E$AT doorstepper: "€ircon line rental charge illegal"!

tomk

So this guy turns up at the door before I get home, and hassles my wife into showing him our €ircon bill, says he's going to sign us up for 2 months free (as in no line rental) trial. Starts asking for bank details, ffs! Wife sends him away, says I'll be home shortly. Sure enough, he comes back, says he's from BT, gives me the same line, and all about how they'll be doing line rentals next year etc. I tell him we're signed for UTV CPS and we're happy. He gets the feeling I know what I'm talking about and backs off, but before he goes, he says:

"You know you should only be paying €6 every two months for line rental? €ircon are only meant to charge you the cost of maintaining the line, so their current charge is illegal".

Is this simply BS intended to impress me, or is there a grain of truth anywhere in there?

sceptre

That'd be BS intended to impress you. I'm not a fan of Eircom having the highest line rental charges in Europe but their charge is unfortunately quite legal and agreed with the regulator.

It seems that agents for both the two main telcos are incompetent and amateur liars. I'd suggest a few rounds of that fine game "Balderdash" for all agents - at least they'll be able to do it better.

spongebob

BS indeed.

€ircon charge €22.50 which is the the highest in Europe.

The EU average is around €13 a month.

€6 every 2 months is impossible, €3 a month ? Even with LLU (currently the subject of a long drawn out legal case between €ircon and Comreg) the rental with VAT and ESATs cut would pan out at around €17 a month which would be a big improvement.

I suspect that the salesman simply made this sh1te up but I would be very concerned if ESAT were telling the salesmen to peddle this crap on the doorstep.

M

corkie

Some of the "People on Doorstep" are employed by a Marketing Company on behalf of the telcos.

I known because I went out on a one day introduction with one company earlier in the year.

Glad to say that I reject the opportunity to try this kind of work.

You really want to known how to bend the truth at the Door step to try and win people over.

sceptre

Aye, you're almost certainly right there corkie. Replace my use of the word "agent" (which carries certain legal obligations given that an agent acts for the company)* with "rep"**



*or dangers if you go to the movies a lot wearing dark sunglasses and floor-length leather jackets
**or "chancer" if you like. Lots of FUD with chancers

corkie

Based on my memory of the event from Feb/March.

Saw a Ad in the papper for Marketing company looking for staff.

The Marketing Company was contract by one Telco to promote their products and services.

If I was was to take up what they where offering me at the time. I would have had to become self employed working on behalf of the Marketing Company.

The person I went out with on the One Day introduction, carried transfer pappers for the Telco and where branded as such.

Hope that clarifies the matter.

MadsL

Ask 'em what happened to WLR and why they haven't yet reached agreement with eircom. If they blame eircom, then ask if they have lodged a formal complaint with Comreg.