Broadband Regulation Trouble with Utv

Hi

I have gone over cap on my package of BB on Utv and rang them emailed them sent smoke signals to them 9 days before month end to upgrade me to higher cap. So as of the 1st March I would have a bigger capacity. And guess what they cannot do this unitl the 1st April. Told them I would pay the difference between the 2 packages and thats that if I went over my cap. They never told me there was a notice period until today and if I wanted to complain I could but they dont think anything could be done. Well that gave me the rage to complain and went to comreg and they said there is no regulation on BB. They only step in when all avenues have been taken

Sorry for the rant but they really got on my wick

Anyone ever have this problem with Utv?Other than comreg who can I complain to ?
Cheers

What do the terms & conditions of your agreement say in this respect?

thats what I have to check

However should I upgrade its a totally new contract for another 12 months. I am not sure if you can change packages within the first 12 months of my exisiting contract

Have emailed them looking for their Customer Service Charter / Complaints procedure

I am more annoyed that they said it could be done and then at the last minute this changed......

Also their attitude when I asked could I speak to a Manager and got 'They are only going to say the same thing I did'

That really wound me up and I am not going to let this go

To be continued

the attitude thing seems to be a telecoms thing. i got the same crap from eircom, but then i left them.

Hi

Terms and conditions here

u.tv/internet/services/cl...ndc.asp?b=

Nothing there about switching so where do I stand ?

Ryaner - can you clarify what you are currently losing on your current plan ? Are you concerned about a speed cap or a total bandwidth cap ?

I'm just wondering what the immediate issue is - will they stop passing any traffic when you hit 4G for the month or something, or is it that 256k download (or whatever the speed is) isn't sufficient ?

I could understand being annoyed if the traffic ceased altogether.

One thing to bear in mind if you are concerned from a reliability or speed point of view is that broadband isn't *really* suitable for bandwidth sensitive applications (like SAP or VOIP) since none of the offerings in Ireland have suitable service level agreements. Essentially most ISPs supply broadband on a best endeavour basis like the old dial-up accounts. For a business that *needs* committed and guaranteed bandwidth they have more suitable offerings but these are much much much more expensive.

Just wondering.

z

Nothing there about switching so where do I stand ?

As far as I know the 8GB and 16GB caps are [broken link removed] (i.e. ClickSilver versus ClickSilver Plus) so perhaps technically your contract does deal with this in that it locks you into a 12 month contract on one or the other and doensn't guarantee anything about product switching? Obviously one would expect them to welcome the new business and facilitate easier switching to higher value products but technically perhaps they are within their rights?

Yes there are 2 different packages

The cap is 8,000 on clicksilver and 16,000 on clicksilver plus.
So I went over last month and have to pay and extra €25 when the difference is only about €20
You can log into your account and stop all downloads when you reach the cap but this stops you from logging on altogether

They said it would be another 12 month contract should I switch which I have no problem with

Its just that they where willing to accept the switch to the higher standard charge and then they would not

Its just that they where willing to accept the switch to the higher standard charge and then they would not

Annoying all right but not, as far as I can see, a matter for ComReg or any other statutory body unless I'm missing something?

Just wondering if Ryaner is happy with utv apart from the cap issue? I've read that ClubMan and daltonr are also with utv.

Seems the main benefit with utv compared to eircom is price (about €10/month less for either package) and the free after hours phone calls. Is that right? Upload and download speeds are the same as eircom's also same contention ratios.

The utv guy seemed to be pushing the ClickSilver basic package saying I could upgrade later. I said ('cos of all I've learned here) I'd probably go for ClickSilver Plus and could downgrade (cheaper) when the free period is up. He agreed that would be OK. He also said there was no VAT on line rental. That would be a saving but is it true? You can see I have a very trusting nature!

I do feel a little bit guilty leaving eircom since I've always found their staff very helpful to deal with and sometimes the devil you know is better than the one you don't. Or is that stupid thinking? Does anyone know what inducements eircom offer when customers leave?

:rolleyes

I've read that ClubMan and daltonr are also with utv.

For what it's worth, I've been on the ClickSilver three month trial for about one month now and have found it very good (i.e. delivers the advertised bandwidth/speed and has been reliable so far). I haven't had cause to call their tech support. There was a slight problem/delay with initial installation and then I was away when the router was delivered but they eventually moved my start date forward to allow for this. I was using somebody else's Clicksilver for the month of January and also found it fine. The main benefit versus eircom is the price and the fact that UTV's standard package has twice the download cap (8GB p.m.) of eircom's and no upload cap (eircom cap upload at 1GB p.m.). The charge per MB over the cap is lower with UTV than eircom too. And the bundled telephone service (UTV Talk including free off-peak local, national and UK calls under 60 minutes) is cheaper than eircom. See [broken link removed] for a more detailed comparison of the different home ADSL packages on offer.

I do feel a little bit guilty leaving eircom since I've always found their staff very helpful to deal with and sometimes the devil you know is better than the one you don't. Or is that stupid thinking?

Well, you experience is a lot different to mine so. I have sent eircom several letters of enquiry/complaint in relation to my telephone service and they never once bothered their arses replying. I recently called them with a Business broadband starter trial period technical query and they called back after more than a week instead of the promised two days. In the meantime I had contacted another tech support representative who didn't seem to know what I was talking about when I inquired what the WAN netmask on our Netopia router was (the router configuration did not expose this for some reason) until it eventually dawned on him that I meant subnet mask and he eventually, reluctantly gave me the requested details while giving the impression that this was beyond the call of duty altogether.

My line rental has recently been transferred over to UTV so I have finally cut all ties with eircom and don't have any regrets at all. They don't even have the courtesy of automatically refunding and leave that up to the customer to check/chase up. :\

Thanks for all that ClubMan - I'm convinced. (It's taken ages to log on - sorting the server I suppose. Trying to show I'm not quite as challenged as I really am about IT).

Took your advice and chanced my arm. Told the utv rep I have PhoneWatch but have it separated from my phone line. Am presuming that's what the technician did when I got Eircom's trial. Seems logical.

Utv say their USB modem is not compatible with Hyper Threading. Sent an email to ask how I'd know but got no reply. No luck phoning either. Expect I haven't got it, whatever it is. The man said it would take 8-10 working days and maybe another week after for Broadband. Time to do all the stuff that bores me stupid. Or maybe learn something about Registry Keys from a Mag with CD I got at Heathrowe.

Don't doubt your bad experiences with eircom. I just found those at 1901 helpful in most cases. Especially yesterday. A decent Cork man sorted the exhorbitant bill Eircom sent because the Broadband crowd had made a mistake. I couldn't get it across to them either by phone or email that I didn't owe what they claimed. About €470.00 instead of half that. Not funny. He actually phoned from Cork and gave me his direct line number just in case.

I had a right ding dong this week with a 'know-all' from Eircom PhoneWatch who came to fix a fault in the system - but didn't. I suppose it's just random whether we chance upon someone helpful or the other 'couldn't care less' variety.

All this free advice makes we feel I should be paying for it. So thanks again.

8)

Utv say their USB modem is not compatible with Hyper Threading.

I don't really see what HT has to do with the UTV ADSL modem (router?) unless they mean when connected via USB rather than Ethernet but shouldn't really matter since, for processors supporting HT, the BIOS will normally allow this to be switched on/off. Anyway, they never mentioned this to me although it's not an issue for me at home as it happens.

The man said it would take 8-10 working days and maybe another week after for Broadband.

I think most ISPs quote c. 10 days to get the ADSL compatibility line check or upgrade to be done and then another week to get broadband enabled although it can happen faster than that.

Some drivers aren't multi-processor compliant and since hyper-threading emulates an MP environment those same drivers are sometimes not HT friendly either. We were getting away with developing our drivers for a uniprocessor environment but a few years ago we had to fix them so they were MP friendly because HT was becoming mainstream for desktop machines. Just an aside ...

If you connect the PC to the ADSL router via Ethernet rather than USB or whatever then no additional drivers should be required and, assuming your network driver is already HT compatible, there should be no issue. In general it's probably better to connect via Ethernet if possible.

Sorry, yes ClubMan. 100% correct. Ethernet's definitely the way to go if you have an ethernet adapter/port on your PC/laptop. Less trouble all round.

Sorry - wasn't disputing what you said about HT and single threaded drivers either which was interesting. Just recommending Ethernet over USB if possible when connecting broadband.

Hi

Just got an email from Utv and it pays to complain
as they have switched me as of the 1st March

Thanks for the advice

Well done.