The Eircom Internet Rant

Well, we still do not have internet in our home. We do have a home phone, but I don't think we can use it yet, for reasons which I trust will become clear below.

This city, and Ireland in general, are not as Internet-ready as the fine city of Toronto. There's fewer options for broadband, especially downtown, so no cable; we had to go with either DSL or wireless. Since we want a home phone (so we can get phone calls cheaply from overseas - hint, hint), we decided to go with Eircom, the main phone provider, equivalent to Bell.

On the web, they have a bundle package for talk and broadband, with most of the fees waived if you order online, so I did that, a few days after New Years, hoping that within a week, we'd have intenet and home phone, especially since we have two, TWO, phone jacks in the house.

So I ordered, gave all my info, and thought, "Grand, that's taken care of, back to work/sleep/the pub, yeah." After a few days, though I'd heard nothing, not even so much as an email, so I called from my mobile. Normally my mobile works rather well, but when I called, I could barely hear anything.

Which begs the question, why is it that telecomm companies have the worst sound quality on their systems? Anybody? Telecomm people, time to pipe up. Hello?

Anyways, after finding a sound proof room and not moving or breathing while talking to them, I finally got through, and they told me that alls good, just gotta wait. The next day, I received an email with my account info, and a message telling me to wait. So I waited. For two weeks.

Appparently this is normal, a trial by fire for new immigrants to Ireland. I would have prefered a Guiness and Irish whiskey hazing, but so be it. Eventually, I got a call from a technician, who said, I'm here to set up your phone. I was at work. I said what? He said phone. I blinked twice.

Luckily, Linor was home and she verified that everything worked, "Hallelujah, we have a home phone. Means, Internet is now nearly a reality." So I called Eircom, said, "Well, our phone is set up, and works fine, lets get Internet."

She replied, "Oh I'm sorry sir, that phone is not meant to be setup until next Tuesday. And, that broadband order was lost." I sputtered, "Next Tuesday? Lost? Whathuh? But, it works fine!! The phone works fine!!! Internet! Please! Come set it up!!"

"I'm sorry sir," she replied. "You will have to wait until Tuesday, then re-order the internet. They will then take another 2 weeks to set up the internet, if your line can support Broadband."

I spluttered some more, but to no avail. Now, the funny thing was, as opposed to Bell and Rogers, the customer service people at Eircom were delightful and kinda and nice and helpful. However, there was zilch they could do. Even the fact that my phone was set up five days ahead of time, there was no way that they could advance the order.

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Okay, this post is too long, so I'll wrap it up by bitching like this: Its gonna get set up, but I spent too much time on the phone, and it'll be a month after I initially made the order that we'll finally have internet. But at the end of the day, that probably no more crap than many people have from Bell or Rogers, so meh, who's complaining?

In most all other respects, Cork is grand. The city is cool, the people for the most part have been wonderful, and work is going well.

Oh, and I'm sick of Guiness, Beamish and Murphy's. Who would have thought...