# Get your own back on Eircom in two small ways



## Kilteragh (30 Jan 2004)

Sick of having no choice when it comes to your line provider?

Annoyed at the recent increases?

Most people don't read their bill too closely but if they did they might save themselves a few quid and deprive Eircom of the same.

1) If you are renting a phone or phones from Eircom get rid of them. You can get very cheap handsets from Argos and other places. Just ring eircom up and say that you no longer want to rent the phones and could they please come and collect them and stop charging you for them. If all comes to all and they insist on it drop the handsets into your local Eircom office.

2) Most people I know have Call Answering from Eircom. Get rid of it. If you have gone as far as 1) above why not go further and get a phone with an answering machine and tell Eircom to stop charging you.

Even if you get a dearish snazzy phone it will have paid for itself in a couple of years and you won't be forking out any more to Eircom.

If everybody did these things it would more than wipe out the recent line rental increases and would be a victory for the consumer.


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## davelerave (30 Jan 2004)

wasn't there something on the news about bringing competition to the line rental side of things


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## legend99 (30 Jan 2004)

*..*

In theory if you want to be mad cynical you could continualy ring a number in Australia or somewhere incredibly expensive WITH the knowlegde that the number you are rining is enaged or not going to be answered. Such a task involves expense on Eircoms side but none on yours as you are not charged for a call that was not answered. They incur charges due to having to maintain that system, internaitonal connections etc...

But you'd want to be fairly angry to bother!


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## Kilteragh (30 Jan 2004)

*Re: ..*

Dave - yes Dermot Ahern is saying that he will introduce competition. But in the meantime I would like consumers to give a big thumbs down to the recent charges in any rational way they can.


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## machalla (30 Jan 2004)

*Re: ..*

Not much competition though.

Some more discussion on it here.

[broken link removed]


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## <A HREF=http://pub145.ezboard.com/baskaboutmoney.s (30 Jan 2004)

*Re: ..*

Another obvious strategy is to switch to another internet/call service provider. Most of them are cheaper than eircom so choose the one that matches your internet/call usage profile best and saves you most money. OK - you'll still have to pay eircom for line rental (unless you can get by cost effectively with a mobile and maybe wireless/satellite/cable broadband or whatever) but at least you are taking your business elsewhere. Of course there's no point in cutting off your nose to spite your face so if you would be better of with eircom (notwithstanding the line rental monopoly and charges hikes) then you'd be better off stayin put.


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## Grizzly (30 Jan 2004)

*Why rent?*

I agree with Kilteragh. Buy your own phone, I salvaged one from the office when a new system was being put in place. Get rid of call answering, I have the basic answering machine and separate caller I.D.  No ongoing cost. Also moved to ESAT broadband.


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## Iano (30 Jan 2004)

*Prime Time*

Did anyone else see David McRedmond (Commercial Director fo eircon) get skinned alive on Prime Time last night?

Mark Lyttle, the superb PT interviewer, was asking him to justify the line rental increase in light oif the fact that eircon's capex has been halved since 1999, and they are paying €0.5billion in dividends to their sharelholders - I was shocked by the latter fact.

McRedmond responded by talking about eircon's "value for money" :lol  call charges. Lyttle kept reeling him back in to talk about the line rental charges, but he avoid answering the question to the bitter end. I think that was answer enough for me. If a guy is asked to justify something and he doesn't answer the question, it would imply that he cannot justify the increase. QED

Yes, he was brave to do the interview, but answer the question and leave the standard eircon cliches at home! Well done Mark Lyttle!


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## N0elC (30 Jan 2004)

*Re: Prime Time*

It'll be wonderful to see the likes of the ESB, Bord Gais, and Eircom face some competition sometime soon.

We have a lot to learn from the experience in Great Britain. Although they had teething problems initially around poor service levels and mis-selling, these soon bedded down to the advantage of the consumer, and in the case of BT, to the erstewhile monopoly supplier. They are now one of the biggest telcos in the world now.


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## legend99 (30 Jan 2004)

*..*

I think by international standards the ESB are regarded as fairly good electricity providers in most ways....


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## Kilteragh (30 Jan 2004)

*Re: ..*

O,

Switched to Esat (BT now I think) a couple of years ago so Eircom are really making the minimum from me now  This was so obvious I forgot to mention it.

I'm a great believer in competition and so have always switched to new entrants (where it is worth it) to encourage price lowering. Hence my mobile is also Esat and I have opted for Ryanair from the early days - but that's another argument.


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## getoffthepot (31 Jan 2004)

*Re: ..*

Stopped paying phone handset rental to Eircom years ago.
Calls now with NTL and have an NTL cable modem.
So the only thing Eircom get from me is line rental which p..ses me off. 

NTL customer service is the worst but we never have issues with phone or cable modem and the calls are cheap.

If I could get the phone calls on the digital cable the line rental would go !!!!!


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## ninsaga (31 Jan 2004)

*Re: ..*

Actuall thought that mark Little let him off lightly - he could have hit him harder in some respects. He should not have tolerated Mcredmonds 'but the prices are coming down...Eircom remains one of the most compedative...the ave lenght of teh phone line in Ireland is 2.7km ..blah blah"

Little should have basically stopped the interview & stated that Mc redmonds answers were totally unsatisfactory..& that there was no point in continuing unless he was ready to give the real reasons & less of the bullshit.... might have even been beneficial to have some compedator on also ie ESAT, NTL etc who I think would have been less tolerant...


ninsaga


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## Maeve (31 Jan 2004)

*Eircom*

I have the flat rate internet with Eircom have emailed them severaal times to find out how I know when my 25 hours per month have run out but never got a reply does anyone know is there a simple way to keep track of it I hate to give them any extra money if possible


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## Aquila (31 Jan 2004)

*time online*

I'd suggest downloading No Frills Timer. See [broken link removed]


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## Maeve (31 Jan 2004)

*Eircom*

thanks thats just what I was looking for


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## <A HREF=http://pub145.ezboard.com/baskaboutmoney.s (31 Jan 2004)

*Re: Eircom*

There are a couple of totally free ones (freeware) on tucows.com (the one above is a 30 day trial and costs US$25 to license thereafter):

[broken link removed]


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## Aquila (31 Jan 2004)

*freeware*

Bandwith Daemon (middle left box on the page I linked to) costs $25. As far as I can see No Frills Timer (download link in the bottom left box) is still freeware.


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## <A HREF=http://pub145.ezboard.com/baskaboutmoney.s (31 Jan 2004)

*Re: freeware*

Sorry - I was looking at the Bandwidth Daemon links and missed the No Frills Timer ones! It is indeed free.


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## frolicks (2 Feb 2004)

*Eircom rep*

An eircom rep called to me the other day and swore blind that the charges he was quoting me included vat (never mentioned vat at all til i did) i asked to see the charges in print and he said he left them in the car so i told him i wouldnt sign anything til i saw them.
He came back in and showed me 1 call charge with his hand over the bottom of the card.
I had to grab it off him and there was the line that he was covering.
It said 'All charges not including vat'
He was a liar and a cheat and it was not the first time i've had a liar and cheat rep from eircom visit.
They are certainly the most expensive call provider in the irish market and the sooner all people wise up and move to utv or esat the better


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## rainyday (2 Feb 2004)

*Re: Eircom rep*

See [broken link removed] on more fun & games from the Eircom winback team.


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## <A HREF=http://pub145.ezboard.com/baskaboutmoney.s (2 Feb 2004)

*Re: Eircom rep*

Any idea who would be the cheapest service provider for mostly local calls and the odd one to Canada?


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## DECMA (2 Feb 2004)

*re*

Left eircon six months ago and will never ever go back to those cowboys, shame I've to keep line rental for a while more anyway.....
Down to the fact that even if I broke even I'd rather still pay another UK based provider than let pay them a penny more than what I have to.
Vote with your wallet folks as it's a greater battle thats being fought as their are other corporate eyes watching this event.
You really can't blame a business to charge whatever they think their customers will pay (fool and his money are easy to part)
Sounds a bit over the top, but if more people made a stand it would go a long way to put Ripoff Ireland to bed


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## frodo (2 Feb 2004)

*PrimeTime interview...*

Can be seen @ [broken link removed]


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## fatherdougalmaguire (2 Feb 2004)

*Re: local calls*

0,
For Intl. calls Vartec seems to be the name bandied about at the moment. Don't have much need for these calls so I don't know a hellofalot about the various providers prices to be honest.

I recently switched to Esat Advantage (from UTV) for telephony because of mobile calls. Have a look [broken link removed] as I posted a summary of UTV, Eircom & Esat side-by-side for local, national and mobile calls. If you're spending more than €25 a month on local/national calls you can cap on this price by going with Advantage Plus. As many local and national calls as you like (at any time) for €25. Anything over that gets charged at Advantage rates. That aside, if you are spending less than €25 and you are making purely local calls UTV would seem to be the ones to go with.

I spent a couple of hours going through my last 3 UTV bills and using a spreadsheet to work out the costs of the three providers. Esat were consistently the cheapest. However, I am also an IOL broadband customer and if I sign up to Advantage I can get my broadband for €40 a month instead of the regular €49.


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## <A HREF=http://pub145.ezboard.com/baskaboutmoney.s (2 Feb 2004)

*Re: local calls*

Thanks for that.


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## daltonr (3 Feb 2004)

*Re: local calls*



> The salesman reported that the back-up from headquarters was patchy. On one occasion, he had just won back a defector after reassuring the customer that Eircom would not put up its line rental charges again.
> 
> He claims that just as they were agreeing to the sale, RTE suddenly broadcast a news item saying Eircom was increasing its line rental charges again.
> 
> It was the first the salesman had heard of it. Not surprisingly, he lost the sale.




That's the funniest thing I've heard in a long time.
Comedy like that is almost worth an increase in line rental.

-Rd


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## XXXAnother PersonXXX (3 Feb 2004)

*Re: local calls*

daltonr - black comedy indeed.

I think it is a disgrace! - blatant law breaking in fact.


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## Kilteragh (3 Feb 2004)

One line used to me by an Eircom agent was that with Esat you are charged from the minute you pick up the handset, before you even dial the number. So, he explained, if the receiver was knocked off while doing the hoovering or something we would be charged from then on.

I'm not making this up!


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## Janet (4 Feb 2004)

*what about automatic bill division?*

Does anyone know if any other providers allow the type of call tracking that means you get your bill already divided up?  With eircom we can dial a prefix (1740) and a number between 1 and 10 and when the bill comes it's already divided between different people.  Sharing a house with three others this is a fairly essential way of keeping the peace and worth the three euro or so we pay for the service.  But, I would like to change to using a cheaper call provider if I could (I've already switched my internet provider to pigsback flatrate) if we could still get our bill divided up.  Anyone know if it's possible with anyone else?
thanks,
J


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## John (4 Feb 2004)

*Itemised phone bill*

If you register your account at www.eircom.ie it's possible to print the itemised bill for free.

No €3 charge!


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## Tommy (4 Feb 2004)

*Re: Itemised phone bill*

If you call into any Eircom telecentre they will normally agree on request to provide itemised billing for free. We have been getting free itemised billing on our home phone for at least 3 years. I'm also almost certain we get free call answering as well. Our phone usage would be very modest compared to households with teenagers etc so I don't think these offers are restricted to minimum bill levels.


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