Eircom Phonewatch price increase and intimidation

degrassinoel

Hi,

We have had Eircom Phonewatch installed for the last 3 years. Never had any major problems with it. A few weeks ago we received a letter saying the price was being increased from 25 euro to 35 euro a month. Scandalous increase in price, so we opted not to pay and as such have been disconnected. This situation is fine with us. However, since we stopped payment we have received 2 letters and a phonecall asking if we could pay. We were adamant about not paying a 50% price increase and were ominously told the following.

"There may be problems" 

Since then we have had the alarm go off twice at 4am waking everyone in the house and to be quite honest scaring us. 

The alarm has been silent (almost) for three years and for it to suddenly start going off at 4am since we were told there may be problems is just downright intimidating. 

As well as being intimidating, the cost of a local phonecall is added each time the alarm goes off, so it's still costing us money.

Is this type of behaviour even legal? 
Secondly, can i disconnect the system myself rather than paying Eircom to send a "disconnection engineer" Surely it cant be that difficult. 
I personally felt like ripping the box off the wall this morning but having paid 900 euro over the last few years i dont want to, and even though i wont ever be paying Eircom for the phonewatch service again I think my money has well and truly paid for the wall box, so i'd like to keep it even if it is disconnected. 

We are absolutely disgusted at the behaviour of Eircom phonewatch with these tactics, any advice you could give would be appreciated. 

Cushie Butterfield

degrassinoel wrote: »

Hi,

We have had Eircom Phonewatch installed for the last 3 years. Never had any major problems with it. A few weeks ago we received a letter saying the price was being increased from 25 euro to 35 euro a month. Scandalous increase in price, so we opted not to pay and as such have been disconnected. This situation is fine with us. However, since we stopped payment we have received 2 letters and a phonecall asking if we could pay. We were adamant about not paying a 50% price increase and were ominously told the following.

"There may be problems" 

Since then we have had the alarm go off twice at 4am waking everyone in the house and to be quite honest scaring us. 

The alarm has been silent (almost) for three years and for it to suddenly start going off at 4am since we were told there may be problems is just downright intimidating. 

As well as being intimidating, the cost of a local phonecall is added each time the alarm goes off, so it's still costing us money.

Is this type of behaviour even legal? 
Secondly, can i disconnect the system myself rather than paying Eircom to send a "disconnection engineer" Surely it cant be that difficult. 
I personally felt like ripping the box off the wall this morning but having paid 900 euro over the last few years i dont want to, and even though i wont ever be paying Eircom for the phonewatch service again I think my money has well and truly paid for the wall box, so i'd like to keep it even if it is disconnected. 

We are absolutely disgusted at the behaviour of Eircom phonewatch with these tactics, any advice you could give would be appreciated. 

Just make sure you have cancelled your direct debit with your bank. By disconnecting yourself if you mean removing the phonewatch dial-up phone number from the system, yes you can easily do this yourself once you have the engineer's code for the system. If you don't once you still have the original paperwork that you received from them, or at least your phonewatch account/reference number you'll be fine.

If you post over on the Home Security Systems Forum: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=1366 the helpful guys over there will be happy to talk you through what to do to delete the number, which will save you a needless 'disconnection charge'

degrassinoel

Hi Cushie, 

We have cancelled our DD, thanks. 

Thanks for the info, will try dig up the old paperwork and get onto that forum for help. 

Much appreciated. 

arnieguy01

That is shocking, do what I did, go to phonewatch website and see who your local authorised dealer is and deal directly with them, there are also former phonewatch contractors out there who have mention of being experienced in service/repair of their systems

degrassinoel

got it sorted thanks, Eircom Phonewatch were no help at all in the matter. 

dobsdave

degrassinoel wrote: »

got it sorted thanks, Eircom Phonewatch were no help at all in the matter. 

As far as I know, its nothing to do Eircom anymore.
They sold it on.

degrassinoel

dobsdave wrote: »

degrassinoel wrote: »

got it sorted thanks, Eircom Phonewatch were no help at all in the matter. 

As far as I know, its nothing to do Eircom anymore.
They sold it on.

so i heard yeah. 

SpaceTime

They're now owned by Sector Alarms of Norway, nothing to do with Eircom anymore at all.

The company's now just called Phonewatch.

degrassinoel

couldnt give a fiddler's **** what it's called now. Not with them anymore. 

SpaceTime

Just in so far as this is specifically an eircom forum.

KoolKid

The thing people don't realise is you are not tied to phone watch for this. Any psa licenced company can service and monitor these alarms . Shop around and you will get better value. Also, all these alarms can work independently of any phone line. To suggest that there will be problems is very wrong.

Boards.ie: Niamh

Locking this thread as it is not an eircom issue - OP if you want it moved elsewhere, e.g. Home Security Systems, PM me to let me know.