Cantillon: Telecoms companies will have to stop crossing their lines

Anyone who has ever felt ripped off by their mobile company may have allowed themselves a small moment of satisfaction on hearing the news that the communications regulator had taken a case against Ireland’s top networks to the district court.

It was Eircom that came in for the most stinging criticism, with Judge John O'Neill branding the company's code of practice "a joke" and its practice of sending letters from debt collectors to customers as "despicable".

It would not have helped the telecoms companies that the examples mentioned during the course of the action involved an elderly man in a nursing home being pursued by debt collectors on behalf of Eircom despite having cancelled his account, or a man seriously injured in a fall whose family members had contacted Vodafone to close his account.

Both networks may have around two million customers on their respective services, but one of the most important rules of customer service, after “the customer is always right”, is that no customer likes to be treated like they are one in a long line, even when they are.

Although the networks had pleaded guilty to the charges, it’s not enough for them to hold their hands up and say that it was a failure of process and human error that led to these situations. All three say they have put measures in place to ensure the mistakes won’t be repeated, but it will take some time, and testing, before it’s clear if these purported measures have actually worked.

It’s not the first time that the networks have fallen foul of the regulator. But it seems as if ComReg has upped its game of late. Aside from bringing the three operators to court, the regulator has been issuing non-compliance notices with regularity in recent months.

Regardless of the threat of action from regulators, telecoms may want to rethink how they treat customer complaints. Aside from the threat of enforcement action, social media can be a harsh place for those with disgruntled customers. Bad reputations can be earned more easily these days, and travel faster than before.