Switch from Eir to Vodafone for broadband

D

discovery101

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Hi there......what is the pain free way to switch from Eir which has the worse customer services in history to Vodafone which has the best offer at the moment.

Thank you in advance.
 
See other threads regarding how to escape Eir's clutches (summary: recorded postal instruction to cancel contract, keep a certified copy with which to notify your bank otherwise they won't allow you to stop your direct debit, and do all this at least one month in advance of expiry, followed by Comreg complaint when they ignore it all).

I'm wondering why you think Vodafone is best @discovery101 ? I just checked the current service offerings because our locality is about to get NBI FTTH broadband (within the next month) to inform neighbours of the current situation. I'd be delighted if askaboutmoney members could correct anything that's wrong here for the broadband services:
So in terms of cash paid out for two years, Eir wins not vodafone, but in terms of connection administration, customer service and speed it could be Vodafone. However, I've definitely heard a lot anecdotally about Vodafone (and other suppliers) accepting orders and cash but not actually being able to provide service in reality. I hope this isn't going to happen for NBI connections, but we don't know that yet. At least Sky tells you there will be a connection charge? I've personally had good experiences with Digiweb in the distant past, but their cost is premium and they may not be able to handle the growth in a short period.
 
Our contract with Eir was up recently. There was going to be a delay between cancelling Eir and getting Vodafone to set up new equipment. I have FTTH.

I couldn't be without broadband for a number of days, and couldn't get clarity from Vodafone on how long that might be. So I ended up agreeing a decent price with Eir.

I had no issues getting through to them each time - first to work out a deal with them, and then later to accept it after I'd considered other options. They were able to listen back to the first call to confirm the price that had been offered.

I seem to be lucky that I only contact Eir once a year to sort out price for another 12 months. From what I read of complaints, some people seem to be contacting them every other week.
 
I’m in a similar boat intending to switch phone & broadband to virgin media once out of contract with eir. I was hopeful that eir did not need to be involved in the switch & no 30 day notice was needed according to their switching info at https://www.eir.ie/switching/

Am I being naïve & it’s actually a world of pain to switch?

We were involved in the switch of an older family member last year & that seemed to work this way.

The only thing I thought could be tricky is how to ideally not have to pay eir for the first month out of contract I.e. be able to switch right at the point the contract ends. I can’t see how that’s doable, but due to delays with virgin media order, there won’t be long to try it out before end of eir contract so it may be best to keep the 2 for an extra bit anyway you be sure it’s working reliably.
 
discovery101 said:
Hi there......what is the pain free way to switch from Eir which has the worse customer services in history to Vodafone which has the best offer at the moment.
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What type of broadband do you have with Eir and what are you switching to with Vodafone? If you're talking about ADSL (or FTTC) it's worth keeping in-mind that Vodafone are just reselling the Eir service, so all you are doing is adding a link in the chain between you and Eir.

If you're talking about Fibre to the Home (FTTH) then it's a different situation as Vodafone have actually run their own fibre network (via their SIRO joint venture with ESB) separate to Eir's fibre network. But for this you need to be lucky enough to be in an area where SIRO have rolled out to.



FWIW I have had Eir's FTTH for a year now and it has been rock solid, I could not recommend it highly enough. I have rarely needed to interact with their customer services on account of it being so stable however.
 
fizzy said:
I’m in a similar boat intending to switch phone & broadband to virgin media once out of contract with eir. I was hopeful that eir did not need to be involved in the switch & no 30 day notice was needed according to their switching info at https://www.eir.ie/switching/

Am I being naïve & it’s actually a world of pain to switch?

We were involved in the switch of an older family member last year & that seemed to work this way.

The only thing I thought could be tricky is how to ideally not have to pay eir for the first month out of contract I.e. be able to switch right at the point the contract ends. I can’t see how that’s doable, but due to delays with virgin media order, there won’t be long to try it out before end of eir contract so it may be best to keep the 2 for an extra bit anyway you be sure it’s working reliably.
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I haven't done this move, but some things to keep in-mind -
  • Your phone with Eir is likely coming in over a pair of copper wires to an outlet (or multiple) on the wall that you have a phone plugged into. Virgin won't do this, instead they'll actually bring your incoming calls in over your broadband and there will be a plug on the back of the Virgin Media box where your 'phone signal' pops out. Also watch out for things that rely on your phone line, like alarms, panic buttons etc. This might not be an issue depending on where your Virgin Media box is likely to be in the house, but just keep it in mind!
  • Your Eir broadband is also likely over that copper wire and your Eir modem plugged into a phone outlet somewhere in the house. Virgin Media bring their broadband signal in over either your TV cable or a fibre in newer areas. So again just keep in-mind that your broadband signal is going to 'pop out' likely at your TV instead of at a phone point. While this matters less if you only use Wifi, it could affect that as well if the TV location is surrounded by concrete walls and your office is in a different area of the house
  • Virgin will need to port your phone number over to their network then route it down the broadband as per above if you want to keep the number, should be seamless enough but may not be
Having said all that I had Virgin Media cable broadband for years and always found it excellent, it's world apart from ADSL if that's what you're coming from.
 
Appreciate your input Zenith thanks. I have eir fibre (get approx 80 megs wired). Have been with eir 14 years (slower broadband originally) & solid as a rock, until my line broke just this week actually but fair play they dealt with the fault efficiently.

I understand eir are all phone line whereas virgin are all TV and that appealed, because it means I can have 2 broadbands at once and the switch is much less risky.

But seeing a thread like this about nightmares of switching from eir is concerning. I initially assumed it could be an ordeal, but then saw how our relation's switch went ok last year & read the switching info page at https://www.eir.ie/switching/ and thought maybe this is plain sailing after all & there is some sort of switching code all the providers have to abide by now?

I'm not bothered about a landline outage during porting. It's barely used these days, whereas the broadband is *vital*.
We will no longer be able to have wired connections for work as in a different room from TV, but just a partition wall between & I'm hoping the potential 500 megs wired should result in a good wifi signal to the macs.

I'm only switching because of the huge hassle we had with the older family member's eir service last year. We needed to upgrade their broadband to be compatible with security cameras & there was literally endless hours on the phone waiting and then getting nowhere with reps & being passed from billy to jack. In the end we could find no way of getting eir to sell us something! So the only solution was to go nuclear and switch to another provider to sort it out, which we were loathe to do mid pandemic.

The whole thing was a nightmare & it brought home to me that if anything cropped up with our own service, we could have big trouble too. I've since heard so many eir horror stories in the media & it was even raised in some govt committee I think.
 
fizzy said:
Appreciate your input Zenith thanks. I have eir fibre (get approx 80 megs wired). Have been with eir 14 years (slower broadband originally) & solid as a rock, until my line broke just this week actually but fair play they dealt with the fault efficiently.

I understand eir are all phone line whereas virgin are all TV and that appealed, because it means I can have 2 broadbands at once and the switch is much less risky.

But seeing a thread like this about nightmares of switching from eir is concerning. I initially assumed it could be an ordeal, but then saw how our relation's switch went ok last year & read the switching info page at https://www.eir.ie/switching/ and thought maybe this is plain sailing after all & there is some sort of switching code all the providers have to abide by now?

I'm not bothered about a landline outage during porting. It's barely used these days, whereas the broadband is *vital*.
We will no longer be able to have wired connections for work as in a different room from TV, but just a partition wall between & I'm hoping the potential 500 megs wired should result in a good wifi signal to the macs.

I'm only switching because of the huge hassle we had with the older family member's eir service last year. We needed to upgrade their broadband to be compatible with security cameras & there was literally endless hours on the phone waiting and then getting nowhere with reps & being passed from billy to jack. In the end we could find no way of getting eir to sell us something! So the only solution was to go nuclear and switch to another provider to sort it out, which we were loathe to do mid pandemic.

The whole thing was a nightmare & it brought home to me that if anything cropped up with our own service, we could have big trouble too. I've since heard so many eir horror stories in the media & it was even raised in some govt committee I think.
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Firstly I think the service issues with Eir are somewhat overblown, that vast majority of customers do not have to contact them regularly and the services they receive just hum along. So I'd be cautious of causing yourself guaranteed effort by switching on the basis that you might be one of the few that have service problems and then have problems with Eir support.

Having said that, I don't think the switch to Virgin will be a nightmare at all, it's all totally manageable. Given the times we're living in, I think you should scrap the plan of trying to save a few quid by lining up the switches exactly so as to avoid paying an extra month, the €50-€100 of an extra month bills will seem like peanuts if it goes wrong and you're without broadband. So I'd suggest you order Virgin Media, then the minute it is setup and working - it will come in on a separate cable, separate modem, separate wifi networks and with a default phone number you can test - you ring Eir and give the 30 days notice and do the porting request for the landline number (or maybe just forget about your old number and take the default Virgin give you). I did this moving from Virgin cable broadband to Eir FTTH, zero downtime.

If at all possible you should try and get your computers connected to the modem with a network cable. Depending on all sorts of factors it is not uncommon for Wifi to top out at 50Mb/s, especially with lots of devices and neighbours also using the same frequencies. You won't see the real benefits of your new lightning fast broadband without getting wired in.
 
Thanks Zenith. Yeah I'm fine just paying eir an extra month or even longer. I want the simple life. Chasing the recent eir line fault & delays with our virgin order were too stressful alone!

I thought you didn't have to give 30 days notice when you're switching? I was going by https://www.eir.ie/cancelling/
Under eir standard terms & conditions; you are required to give one months' notice to Terminate your eir service(s), unless you are Switching or Changing Service Provider.
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In addition to my relative's horror show with eir, I know of a couple of people who had major hassle cancelling (not switching) various eir services.
Trivially I even had a lot of hassle myself getting through to eir once a year to get a loyalty deal the last couple of years & didn't get a good offer last year.

So those personal bad experiences all add up, plus assuming it all works out, I should be paying the same a month for better TV & broadband now.

No way we can cable to the computers alas. I suppose we could look at getting Virgin Media to put an extra point in the other room down the line if needs be?

On the plus side, we will be able to cable to the playstation, and the eir wifi was very iffy with that lately. Himself would argue that's more important than work :p

Anyway sorry for hijacking your thread OP! But assuming I'm not living in fairyland, going by eir's own switching https://www.eir.ie/switching/ and cancelling info https://www.eir.ie/cancelling/ you may find switching from eir ok fingers crossed.
 
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