Warning about Eircom switchover process

jmtc8

Hello
I am not sure if I have this in the correct forum so mods feel free to move.

We have been phone and broadband customers of Vodafone for the past 3 years but received a sales call from Eircom one evening in December 2010. The package they were offering seemed excellent and we agreed to move to their all in phone and broadband package. Went through to the usual permission over the phone department and completed the sign-up procedure. However, after talking to some existing Eircom customers we decided not to go ahead with the move and cancelled within the cooling off time. Took a note of date and time and person we spoke to. But then we received a bill in early January so got on to Eircom who told us our service was with them and they had no record of us having cancelled the changeover.

To cut a long story short, I spent the best part of 2 days on the phone intermittently, trying to sort the issue out. Total bunch of rude, ignorant incompetents who cut me off several times while speaking to them because they did not agree with what I was saying. Eventually got to speak to a manager who was brilliant and could see an error had been made by Eircom and my changeover cancellation had not gone ahead because of a mistake made by the rep who handled my cancellation request. Told me all was ok, changeover cancelled. Encouraged me to make a formal complaint within Eircom and even helped me do it. Had to phone Vodafone and go back on contract to get our service back with them. But after dealing with Eircom for 2 days, Vodafone looked like angels beside them. This all happened on the 6th January this year. Names and details taken down of everyone I spoke to in Eircom.

Sorry for the length of this but it is a long story. Continued paying our direct debits to Vodafone and no changes there. Then last week on Wednesday 30th April, I received a bill from Eircom stating we owed them €262.60 for our phone service. Knew our service was with Vodafone so tried to phone Eircom to see what was going on. They were insisting we were customers with them and I could not get it through to them that we were not and to look at our notes to see the whole episode and the name of their manager who looked after it. No luck, the person I spoke to even accused me of making this up.

Friday afternoon, realised the phone was no longer working even though our broadband was. Phoned Vodafone who informed me that Eircom had put a TOS on our line and told me why this usually happened. So back on to the dreaded Eircom again. This time I was put through to the most incompetent, arrogant person I have ever come across. Called himself Chris in customer services. He actually succeeded in causing me to cry because of the way he was insisting the name of the manager I had given him within Eircom did not insist and I was making it up and the only was I was getting this TOS off my line was to pay my bill. Trying desperately to explain to him that this manager within Eircom had dealt with us before and I didn't have a direct line number to him just knew he was called Joe ***** from the customer services department within Eircom.

Trying to reduce this story now. I eventually got the original manager, Joe ***** (by phoning a different department) in Eircom, who phoned me back on Saturday morning, and knew straightaway what I was talking about. Lifted the TOS immediately and told me to call him back when I received the final bill from Eircom and he would sort it out. The only decent competent person I have met in Eircom throughout this entire saga. He was very apologetic about what happened.

I now feel like I have lost an entire weekend, was late for a meeting because of Chris in Eircom and the way he seemed to delight in upsetting me and overall feel like I have never dealt with such an incompetent bunch of idiots in all of my life. After speaking to some people over the weekend and telling them what happened I now know this is common place with Eircom. Warning to anyone thinking about switching over to Eircom that this is what happened to us and to be wary of taking it for granted that Eircom actually know what they are doing!!!!!!

Thanks for reading. Sorry for the length!!!!

emo72

absolute horror story. glad you got it sorted. i would have expected eircom to be more reputable than that.

jmtc8

Emo72, thanks for reading the long saga. I just put in the most important points. But I too had thought that as Eircom are now trying very hard to win back customers they would be more competent than this. But after speaking to people over the weekend about this, it is a regular occurrence with Eircom that they give very poor and shoddy customer service. Personally, I never want to hear from Eircom again and the next poor salesperson that phones me about returning to Eircom is going to bear the brunt of my dis-satisfaction and shock over the treatment we received from Eircom since December 2010. Would love to know if there is any way I can just bar all calls that may come from the Eircom sales/winback department!!!!! Does anybody know if this is possible???

Fiona

dilallio

Hi Fiona,
That is a horrible thing to have happened.
You should log another complaint with Eircom - make sure you get a reference no and the name of the eircom rep who logs it. They may have a recording of your conversation with Chris.

The procedure is here:
http://www.eircom.ie/cgi-bin/bvsm/bveircom/bladerunner/showContent.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@1717454489.1301912997@@@@&BV_EngineID=cccjadfdekmjkjhcefeceiedffndffj.0&cid=OurCodeOfPracticeRes

jmtc8

dilallio

Thanks for that link. Am looking into this now!!!

Fiona

dudara

Moved to the Talk to eircom forum - so that they can be aware of this issue.

dudara

jmtc8

Have spoken to Eircom customer complaint's department who have told me they have no record of me speaking to Chris. Have records of me speaking to 3 other people. They are also maintaining their original story of not receiving any request from Vodafone to transfer calls back but do have a record of request from Vodafone requesting transfer of broadband on January 6th. As far as they are concerned I am still on the system as owing €262.60 even though the manager I spoke on Saturday lifted the TOS and updated records. Seems to be a serious lack of communication somewhere in Eircom. Anyway, I don't have the energy to argue with Eircom anymore so have lodged the official complaint, got the complaint number which they tell me is just my Eircom account number and the name of the Rep who took the details of the complaint.

I am also referring this to COMREG, as I would feel more reassured if it was being dealt with by somebody outside of Eircom. Thank you to anybody who has already replied to this thread and to any future replies. Any help or details of similar experiences on this would be appreciated.

Fiona

jmtc8

dudara wrote: »

Moved to the Talk to eircom forum - so that they can be aware of this issue.

dudara

Thank you. Was actually trying to figure out how to get this done!!!!

eircom: Mark

jmtc8 wrote: »

Hello
I am not sure if I have this in the correct forum so mods feel free to move.

We have been phone and broadband customers of Vodafone for the past 3 years but received a sales call from Eircom one evening in December 2010. The package they were offering seemed excellent and we agreed to move to their all in phone and broadband package. Went through to the usual permission over the phone department and completed the sign-up procedure. However, after talking to some existing Eircom customers we decided not to go ahead with the move and cancelled within the cooling off time. Took a note of date and time and person we spoke to. But then we received a bill in early January so got on to Eircom who told us our service was with them and they had no record of us having cancelled the changeover.

To cut a long story short, I spent the best part of 2 days on the phone intermittently, trying to sort the issue out. Total bunch of rude, ignorant incompetents who cut me off several times while speaking to them because they did not agree with what I was saying. Eventually got to speak to a manager who was brilliant and could see an error had been made by Eircom and my changeover cancellation had not gone ahead because of a mistake made by the rep who handled my cancellation request. Told me all was ok, changeover cancelled. Encouraged me to make a formal complaint within Eircom and even helped me do it. Had to phone Vodafone and go back on contract to get our service back with them. But after dealing with Eircom for 2 days, Vodafone looked like angels beside them. This all happened on the 6th January this year. Names and details taken down of everyone I spoke to in Eircom.

Sorry for the length of this but it is a long story. Continued paying our direct debits to Vodafone and no changes there. Then last week on Wednesday 30th April, I received a bill from Eircom stating we owed them €262.60 for our phone service. Knew our service was with Vodafone so tried to phone Eircom to see what was going on. They were insisting we were customers with them and I could not get it through to them that we were not and to look at our notes to see the whole episode and the name of their manager who looked after it. No luck, the person I spoke to even accused me of making this up.

Friday afternoon, realised the phone was no longer working even though our broadband was. Phoned Vodafone who informed me that Eircom had put a TOS on our line and told me why this usually happened. So back on to the dreaded Eircom again. This time I was put through to the most incompetent, arrogant person I have ever come across. Called himself Chris in customer services. He actually succeeded in causing me to cry because of the way he was insisting the name of the manager I had given him within Eircom did not insist and I was making it up and the only was I was getting this TOS off my line was to pay my bill. Trying desperately to explain to him that this manager within Eircom had dealt with us before and I didn't have a direct line number to him just knew he was called Joe ***** from the customer services department within Eircom.

Trying to reduce this story now. I eventually got the original manager, Joe ***** (by phoning a different department) in Eircom, who phoned me back on Saturday morning, and knew straightaway what I was talking about. Lifted the TOS immediately and told me to call him back when I received the final bill from Eircom and he would sort it out. The only decent competent person I have met in Eircom throughout this entire saga. He was very apologetic about what happened.

I now feel like I have lost an entire weekend, was late for a meeting because of Chris in Eircom and the way he seemed to delight in upsetting me and overall feel like I have never dealt with such an incompetent bunch of idiots in all of my life. After speaking to some people over the weekend and telling them what happened I now know this is common place with Eircom. Warning to anyone thinking about switching over to Eircom that this is what happened to us and to be wary of taking it for granted that Eircom actually know what they are doing!!!!!!

Thanks for reading. Sorry for the length!!!!

Hi jmtc8,

I am very sorry to hear about the experience you had with the eircom representative and with the whole transfer back to eircom.

I appreciate you have logged an official complaint. If you like you can Pm me with your telephone number and I can follow it up for you.

Thanks, Mark

eircom: Mark

eircom: Mark wrote: »

Hi jmtc8,

I am very sorry to hear about the experience you had with the eircom representative and with the whole transfer back to eircom.

I appreciate you have logged an official complaint. If you like you can Pm me with your telephone number and I can follow it up for you.

Thanks, Mark

Hi jmtc,

Thanks for sending on your details I have been looking into your history since transfering back to eircom and the complaints you have logged with us. Can you PM me with th best time to give you a call as I have your mobile number.

Thanks, Mark

jmtc8

Mark

Pm sent

Fiona

eircom: Mark

jmtc8 wrote: »

Mark

Pm sent

Fiona

Hi Fiona,

I got your PM I can give you a call after 5PM if that is ok.

Thanks, Mark

jmtc8

Hi Mark

Yes after 5 is ok. But phone will be off from about 5.30pm

Thanks

Fiona

jmtc8

Hi Mark
Pm sent as I haven't received your phone call.

Fiona

eircom: Mark

jmtc8 wrote: »

Hi Mark
Pm sent as I haven't received your phone call.

Fiona

Hi Fiona,

Apologies again, as I advised on the call you should be able to transfer your account now with no issue and let me know when you receive the final bill from eircom.

Thanks, Mark

jmtc8

An update on the issues we have been having with Eircom. Mark from Eircom did contact me yesterday evening and again today. Although Mark didn't have the most up to date information on the conversation I had with Joe **** the manager from Eircom, he contacted him to verify my story. So I have had confirmation from somebody else apart from Joe *** that my account is now active and Vodafone should be able to take my calls back. Mark was helpful but limited in what he could do as the lines of communication within Eircom seem to be very crossed and he cannot find any reason why Vodafone would not have been able to take back my calls on January 6th.

I have sent an email to the CEO and the Head of communication of Eircom this morning.

So thank you to Mark from Eircom who was professional at all times and has tried to get to the bottom of this mess. But as for the staff I have dealt with in Eircom outside of Boards.ie, they are the reason that Eircom is obtaining such a bad reputation and should be sacked or retrained.

Fiona

eircom: Mark

jmtc8 wrote: »

An update on the issues we have been having with Eircom. Mark from Eircom did contact me yesterday evening and again today. Although Mark didn't have the most up to date information on the conversation I had with Joe **** the manager from Eircom, he contacted him to verify my story. So I have had confirmation from somebody else apart from Joe *** that my account is now active and Vodafone should be able to take my calls back. Mark was helpful but limited in what he could do as the lines of communication within Eircom seem to be very crossed and he cannot find any reason why Vodafone would not have been able to take back my calls on January 6th.

I have sent an email to the CEO and the Head of communication of Eircom this morning.

So thank you to Mark from Eircom who was professional at all times and has tried to get to the bottom of this mess. But as for the staff I have dealt with in Eircom outside of Boards.ie, they are the reason that Eircom is obtaining such a bad reputation and should be sacked or retrained.

Fiona

Hi Fiona,

No problem. I appreciate there are other issues that also need to be investigated. I was just insuring that I update the thread as well rather than leave it look as though it was not responded to.

Many thanks, Mark

sailordog13

eircom: Mark wrote: »

Hi Fiona,

Apologies again, as I advised on the call you should be able to transfer your account now with no issue and let me know when you receive the final bill from eircom.

Thanks, Mark

OP,
Are you still ending up with a bill ???

jmtc8

Hi sailordog13

I have been asked by both Joe and Mark to contact them when I receive the final bill from Eircom, which should be in about 2 weeks. I am hoping this means that I won't be expected to pay the bill as I had already been paying to Vodafone. Whether I am expected to pay the bill or not at this stage, I will be going to court before I pay that bill to Eircom. I am not going to pay any longer for Eircom's mistake!!!! I have paid so far with my time and the stress caused during this whole mess. We have also missed a lot of valuable business calls during the time we were disconnected. All of this over a very busy time for us when we were doing a large promotional event. Although some of our prospective customers had the common sense to email us instead it is rather embarrassing trying to explain to a customer why they could not get through to us on the landline!!!!! And we now don't know how many people may have called and didn't attempt any further communication once they couldn't reach us by phone. Thanks a million Eircom!!!!

Fiona

sailordog13

Stick to your guns, you've seen it through this far !!
If more people took it all the way, and complained through official channels as you have done, we might get the country reformed.

SD13

jmtc8

SD13

You are so right!!! You would think the people in Eircom would be happy to get up in the morning and have a job to go to. I am not going to let this go second time around. Eircom can thank Chris for that.

After getting so upset on the phone because of him when I realised he was not going to help and our phone service was going to be left cut off during our busiest weekend of the year I think Eircom need to take a good long look at their entire business. Chris in Eircom actually suggested to me that I pay my bill there and then and transfer everything back to Eircom so all calls and broadband would be with them. Even though Eircom had taken our line and services from Vodafone without our permission, billed us for services they had obtained illegally and then disconnected our service and called me a liar for naming the manager in their own company that had tried to deal with it previously!! And they think we would ever have anything to do with them again. Excuse my obvious anger but I am livid at this point. Thanks for your support SD13

Fiona

thefinalstage

jmtc8 wrote: »

Hi sailordog13

I have been asked by both Joe and Mark to contact them when I receive the final bill from Eircom, which should be in about 2 weeks. I am hoping this means that I won't be expected to pay the bill as I had already been paying to Vodafone. Whether I am expected to pay the bill or not at this stage, I will be going to court before I pay that bill to Eircom. I am not going to pay any longer for Eircom's mistake!!!! I have paid so far with my time and the stress caused during this whole mess. We have also missed a lot of valuable business calls during the time we were disconnected. All of this over a very busy time for us when we were doing a large promotional event. Although some of our prospective customers had the common sense to email us instead it is rather embarrassing trying to explain to a customer why they could not get through to us on the landline!!!!! And we now don't know how many people may have called and didn't attempt any further communication once they couldn't reach us by phone. Thanks a million Eircom!!!!

Fiona

So...Vodafone did not take the line. eircom are asking you to pay for calls that were made and you got cut off when you did not.

Yes....you would get nothing in court.

jmtc8

poisonedstream

Please read the original post and where did I say I was looking for anything in court????

Fiona

sccats

Hi Fiona,

Very happy you got the problem sorted. I recent had a matter with eircom and I can agree with the absolute rudeness of all the customer service I spoke to. We ended up dealing with ComReg. I just hope people read the T&C's to the final point. And never will use or reccommend Eircom to anyone again.

jmtc8

sccats

Hope you have got your problem with them sorted. I have referred the issue to COMREG also as in our case there were no terms and conditions as Eircom were not even supposed to be providing our broadband and phone calls. Still not sorted as the bill is still there and would be very wary that we could be disconnected again at any time in the future without warning. Eircom seem to a communications company that don't know how to communicate!!!!!

sccats

They sent a threatening letter so all that can be afforded is €20 per week. You are right, no communication skills whatsoever. No transparency either. COMREG are extremely helpful and a pleasure to deal with. Thats my verdict from speaking to 4 representatives. But 6 eircom reps spoken to since we joined a few years ago have been just a disgrace!

jmtc8 wrote: »

sccats

Hope you have got your problem with them sorted. I have referred the issue to COMREG also as in our case there were no terms and conditions as Eircom were not even supposed to be providing our broadband and phone calls. Still not sorted as the bill is still there and would be very wary that we could be disconnected again at any time in the future without warning. Eircom seem to a communications company that don't know how to communicate!!!!!

jmtc8

sccats wrote: »

They sent a threatening letter so all that can be afforded is €20 per week. You are right, no communication skills whatsoever. No transparency either. COMREG are extremely helpful and a pleasure to deal with. Thats my verdict from speaking to 4 representatives. But 6 eircom reps spoken to since we joined a few years ago have been just a disgrace!

Agree with you there that COMREG were very helpful and explained clearly the route I needed to take. Have given me a case number so will be back on to them after the 10 days if Eircom can't resolve this themselves. Seems to be no accountability at all in Eircom when mistakes are made!!!

eircom: Mark

jmtc8 wrote: »

An update on the issues we have been having with Eircom. Mark from Eircom did contact me yesterday evening and again today. Although Mark didn't have the most up to date information on the conversation I had with Joe **** the manager from Eircom, he contacted him to verify my story. So I have had confirmation from somebody else apart from Joe *** that my account is now active and Vodafone should be able to take my calls back. Mark was helpful but limited in what he could do as the lines of communication within Eircom seem to be very crossed and he cannot find any reason why Vodafone would not have been able to take back my calls on January 6th.

I have sent an email to the CEO and the Head of communication of Eircom this morning.

So thank you to Mark from Eircom who was professional at all times and has tried to get to the bottom of this mess. But as for the staff I have dealt with in Eircom outside of Boards.ie, they are the reason that Eircom is obtaining such a bad reputation and should be sacked or retrained.

Fiona

Hi Fiona,

I followed up on your account and we still have not received any request to transfer phone & call service? Have you requested that again?

Thanks, Mark

jmtc8

Hi Mark. Sorry for the late reply. Yes, I have requested that the calls be transferred. Did this on January 6th this year and again on 5th of this month after speaking to COMREG. I have let Vodafone know that you say there is no record of call transfer request on your side. Will get back to you as soon as I hear what they have to say.

Thanks for following up Mark!!!

Fiona

eircom: Mark

jmtc8 wrote: »

Hi Mark. Sorry for the late reply. Yes, I have requested that the calls be transferred. Did this on January 6th this year and again on 5th of this month after speaking to COMREG. I have let Vodafone know that you say there is no record of call transfer request on your side. Will get back to you as soon as I hear what they have to say.

Thanks for following up Mark!!!

Fiona

Hi Fiona,

No problem, I will check the account over the next few days.

Thanks, Mark

seanoc2011

I have worked in the telecommunications industry for a very long time... and have avoided working for eircom.


Eircom have an AWFUL reputation of luring people into contracts without them realizing.... Sending them bills when they are no longer with the company and sending them ridiculous cancellation fee's.

Another thing about eircom, is you get onto a person in there and they are not exactly Jim from customer care in the adverts. You do not get their full name. You cannot ask for that person again and if you have an issue, you have to go through the whole thing over again with them.

<snip>

There is the communication regulators who you can contact in relation to such matters in having trouble leaving eircom, however even ComReg let the consumers down in some cases. You could however contact Consumer Affairs or the Consumer Association Of Ireland.