Help! Eircom stole my line

MadsL

I was driving by Dept of Comms today and spotted a guy picketing the building. Big sign "Eircom stole my line, Comms agree to it" I stopped and got talking with him. His story in a nutshell is that he moved his calls over to Esat and for a while was billed by them, he paid his eircom line rental too. Now then unbeknowns to him eircom take over his calls again and he gets billed by eircom AND esat, he calls them both to sort it out and is told that eircom are going to be his provider. He is livid as he has a contract with Esat, he contacts everyone he can about the double-billing, but eircom are adamant that he owes the money. He pays just the line rental portion of his bill, lo and behold eircom cut him off for non-payment. So now NO line at all. Comreg reckons eircom acted legally, and he is up sh1t creek...

Any thoughts. i took his mobile no. to see if I could garner and pass on any pearls of wisdom from you barrack-room lawyers??

anykaxopom

Strange very strange. Myself not a lawyer, here is some free advice. Don't blame me if it does not work for you or your friends.

If your man can afford it, he should get in touch with a lawyer. If your man does not pay his bills in full, he can get on a non-payers list and can have credit troubles in the future. If the bill is high enough, both Eircom and Esat can actually take him to court for non-payment where theoretically he can win, but can lose too depending on circumstances.

Idealy:

1) He should talk to a lawyer at least to find out how much the lawyer is going to cost him. Then do as the lawyer says.

2) If the lawyer is too dear compared to the money in dispute, contact Comreg by some means other than picketing. Do as Comreg suggests.

3) If your man chooses to act on his own, he should put his complaints / queries in clear writing describing the situation and send 2 letters by registered post (receipt required) to both Eircom and Esat. Address the letters to the same addresses as where your bills would be sent. Cc Comreg. Then wait and see.

If your man cares about his credit history and especially if he needs his phone line back, he would be better off contacting a lawyer now.

Good luck mate

MadsL

Do as Comreg suggests

There's the problem. Comreg seem to be agreeing with eircom that they have done nothing wrong. Yet the guy has a CPS agreement...

anykaxopom

Seems like there is more to it than we already know. There should be a reason for Eircom to take over. Is Eircom trying to explain their position at all?

Can't the guy request calls printouts from both companies, and send copies of the Eircom bill to Esat, and Esat bill to Eircom?

eircomtribunal

Originally posted by MadsL
He pays just the line rental portion of his bill, lo and behold eircom cut him off for non-payment. So now NO line at all. Comreg reckons eircom acted legally, and he is up sh1t creek...

That is just not right and should not be accepted. I've pointed out this inconsistency – Eircom can cut off a customer from the line for non payment of calls, while other Telcos cannot do this – to ComReg a while ago and they just told me that this is the way the system works.

Someone paying the line rental cannot be cut off. It is very simple to understand. It is the principal advice given to customers in Europe and the UK: If in dispute with bills etc. always keep paying the line rental, so that you cannot be inconvenienced by the necessity of reconnection charges and waiting time.

There is agreement in place amongst all Telcos, that non-paying customers are not taken on by another Telco. And this makes sense, as otherwise "cute" customers could walk from one Telco to the next leaving a trail of unpaid bills.

But it is incomprehensible and indefensible that ComReg should give one company the anticompetitive advantage to cut the line of a customer not paying its call charges, but paying the line rental.

So not only from a consumer perspective is this practice unacceptable.
The 30 or so other telco's should give ComReg a call, too.

MadsL, can you pm me the mobile number of that guy?

eircomtribunal

Years ago the ESB was disallowed to cut off customers who were not paying there bills for goods they had bought via the ESB shop, because of the anticompetitive nature of this practice with regards to other electrical dealers, who had no such powers.

Comreg are of course too busy these days, issuing documents on foot of spurious claims by eircom accusing other telcos of being in breech of the cps code, because of an honest error in the region of 1/10 of a cent.

See comreg's 7 (!) page doc http://www.comreg.ie/_fileupload/publications/ComReg0467.pdf
...3 Finding
On foot of this complaint, ComReg conducted an investigation and following its investigation, ComReg found that; • In the ‘landline’ section of Ryanair Telecom’s website, eircom’s minimum fee is quoted as 6.53c which is incorrect, eircom’s minimum fee is 6.35c, including VAT. ComReg finds that this misquoting of another operator’s rates is in breach of the CPS Code of Practice because it is misleading....

P.

parsi

So.. eircom can ring you for ever and a day asking you to come back and Comreg don't care, eircom can turn up and park outside your door until you come home and ask you to come back and its not against Comregs rules.. eircom can make you ring a variety of numbers to get off their winback lists but Comreg don't care..but Ryanair Telecom can misrepresent their competitors price by 0.2c and they're in trouble.. ffs it becomes more and more obvious that Comreg is there to regulate the competition and not the incumbent...