had no ISDN card, but using 56k port for their old modem instead.

They had been using a 1891 number all along, but when I installed the ISDN modem they needed to upgrade their "eircom.net" account for "highspeed".

They rang eircom.net and were put off when the girl at the other end of the phone said, "you have been paying a monthly charge of 15 euro for this 56k service. If you upgrade to 64k isdn you will now need to pay 250 euro for the year and 350 for 128k"

Begrudgingly, I told the customer, basically they have you by the "short and curlies" and just pay them for the 64k upgrade. Since they look after the email as well, it aint worth the hassle to move.

What happened next made my blood boil!

When the cutomer agreed to upgrade the account, the girl at eircom.net said, " that can be done now over the phone, just give me a credit card. "
SHe refused to just put it on the bill as she said the new policy is to only accept credit card, and to only accept a year in advance.

SO what happens when FRIACO is introduced next year sometime? Will eircom.net upgrade all its current users to a FRIACO account number? or will they prey on the average joe that think ISDN, INternet, email, eircom are all the same bill/service?

vampyre

It is almost certain that i the multiple choice Q&A of business Eircom always pick the answer with the worst possible outcome for the customer and also for them. Months ago Peter Evans from Esat said that is why verything founders on price, because although Eircom claim their charge is cost efficent as the company in itself is not the figure is ludicrous by anyone else's standards. Which has deviated from your question, sorry about that. If Eircom finally given in and give their customers FRIACO, they will find some way of totally messing it up.

crawler

I cant see "true" FRIACO in the near future - maybe the bigger towns etc first but the cost of backhaul form the regions etc is probably too high to justify the business case.....the are probably scared of eroding other "product offerings" too!

neverhappen

SHe refused to just put it on the bill as she said the new policy is to only accept credit card, and to only accept a year in advance.

Does the ODTR have any regulation over payment methods ? and minimum contract length ?

I think I recall that UTV are only taking credit cards or direct debits for their UTVip service as well.

Having had one or two nasty experiences with credit cards and direct debits, I won't use them ... (suffice it to say that eircom was involved in one - using a credit card number that had been given to them for a once off payment three years earlier to extract payment for a service I had discontinued and been disconnected from...).

Can service providers unilaterally decide on their own payment methods? Whatever happened to providing a service and then billing for it ?

MrPudding

Originally posted by neverhappen


Does the ODTR have any regulation over payment methods ? and minimum contract length ?

I would have thought that they could ask for payment however they please. I think it is a bit much to tell a company how they should take payment for a service they provide. It is not uncommon to pay for things in advance...line rental, sky & cable subs are all paid for in advance.

I think the main reason for cc and dd only is that they keep down admin costs and are easy to manage. I think very few people who would be signing up for the product would not have a bank account or a cc. For the most part dd is pretty trouble free and don't forget folks you have the dd guarantee. I love dd it is sooo handy. I have had a few problems, mostly from companies who are too incompetent to actually take the money, but all in all it is a good way to pay.

Urban Weigl

Originally posted by crawler
I cant see "true" FRIACO in the near future - maybe the bigger towns etc first but the cost of backhaul form the regions etc is probably too high to justify the business case.....the are probably scared of eroding other "product offerings" too!

FRIACO doesn't work like ADSL, so no additional backhaul should be required from the exchanges. They could virtually offer it tomorrow if they wanted to.

yankinlk

then you have yet to have the experience I have with DD. A certain company DD an account after service was terminated by me. They continued to do so for the next several months after repeated phone calls. There is no way to stop payment other than to ring the bank every single month , miss a month and the money goes out.

my point about the cc transaction in the first post is that they want 12 months in advance for a service he had been paying regularly for 2 years previous. ie: he wasnt a new customer he was an established customer in good standing. me thinks the 12 months in advance "CHANGE IN POLICY" is to secure customers that dont know any better form changing to FRIACO when (not if) it does finally arrive.

De Rebel

Originally posted by yankinlk
"you have been paying a monthly charge of 15 euro for this 56k service. If you upgrade to 64k isdn you will now need to pay 250 euro for the year and 350 for 128k"

Does anyone know if those Eircom.net pricks have a published price list. Or even an unpublished one? Everytime I get involved in upgrading a 1891 subscription client from analog to isdn the story and prices are different.

In some cases, it has gone analog to 64K (but not 128k) for free. Others is Eur 200 per annum for 64K, only. Others get 128K for the same price. And another paid IEP 400 last year for 128.

I have sometime got the impression that there is a menu of prices, (one service, many prices), and its a case of pick one at random, the higher the better.