These offline guys keep on surprising me!
I still happen to have a free e-mail account with Luxembourg Online. I acquired it years before I entered into the most frustrating customer relationship that is described elsewhere in this blog.
Now they have fucked up my e-mail folders for the second time in a couple of years. The previous time they fought hard and succeeded in saving the subject fields and addresses of the correspondents. - This time everything was gone, all private folders just disappeared. Off course, there was no apologizing message from the help desk – I had to find it out myself. They were though kind enough to answer my request and it did not even take ages, just a couple of days. Chapeau, Luxembourg Online!
In practically all data processing teams, they have a good practice of taking backups, in the past it was often on tape – today probably on magnetic disk and possibly using a redundant array of inexpensive disks (RAID system). Tapes used to be taken sometimes weekly for non-critical data, daily for production systems. I really think that these offline guys have backups as well. They are just too lazy and arrogant to provide any help or support to those inferior beings called customers. Even if the backup had been one month old, the difference between it and full recovery would have been insignificant.
Here the authentic exchange of messages:
"Date: Sat, 08 Oct 2011 17:28:48 +0200
From: helpdesk@internet.lu
Reply-To: helpdesk@internet.lu
To: kenlie@internet.lu
Bonjour,
Nous vous confirmons réception de votre courrier életronique.
Malheureusement, suite a des problèmes avec le serveur mail, les dossiers perdu ne peuvent plus être récuperé.
Nous nous tenons a votre dispositions pour tout autres questions.
Cordialement
Luxembourg Online Sa"
"---------- Message original ----------
Received: from nnn.nnn.nnn.nnn by nnn.nnn.nnn.nnn
INC_SMTP_SERVER 2.57;
Thu, 06 Oct 2011 13:11:16 +0200
Date: Thu, 06 Oct 2011 13:11:15 +0200
Received: from nnn.nnn.nnn.nnn by nnn.nnn.nnn.nnn INC_SMTP_SERVER 2.56; Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 GMT
From: kenlie@internet.lu
Reply-To: kenlie @internet.lu
X-Mailer: INCSMTP 2.56
Message-Id: 1493420652-1606929827-571491328@INC_SMTP_SERVER
MIME-Version: 1.0
To: helpdesk@internet.lu
Subject: Dossiers perdus
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Messieurs,
Tous mes dossiers de courriel ont diapparus.
Comment les retrouver?
kenlie
---------------------------------------"
lauantai 8. lokakuuta 2011
maanantai 9. toukokuuta 2011
The last invoices
Persisting connection problems in March lead to the only reasonable conclusion: The change of the ISP. Consequently, I sent the required registered letter to Luxembourg Online. In general condition of Luxembourg Online the deadline for cancelling the service is set to 40 days, so I had to rush a bit with my cancellation.
In my letter I suggested an arbitration of the end of the contract in such a way that the cancellation would take effect at the end of May, two weeks after the delivery of the cancellation letter. In that case, I promised to pay the April invoice immediately - in the case of non approval of my suggestion, I would make an appointment to the local consumer organisation. As a justification for such mediation, I mentioned the fact that the quality of the service is bad. The summer-time service has not improved despite the intervention of the Eltrona technician almost a year ago.
The technical provider of the cable connection is Eltrona. Because my main reason for the Eltrona subscription has been the possibility to have fast internet connection, I cancelled the cable-TV connection as well.
In the past, there were two options to have fast internet connection in Luxembourg: PT line + ADSL or Eltrona/Coditel + ISP. As in our household, we had more use for the cable television than for the PT line, we opted for the cable television option in 2003. Now the situation has improved and Orange now suggests an ADSL service using the PT network but without the PT subscription. And it works!
So, I decided to cancel the subscription of Eltrona as well, suggestion a similar arbitration as with Luxembourg Online, paying for the service that I consume by the end of April. The General Conditions of Eltrona are much less in favour of the consumer, so in the worst case I may still have to pay the 2011 subscription.
By the way, on sunny afternoons the picture of the ELtrona cable TV is very bad in this address. This concerns particularly the channels at the lower range of the frequency spectrum (e.g. RTL Lëtzebuerg).
Only Luxembourg Online answered to my letter.In vain, because the answer was the wrong one.
Next, I will discuss the case with Union Luxembourgeoise des Consommateurs, an organisation that has been very helpful in the two cases for which I have asked their support during the last 5 or so years when I have been their member.
After that, I will most probably pay one or two of the remaining Luxembourg Online invoices and the subscription 2011 for Eltrona, or a part of it. And continue watching Caroline Maart behind random specks for another 7 months.
In my letter I suggested an arbitration of the end of the contract in such a way that the cancellation would take effect at the end of May, two weeks after the delivery of the cancellation letter. In that case, I promised to pay the April invoice immediately - in the case of non approval of my suggestion, I would make an appointment to the local consumer organisation. As a justification for such mediation, I mentioned the fact that the quality of the service is bad. The summer-time service has not improved despite the intervention of the Eltrona technician almost a year ago.
The technical provider of the cable connection is Eltrona. Because my main reason for the Eltrona subscription has been the possibility to have fast internet connection, I cancelled the cable-TV connection as well.
In the past, there were two options to have fast internet connection in Luxembourg: PT line + ADSL or Eltrona/Coditel + ISP. As in our household, we had more use for the cable television than for the PT line, we opted for the cable television option in 2003. Now the situation has improved and Orange now suggests an ADSL service using the PT network but without the PT subscription. And it works!
So, I decided to cancel the subscription of Eltrona as well, suggestion a similar arbitration as with Luxembourg Online, paying for the service that I consume by the end of April. The General Conditions of Eltrona are much less in favour of the consumer, so in the worst case I may still have to pay the 2011 subscription.
By the way, on sunny afternoons the picture of the ELtrona cable TV is very bad in this address. This concerns particularly the channels at the lower range of the frequency spectrum (e.g. RTL Lëtzebuerg).
Only Luxembourg Online answered to my letter.In vain, because the answer was the wrong one.
Next, I will discuss the case with Union Luxembourgeoise des Consommateurs, an organisation that has been very helpful in the two cases for which I have asked their support during the last 5 or so years when I have been their member.
After that, I will most probably pay one or two of the remaining Luxembourg Online invoices and the subscription 2011 for Eltrona, or a part of it. And continue watching Caroline Maart behind random specks for another 7 months.
torstai 5. toukokuuta 2011
lauantai 2. huhtikuuta 2011
Luxembourg Offline – Winternet Surfing Season Over!
Two weeks ago, on Sunday 30 March 2011 Luxembourg profited from an extremely warm Spring day. On the same date Luxembourg Online lost a loyal customer that has done more to improve their quality than their entire customer service department, called notoriously “Service Contentieux”.
From old experience I recorded the signal level of the Motorola router and later the log files.
As a positively thinking person, I expected the service break to be temporary. It was not. In the last two weeks, Luxembourg Online using Eltrona cable network has been many times offline in Kaltreis during the sunny hours of the day. I really did not expect it to happen so quickly. This brought many puns to my mind when looking at the blinking leds of the router: Luxembourg Offline, winternet service provider, snow surfing from November to February.
On 31 March I signed a 12-month ADSL Flat Solo contract with Orange and had the first contact with their sloppy (unfortunately) marketing staff, promising immediate activation and a free WiFI Router when walking out of the shop. None of the two promises was true – the delivery time is 4-6 weeks. I hope their technical service will be better than their marketing – otherwise I will have to start still another consumer blog...
Economically changing from Luxembourg Online to Orange will be worth the effort. The monthly subscription will drop from €28 to €26. Orange will provide me with a free Zyxel WiFi router and a technician's visit. In the ADSL Solo there is no need to subscribe a PT telephone line – even if they use the PT infrastructure - which was the main reason I opted for Orange. And finally as a cherry on the cake, I can cancel the Eltrona cable television subscription. In 2010 this was as much as €186.08 per year (corresponding to €15.51 per month), including €57.10 + VAT for authors' rights.
Of course, the main reason for switching the service provider is not only economic. The Luxembourg Online service to this address is simply unreliable and their customer service, I cannot help repeating Service Contentieux – not too far from Service Contagieux, behaves arrogantly.
From old experience I recorded the signal level of the Motorola router and later the log files.
As a positively thinking person, I expected the service break to be temporary. It was not. In the last two weeks, Luxembourg Online using Eltrona cable network has been many times offline in Kaltreis during the sunny hours of the day. I really did not expect it to happen so quickly. This brought many puns to my mind when looking at the blinking leds of the router: Luxembourg Offline, winternet service provider, snow surfing from November to February.
On 31 March I signed a 12-month ADSL Flat Solo contract with Orange and had the first contact with their sloppy (unfortunately) marketing staff, promising immediate activation and a free WiFI Router when walking out of the shop. None of the two promises was true – the delivery time is 4-6 weeks. I hope their technical service will be better than their marketing – otherwise I will have to start still another consumer blog...
Economically changing from Luxembourg Online to Orange will be worth the effort. The monthly subscription will drop from €28 to €26. Orange will provide me with a free Zyxel WiFi router and a technician's visit. In the ADSL Solo there is no need to subscribe a PT telephone line – even if they use the PT infrastructure - which was the main reason I opted for Orange. And finally as a cherry on the cake, I can cancel the Eltrona cable television subscription. In 2010 this was as much as €186.08 per year (corresponding to €15.51 per month), including €57.10 + VAT for authors' rights.
Of course, the main reason for switching the service provider is not only economic. The Luxembourg Online service to this address is simply unreliable and their customer service, I cannot help repeating Service Contentieux – not too far from Service Contagieux, behaves arrogantly.
sunnuntai 6. maaliskuuta 2011
There is no free visit by an Eltrona employee...
My Eltrona cable Internet service has been stable for months now. I have paid conscientiously my monthly fees of 28€. Additionally, at the end of the last year I also received an invoice of €200 for the installation of an amplifier (that, by the way, did not solve the problem at the time).
This invoice I also paid, as the service had been stable since Autumn.
However, the current stability of the service, in my opinion, comes from one of the following two reasons:
In the coming Spring and Summer, we shall see which of the two options holds true!
This invoice I also paid, as the service had been stable since Autumn.
However, the current stability of the service, in my opinion, comes from one of the following two reasons:
- either Eltrona has indeed done something to solve the problem...
- or the problem has temporarily gone away because of the cold weather.
In the coming Spring and Summer, we shall see which of the two options holds true!
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