M50 users promised a better service as complaints take toll

THE COMPANY handling customer queries from M50 toll users has lost its contract due to the high volume of complaints about its service.

BetEireFlow, the firm that operates the M50 tolling system on behalf of the National Roads Authority (NRA), confirmed last night it had terminated its contract with its customer service operator, Teleperformance. It had also handled queries for the eFlow electronic toll tag service.

The contract has been awarded to Cork-based business services provider Abtran, which is to hire an additional 100 staff for its head office in Bishopstown to handle the approximately 6,000 telephone calls a day associated with the service.

More than 100,000 vehicles use the M50 each day.

Simon McBeth, BetEireFlow’s communications director, said customers had experienced “unacceptable problems”.

BetEireFlow and the NRA had become increasingly frustrated about the high level of complaints since the introduction of barrier-free tolling last August.

Among the most common complaints were calls to the service provider being “dropped” or the customer cut off, problems resolving account issues and motorists being promised a call-back which did not materialise. The National Consumer Agency had also received complaints.

This led BetEireFlow to review the service and it ran a trial which gave a proportion of customer calls to Abtran and compared its performance with that of Teleperformance.

Mr McBeth said that after an initial two-week “bedding-in process”, customers would benefit from the change. He said M50 users “can be guaranteed that all calls will be answered and that queries will be dealt with in full”.

The Abtran call centre will take general M50 queries and also provide customer support for the eFlow tag.

Mr McBeth said the contact number (1890 50 10 50) would remain the same and queries would be dealt with between 7am and 11pm seven days a week. The changeover happened yesterday evening.

A spokesman for the NRA welcomed the announcement and said the number of complaints to it from M50 toll users had fallen during the trial. In April the NRA had expressed concern about the level of customer service “errors”.

One apparent consequence of these errors was that the legal firm appointed by the NRA to pursue motorists who failed to pay the toll sent letters to motorists who claimed their account arrears had already been paid.

A spokesperson for Teleperformance declined to comment last night. It employs 2,400 people in Bangor and Newry, Co Down, and provides customer services for firms including Setanta and Sainsbury.

It is understood customer service issues were the only reason for the change in service provider.

BetEireFlow refused to comment last night on the value or the duration of the customer service contract with Abtran.