Complaints force toll firm to act

THE COMPANY operating the M50 barrier-free toll, BetEire Flow, is reviewing its operations after admitting to “failings” in its customer service performance.

The French consortium operates the system on behalf of the NRA (National Roads Authority)and has contracted its customer service support to Teleperformance.

In a brief statement last night BetEire Flow said: “Customer service is something we take very seriously. We accept there have been failings. In response, we initiated some weeks ago a strategic review to resolve matters to customers’ satisfaction.”

The level of incorrect charging and complaints over poor customer service from M50 customers is a cause for concern at the NRA and the National Consumer Agency (NCA).

Teleperformance handles general M50 tolling queries and also provides customer support for eFlow, which provides tags. EFlow is operated on behalf of the NRA and BetEire Flow, and is one of six tag providers.

Complaints about the system to the NCA have increased since the start of the year and the agency is to write to the NRA this week outlining its concerns.

An NCA analysis of complaints said multiple charging for a single journey, charges for “phantom” journeys and difficulties accessing helplines were the most common issues.

Documents obtained from the NRA also state that the law firm appointed as the enforcement agent for the M50 started issuing solicitor’s letters at the end of January to motorists who have not paid their tolls.

Yet The Irish Timesunderstands that, in a small number of cases, letters were issued to motorists who claimed their account arrears had already been paid, adding to concerns about the quality of customer service and administration.

An NRA spokesman said: “Unfortunately there are still too many errors and this can be seen from the number of complaints to the NCA and media.

“We are working with BetEire Flow and Teleperformance, asking them to reassure us that this level of service will improve.”

One M50 user who contacted this newspaper was overcharged €398 in January by her tag provider eFlow. The company initially offered to credit her account rather than refund her.

After three weeks, and having contacted the NRA, she was refunded by cheque but by that stage had incurred overdrawn charges from her bank.

In response to questions BetEire Flow said it had “delivered a world-class system that is enabling 100,000 vehicles per day complete their journeys successfully”.

Not withstanding the system’s complexity – it is the first to accept tags from all providers – the NRA believes a series of teething problems should have been overcome.

Reasons for inaccurate readings include obscured number plates, incorrectly positioned tags and drivers swapping tags. Toll tags for the M50 are linked to the vehicle number plate.