Anyone thinking of buying a new development and who likes their TV or needs proper Broadband had better read on.
A number of developers have 'exclusive ’ agreements with scam artists who wire cable or fibre into the apartments or houses and promise broadband and TV but deliver nothing or next to nothing and then charge through the nose for it .
These companies could be tied to the biggest developers in Dublin .
Gannon Homes in North Dublin has entered agreements with a company which by a delicious irony is called Avtech Multichannel aka Choice Digital. The broadband and tv service from these characters is dire and the residents of Choice Digital estates may not install a SKY dish for TV or the ‘management agents’ will come around , remove it and then charge you for the removal.
I hear Gannon may not be using them any more and may have gone with Magnet in future .
Liam Carrolls Danninger has a similar deal with a shower of complete cowboys called Sky Conway eg in the recently built Castleforbes complex .
Other cowboy operations tied in with less well know developers are Broadworks and Cablewatch.
Others have appeared and disappeared such as E-nviwho were active in the pale as well as Dublin .
If you value your sanity you should ensure that you do not move into an apartment or house wired by these people and that you carefully research
There are other service providers who do enter exclusive agreements and provide something acceptable , the OK providers are Magnet and Smart . UPC/NTL services while often great are often cruddy because a cheapskate builder made a dogs dinner of the cable plant which cannot be fixed .
Be very careful out there, these chancers are not regulated at all in this country . When ENN contacted Comreg last year Comreg claimed nobody ever complained about the cowboys , most likely because Comreg deleted the complaints they did receive.
Minister Eamonn Ryan believes that companies like these provide choice, strewth . No wonder the knowledge economy is banjaxed.
All round, buying an apartment these days comes with a lot of potentially nasty baggage attached. Complete loss of control and vulnerability to royal rip-offs on many fronts. Get out while you can people.
At least with houses though you can put up a satelite dish. True if it is a managed estate, there may be rules preventing this, but they often can’t be enforced. This is because the owner of the house also owns the outside walls etc, and if a management agent tried to remove a satelite dish, he could be done for trespassing.
I know someone who lives in an estate where the rules state “no satelite dishes”, but loads of people have them.
So if Choice Digital start demanding crazy subscriptions fees the tenants have to either like it or lump it as they cannot change providers. Jesus there great choices being provided aren’t they.
There is a large thread over on AAM about the issue of satellite dishes on apartment blocks. Apparently European Law says it a right you have and this would supersede any rule in a management lease agreement.
Don’t bother complaining to comreg, complain to the competition authority. They can bring fast and painful prosecutions to anybody or any company which acts to distort the market.
There’s a similar problem out in Ashtown. Royal Canal Park is catered for solely by a one man and his dog operation incapable of providing proper TV or Broadband but very capable of charging for the services. The good old free market at work!
. No wonder the knowledge economy is banjaxed.
