Sir, - Last Thursday afternoon I noticed men working on telephone cables outside my front garden. Around 6 p.m. I tried to make a telephone call only to discover the line was dead. I contacted Eircom faults department advising that these workers (later found to have been contractors) had disconnected my line.
On Friday mid-morning an engineer called and confirmed that he was sent to investigate, but disappeared soon afterwards without further contact. I again called Eircom and was told that the fault had been handed to a "rapid response unit", but that they would not call before Monday.
Mid-morning on Monday, and still nothing happening so I contacted the customer services manager detailing the problem and was eventually advised that a representative would definitely call between 8.30 and 9.30 a.m. this morning (Tuesday) and that the delay resulted from the call being given to the wrong section.
Of course, nobody came and I again called customer services and made it very clear that this level of service was totally unacceptable. It was suggested that it might well be Wednesday before anyone called. I was therefore very relieved to find an engineer on the doorstep at midday today, and he established that my line had been disconnected at the cable outside my front door. The line was quickly reconnected.
When I advised customer services of this fact it was stated that Eircom does not accept liability when problems result from contractors' activity. Please, can we have real competition in the telecoms business. - Yours, etc.,
G. E. READ, Enniskerry, Co Wicklow