pensioner charged over 2,000 euros for unused dial up service

armian

I'm raising an issue here that I've raised with Eircom with no redress but might serve as a warning to other victims of Eircom.
 

My father, who is in his 70’s,  recently asked me toreview his phone and broadband package as he felt his bills were quite high.  On doing so, I discovered that when he had switched from dial up internet access to broadband in 2005, the chargefor dial up access to the internet continued to appear as a charge on his bill, along with some "email protector" nonsense that was missold to him in my opinion

I immediately cancelled this and alsoasked Eircom for a full refund for the sum of charges for the redundant dial upconnection, but after exhaustive and somewhat obnoxious communications with them (at one point my query was closed with no reply to me) I was told it was our hard luck.

We are out of pocket for over 2000 euros worth of charges for a dial up connection that was never used and Eircom, being Eircom, will not refund the charges.

If anyone has elderly parents who are Eircom customers, I would urge you to check their bills carefully as I'm sure I'm not the only one who has had this experience

eircom: Alan

armian wrote: »

I'm raising an issue here that I've raised with Eircom with no redress but might serve as a warning to other victims of Eircom.
 

My father, who is in his 70’s,  recently asked me toreview his phone and broadband package as he felt his bills were quite high.  On doing so, I discovered that when he had switched from dial up internet access to broadband in 2005, the chargefor dial up access to the internet continued to appear as a charge on his bill, along with some "email protector" nonsense that was missold to him in my opinion

I immediately cancelled this and alsoasked Eircom for a full refund for the sum of charges for the redundant dial upconnection, but after exhaustive and somewhat obnoxious communications with them (at one point my query was closed with no reply to me) I was told it was our hard luck.

We are out of pocket for over 2000 euros worth of charges for a dial up connection that was never used and Eircom, being Eircom, will not refund the charges.

If anyone has elderly parents who are Eircom customers, I would urge you to check their bills carefully as I'm sure I'm not the only one who has had this experience

Hi armian

I'm very sorry to hear of this. Due to the nature of this and the length of time passed I'm unable to help you with your complaint from here. If you wish to lodge a complaint about this please contact eircom complaints department on 1800200481 where you complaint will be investigated in full.

Thanks

Al

armian

Thanks for taking the time to reply Al.  This happened very recently and I tried every measure to seek redress with Eircom so will not waste my time knocking on their door again.  Most people I spoke to in Eircom were embarrassed that they had treated a customer like this, and rightly so - especially a man in his 70's.  But the person who had the ultimate say in the matter (I wont mention her name on boards.ie) maintained the hard line - stupid old man should have known better.

Needless to say, I am no longer an Eircom customer and most of my family are looking elsewhere for phone, broadband etc. as are the numerous people I have told about my experience

Regards,

ex Eircom customer

eircom: Alan

armian wrote: »

Thanks for taking the time to reply Al.  This happened very recently and I tried every measure to seek redress with Eircom so will not waste my time knocking on their door again.  Most people I spoke to in Eircom were embarrassed that they had treated a customer like this, and rightly so - especially a man in his 70's.  But the person who had the ultimate say in the matter (I wont mention her name on boards.ie) maintained the hard line - stupid old man should have known better.

Needless to say, I am no longer an Eircom customer and most of my family are looking elsewhere for phone, broadband etc. as are the numerous people I have told about my experience

Regards,

ex Eircom customer

Ok armian

I'm very sorry to hear of this and I apologise for the inconvenience this has caused you and your Father.

Kind regards

Al

edanto

You'd hope that the new and improved eircom would be able to man up to this one and give a refund.

eircom: Alan

edanto wrote: »

You'd hope that the new and improved eircom would be able to man up to this one and give a refund.

HI edanto

I understand your point however It's not something we can do from this forum.

Al

GarIT

edanto wrote: »

You'd hope that the new and improved eircom would be able to man up to this one and give a refund.

Did he not get the service he was paying for?

edanto

You sincerely think that is was correct for eircom to be charging him for a dial-up subscription while he was also paying for a broadband service?
Would it not have been reasonable to expect the eircom agent that activated the broadband service to disable the dial up monthly charge?

Nuttzz

Next step is Comreg http://www.askcomreg.ie/about_us/form.asp

GarIT

edanto wrote: »

You sincerely think that is was correct for eircom to be charging him for a dial-up subscription while he was also paying for a broadband service?
Would it not have been reasonable to expect the eircom agent that activated the broadband service to disable the dial up monthly charge?

The logical thing on Eircom's end would have been to deactivate the dial-up, but if he could have used the dial-up service if he decided to then legally Eircom did nothing wrong and don't owe him anything, unless 1 he asked for dial-up to be deactivated or 2 the service wasn't provided. The only thing you could really hope for here is a gesture of goodwill from Eircom. You could email comreg and they might help, phone companies hate comreg.

From an IT point of view there are some reasons why you may want both dial up and broadband.

armian

I did seek redress with comreg but they said Eircom were legally covered - when he upgraded to broadband, it was in the terms and conditions that he had to cancel the dial up connection. In writing.

I would agree that Eircom are legally covered and not legally obliged to refund the money, otherwise I would take this further to a small claims procedure.  

I just think it is a shameful way to treat any customer and it was reasonable to expect Eircom to have cancelled dial up as part of the broadband upgrade process - or at least have contacted him some time over the 8 years they were charging him for both dial up and broadband.

eircom: Tony

armian wrote: »

I did seek redress with comreg but they said Eircom were legally covered - when he upgraded to broadband, it was in the terms and conditions that he had to cancel the dial up connection. In writing.

I would agree that Eircom are legally covered and not legally obliged to refund the money, otherwise I would take this further to a small claims procedure.  

I just think it is a shameful way to treat any customer and it was reasonable to expect Eircom to have cancelled dial up as part of the broadband upgrade process - or at least have contacted him some time over the 8 years they were charging him for both dial up and broadband.

Hi armian
Given that you seem to have received the final word on this and that I cannot promise a different outcome, would you be happy to PM me your details and I can have this investigated?? Unfortunately the Terms and Conditions are binding but I can certainly see what we can do for you.
Tony