Eircom Group Complaint

GTE

Hello,


Eircom Phone and Broadband
I used to be an Eircom Business customer. I then switched to Eircom Residential with no problems. A number of days after, eFibre became available in my area. Over the phone, I was told the eFibre system was down and orders could not be processed. I was then told that I could not get eFibre installed while I had ISDN and Fax lines in place. I asked for those to be cancelled and I was told to ring the night shift to do the eFibre order.

I called the night shift and was told that the ISDN had not been cancelled and that they had no authority to do anything, but they would leave a note for Sandra who could cancel the ISDN. I was asked to ring up in the afternoon of the next day to proceed with the eFibre order.
I rang back as asked and there was no record of the ISDN/Fax cancellation request.

The above started on or around the 18^th of September of this year. By around the 23^rd of September, I made my 20th formal request to cancel the ISDN and Fax lines. Over the course of the 22^nd and 23^rd, I was on the phone for over 85 minutes. I would hazard a guess that this is a minority proportion of my total call time on this issue.

I was passed from Residential to Business, as Residential blamed the Business department regarding the above mentioned switch. Business said I had no account with them and the Residential department were mistaken. I agree with them, as I had a letter on front of me at all times with confirmation of my residential account and switchover of all the lines.

I talked to one telephone rep who did not know what ISDN was.

I was passed from department to department who generally could only blame the department who sent me to them.

Being exceptionally frustrated, I eventually got in touch with someone by the name of Ms Blare who appreciated the above story to the extent that she personally went to sort out the issue. A short time later, she told me that, simply, an engineer had to come out to my property and disconnect the ISDN. This is something which she and I, wondered as to why I was not told this from the beginning. I perfectly understand the need for a physical disconnection once I was told it was required. I asked her how  many times I had called and she confirmed that I called 20 times. She noted that this may not include the Business dept contacts. 

Ms. Blare told me that the engineer would be out and have the job done by October the 7^th. According to the online My Eircom service, the lines are still active as of the 11pm on the 7th.


eMobile
Recently, I switched from o2 to eMobile. I ordered three sim cards, which arrived with three separate delivery dockets at the same time. They contained letters with three separate SO numbers attached to the same customer number.

I called the switching dept. and was told that we could only switch one number at a time and that we would have to wait for each number to switch fully before commencing the next switch.

We were told that due to a back office mistake, one of the three SIM cards was not ready to be switched. We were told that a note would be left and it would be sorted in a couple of days. This suited fine as it would take that long to sort out the first two number switches.

I had to go away for a couple of weeks. Once back, I called to switch the final number. I was told that I had ordered two sim cards. Despite me quoting all the delivery and SO numbers, I was told that I ordered two SIMs. After being passed around departments for the best part of 30 minutes, I eventually managed to get someone to properly investigate the issue.

Danny, a sales rep, was helpful once he realised the issue however it took a bit too long to diagnose and I got frustrated at being told I did X, Y and Z when I had documentation and numbers to prove otherwise. He blamed a back office issue where by the order was in the “fulfilment” stage for around two weeks rather than the standard max of six hours. He gave me a direct line to another department to sort out the issue where I would need the number printed on the back of the SIM card.

That department told me that Danny was wrong to send me to them. I got put through to someone else who talked to the technical department on my behalf. The only resolution was that I order a new SIM. By chance, I was put through to Danny again who was himself frustrated at my treatment and was exceptionally helpful getting the new SIM ordered, however, it should never have come to this.

Summary
The reason for this post is to highlight what seem to be issues with the fundamental structure of how the Eircom group do customer service. I understand the need for different departments, however; being passed around as many times as I did only for one staff member to dig deep into the above cases and find the issue should ring some alarm bells with management.

I sit here still having the ISDN and Fax line attached to my account, after the original disconnection request of the 18^th of Septmeber. I still do not have eFibre and a SIM card which I can account for with every conceivable piece of paper work now has to be thrown out while another one is sent out. I also have to take yet another day off my normal working week while I wait for a delivery man who will only take my passport to give me SIM cards, as if anyone could get past Eircom on call verification and do anything bad with the SIMs.


What I want
I hate your hold music. I have spent hours across the Eircom group fighting for miniscule savings compared with your competitors. I would like to be PM’d or emailed where my information can be passed on and the exact issues outlined above to be resolved once and for all. I simply do not have the time to waste on the phone.

I also want detailed explanations as to why the problems I am facing have occurred. Not only do I want this so I understand why my time has been wasted, but to ensure that Eircom management has gone through these cases and learned from the operational failures which they are responsible for.

I would also like someone to look at "Log a complaint" page and establish whether the issues I have outlined could be condensed into 400 characters. This message is currently ~5800 characters.




 
 

GTE

Update

An engineer popped over today to carry out the task of disconnecting my ISDN/Fax line, leaving only my telephone/broadband line. This was requested with Ms Blare around the 23rd as described above.

Please be clear on this point, I asked for it to be completely disconnected as Eircom Sales could not upgrade my telephone/broadband line to eFibre with it in place.

The engineer told me he was told to downgrade the line.

He could not understand why he was asked to do this considering what I explained to him.

So, after all of this I still can not get eFibre as I have to wait for the downgraded line to be disconnected completely. 

Update please.

eircom: Alan

bbk wrote: »

Update

An engineer popped over today to carry out the task of disconnecting my ISDN/Fax line, leaving only my telephone/broadband line. This was requested with Ms Blare around the 23rd as described above.

Please be clear on this point, I asked for it to be completely disconnected as Eircom Sales could not upgrade my telephone/broadband line to eFibre with it in place.

The engineer told me he was told to downgrade the line.

He could not understand why he was asked to do this considering what I explained to him.

So, after all of this I still can not get eFibre as I have to wait for the downgraded line to be disconnected completely. 

Update please.

Hi bbk

If you could PM me your eircom account number & contact details I will contact you to discus further,

Thanks
Al

gerryk

From my experience, the operation of converting an ISDN line to a PSTN line is called "downgrading".

So, the path you should be following is: ISDN  downgrades to PSTN upgrades to VDSL over eFibre.

eircom: Alan

Thanks for taking my call bbk

I can assure you that I will treat your case with priority. I'll be in touch again tomorrow morning.

Thanks
Al

GTE

gerryk wrote: »

From my experience, the operation of converting an ISDN line to a PSTN line is called "downgrading".

So, the path you should be following is: ISDN  downgrades to PSTN upgrades to VDSL over eFibre.

Indeed, however; the line which is being upgraded to eFibre is separate to the ISDN line being downgraded/disconnected.
The Eircom sales dept. could not "see" the line I wanted upgraded to eFibre as the ISDN was in place.

Thanks

eircom: Alan

bbk wrote: »

gerryk wrote: »

From my experience, the operation of converting an ISDN line to a PSTN line is called "downgrading".

So, the path you should be following is: ISDN  downgrades to PSTN upgrades to VDSL over eFibre.

Indeed, however; the line which is being upgraded to eFibre is separate to the ISDN line being downgraded/disconnected.
The Eircom sales dept. could not "see" the line I wanted upgraded to eFibre as the ISDN was in place.

Thanks

I can confirm this too, the ISDN is taking precedence in attempted orders so it has been agreed to downgrade the ISDN to allow the order to be placed on the original PSTN line. Quite complicate stuff but I'm sure we will get there soon bbk.

Al

GTE

Alan, you didn't get back to me or leave a message today like you promised.

Any update?

GTE

I notice on My Eircom that the line I want disconnected is still in place. 

niallb

eircom: Alan wrote: »

I can confirm this too, the ISDN is taking precedence in attempted orders so it has been agreed to downgrade the ISDN to allow the order to be placed on the original PSTN line. Quite complicate stuff but I'm sure we will get there soon bbk.
Al

So if I read this right, the downgrade of the physical line is only necessary because of a limitation in Eircom's internal ordering system? 

I would hope that the system allows for the customer not to be billed for any rental or contract on the PSTN line, as the request made seems to have been simply for that line to be ceased.
I'd be interested to hear what happens when the next bill is issued!

GTE

niallb wrote: »

eircom: Alan wrote: »

I can confirm this too, the ISDN is taking precedence in attempted orders so it has been agreed to downgrade the ISDN to allow the order to be placed on the original PSTN line. Quite complicate stuff but I'm sure we will get there soon bbk.
Al

So if I read this right, the downgrade of the physical line is only necessary because of a limitation in Eircom's internal ordering system? 

I would hope that the system allows for the customer not to be billed for any rental or contract on the PSTN line, as the request made seems to have been simply for that line to be ceased.
I'd be interested to hear what happens when the next bill is issued!

Great point. Ill keep a close eye on the bills.
The latest stunt was to place me on two separate bills for the PSDN and eFibre. :S Though, the Twitter staff confirmed with me that the PSDN is finally being ceased which is the first bit of good and definitive news yet.

eircom: Alan

bbk wrote: »

niallb wrote: »

eircom: Alan wrote: »

I can confirm this too, the ISDN is taking precedence in attempted orders so it has been agreed to downgrade the ISDN to allow the order to be placed on the original PSTN line. Quite complicate stuff but I'm sure we will get there soon bbk.
Al

So if I read this right, the downgrade of the physical line is only necessary because of a limitation in Eircom's internal ordering system? 

I would hope that the system allows for the customer not to be billed for any rental or contract on the PSTN line, as the request made seems to have been simply for that line to be ceased.
I'd be interested to hear what happens when the next bill is issued!

Great point. Ill keep a close eye on the bills.
The latest stunt was to place me on two separate bills for the PSDN and eFibre. :S Though, the Twitter staff confirmed with me that the PSDN is finally being ceased which is the first bit of good and definitive news yet.

 
[font=Times New Roman","serif]Hi bbk

I can assure you that no extra charges will apply as mentioned above - if in the unlikely event that errors occur I will make sure they are rectified right away so that no unnecessary or uprising charges occur.

At present the line cease is pending (order number: 7062636CH) and unfortunately this can take 24 to 48 hours. Once this order completes the efibre order will be able to be placed and I will arrange an agent from eircom to call you to arrange this. The latest this will be is Monday morning however I'll keep my eye on things to see if we can arrange this sooner.

Thanks
Al[/font]

GTE

No one called.

I placed the efibre order today, and I trust that the order is currently on a priority list for a quicker installation given the messing around since mid-September.

eircom: Alan

Hi bbk, 

I'm sorry no call back was met. 

I'm glad to see your order is in place. I'll do my best from here to push the order for you.

Al 

GTE

Thank you.

Despite this, Eircom have pushed the installation back by a day.

Curious.

eircom: Alan

bbk wrote: »

Thank you.

Despite this, Eircom have pushed the installation back by a day.

Curious.

Sorry to hear this bbk

I'll look in to this and see if there is any clarification I can offer

Al