Eircom in breach of Distance Selling Regulations

stimpson

Hi There,

I'm posting on behalf of my Mother in law. She was called by one of your sales team last week and was offered a package which included unlimited free calls to the UK and mobiles. She was told that it would only cost her 19 euro a month after the OAP discount. She asked to be sent the details, but the salesman pressured her into signing up for the package.

She got home on Friday evening and her welcome pack had arrived. When she looked at what she had been signed up for, it included free landline calls, but no mention of calls to the UK or mobiles. The letter said she had to contact eircom before 16th Dec to cancel. That was Sunday, but the lines are only open Mon-Fri. She rang Monday morning and when she finally got to talk to someone she was told it had already gone through, that she is out of her cooling off period and if she wanted to cancel she would have to pay for an entire year.

Now, according to EU distance selling regulations:

In the case of a service, the cooling-off period begins on the day the contract for distance selling was concluded or the day written confirmation of the contract was received.

As the correspondance was only recieved on Friday, she has at a minimum, until next Friday to cancel.

Now, here's where it gets interesting...

www.citizensinformation.ie states:

A distance contract must include:

The supplier's name and address
The consumer's identity
The main characteristics of the goods or service
The price of the goods - including all taxes
Delivery costs, where applicable
Arrangements for payment
The existence of a right to cancellation
The minimum duration of the contract
The length of time it will be possible for the consumer to enter the contract on these terms
The cost of the communication between the parties if it is above a basic rate.

Distance contracts are not enforceable unless prior to making the contract, the supplier provides this information and states clearly that the purpose of the proposed contract is commercial. The supplier must provide the consumer with written confirmation of this information.

The items in bold are not in the letter recieved, so according to the regulations, there is no contract between her and eircom.

I'll PM you her details. Please get in touch with her and return her line to Vodafone. An apology would be nice too.

I hope this can be sorted out in the next couple of days, otherwise I'll leave it in the hands of ComReg.

stimpson

Does anyone from Eircom want to comment, or even acknowledge my post?

Corkbah

its been less than 24hrs ... give them a chance !

eircom: Mark

stimpson wrote: »

Hi There,

I'm posting on behalf of my Mother in law. She was called by one of your sales team last week and was offered a package which included unlimited free calls to the UK and mobiles. She was told that it would only cost her 19 euro a month after the OAP discount. She asked to be sent the details, but the salesman pressured her into signing up for the package.

She got home on Friday evening and her welcome pack had arrived. When she looked at what she had been signed up for, it included free landline calls, but no mention of calls to the UK or mobiles. The letter said she had to contact eircom before 16th Dec to cancel. That was Sunday, but the lines are only open Mon-Fri. She rang Monday morning and when she finally got to talk to someone she was told it had already gone through, that she is out of her cooling off period and if she wanted to cancel she would have to pay for an entire year.

Now, according to EU distance selling regulations:



As the correspondance was only recieved on Friday, she has at a minimum, until next Friday to cancel.

Now, here's where it gets interesting...

www.citizensinformation.ie states:



The items in bold are not in the letter recieved, so according to the regulations, there is no contract between her and eircom.

I'll PM you her details. Please get in touch with her and return her line to Vodafone. An apology would be nice too.

I hope this can be sorted out in the next couple of days, otherwise I'll leave it in the hands of ComReg.

Hi stimpson,

I got your PM thanks. It may a few days to investigate.

We can not initiate for your mother to return to her previous company. The account holder has to request that when the call the company they wish to switch back to and quote the account number to start the switching process.

There is a bundle and add on which when you deduct the social welfare allowance the price is within the price range quoted to her.

As I stated I will need to look into it and if there was misinformation we will defiantly deal with the agent center involved.

Thanks, Mark

stimpson

Thanks for your response Mark.

As I said, when she asked to cancel the contract, she was told she was out of her cooling off period and would have to pay off a years contract.

I have a scan of the letter that arrived, but can't PM it to you. If you send me an email address I can send it on.

stimpson

One more thing Mark. She was on to eircom again today and was talking to someone in the Complaints Dept. she was asked who she had been dealing with. She said that she couldn't understand the guy she had been talking to as he was an Indian gentleman. The guy from Complaints asked if he was a Red Indian or an Apache.

I hope you really do record calls for training and quality purposes. How do you complain about the Complaints dept?

Sponge Bob

Leave it with Mark for a day or so to see what he can do.

If not resolved then:

Bang in a formal complaint here www.eircom.ie/logacomplaint

If you do not receive acknowledgement by EMAIL within 2 days and with a complaint ref number then escalate to consumerline@comreg.ie , non acknowledment of complaint.

Their procedure says:

What happens once we receive your complaint?
What happens once we receive your complaint?

We will acknowledge all complaints received by letter, fax or e-mail within two working days of receiving your complaint. We will provide you with your unique reference number and inform you of the length of time we expect it to take to investigate and resolve the complaint

In the complaint make sure you ask for a full recording of the call a week back. (sent as an mp3 attachment to the email address.

eircom: Mark

stimpson wrote: »

One more thing Mark. She was on to eircom again today and was talking to someone in the Complaints Dept. she was asked who she had been dealing with. She said that she couldn't understand the guy she had been talking to as he was an Indian gentleman. The guy from Complaints asked if he was a Red Indian or an Apache.

I hope you really do record calls for training and quality purposes. How do you complain about the Complaints dept?

Hi stimpson,

I have sent a request to try get the recording of the call. if the agent did misinform of the package / price then the contract aspect can be looked into. However I am sure you appreciate that we need to verify that is the case before we can possibly negate the contract.

Thanks, Mark

stimpson

Hi Mark,

Regardlessof her being mid-sold a package, she is still in her cooling off period as she only received the correspondence last Friday. In any case, as the correspondence did not include the required information, the contract had not been concluded.

I discovered yesterday that ComReg require the above details to be provided to the customer before the contract can come into force, so there is no contract.

If you send me your email address I can send you on a scan of the correspondence. I can't send attachments over PM.

eircom: Mark

stimpson wrote: »

Hi Mark,

Regardlessof her being mid-sold a package, she is still in her cooling off period as she only received the correspondence last Friday. In any case, as the correspondence did not include the required information, the contract had not been concluded.

I discovered yesterday that ComReg require the above details to be provided to the customer before the contract can come into force, so there is no contract.

If you send me your email address I can send you on a scan of the correspondence. I can't send attachments over PM.

Hi stimpson,

Both myself and complaints are investigating the issue. If we require the correspondence I will defiantly get back to you.

Thanks, Mark

stimpson

Hi Mark,

My she heard from eircom this morning. They listened to the call and agreed she had been mis-sold the package. She is not being held to her contract and is currently on the phone to Digiweb who do have a package with 1500 UK anytime minutes.

Thanks for your help. It's nice to see someone in Eircom who will give a straight answer.

eircom: Mark

stimpson wrote: »

Hi Mark,

My she heard from eircom this morning. They listened to the call and agreed she had been mis-sold the package. She is not being held to her contract and is currently on the phone to Digiweb who do have a package with 1500 UK anytime minutes.

Thanks for your help. It's nice to see someone in Eircom who will give a straight answer.

Hi stimpson,

I checked the complaint and in the call call your mother was clearly reluctant to move and given International calls were the main incentive for possibly switching and the package advised was not going to be a huge saving.

So when the move back to the previous provider has completed, eircom will send a final bill. Let us know when this is received and we can address the charges on the bill.

Thanks, Mark

stimpson

Hi Mark,

I've been chasing this up today with Digiweb. They have attempted to transfer the line a couple of times but Eircom has a block on the line. I only discovered this when I got to talk to Digiweb sales today. This is getting very tedious. Can you remove the block so she can transfer her number please?

stimpson

Anyone?????? Digiweb say they are there until 7PM and can put through the transfer again, but need the block lifted.

eircom: Alan

Hi Stimpson


I can confirm that there is definitely not a block on your account. The issue may be that you now have a new eircom account number and you may be using an older one? Can you PM me the account number you are giving to Digiweb?


Regards


Al

stimpson

PM ment

eircom: Mark

stimpson wrote: »

PM ment

Hi stimpson

Can you confirm if your mother managed to complete the transfer request back to her previous company with the new account number?

Thanks, Mark

stimpson

Hi Mark,

The transfer is complete, but she's being left with a bill for a months line rental and €12 for 3 calls. I think she's happy to pay for the calls, but it's unfair to expect her to pay for the line rental, especially considering that Vodafone are chasing her for €160 as they maintain she was still in contract.

Still a long way to go to sort out this mess, but if you could sort out the line rental that would help.

Cheers,
Mark

eircom: Mark

stimpson wrote: »

Hi Mark,

The transfer is complete, but she's being left with a bill for a months line rental and €12 for 3 calls. I think she's happy to pay for the calls, but it's unfair to expect her to pay for the line rental, especially considering that Vodafone are chasing her for €160 as they maintain she was still in contract.

Still a long way to go to sort out this mess, but if you could sort out the line rental that would help.

Cheers,
Mark

Hi Mark,

I looked into it and DM you there. Let me know if you have any follow up queries.

Thanks, Mark

stimpson

Thanks for the PM Mark. You've just confirmed what I've said - she has been charged for line rental from 10/12/13 - 21/01/13.

I raised this issue with you on the 17th of December, exactly a week into her arrangement with eircom. The delay in getting it resolved was solely eircoms fault. Due to eircoms questionable selling practices, and non compliance with the Distance Selling Regulations,  she's also left with a bill for €160 from Vodafone for breaking contract early. My mother in law is a pensioner and she call ill afford to be hit with 2 months line rental for a service that she shouldn't have been sold in the first place.

I would appreciate it if you could remove the cost of the line rental from her bill.

eircom: Mark

stimpson wrote: »

Thanks for the PM Mark. You've just confirmed what I've said - she has been charged for line rental from 10/12/13 - 21/01/13.

I raised this issue with you on the 17th of December, exactly a week into her arrangement with eircom. The delay in getting it resolved was solely eircoms fault. Due to eircoms questionable selling practices, and non compliance with the Distance Selling Regulations,  she's also left with a bill for €160 from Vodafone for breaking contract early. My mother in law is a pensioner and she call ill afford to be hit with 2 months line rental for a service that she shouldn't have been sold in the first place.

I would appreciate it if you could remove the cost of the line rental from her bill.

Hi Mark,

Looking through the case with us and the complaint. I have arranged to clear the outstanding charges with eircom. I have PMd you with confirmation.

Thanks, Mark

stimpson

Many thanks Mark. It's much appreciated.

eircom: Mark

stimpson wrote: »

Many thanks Mark. It's much appreciated.

No problem,

Sorry again for the whole mix up issues with the transfer.

Thanks, Mark