Devious Eircom Misselling their broadband

indenial

I have just lodged a complaint with eircom on the misslelling of their broadband package. My mother got a phone call from Eircom to let her know broadband was available in the area and Eircom were offering here broadband for a one off charge of 45 euros per month. My mother thinking she was getting a great deal agreed for the wireless box to be sent out. Sure what harm is it she thought, when her kids come home about once a month they will have the internet for their laptops. When she told me this I immediately smelled a rat and knew this couldn't be right. She showed me her records of the call in her notebook where she wrote down what she was being sold and sure enough it did say a one off fee and no mention of monthly charges.

I phoned Eircom on her behalf this morning to find out what she had signed up for. They informed me she now has a 6 month contract signed for 45 euros per month! I have lodged a complaint and am awaiting a call back from the operations manager. They had better cancel the contract and reimburse the money or I will get even more mad. Anybody else experience this?

faoile@n

Has it crossed your mind that your mother may have taken it down wrong. Her writing it down is hardly proof. The once off charge was probably the modem or connection charge. You should probably edit out the reps name as that sort of thing is frowned upon here.

I would assume all calls are recorded so if she was mislead it should be quickly dealt with. I think there might be a 2 week cool off period as well.

indenial

faoile@n - I removed name, thanks for warning. Interesting what you said about the two week cool off and recorded conversation. I will enquire to see if the conversation was recorded.

I realise there might have been some sort of miscommunication but she was adamant that she specifically asked if there was any more charges after the once off initial fee and she was told there wasn't.

Sponge Bob

That is misselling

A further ground of complaint and one that will swing it with Comreg or the NCA ( another pack of tossers) is that eircom always breach the "distance selling regulations" by calling immediately after a two month bill is issued, you can easily check those dates .

This ensures that the next billl arrives 8 weeks later when the cooling off on distance selling is two weeks. She should have been called at most 2 days before the bill was due to issue so that she could query it within her cooling off period

That and the fact that she took contemporaneous notes should be enough !

indenial

Got a call from Eircom this morning. To my surprise they put up no fight whatsoever and agreed to take the wireless box back and reimburse the money in full.

I was armed with your info sponge bob but didn't have to use it. Glad its over with now and my mother is relieved.

Thanks for the help guys

xbox36016

geting 7mb broadband off earcom in a buble for 50 euro

MunsterCycling

Behave yourself xbox or we'll take your controllers away....

MC

Irlbo

indenial wrote: »

I have just lodged a complaint with eircom on the misslelling of their broadband package. My mother got a phone call from Eircom to let her know broadband was available in the area and Eircom were offering here broadband for a one off charge of 45 euros per month. My mother thinking she was getting a great deal agreed for the wireless box to be sent out. Sure what harm is it she thought, when her kids come home about once a month they will have the internet for their laptops. When she told me this I immediately smelled a rat and knew this couldn't be right. She showed me her records of the call in her notebook where she wrote down what she was being sold and sure enough it did say a one off fee and no mention of monthly charges.

I phoned Eircom on her behalf this morning to find out what she had signed up for. They informed me she now has a 6 month contract signed for 45 euros per month! I have lodged a complaint and am awaiting a call back from the operations manager. They had better cancel the contract and reimburse the money or I will get even more mad. Anybody else experience this?

Not to offend you,but staff that ring outbound,particualry sales,are very well trained and are very cautious due to calls being recorded,and with comreg and so on,usually the agent explains all aspects of the service or product they are selling in detail and any other details that they legally nedd to explain,they also repeat what was said and confirm with customer is everything clear and so they agree,its rare that someone would lie or give mis-information,and if they did apoligies,it will be amended,but sometimes,I dont know how old your mother is,but older people or people not 100% with technical things,they hear prices wrong and the terms mixed,ie 12 month contract,or thinking its 45.11 for 6 months instead of per month,etc,Id reckon it was just a mix upIf you Pm me,your mothers phone number including area cide,I'll check the account,and listen to call,as all calls made are recorded

SteJay

Im having a similar experience with Eircom at the moment

We had broadband in a bundle with our calls for 55euro for the last year or so (although every bill was over a hundred each month), anyways recently my mother lost her job so she decided to get rid of the whole lot, phone line, calls and broadband in favour of trying the wireless ones from the mobile providers such as o2 and 3. She phones about it twice and was told the first time by a guy working there ,when exactly to phone back and have it cancelled in order to avoid a new bill being issued.So she rang back to have it cancelled on the day he advised her to. But surprise surprise a new bill for the whole month of February comes in the door this week

The lack of a signal was a problem with this new broadband so today she decided to ring eircom to see would it be possible to switch the phone line etc back on.

First of all she got a very ignorant and obnoxious rep on the phone, then he proceeds to tell her that not only are we being charged for a month in which we had no service, but also another bill of fifty euro is coming out in the post for disconnection (expected that), but also that there is a charge of 150euro to have the service re-installed as it requires a technician (which wasnt needed to switch it off -it was done on a computer instantly). Also if we want to switch providers we still have to give eircom 150 to have the line put back on

When she explains that we have had no service since the end of January and that she shouldnt have to pay the bill, he says that that bill was an estimate that they think we owe them due to her being late with payment on 2 installments within the 12 month contract. This is rubbish because we never were late on any payment and if we were im sure we would of been notified/switched off

Only in Ireland would this sort of treatment be seen or tolerated. I have done contract law in college and it is ludacris to have to pay a cancellation fee for a contract that is finished (i.e over the 12 months), and we were never sent a new contract or told that it automatically renews after one year. It is against the law to enter someone into a contract without there approval

I hope someone can shed some light on this for me or tell me where we can bring a complaint because we are getting no good of eircom

Thanks in advance for any replies

jor el

SteJay wrote: »

First of all she got a very ignorant and obnoxious rep on the phone, then he proceeds to tell her that not only are we being charged for a month in which we had no service, but also another bill of fifty euro is coming out in the post for disconnection (expected that), but also that there is a charge of 150euro to have the service re-installed as it requires a technician (which wasnt needed to switch it off -it was done on a computer instantly). Also if we want to switch providers we still have to give eircom 150 to have the line put back on

eircom have no cancellation fee, as long as you're outside your contract. There's also no 150 euro charge for activation of a line, more BS. Re-activation is about 25euro, installing a new line from scratch is about 130 euro.

eircom also don't estimate bills, they know exactly what you owe for calls at any time, and you pay rental and broadband charges in advance. I hope you got that rep's name, and you should report them to a supervisor. Ring back, and speak to some one else.

As for the old bills, you would have had to give 1 month notice on canceling, even outside the contract, so if you canceled at the end of January, you'd have to pay for February.

SteJay

She didnt get his name unfortunately. She asked for a superviser and it was genuinely at least 20mins later by the time someone came on the phone and this guy then just said there was nothing he could do goodbye

Has me thinking she must have phoned the wrong company haha!
I lodged a complaint on their website but could onlyy use 400 characters so couldnt tell the full story, next step if I get no good of eircom is to lodge a complaint with comreg

I might wait a few days until the bills he was on about comes out then try ringing someone else about it

Thanks for the reply jor el

Grommet

SteJay wrote: »

She didnt get his name unfortunately. She asked for a superviser and it was genuinely at least 20mins later by the time someone came on the phone and this guy then just said there was nothing he could do goodbye

Has me thinking she must have phoned the wrong company haha!
I lodged a complaint on their website but could onlyy use 400 characters so couldnt tell the full story, next step if I get no good of eircom is to lodge a complaint with comreg

I might wait a few days until the bills he was on about comes out then try ringing someone else about it

Thanks for the reply jor el

Stejay - Jor El is spot on. The information you were told was obviously incorrect. If you PM me the relevant phone number I'll see if I can get one of my contacts in eircom to look into this for you.

Marlow

jor el wrote: »

eircom have no cancellation fee, as long as you're outside your contract. There's also no 150 euro charge for activation of a line, more BS. Re-activation is about 25euro, installing a new line from scratch is about 130 euro.

Yep, exact pricing is here:

Go to http://www.eircom.ie ->
click on "Products and Service" ->
click on "Phonelines" in the "Voice" box ->
click on "Find out more"

"How much does it cost"

* If your home previously had an eircom home phoneline and all line work is in place and you want to reconnect, the connection will be €25.09*
* If your home has never had an eircom phoneline but all line work is in place, the connection will be €49.99**
* If your home has never had an eircom phoneline, or all line work is not in place, the connection will be €121.93***

They can not charge you more than 25.09 EUR unless they specify exactly, why they need a technician out. If your line has some kind of dial-tone, busy tone etc, nothing has been changed on the circuit and no technician is needed.

/M

watty

Even then they have discretion to not charge you at all.

Dools2007

indenial wrote: »

Eircom were offering here broadband for a one off charge of 45 euros per month.

Anyone else see where the confusion could have started

A one off charge of €45 per month!!! How can you have a one off charge if you are being charged every month?

Bit of a contradiction there OP and if your mother had the same confusion, then that could have been where this began. Can happen that we hear one thing but interpret it as another.

Good to hear that Eircom were understanding of the situation though and didn't put up a fight regarding the refund.

Marlow

Dools2007 wrote: »

Anyone else see where the confusion could have started

A one off charge of €45 per month!!! How can you have a one off charge if you are being charged every month?

I'm afraid, there are people that think it's possible to get something on a one-off fee, even though it needs maintainance and backhaul for all of it's life-time. It's not the first time I've heard that.

If often is down to, that people don't think about what's involved.

/M

Prisoner6409

Irlbo wrote: »

Not to offend you,but staff that ring outbound,particualry sales,are very well trained and are very cautious due to calls being recorded,and with comreg and so on,usually the agent explains all aspects of the service or product they are selling in detail and any other details that they legally nedd to explain,they also repeat what was said and confirm with customer is everything clear and so they agree,its rare that someone would lie or give mis-information,and if they did apoligies,it will be amended,but sometimes,I dont know how old your mother is,but older people or people not 100% with technical things,they hear prices wrong and the terms mixed,ie 12 month contract,or thinking its 45.11 for 6 months instead of per month,etc,Id reckon it was just a mix upIf you Pm me,your mothers phone number including area cide,I'll check the account,and listen to call,as all calls made are recorded

Yer having a laugh, surely. The lies these ppl told me when I was initially talking them about getting BB. Just one regarding the reason why they could not give me a reason as to why I could not have it at the time, "It's againt Comreg regulations for us to tell you why your line do not qualify". Of course on contacting Comreg they confirmed there was no such thing. Over the months I had similar whoppers.

Capri

Not to offend you,but staff that ring outbound,particualry sales,are very well trained and are very cautious due to calls being recorded,and with comreg and so on,usually the agent explains all aspects of the service or product they are selling in detail and any other details that they legally nedd to explain,they also repeat what was said and confirm with customer is everything clear and so they agree,its rare that someone would lie or give mis-information,and if they did apoligies,it will be amended,but sometimes,I dont know how old your mother is,but older people or people not 100% with technical things,they hear prices wrong and the terms mixed,ie 12 month contract,or thinking its 45.11 for 6 months instead of per month,etc,Id reckon it was just a mix upIf you Pm me,your mothers phone number including area cide,I'll check the account,and listen to call,as all calls made are recorded

Eircom rang my mother about Broadband but she basically hung up on them ( as I taught her to do with ALL unsolicited calls ), anyway, I thought I'd get some info off them as I saw on the site about having Phonewatch and Broadband requires some special connection - anyway, rang the number 3 times but just got the 'Mr Eircom' voice so I'll have to hunt around the others now.
ANYBODY got an idea about these modems that attach to laptop notebooks - would it be better / cheaper to use these ?

watty

This is how great they are
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055115306

Propellerhead

Who do you speak to get a transcription of the telephone conversation. I believe my elderly father was missold, as he honestly believed that the BB was "free" after the connection fee.

The phone bill has jumped massively now with the new package as he was only paying reduced rental plus a handful of calls previously. The only reason why he got the BB in was that he thought he was doing me and my brother a favour when we go up to Donegal.

Instead I'm ripe enough to rip some smug git's head off over this who robbed a few lousy bob off an old man. :mad:

foggy_lad

eircom keep ringing my sister asking her how she is getting on with her perlico phone and broadband service and trying to offer inducements she does not want or need to return to eircom and all this even after she wrote to them to have her number removed from their marketing database. she had already asked perlico to block all marketing calls but somehow eircon get around this. i answered one call last week and there was several calls unanswered as she is away, these people just ignore the law and ring again and again.

they do not care about your mother or father or grandparents age as long as they make a sale and increase their commission!