The Eir contract that led to a lot of messing and a ‘rude’ house call

Maura has been an Eir – and before that Eircom – customer since 1992 and has had her landline, broadband and recently Eir Sport with the company without problems.

Until now.

On a Sunday towards the end of August she decided to move her Meteor (nor part of Eir) pay-as-you-go mobile phone to a contract. "The Carphone Warehouse shop in Naas went through various options and finally recommended a contract with Eir. This contract was good value as it included a new Samsung phone and a bundle where my landline, broadband, Eir Sport and my new mobile were all rolled together. I signed the contract."

So far so good.

Michael O’Leary under fire for failing to attend hearing

---

Ryanair under fire for putting price limits on rerouted flights

---

‘This company mocks us’: MEPs give Ryanair a kicking

---

VHI to cut cost of one third of its plans from next month

---

Then that evening she realised she had no service on her new mobile. When she rang the Carphone Warehouse she was told to turn it on and off again. That did not work, so she called back on the Monday “They contacted Eir on my behalf and were told it would take up to five days to sort the service problem. I decided to cancel the contract.”

She was told in the shop she would need to contact Eir to do this. She did, and over the course of an hour was passed from section to section, each person saying they could not cancel the contract.

Then she was told she needed to go back to the shop to cancel it. She did and said she would not leave until the contract was cancelled. “The staff sent a handwritten letter to Eir, which I signed and dated, and they assured me that the new contract would be cancelled from the date on this letter.”

The next day she went back to using her old Sony Experia phone on a pay-as-you-go deal with Meteor." I knew I had approximately €2 left before I needed to top up. I made quite a few calls a texts and was pleasantly surprised to find I still hadn't run out of credit. On glancing at my phone that evening, I noticed that the word 'Eir' was visible in the corner. I could only deduce that somehow the contract with Eir had not been cancelled as requested and was now operating on my old phone."

Landline issues

The next day she phoned Eir and went into an Eir shop but got no answers. “A person at Eir suggested that if I switched service provider for my pay-as-you-go credit from Meteor to a different service provider, this would ensure that the Eir contract could not continue on my old phone. I was concerned that the contract which I had cancelled was still operational and I would be billed.”

On the Thursday she switched her mobile service provider to Vodafone as she had been advised to do by Eir.

“That evening my landline stopped working. I logged a call to report a fault. Received an email in acknowledgement. On Friday I rang Eir to find out when phone landline might be repaired. I finally ended up speaking to a very helpful, sympathetic person named Jade, who listened to the saga. She found out that there was no fault on the line but that the landline had been disconnected. She couldn’t find any information as to why or on whose instruction this had happened. She said she would put a note on my account to credit the account in the amount of €50 for all of the hassle and inconvenience I had to deal with. She said someone would be in touch and call to the house on Monday. She mentioned various technical terms such as ‘broadband voiceover’ and ‘integration’. I told her I didn’t understand what any of this meant. I just wanted my landline back in working order.”

A rude man

The following Monday she got a call from Eir to say someone would call to her house the next day between 9.30am and 1.30pm, so she waited in

At 2pm on the Tuesday a man arrived. “He was rude and didn’t seem to know why exactly he was here. He ‘tried’ to sort the landline issue, I think. He was not successful. He could not supply me with a number or name of anybody who might be able to help.”

A day later she was unable to get through to any complaints department by phone. “There is a notice on line saying 1901 is not operational on and off over the past week. I tried typing a message to someone. He could not help either.”

Then she contacted us and we contacted Eir: “We very much appreciate that Maura has been a loyal Eir customer for a significant number of years. We are genuinely sorry that she has had such a stressful and unnecessarily difficult experience on this occasion. Our customer care team has been in contact to apologise and to assure her that we will resolve all outstanding issues as a priority. We have cleared all additional charges on her account and a member of our care team will remain in direct contact in the coming days.”