All I have to show for my seven-month wait for Eir broadband are disgruntled neighbours

“I have written this as a last resort as I feel I’m left with no other recourse at this stage,” begins a mail from a reader called Stewart.

At the beginning of March, Stewart ordered broadband from Eir and when he got in touch with us last week he was still waiting for his fibre broadband to be installed.

The saga is long and – as you will see – endlessly frustrating.

“I choose Eir for two main reasons,” he says. “The offers given were very attractive but, more importantly, it is an Irish company and, as such, one I wanted to support.”

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He was initially given an installation dates of March 21st. “On inspection at this time the engineer explained there was a blockage running the cable to the house and heavy civils would be needed to run a new cable.”

So another appointment was made for the end of April. “This appointment was missed, unfortunately, as the engineer didn’t show,” Stewart writes. He makes the point that while the engineer was a no-show he did have to make a point of being at home for the day.

Another appointment was made for June 1st. The subcontractor sent a “heavy civils team [who] ran a cable to my garden, via two large holes dug in the footpath directly outside my neighbour’s property. These were, in time, filled in and repaired.”

Stewart thought progress was being made.

“Another appointment was made and when the engineer arrived to install, he told me light civils were necessary to cut the footpath at the side of my house to run the cable to the exterior of the house.”

We have to admit that we were not familiar with the terms heavy and light civils but they are as they sound. Heavy civils require pretty significant infrastructural interventions while light civils involve work which, while substantial, is not as serious.

Anyway, back to Stewart.

“Another appointment was made. The next light civils team informed me that the cable supplied to the garden was too short and pinched where the new concrete was used to repair the footpath outside my neighbour’s house.

“This would need to be dug up again and a new cable run. Another appointment was made. The next heavy civils team arrived in mid-September to run a new cable to the house from the junction. As they were repairing the footpath, I asked where the new cable was situated. They said it was buried in the garden (nearest the footpath, under a neighbour’s plant).

“[Neither] they nor I had received permission to access the neighbour’s flower beds.”

So another appointment was made for September 23rd. “This appointment was missed, unfortunately, as the engineer didn’t show,” Stewart says.

Then, on September 28th, Stewart received a call from his wife that a manager from the subcontractors was at the door. “He was reviewing the work done and wanted to know where the cable was. I explained what I was told and asked him to wait at my house until I returned. He said he could find no evidence of a cable. On my return 10 minutes later he was gone.”

What makes it more infuriating is that 45 minutes after this interaction – at 5.45pm – our reader received an email confirming that this “appointment” was scheduled for 5pm.

Another appointment was made for October 6th.

“On this occasion two light-civils engineers arrived, searched for the cable for an hour and informed me there was no cable and they had no idea what was done by the last team.”

Another appointment was made for last Thursday – and after the time of writing. “To achieve what I honestly have no idea. At this stage I have contacted the customer service team an innumerable amount of times with no resolution. Currently all I have to show for my seven-month wait are disgruntled neighbours with a footpath outside their houses which has been dug up and (poorly) patched repeatedly, a number of spray-paint markings to the rest of the footpath and one with damaged concrete in his driveway and five barriers left in my front garden which have drawn the unwanted attention of my local residents’ association. This farce cannot continue.”

We got in touch with Eir who – to be fair – were quick to recognise our reader’s frustration.

In a statement the company said: “We deeply regret the prolonged delay in the installation of this customer’s broadband service and we understand the frustration and inconvenience this has caused.

“The installation process has been marred by a series of challenges, some of which are out of our control, such as the requirement for civil licences to complete elements of the work. Eir is actively engaging with our subcontractors and we are committed to completing this work as efficiently as possible but unfortunately, due to the construction work still required, this will take more time to complete. To expedite the resolution process we have assigned a dedicated team to provide direct contact to the customer, ensuring that concerns are addressed as a matter of urgency.”