Why Can't we Get Broadband in our Home when all our neighbours have it!!!!

Question

I contacted eircom on Wednesday last, 1 July in order to request broadband be installed in my home. I called at 17.42 and the call lasted 29.16 mins.  I explained to your sales representative, Louise Doolan, that I had no telephone line in the home at the present time, but had had one approximately 10 years ago.  I also explained to her that in April of last year I had contacted eircom about installing broadband in our home and that there had been an issue at the time involving the reconnection and supply of eFibre, but that the issue was ultimately resolved.  Unfortunately, at that time, I mistakenly understood that we were out of contract with our current broadband provider when in fact this was not the case and we ultimately had to cancel our order during the cooling off period.  Louise informed me that my old telephone number had been reissued to a new address and that a new line would have to be connected.  She informed me that she would call me back within 24 hours as the line was showing that our address did not qualify for broadband.  I did not hear from her again. On 3 July at 10.42 I telephoned 1901, as per Louise's instructions, and spoke with, I think, Mairead.  She informed me that from what she could see, the line was still not live and said that she would re-request the line set up. I was on the telephone with her at that time for 14.55 mins.  Mairead informed me that she was not in the office over the weekend, but that she would follow the call up for me on Monday and assured me that she would call me back.  I have still not heard from Mairead. On Monday, 6 July @ 14.22 I telephoned customer care again to follow up on the order, a call which ultimately lasted 31.28 mins.  I did not catch the name of the person I originally spoke with and he informed me that broadband was not available on my phone line and that that was it.  I said that I was not satisfied with that answer and requested that he put me through to someone who could explain to me why broadband was not available at my home.  He transferred me to a technical team and, if I correctly recall, I spoke with Adrian.  Up until this time I had not been provided with a telephone number, account number or reference number.  Adrian explained to me that he was a technical adviser to people with broadband already installed in their homes and was unable to help me.  He suggested I borrow a telephone from a house, install it in my home, ring my mobile and that I would then know my telephone number.  I was of the opinion that this was a far fetched way to get my telephone number and he ultimately transferred me to Harry in Accounts & Billing, Customer Care, Dublin.  Harry explained that he and his colleagues could see no reason why broadband was not available on my telephone line and said he would transfer the matter to the escalations department and would expect to hear back from them within 24 hours.  I asked would he ring me back within 24 hours and he said that he could not guarantee that, it may be within 48 hours.  I have not heard back from Harry. On 7 July, 2015 @ 16.32 I telephoned customer care yet again.  I spoke with Betty in the Dublin Office.  I explained all of the above to Betty and she informed me that from what she could see on screen, there was no reply as yet from escalations and that she would re submit the escalation request.  I told her that I would call back again.  This telephone call lasted 5.29 mins. This morning at approximately 11 am (as I was in work and called from our landline due to a poor mobile signal in my office) I called 1901 again.  I was put through to the Cork office and spoke with a young girl, whose name I cannot recall, but I think may have been Aoife.  She said that she could not see any resolution on the file, but that as 48 hours had not yet passed from the first escalation request, perhaps I should call back later.  I told her I would. I telephoned again at 18.48 this evening, a call which ultimately lasted 51.36 minutes.  As luck would have it I was answered by Betty, with whom I had previously spoken, in the Customer Care, Dublin Office.  I briefly outlined the above to Betty and asked her for an update on my order.  She explained to me that she tried the line again and that it was still not showing up as being available for broadband and that I would be unable to avail of same. I asked Betty for a more satisfactory reason as to why exactly I could not get broadband. I explained to her that there is an eircom exchange outside my garden, that the house itself is only 12 years old, that the house was built at the same time as my neighbour’s houses, all of whom had their lines supplied at the same time and several of whom have eircom broadband without issue.  My next door neighbour has eFibre broadband.  Our houses were built and wired at the same time. It is beyond reason to me that his home can have broadband supplied and my home cannot.  I do not live on the top of a mountain miles from civilisation.  I do not live on a remote island.  I live in a housing estate in Blessington, 25 miles from Dublin.  As Betty could not provide me with a satisfactory answer, I requested that she transfer me to her manager, or Team Leader, as it is known.  I was on hold for several minutes.  Betty came back on the phone and explained to me that her team leader said that nothing could be done unfortunately. I once again explained to Betty that, given that I was told one year ago that broadband could be supplied to my home, I would very much like to know what supernatural event occurred in the meantime that rendered this now impossible. I explained to Betty that I understand that she could not explain the matter further and that, as I would like a more reasoned explanation than “we can’t provide you with broadband at the moment, sorry”, I would like to speak to someone further up the line and once again requested that she transfer me to her team leader.  I was put on hold once again and, once again, Betty came back on the line and said that her team leader would not take the call as nothing could be gained from it and that nothing could be done at the time.  As you can imagine, the fact that this comedy has been carried out over now 1 week with not just one, but six telephone calls not being returned by any of your representatives, I felt it was not an unreasonable request to speak to somebody further up the line.  I explained to Betty that I appreciated her assistance and that I was not put out by her manner, but that I found her team leader’s refusal to accept my call extremely ill mannered and discourteous. I asked her for her team leader’s name and for her surname and informed her that I was making a formal complaint against her team leader.  She advised me that she could not give out that information without her team leader’s consent and I requested that she advise him or her of same, request that the name be released and relay my disappointment and disgust at the manner in which I was being treated, the level of his/her discourteousness and ill manners. I also asked that she request her team leader take the call personally.  Unbelievably, for a third time, her team leader refused to take my call, but deigned to bestow me with details of his name – Thomas Graham.  I explained to Betty that I appreciated her help in the matter, that I found Thomas Graham’s manner despicable, that I felt he was treating her in a poor manner by having her scurrying around relaying messages between him and I, that it gave an overall very poor impression, that I was under no illusion, but that I was being fobbed off, especially as I have fobbed many people off in various roles over the years and that I was very disappointed by the manner in which I was treated.  For the hell of it, I requested Betty one more time to request that Thomas Graham take my call as a matter of courtesy and once again he refused, A FOURTH TIME. I explained to Betty that I was not happy with the reason or lack of reasons given to me as to why broadband could not be supplied to my home.  I explained to her that, until I saw an individual outside my home, carrying out an inspection and attempting to rectify the problem, I did not see that anything was being done to resolve the issue. I explained to her that I wanted to speak with a technician or engineer who could give me a valid reason as to why broadband cannot be installed in my home.  She suggested that she transfer me to the technical department. I was transferred to the technical department and spoke with Adi who did his best to be helpful, but advised that his role was to assist people with broadband already installed in their homes.  He explained to me that he could not see any reason from the system why broadband could not be installed in my home.  He suggested that he transfer me to the sales department who might be able to assist me.  Given that I had spoken with the sales department several times and that this was where this entire sorry saga began, I explained to him that I had no desire to speak with them as they were sales people and I wanted to speak with someone with engineering/technical information.  I was put on hold for a time and Adi came back to me and said that he had spoken with a colleague who suggested that there may not be enough space on the exchange I was on and I that I should write to the Planning Department near Heuston Station to request that a slot be installed for my home.  He informed me that he could see from the system that at 18.59 he could see that a request for broadband connection was made. As you can no doubt see from the above, the situation is farcical.  I have contacted several other broadband providers, however, all of these use eircom lines and, as such, eircom “has me over a barrel”.  This is, in my opinion, an absolutely ridiculous situation.  It is July in the year 2015, not 1915.  I live in a relatively modern house in an area where broadband is readily available.  It is just not acceptable to say “sorry, we are unable to provide broadband at this time” without any investigation outside pressing a few buttons on a screen in an office in Dublin.  To add insult to injury, to treat a potential new customer so poorly is, aside from anything else, bad business.  My husband and I also have mobile telephone accounts which we had intended to transfer to eircom.  In addition, my two children will also shortly be getting mobile telephones and we were thus likely to bring four mobile phone accounts in addition to our broadband and, possibly, evision accounts.  The fact that eircom is a national provider whose lines your competitors use and that this is the best you can come up with is very disappointing.  In the circumstances above, I wish to receive a satisfactory explanation of events to date, an indication of how eircom intend to resolve this farcical situation and an explanation as to why Thomas Graham was allowed to treat a potential new customer and a member of staff on his team so poorly.  It created a very poor impression of your company and I genuinely felt sorry for Betty.  I should state at this time that I have no issue whatsoever with Betty’s handling of what was a very difficult phonecall.  She was very courteous to me at all times and, to be quite frank, put Thomas Graham to shame.  Perhaps he should offer her an apology for his behaviour too. You should also note that I am forwarding a copy of this to the ComReg and I intend to contact my local TD if this matter is not resolved in the short term.  I work from home two days a week and broadband is imperative to my livelihood.  I look forward to hearing from you by return.  Louise Simpson

Answer 1

Thanks, I think I got the cabinet number from that link before, can get only:
WBC ADSL 2+ Up to 6
ADSL Max Up to 1.5
I used to get 3.5 on ADSL 2+ but a fault on the line which would drop broadband when phone rang, they fixed it by putting me back on ADSL with 1.5
Why can't they have a future estimated date? Virgin cable is just around the corner can't get that either. My 3G on iPhone is faster!