Threatening 'legal' letters on behalf of Eircom

spurious

I moved from UTV to Smart, through the hell-hole that is Eircom.
Eircom took eight weeks to transfer me over.

I received my 'final' bill from them covering a period of 13 days in February as I tried to move from UTV.

They tried to charge me line rental for February, which I had already paid to them through UTV. I refused to pay line rental and sent them a cheque for the value of the calls plus VAT. I received no response.

Now they are sending me letters from an EG Hall solicitors that look like legal summons documents (though I know they are not), threatening things like 'details of the debt to be published, you will not get a mortgage, car loan' etc. unless I pay the bill in full.

Can they do this? I do NOT owe them any money and I see this as nothing more than harassment.

Slice

They can refer you to a debt collectors if you owe them money and you haven't paid up.

They don't send you bills for the good of your health. If Eircom have incorrectly billed you then you need to raised it with them before anything can be done about it.

Have you checked that the line rental paid through UTV covers the same period as Eircom? Also - if it does - then it may possible be an error on UTV's part. Have you checked that it isn't?

Have you tried calling either Eircom or UTV's customer care about this? Otherwise perhap you should write to them as a written dispute of your bill would probably get more notice.

spurious

Yes I have rung Eircom who tell me frequently I am 'not a customer ' of theirs.
I have emailed and written to Phil Nolan about it with no reply.

I will not pay for something I have already paid for. If they DARE to blacken my name suggesting I do not pay debts I will take an action against them.

I just thought actually - is line rental not paid a month in advance? Then they owe me money.

FillSpectre

spurious wrote:

Yes I have rung Eircom who tell me frequently I am 'not a customer ' of theirs.
I have emailed and written to Phil Nolan about it with no reply.

I will not pay for something I have already paid for. If they DARE to blacken my name suggesting I do not pay debts I will take an action against them.

I just thought actually - is line rental not paid a month in advance? Then they owe me money.

Well you won't be able to sue them and win becasue you haven't paid an outstanding bill. It doesn't matter whether you think the bill is not correct. You need to report it to the correct people and put it into dispute. Refusing to pay it and ignoring the bill is the incorrect action and as such Eircom are within their rigts to try and get the money. You have not addressed a debt.

I am trying to move to Smart from the same situation so I guess it could happen to me too.

Slice

yea, ignoring it is a bad idea. so is emailing their CEO at this early stage when you haven't exhausted their complaints process.

Have you taken the issue up with UTV? If you've already been billed for line rental a month in advance by Eircom then you might want to query with UTV why they're billing you again on Eircom's behalf. It may be UTV who need to waive the amount and not Eircom...

jhegarty

tell them if they don't bugger off you will report them to http://www.comreg.ie/

also they can't put a black mark on your credit without getting a court judgement against you...

spurious

I rang them again this morning, to query why having hastily cashed my cheque they didn't bother to receipt me and instead sent another 'draft summons'. I got the usual run around from them, at one stage they also suggested UTV were the problem, not them. (I'm used to this - they blamed Smart for the 2 month delay in transferring me until it was proved conclusively to be an Eircom issue).

I'm sorry, UTV pass on Eircom's line rental to them, because Eircom claim to have difficulties getting the money from UTV it is not my problem. I paid the line rental for February.

I then asked to make a formal complaint, and they put me on to what they call 'credit management' which is their bully-boy debt collector solicitors who like to threaten people. I made it clear to them I had no intention paying line rental a second time and presumably they figured it's not worth our while battling with this one, she's not going to roll over and die, so they said they'd drop it.

I have already complained to ComReg about Eircom's dodgy business practices - it makes no difference, but I'll put in another complaint on this issue.

layke

It's not Smart or UTV. Eircom purposely make it as difficult as possible (nae a nightmare) for customers to leave them. It's like a group of Scientologists.

jhegarty

spurious wrote:

I rang them again this morning, to query why having hastily cashed my cheque they didn't bother to receipt me and instead sent another 'draft summons'. I got the usual run around from them, at one stage they also suggested UTV were the problem, not them. (I'm used to this - they blamed Smart for the 2 month delay in transferring me until it was proved conclusively to be an Eircom issue).

I'm sorry, UTV pass on Eircom's line rental to them, because Eircom claim to have difficulties getting the money from UTV it is not my problem. I paid the line rental for February.

I then asked to make a formal complaint, and they put me on to what they call 'credit management' which is their bully-boy debt collector solicitors who like to threaten people. I made it clear to them I had no intention paying line rental a second time and presumably they figured it's not worth our while battling with this one, she's not going to roll over and die, so they said they'd drop it.

I have already complained to ComReg about Eircom's dodgy business practices - it makes no difference, but I'll put in another complaint on this issue.

good for you...

its good to hear someone standing up to them... not rolling over and getting out your cheque book like some people would....

dub45

layke wrote:

It's not Smart or UTV. Eircom purposely make it as difficult as possible (nae a nightmare) for customers to leave them. It's like a group of Scientologists.

Unfortunately UTV are not entirely innocent either - they proceeded to charge me line rental after I had left them for Smart - and despite me pointing out to them that the bill was incorrect - in advance as per their own terms and conditions - and instructing them specifically not to do so and formally withdrawing authority for them to debit my laser card they went ahead and debited me.

I had terrible trouble getting the money back off them - they displayed such contempt during the period that I would never ever recommend them to anyone again.

ambro25

You might want to have a quick glance at my old DHL thread for sample of letters and how to deal with debt collectors if you are indeed whithin your rights and suffering an abuse of process (or rather, 'non-process' - by the drones at each and every end )

Thread here

Sponge Bob

email phil.nolan@eircom.ie , the chairman.

deal with his office until its sorted.

you may have been technically 'back' with eircom for a short while but let phils office explain how and what is owed as a consequence and why. you may have had rental credit from UTV at that time and may owe nothing.

Then go to Comreg...but not now.

dahamsta

He's already emailed Nolan Bob. What's the company secretary's name and contact details again? Just so he's covered legally.

adam

Mountjoy Mugger

Is G. Mason still comapny Sec? I know he replaced J Ryan back towards the end of 2003, but not sure if he's still there.

Sponge Bob

J. Mason ( jmason@eircom.ie I would surmise or masonj )

turbot

My experience with non-standard complaints resolution with Eircom is, they are a complete, and unfathomable nightmare to deal with.

I literally spent 15 hours, on the phone on different days, talking about a problem I had relating to their lack of service, and a billing issue afterwards.

My suggestion is that you keep a detailed diary of all your interactions with them, so you have something to back you up if you contact ComReg and also if you bring them to court, for wrongfully attempting to collect bills from you.

11.3 SECONDS

As an Eircom customer I had a tangle with them over 2 years ago over a telephone bill that was paid on time and in full but not credited due to their delays.

It took several letters and an entire calendar year to get the account straight.

Their accounting administration is terminally hopeless.

Dont waste any more time or effort on Eircom. Trying to get through to them is like ringing a telephone on the end of a pier on a deserted island.

Get on to comreg and sort them out that way. I would include a formal complaint about Eircom's methods of trying to enforce their view of the situation !

MOH

They sent me a letter threatening me with legal action a few months after I'd moved to SMART. Over something like a fiver which I was sure I'd settled on my final bill. They'd never sent me any kind of reminder, and their threatening letter gave no indication of what the money was due for.

They were giving me 10 days from the date of the letter to pay - I only got it the evening of the 7th day.

For the sake of the fiver I paid it, but sent their 'customer care' team an e-mail complaining about how short a time they were giving me to deal with the issu, and demanding to know exactly what the money was due for.

Two weeks later I got an automated response telling me my complaint had been logged. Four days letter I got a mail telling me that the first automated mail had been sent to me in error. Never heard from them again.

Might chase up on it now that this has reminded me of it.

Wanderer222

A lot of big companies are like that. Vodafone gave me hell over a phone I hadn't used in about eight months, sent me a letter from a debt collection agency. Noted *crumples* and filed *tosses into trashcan*.

The Doktor

I got letters a few years ago from a debt collection agency telling me I owed Eircom £500 for an ISDN line. Considering I didnt even have a standard phoneline, never mind an ISDN, I was a bit suprised.
I got annoyed, and rang Eircom, the debt collection shower, and only got more annoyed.
They said, they could organise easy payment... that guys would come round to my house... and they would put me down on the credit bureau as being a bad payer....and I got more annoyed..
So annoyed that I reckoned the best thing to do was ignore it as I could feel a vein in my head about to pop...
I never heard from them again... and I never ended up as having bad credit... If it happened again, I would send a copy of the letters and a short letter as to what has happened to comreg, and forget about.

In fact, I always hoped that they would sent some guys around..would have been fun