Eircom Early Cease Charges query

blackpen

I am hoping someone might be able to advise me on broadband and residential line early cease charges from Eircom. I signed up for an Eircom Next Generation Broadband Regular and Talktime Chatter package in October 2011.

Within a few days of installation I experienced continuous broadband connectivity difficulties. All issues in this regard were notified by me to the customer care department on 6 ocassions. Appointments were scheduled to take place with an Eircom engineer on 4 occasions to assess the poor broadband connectivity. Only two of these appointments were attended by an engineer. On the remaining two occasions no engineer visited. On the first of these two occasions I reported the non-attendance to the customer care department but no explanation or apology was offered by the staff member who then arranged the next appointment through the booking system. However, that was not attended either. Following that occasion, I reported the incident to a supervisor in the customer care department who explained that the booking was made incorrectly by the customer care staff member with the engineer. A subsequent appointment was then scheduled.

Despite these visits from engineers, reliable broadband connectivity and service were not established and in December I gave 30 days notice (as per contract) of my wish to end the contract. I also requested (and was granted) a refund for lack of reliable connectivity.

I decided to start a contract with Vodafone instead. It seemed that I might have a gap between finishing with Eircom and starting with Vodafone and would if there was a gap between the two would need to pay a reconnection fee. After talking with a Vodafone Rep. who advised that, in order to avoid disconnection and a gap in service, I contact Eircom to have them continue my service until Vodafone took over. I didn't realise that the 30 days notice requirement might be needed again and I called Eircom and told them that I wanted to continue with my service for the time.

The transfer from Eircom to Vodafone happened and then a couple of days ago I received a bill in the post from Eircom for 473.02 for broadband and residential line early cease charges. I realise that the fault lies with me but I wonder is there any flexibility around paying the early cease charges?

Apologies for the length of the post, I just want to include all the details for clarity. Many thanks in advance for any suggestions on how to move forward with this.

jor el

Moved to eircom forum.