SOUNDING OFF: Ripped off? Stunned by good value? Write, blog or text your experience to us

Our recent article on the obstacles some companies put in the way of customers getting in touch "really resonated" with Yvonne Emmett who suggested we might have added Eircom to our survey. "When I asked a telephone agent for an address to send a query to, she wouldn't give me one but did give me an e-mail address - the e-mail bounced back." Emmet then tried to use the Eircom online form to register her query but it restricted her to 30 words, "which was not sufficient for me to express myself! I then wrote - twice - to the postal address given on their website but neither letter was acknowledged." It wasn't until she contacted ComReg that she got any class of response.

"And so to my query, which has still not been answered satisfactorily. I placed an online order for the 2mb Broadband and Evening/Weekend Talktime Bundle at €55.99 per month. (I was already an Eircom telephone customer, paying just line rental and call charges). Well, lo and behold, but the first bill following the order arrives and it is for €202.66 and not the approximately €112 I was expecting - almost twice the bundle tariff. The €202.66 did include a connection charge of €24.79 plus Vat which has since been refunded."

She says she has been trying without success since April to find out why she has been billed so much. We contacted the company to see if we could get some answers for her. The company confirmed it received a letter from our reader in April in which she highlighted that she had been wrongly charged a connection fee of €29.99 when she ordered her Eircom broadband bundle.

"As Ms Emmett ordered her bundle online this fee should have been waived and, on receipt of her letter, we immediately refunded the connection fee to her account."

Eircom said that a member of its customer care team tried to contact Emmett to acknowledge receipt of her letter and to confirm that the refund was being applied. "However, she was unable to get in touch with her by phone. We do acknowledge that further efforts should have been made to contact Ms Emmett and we apologise for this error."

The statement went on to say Eircom received further communication from our reader via ComReg which said she did not believe she was receiving her broadband bundle discount. Eircom says that on investigation its records showed the fees were being correctly applied and said it attempted to make contact with our reader by e-mail. "However, the e-mail address provided was incorrect," so its customer service people posted out a letter to explain the charges on her bill.

The company said it had now asked a member of its customer care team to contact our reader to talk her through the charges on this specific bill. The spokeswoman defended the online customer care form.

"Eircom believes the 400 characters (around 90 words, incidentally) provided to customers to detail their complaint is a sufficient length for us to effectively resolve their issue as quickly as possible."

Nicer in the North

Anthony O'Connell from Limerick says he has long been aware of the good and bad service he receives as a customer. He shops regularly in stores such as Dunnes Stores, Tesco, Aldi and Lidl "and invariably do not receive the service I feel I should".

On a recent trip to visit a friend in Enniskillen he decided to do some shopping in a Tesco branch in the town. On three separate occasions while he was wandering the aisles he was struck by their level of excellent service.

"The basket I picked up needed to be replaced - a member of staff did this for me without me asking. Another staff member got a trolley for me when I realised a basket wasn't big enough for all my purchases; and finally, when I was approaching the checkout, an assistant organised a cashier to look after me. This is not the service I have ever received in any Tesco store in Limerick."

He points out that Enniskillen is only across the border, it's the same company in both locations and we are all human.

"Why, oh why can't that level of service be offered to us here down south?"

We have no idea.