While installing a VoIP network for a client today I noticed that the ADSL network wasn’t working properly. Yesterday we replaced the Netopia box provided by Eircom with a nice shiny new Linksys WAG54GS box. It’s not that we dislike the Netopia boxes but they tend to reboot more often than several other DSL router products we’ve tested. When you’re trying to run VoIP applications over it you take precautions to ensure reliability so it was the least we could do. We configured this box on our own connection which is an Eircom business package which tests tell us provides 384kbps up and 3Mbps down. It worked a treat, it was stonkingly fast and stable. So we moved it the customers site. The customer was running on an home plus ADSL connection and told Eircom to transfer them to a business plus package. For a whole day it worked beautifully and then Eircom changed the ADSL connection. Well, lo and behold they did. The line started to become very unstable, disconnecting every few seconds. I called up Eircom to say that we were experiencing a problem and was told the following
Why did you report a problem on the line if it’s an ADSL issue. (I didn’t, our client did) We do not support linksys products. Our Netopia router with the latest firmware is capable of handling our super high speed broadband connection, I doubt your linksys box is. I responded by saying I was a telecommunications engineer and I knew this to be simply untrue. The tech support guy became hostile and said I should reinstall the Netopia box, that the problem must be with our unsupported router. He wouldn’t confirm any of the router configuration settings like PPPoE, LLC etc. but I informed him I already knew the router worked because I’ve tested it before on high speed networks and it’s actually rated as a very fast ADSLv2+ router. He became increasingly stroppy and told me that I’d slowed the process down by reporting a fault on the line. He even had the cheek to call me “mate” in a sarcastic voice. Fucking hell, bona fide masochists just need to call Eircom tech support when they need a verbal flogging!
Now I must be honest, I got off the phone and thought to myself the following:
- The tech support guy acted like an asshole. He was obnoxious to somebody who was ultimately trying to help an Eircom customer to use their ADSL connection properly
- If the Netopia product was satisfactory I’d still have used it. I wasn’t on a crusade to badmouth a product associated with Eircom. However, I was scolded by some eircom underling because I didn’t understand their tech support process.
- Would this be behavior tolerated if they weren’t a monopoly? I think not
I’ll let you all know what happens in future but I was so angry with another experience of the arrogance and disdain with which this company treats its customers that I had to tell my readers. By the way, there’s nothing wrong with the Linksys router, I tried it again against our own eircom business ADSL connection and it operated fine so it’s probably a line/wiring problem.