Eircom Robbers!

[eoinh]

Today i got my phone bill. The total bill was €79.42. The actual call charges on it were €10.85. If thats not robbery what is? :mad:

Why open the phone market up to just simply call charges when the dearest items on the bill are line rental etc.

[harry crumb]

If you want to reduce your phone bill, get away from Eircom. We use Euphony in our house. It has taken nearly €40 off out phone bill. If you want to know more : REPLY! and I'll give you some information.

[Hibs4Ever]

Switch to SMART TELECOM :D :D :D

[carrickharp]

Or VarTec Telecom

[tiktok]

Don't you still have to pay Eircon line rental charges though?

[eoinh]

Don't you still have to pay Eircon line rental charges though?


Yeah, thats the problem. The actual call charges arent huge. They amount to €11 out of €80. The big hitters are the items like line rental. Privitisation in this case obviously hasnt worked.

[dahamsta]

Some operators are able to offer single-billing via WLR (Wholesale Line Rental) now, which means your line rental will be billed by them. Because the margins are so tight it's unlikely the line rental will be much lower, if at all, however you are taking that margin out of Eircom's pocket if you switch. So have a chat with prospective alternatives about "single billing". I'm with UTV, although unfortunatley they seem to be having problems with their UTV Talk product, as apparently single billing hasn't been activated by them yet.

We have the highest line rental in Europe by the way. Join IrelandOffline (http://www.irelandoffline.org/) and email them (info@irelandoffline.org) or post on the forums (http://boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=60) to complain about line rental, so they know that it's a topic you want them to address. (Strictly speaking line rental isn't a core issue for them, so they need to be told.)

adam

[patsh]

Personally, Eoin, I'd switch to UTV. My two monthly bill with eircom, including internet, was roughly €275. When I switched to UTV, it dropped to €145.

eircom are the pits of a company, and it kills me to have to pay them line rental, I just wish UTV could get that end sorted out.
As an example of just how bad eircom are, a few months after we switched, some pr*ck from eircom called to the house and was fairly rude and pushy to my partner and he was actually under the impression that this behaviour would have us running back to them.
(Unluckily for him, he choose to call again some days later when I was at home. I can safely say that eircom, or any of their representatives will not be bothering us again!)

[noby]

eircom are the pits of a company, and it kills me to have to pay them line rental, I just wish UTV could get that end sorted out.


While I don't disagree with you, my only worry would be when there's a problem with the line. I have a fault on the line at the moment. I rang eircom on thursday, they apparantley checked it out on friday, and there's a guy fixing it today. I'd imagine this could take a hell of a lot longer if, for example, I had to report a fault to UTV, who then had to chase down eircom.

[pete]

Line rental is just plain robbery. I'd have a similar type of bill where don't use must calls & vast majority is line rental & because no competition in that sector Eircom will just continue to increase that price every year as much as they can get away with.

Theres plenty of competition in calls but never really worth your while unless have big enough bill.

Almost all broadband in this country afaik basically uses the Eircom lines which means even that will have to keep the landlline even if just for broadband.

:(

Getting UTV Internet which includes their phone package which it would seem gives very similar service to Eircom Talktime at no extra cost.

[dahamsta]

While I don't disagree with you, my only worry would be when there's a problem with the line. I have a fault on the line at the moment. I rang eircom on thursday, they apparantley checked it out on friday, and there's a guy fixing it today. I'd imagine this could take a hell of a lot longer if, for example, I had to report a fault to UTV, who then had to chase down eircom.What you do in these circumstances is report the fault to both Eircom and UTV. Eircom are then required to fix the line within a certain amount of days (can't remember offhand), so you wait exactly that amount of days and you report them to ComReg. ComReg will ask you if you've exhausted the complaints procedure with Eircom and/or UTV, and you tell them yes*. ComReg will then bring pressure to bear on Eircom to fix the problem, and you ring both ComReg and Eircom every day until it's fixed. It sounds like a lot of hassle but it's how you get things done.

Here's another tip that's proved invaluable to me: Drop the lineman a tenner or so when he leaves your gaff. It seems like "double taxation" but believe me, it's worth it. Especially when you have a recurring fault.

adam

*Even if you haven't. Eircom will lie about it, and they don't deserve anything less themselves.

[eoinh]

Actually while we are on bills. The electricity industry for domestic users is deregulated in the new year. Its already deregulated in the commercial sector. The ESB are the dearest, so i dont see why it would be different in the domestic sector if the other players decide to get involved.

[pete]

Actually while we are on bills. The electricity industry for domestic users is deregulated in the new year. Its already deregulated in the commercial sector. The ESB are the dearest, so i dont see why it would be different in the domestic sector if the other players decide to get involved.

Bizarrely in order to make the domestic electricity market more attractive for competition to enter the regulator has been approving all the esb increases in recent years to increase the perceived profit margin. :rolleyes:

Unlike telecoms in the electricity market their seems to some sort wisdom behind separating the network & retail markets.

[dahamsta]

Unlike telecoms in the electricity market their seems to some sort wisdom behind separating the network & retail markets.Has to rank #1 in retarded economic policies by Fianna Fáil. I mean everyone makes economic mistakes, but selling Eircom as a single job lot is the kind of thing the idiot son does to bust the company. Anyone that had any kind of experience of the comms market at all back then, including myself (I include myself as a complete amateur), knew that selling the network along with the retail arm was going to murder the comms market in Ireland. And lo and behold, that's exactly what happened, lawd have mercy.

Fianna Fáil shown up for the short-term greed-driven hacks that they are once again.

adam

[pete]

Noticed article last week in newspaper showing how the irish 3G (vodafone) prices a lot more expensive than same UK versions dispite the irish regulator selling the 3G licences for only millions & not the billions elsewhere in order to encourage reasonable prices.

:rolleyes:

[dahamsta]

A "lot" is understatement of the month. And they're taking their precious time rolling out too, they'll be nudging the limits set by ComReg if they're not careful. Not that ComReg'll fine them, bunch of fairies that they are. (All due respect to fairies. Salt of the earth.)

adam

[Jim Smith]

Getting UTV Internet which includes their phone package which it would seem gives very similar service to Eircom Talktime at no extra cost.
You don't need to get the internet package to get their phone deal. As almost all of my landline calls to Ireland and UK are off peak (and less than an hour) my landline bill is almost non-existant - less than Eircom or EsatBT. Now if I could just sort out a reasonable deal wrt mobiles I'd be laughing....

[pete]

You don't need to get the internet package to get their phone deal. As almost all of my landline calls to Ireland and UK are off peak (and less than an hour) my landline bill is almost non-existant - less than Eircom or EsatBT. Now if I could just sort out a reasonable deal wrt mobiles I'd be laughing....

I meant in order to get broadband pretty much need to keep landline connected even if never use calls....

[dahamsta]

Well, if it's available you can get a wireless connection and dump the landline connection altogether. I'd do it meself if I didn't need a landline for work.

adam

[Colm]

Personally, Eoin, I'd switch to UTV. My two monthly bill with eircom, including internet, was roughly €275. When I switched to UTV, it dropped to €145.

Yeah we switched to UTV last year and it's dramatically cheaper alright. It's the way to go I'd say.

[John83]

But the problem was they employed all these experts in the business world at enormous cost when clearly they should have asked you...

Does the government know that experts on taxation, the communications sector and even the correct width of a LUAS line all post on Foot.ie. It's just like a meeting of taxi drivers...What "experts"? Any why did these "experts" make such a complete ******** the telecoms market here?

Can you explain a good reason to make the LUAS trams incompatable with every other system in the country? (Am I right in thinking that this includes eachother?)

I've yet to see someone here claim that a taxation policy was ilconsidered, just unfair. Fair taxation is a concept outside the scope of us ordinary plebs, eh?:rolleyes:

[John83]

It's just sooooooooooo easy to knock though. Everything's wrong. I had assumed the Luas lines were the way they were because some engineers decided that this was the correct way to do it. Alternatively, maybe they just did it for the hell of it to annoy people like you. Clearly you suspect that it is impossible that there would be a valid reason for it...It's even easier to defend things on blind faith.

[dahamsta]

But the problem was they employed all these experts in the business worldFox, meet Henhouse. (Or "You can get any answer you want if you look for the person who'll give it to you.")

As I said clearly in my post, I'm not an expert, I'm an amateur. The fact that I saw what was going to happen - do a search on my handle on Boards.ie if you'd like proof - and they didn't speaks volumes about just how clever and balanced Fianna Fáil's philosophy and policies actually are.

adam

[patsh]

Believe it or not, I have to defend, to a certain extent, the sale of eircom.
The only party in that sale that really mattered was us, the public, who had contributed so much of our tax money to the company over the years. I don't know enough about the business or economics end of things to say whether the way it was done was good or bad, but I do believe that the taxpayer got just about the best price we could for it, and thats all that really mattered in the sale.
Now anybody who complains about the subsequent performace of the share price can just p*ss off, as far as I'm concerned, because that the way the capitalist market system works. You paid your money hoping to make some more and the risk did not work out, so, tough.
I do believe that there are questions have to be asked of the post-flotation management as to how the mobile side of the business made so much money for such a small group when sold off for what turned out to be a serious under-valuation, but thats a matter for the shareholders.
As a (forced) customer of this sh*te company, I wish the present Government would get the finger out, however, and through the regulator, do something about opening up line rental to other companies.

[dahamsta]

You also said FF did it for greed.Nah, I didn't. I said Fianna Fáil are "greed-driven hacks". It was more of a generalisation. I can see how one could make the assocation though. :)


Personally, I'd trace problems in the telecommunications industry right back to the FitzGerald era in the 80sYou mean when Ireland led the world with it's telecommunications infrastructure? (That would be the infrastructure that's still there btw, rotting under Eircom's ownership.)

adam

[Schumi]

Am I right in thinking that this includes eachother?
No, that's a myth.

[4tothefloor]

What is it with Kerry men? There isn't one out there who doesn't think he is the last word on everything.