Am I being ripped off, or is it normal?

CiniO

Hi.

It's going to be a story, but I need to elaborate to show my problem.

I've had a fibre+home phone bundle (no free minutes) with eir since June 2016. Cost was €45 a month which I found very good. I signed for this offer in June 2016 and was offered 18 months contract, but as it seemd too long for me, so I managed to convince sales person over the phone to do 12 month contract for me. All good.
While papers I received indicated I'm on 18 months contract, but once I contacted eir customer care to clarify, I was told that it's just their computer system which doesn't allow otherwise, but they have a note saved that my contract is only for 12 months.

Then I just  kept paying €45 a month.
I also had €15 sim-only plan with meteor.
In September 2017, Meteor changed name to Eir, and I've seen that they are offering the same mobile plans I have for a €10 (instead of €15) when bundled with fibre offer.
I gave eir a call, and was told that obviously I can add my mobile to the bundle I have, and that will be €10 extra (so €55) - €5 savings a months for me. I was also assured, that this wouldn't change my contract length (which is expiring in December 2017). While contract should have been already expired, I didn't follow on that as it didn't matter anymore as I still wanted to be with Eir (but considered it a big negligance for them to misleadingly assume that my contract was still applying even though it should have expired in June 2017).
Anyway - first bill comes, and it became clear, that my bundle which was meant to cost €55 is actually costing €60 so I'm saving absolutely nothing comparing to before. As well as my online system stared showing that I'm on contract until March 2019 so it looks like that adding my mobile to my bundle cause contract to renew for another 18 months, even though I was assured by sales person that this won't be the case.
I followed on customer helpline, and after many calls and few hours spend on my phone (mostly waiting for available agent) I was assured that my contract indeed expires on December 2017 and that adding my mobile to my bundle didn't cause contract to renew for another 18 months.
But due to that, my promotional price of a bundle can be only valid until December 2017 so just for 4 months. On top of that I was told that computer system which issues bills can not be overriden, and instead my bills will keep coming at the cost of €60, but there will be €20 cut off my next bill to reflect this 4x €5 which I should save. 
Also a month later, price of a bundle went up by €5 so, effectively I started paying €65 every month.

Not being happy with an offer anymore, last week I decided I'm going to resign from my eir mobile and move it to eir prepay, leaving cost of my bundle at €50 (for home phone and fibre) instead of €65 together with eir mobile.
I rang customer helpline, but I was told first that I can't do that as I'm on contract until March 2019, to which I contested that it's not true, and person took a long while to verify it, but eventually managed to verify, but advised me that it's impossible to move my eir mobile to eir prepay over the phone with him, but instead I should give their branch a visit and they'll do it for me. He also assured me, that once my mobile number is moved from my bundle to eir prepay, that I'll keep paying €50 for rest of my bundle.

As I wasn't entertaining traveling multiple miles to nearest eir branch, I decided to switch my mobile to different network, which allowed to do it online.
Switch went very smooth and quick.

Unfortunately now I received my next eir bill for the bundle, which was meant to be fibre + home phone (no minutes) and cost €50, but unfortunately it shows cost as over €77 and it includes eir fibre for €45 + eir homephone for over €32.

I'm totally puzzled now why by bundle has become so expensive suddenly after I moved my eir mobile phone number elsewhere.

househero

Jesus who's gonna read that

eir: Thomas

CiniO wrote: »

Hi.

It's going to be a story, but I need to elaborate to show my problem.

I've had a fibre+home phone bundle (no free minutes) with eir since June 2016. Cost was €45 a month which I found very good. I signed for this offer in June 2016 and was offered 18 months contract, but as it seemd too long for me, so I managed to convince sales person over the phone to do 12 month contract for me. All good.
While papers I received indicated I'm on 18 months contract, but once I contacted eir customer care to clarify, I was told that it's just their computer system which doesn't allow otherwise, but they have a note saved that my contract is only for 12 months.

Then I just  kept paying €45 a month.
I also had €15 sim-only plan with meteor.
In September 2017, Meteor changed name to Eir, and I've seen that they are offering the same mobile plans I have for a €10 (instead of €15) when bundled with fibre offer.
I gave eir a call, and was told that obviously I can add my mobile to the bundle I have, and that will be €10 extra (so €55) - €5 savings a months for me. I was also assured, that this wouldn't change my contract length (which is expiring in December 2017). While contract should have been already expired, I didn't follow on that as it didn't matter anymore as I still wanted to be with Eir (but considered it a big negligance for them to misleadingly assume that my contract was still applying even though it should have expired in June 2017).
Anyway - first bill comes, and it became clear, that my bundle which was meant to cost €55 is actually costing €60 so I'm saving absolutely nothing comparing to before. As well as my online system stared showing that I'm on contract until March 2019 so it looks like that adding my mobile to my bundle cause contract to renew for another 18 months, even though I was assured by sales person that this won't be the case.
I followed on customer helpline, and after many calls and few hours spend on my phone (mostly waiting for available agent) I was assured that my contract indeed expires on December 2017 and that adding my mobile to my bundle didn't cause contract to renew for another 18 months.
But due to that, my promotional price of a bundle can be only valid until December 2017 so just for 4 months. On top of that I was told that computer system which issues bills can not be overriden, and instead my bills will keep coming at the cost of €60, but there will be €20 cut off my next bill to reflect this 4x €5 which I should save. 
Also a month later, price of a bundle went up by €5 so, effectively I started paying €65 every month.

Not being happy with an offer anymore, last week I decided I'm going to resign from my eir mobile and move it to eir prepay, leaving cost of my bundle at €50 (for home phone and fibre) instead of €65 together with eir mobile.
I rang customer helpline, but I was told first that I can't do that as I'm on contract until March 2019, to which I contested that it's not true, and person took a long while to verify it, but eventually managed to verify, but advised me that it's impossible to move my eir mobile to eir prepay over the phone with him, but instead I should give their branch a visit and they'll do it for me. He also assured me, that once my mobile number is moved from my bundle to eir prepay, that I'll keep paying €50 for rest of my bundle.

As I wasn't entertaining traveling multiple miles to nearest eir branch, I decided to switch my mobile to different network, which allowed to do it online.
Switch went very smooth and quick.

Unfortunately now I received my next eir bill for the bundle, which was meant to be fibre + home phone (no minutes) and cost €50, but unfortunately it shows cost as over €77 and it includes eir fibre for €45 + eir homephone for over €32.

I'm totally puzzled now why by bundle has become so expensive suddenly after I moved my eir mobile phone number elsewhere.

Hi CiniO ,

I'm very sorry to hear about the issues you've been having and I apologise for any inconvenience caused. 

Please feel free to PM me your full name and account number, I would be happy to look into this for you.

Thanks 

Thomas

Fogmatic

househero; sadly, helpful detail and brevity can be incompatible when it comes to relating dialogues with the big communications companies.  (And a computer program that can’t be overridden suggests a *really* powerful organisation!).

CiniO; the answer could be 'both'!

Have you considered also posting in the Consumer forum?  (A few lines there with a link to this topic could get advice straight from a contract expert).