Warning of ‘Eir trap’ after older couple left hanging on internet connection

“I am writing on behalf of my elderly father, Patrick, who has recently had an appalling customer service experience with telecommunications provider Eir,” starts a mail from a reader called Declan.

“Patrick is the primary carer for my mother, who suffers from MS and dementia, and he relies heavily on connecting with the outside world through the internet and the home phone landline,’ the mail continues.

Following what Declan describes as an “excellent marketing and advertising campaign” from Eir, Patrick was encouraged to transfer his account from Virgin.

“He was promised that an Eir technician would visit his home in Dublin to set up the service on April 3rd prior to disconnection from Virgin scheduled for April 6th. Eir “digitally transferred” the landline prior to the proposed visit by their technician.

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The technician did not show up as promised on the day in question and “following several emails and phone calls, my father was suspicious he had been scammed. To date there has been no follow-up from Eir and Patrick has had no choice but to re-engage Virgin in an attempt to get the internet back up and running.”

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Declan tell us that his parents’ house “is currently without internet and a landline. The absence of a landline brings significant anxiety and worry to my mother as this is her only means of communicating with friends and family.”

He said his father asked that the story be brought to our attention “in the hope that others may not fall for the ‘Eir trap’”.

We figured we could do more than bring it to people’s attention and we contacted Eir to find out what had happened.

“Following an investigation we see that the issue occurred due to an agent providing contradictory information, in error,” a spokeswoman said. “This resulted in the cessation of the customer’s previous service before a new Eir service was activated. We have been in touch with the customer to explain and apologise for this experience. We are working with our sales agents to ensure this issue does not happen again.”