You made my mother cry...

n3lly

I write this post while on my honeymoon (not a sentence I expected to write)..

I spoke to my mother today, she told me she was brought to tears by the lack of compassion and help your staff showed her while she tried to speak to someone about a fault on her landline.

Let me elaborate...

My dad passed away 3 months ago. I tried my best to help my mum by changing over bills after he died. Eir were particularly unhelpful. I had two options:

I) I could email accountchange@eir.ie and forward the death cert of my dad. 12 days after my dad's funeral (April 12th) I obliged.

- No response

- 7 days later, I sent another email. No response, no automated email letting me know my message had been sent or would be replied to in 'x' days etc. Silence.

II) I could sign up as a new customer. Only after I put in an order would Eir schedule an engineer to visit my mum's house. An engineer would TAKE TWO WEEKS! to arrive at my mum's house.

As my mum was only the spouse of the account owner of her landline, no one at Eir would speak to her. My mum's alarm depends on her land line, the internet (obviously) and my aunt (who lives abroad) calls my mum daily.

I emailed eir twice in April, without response. My mother called, Spoke to your reps who had not recollection of any calls. After speaking to numerous reps my mum was eventually brought to tears as a simple task such as changing the name of an account to a woman who's last name and address are the same as her deceased spouse cannot take ownership of the family account (23yr account).

All I ask is that you spare the hurt and anguish you have caused my mother for any future parent, male or female that has to go through this horrendous experience.

Eir, fix your processes. Notice there is something fundamentally wrong with making a widow/widower jump through these hoops!!!

I can already see that another member Summer02 has had the exact same experience.

If my mum could switch her account efficiently, she would continue to pay nearly €75+.
Making her sign up as a new customer would allow her to avail of your entry level discounts ~€360 cheaper a year!

I'd love a response detailing the measures you are going to take to alleviate the hurt you are currently causing.

Thanks for taking the time to read this post.

All the best,
Steven

zoe 3619

Well written post.
As an eir customer I'd be delighted to see a bit of compassion shown.Keep us updated.

whiskeyman

zoe 3619 wrote: »

Well written post.
As an eir customer I'd be delighted to see a bit of compassion shown.Keep us updated.

Might be worth sending this to Comreg.
https://www.comreg.ie/queries-complaints/got-a-question/


You bet they'll reply to you then once they know that.

Always Joe Duffy too.

smaoifs

Read a similar complaint on their Facebook page last week. The children of an elderly customer trying to access technical support. Their parent has several dementia and a letter was sent to eir from the doctor confirming they cannot speak for themselves. Eir want to speak to the account holder before doing anything...

Shocking carry on, I hope your mams issue is resolved quickly.

java

OP I'm sorry for your loss. I had a similar experience with eir when my Dad passed. In this day and age its a disgrace how they treat their bereaved customers. It is such a traumatic time and they could not care less.

eir: Thomas

n3lly wrote: »

I write this post while on my honeymoon (not a sentence I expected to write)..

I spoke to my mother today, she told me she was brought to tears by the lack of compassion and help your staff showed her while she tried to speak to someone about a fault on her landline.

Let me elaborate...

My dad passed away 3 months ago. I tried my best to help my mum by changing over bills after he died. Eir were particularly unhelpful. I had two options:

I) I could email accountchange@eir.ie and forward the death cert of my dad. 12 days after my dad's funeral (April 12th) I obliged.

- No response

- 7 days later, I sent another email. No response, no automated email letting me know my message had been sent or would be replied to in 'x' days etc. Silence.

II) I could sign up as a new customer. Only after I put in an order would Eir schedule an engineer to visit my mum's house. An engineer would TAKE TWO WEEKS! to arrive at my mum's house.

As my mum was only the spouse of the account owner of her landline, no one at Eir would speak to her. My mum's alarm depends on her land line, the internet (obviously) and my aunt (who lives abroad) calls my mum daily.

I emailed eir twice in April, without response. My mother called, Spoke to your reps who had not recollection of any calls. After speaking to numerous reps my mum was eventually brought to tears as a simple task such as changing the name of an account to a woman who's last name and address are the same as her deceased spouse cannot take ownership of the family account (23yr account).

All I ask is that you spare the hurt and anguish you have caused my mother for any future parent, male or female that has to go through this horrendous experience.

Eir, fix your processes. Notice there is something fundamentally wrong with making a widow/widower jump through these hoops!!!

I can already see that another member Summer02 has had the exact same experience.

If my mum could switch her account efficiently, she would continue to pay nearly €75+.
Making her sign up as a new customer would allow her to avail of your entry level discounts ~€360 cheaper a year!

I'd love a response detailing the measures you are going to take to alleviate the hurt you are currently causing.

Thanks for taking the time to read this post.

All the best,
Steven

Hi n3lly ,

I apologise for your loss and I do genuinely apologise for any inconvenience caused. 

Unfortunately we do not deal with the changeover of accounts through this channel, otherwise, I can assure you I'd have this resolved.

The only way of contacting someone that can deal with this is by emailing accountchange@eir.ie. Can you confirm if you have received a recent update or are you still waiting for a reply from them?

Thanks

Thomas

Nekarsulm

OP, as you have now unfortunately learned, lateral thinking is not encouraged within Eir ( nor any other utility supplier).

It is actually much easier to have a male friend or relation phone up and pretend to be the deceased, and ask for the bill to be transferred into the other persons name.
 Have Date of Birth,  Mothers maiden name etc written out on a "crib sheet" for the imposter to use.

J Mysterio

eir: Thomas wrote: »

Hi n3lly ,

I apologise for your loss and I do genuinely apologise for any inconvenience caused. 

Unfortunately we do not deal with the changeover of accounts through this channel, otherwise, I can assure you I'd have this resolved.

The only way of contacting someone that can deal with this is by emailing accountchange@eir.ie. Can you confirm if you have received a recent update or are you still waiting for a reply from them?

Thanks

Thomas

Worthless

J Mysterio

I apologise for X and for any inconvenience caused. 

Unfortunately I can't do anything about this and can't be arsed looking into it further.

Please ask someone else using this generic email.

Thanks

Customer Service Rep.

weetiepie

eir: Thomas wrote: »

Hi n3lly ,

I apologise for your loss and I do genuinely apologise for any inconvenience caused. 

Unfortunately we do not deal with the changeover of accounts through this channel, otherwise, I can assure you I'd have this resolved.

The only way of contacting someone that can deal with this is by emailing accountchange@eir.ie. Can you confirm if you have received a recent update or are you still waiting for a reply from them?

Thanks

Thomas

They have already emailed the above email address???? And received no response!! Why are you encouraging them to chase their tails?? You need to follow this up as an employee of eircom..your response to the above email is a joke. It's not enough to wash your hands of the situation.

I hope that an elderly family member of your own Thomas,never has to go through this processs. Shame on you for your half assed response to the above poster. A grieving widow should not be brought to tears over this..

n3lly

Hi Thomas,

Thanks for responding to my post. I wasn't expecting much of a resolution from posting on here but I'm also pretty shocked at the pass the parcel approach you've taken.

My post indicated that I had already contacted accountchange@eir.ie (twice) without a response, you should update the system used for this email address so a customer gets some sort of auto-response email by the way with expected reply timeline.

I'd also appreciate some sort of acknowledgment that your process is broken and that your customer retention team would at least look into the poor experience your bereaved customers have to go through.

In the end, I'll read between the lines and pretend to be my dad on a phone call to your customer change team, again this is a horrible thing to have to do after your dad dies prematurely.

(Thanks for the tip Nekarsulm)

@Thomas. Your colleagues finally agreed to speak to my mum but told her she would have to wait 48 hrs, which is tomorrow. If they don't contact my mum, I probably will go to comreg.

Many thanks,
Steven

Wheety

J Mysterio wrote: »

I apologise for X and for any inconvenience caused. 

Unfortunately I can't do anything about this and can't be arsed looking into it further.

Please ask someone else using this generic email.

Thanks

Customer Service Rep.

To be fair, social media teams are very restricted in what they can do.

I know the official channels have failed for the OP here, but Boards, Facebook and Twitter is generally used to send customers to the correct place to receive a resolution to their problem.

I'd go straight to the top and either email that OP to the CEO or tweet her [ltr]@carolan_lennon[/ltr]

hots

Jesus what a joke of a response, it's an exceptional circumstance, take the poor guys account number and make a phone call to the department to get it sorted, 889 views on this thread so far judging the responses.

my3cents

Another tip is to CC comreg when you start having to email eir a second time. Comreg can't do anything directly but Eir then know that when a complaint is raised comreg already have the proof that they didn't get off their backsides to answer their email.

1hnr79jr65

Nekarsulm wrote: »

OP, as you have now unfortunately learned, lateral thinking is not encouraged within Eir ( nor any other utility supplier).

It is actually much easier to have a male friend or relation phone up and pretend to be the deceased, and ask for the bill to be transferred into the other persons name.
 Have Date of Birth,  Mothers maiden name etc written out on a "crib sheet" for the imposter to use.

That is also called fraud, what ever you think about Eir's policies or proceeduers, encouraging such activity does not make the situation better. And say Op's mother was to pass on soon and he wanted to take over the account by taking family home, should the type action be done too?

While i would'nt agree with any company doing this, i have expereinced similar with other companies myself and the response i got from them for reason they could'nt accomodate my request as the person who i wanted to take over the account from, their credit rating would then apply to me, plus new GDPR rules, which i feel is a very reasonable response to not doing this.

The op's mothers circumstance is unfortunate but legal and financial implecaitons would be a valid reason for not doing this.

tayto lover

My wife cried after ringing them too regarding getting our broadband fixed.
The member of staff was the most ignorant and uncaring person she ever spoke to.
They need to change their attitude big time.

Triboro

Shame on you Eir.
Disgraceful treatment of a 23 yr customer.

Nekarsulm

Sour Lemonz wrote: »

Nekarsulm wrote: »

OP, as you have now unfortunately learned, lateral thinking is not encouraged within Eir ( nor any other utility supplier).

It is actually much easier to have a male friend or relation phone up and pretend to be the deceased, and ask for the bill to be transferred into the other persons name.
 Have Date of Birth,  Mothers maiden name etc written out on a "crib sheet" for the imposter to use.

That is also called fraud, what ever you think about Eir's policies or proceeduers, encouraging such activity does not make the situation better. And say Op's mother was to pass on soon and he wanted to take over the account by taking family home, should the type action be done too?

While i would'nt agree with any company doing this, i have expereinced similar with other companies myself and the response i got from them for reason they could'nt accomodate my request as the person who i wanted to take over the account from, their credit rating would then apply to me, plus new GDPR rules, which i feel is a very reasonable response to not doing this.

The op's mothers circumstance is unfortunate but legal and financial implecaitons would be a valid reason for not doing this.

It might be Impersonation, but can you show me where a Fraud could occur?
Or even "Intention to defraud" ?

Ulysses Gaze

eir: Thomas wrote: »

n3lly wrote: »

I write this post while on my honeymoon (not a sentence I expected to write)..

I spoke to my mother today, she told me she was brought to tears by the lack of compassion and help your staff showed her while she tried to speak to someone about a fault on her landline.

Let me elaborate...

My dad passed away 3 months ago. I tried my best to help my mum by changing over bills after he died. Eir were particularly unhelpful. I had two options:

I) I could email accountchange@eir.ie and forward the death cert of my dad. 12 days after my dad's funeral (April 12th) I obliged.

- No response

- 7 days later, I sent another email. No response, no automated email letting me know my message had been sent or would be replied to in 'x' days etc. Silence.

II) I could sign up as a new customer. Only after I put in an order would Eir schedule an engineer to visit my mum's house. An engineer would TAKE TWO WEEKS! to arrive at my mum's house.

As my mum was only the spouse of the account owner of her landline, no one at Eir would speak to her. My mum's alarm depends on her land line, the internet (obviously) and my aunt (who lives abroad) calls my mum daily.

I emailed eir twice in April, without response. My mother called, Spoke to your reps who had not recollection of any calls. After speaking to numerous reps my mum was eventually brought to tears as a simple task such as changing the name of an account to a woman who's last name and address are the same as her deceased spouse cannot take ownership of the family account (23yr account).

All I ask is that you spare the hurt and anguish you have caused my mother for any future parent, male or female that has to go through this horrendous experience.

Eir, fix your processes. Notice there is something fundamentally wrong with making a widow/widower jump through these hoops!!!

I can already see that another member Summer02 has had the exact same experience.

If my mum could switch her account efficiently, she would continue to pay nearly €75+.
Making her sign up as a new customer would allow her to avail of your entry level discounts ~€360 cheaper a year!

I'd love a response detailing the measures you are going to take to alleviate the hurt you are currently causing.

Thanks for taking the time to read this post.

All the best,
Steven

Hi n3lly ,

I apologise for your loss and I do genuinely apologise for any inconvenience caused. 

Unfortunately we do not deal with the changeover of accounts through this channel, otherwise, I can assure you I'd have this resolved.

The only way of contacting someone that can deal with this is by emailing accountchange@eir.ie. Can you confirm if you have received a recent update or are you still waiting for a reply from them?

Thanks

Thomas

If you work for the same organisation as the Account Change folks, why not PM the OP, get their details and you or your manager contact the Account Change team and expedite this. 

You all work for the same customers. 

n3lly

Ulysses Gaze,

That was the response I was expecting but if I'm honest, I fundamentally want to highlight the inadequacy of the current process so that I can help spare the next family this ordeal.

I'm aware of GDPR regs and appreciate not being able to speak to non account holders, I'm actually ok with that.

My main issues here are:

i) no response to account change email address, it actually doesn't look like anyone owns the email alias at Eir.

ii) more importantly, my main gripe is around the 2 week waiting time to get an engineer out. Only after you cancel your account which terminates your service after 24hrs.

There's a simple solution here, allow a cancelation and new order to be completed at the same time, but the cancelation only takes place once engineer visit your site. Settle outstanding bill etc.

Living without internet and landline for two weeks would actually be ok, it's the fact that our alarm is connected to our landline. Knowing my mum would be without a house alarm was unsettling.

Anyway, it's taken since April 12th until today when my mum finally got a response from eir. (This post was simply a coincidence I believe)

Thanks for all the support everyone, Unfortunately I don't have time to chase Twitter etc (don't have an active account) and beside I should get back to my honeymoon.

I don't like taking to boards to raise a complaint like this but finding out my mum was in tears (she's doesn't cry easily) drove me to simply highlight this issue here.

Thanks again Thomas for responding, hopefully your managers can bring this issue to the table during your next team meeting.

All the best,
Steven

JaMarcus

Things like this are the reason Eir have one of the worst reputations among any company in Ireland.

A recent Reddit thread "What brands/companies do you avoid at all costs?" had Eir coming out on top, even over the Catholic Church!

eurokev

This thread has absolutely ruined my day.
So sorry for your mother OP, this process should be absolutely seamless.
Shame on EIR making a grieving older lady cry.

ChikiChiki

Thomas do better. If this was my company I would be taking the initiative on myself, veering off procedure and knocking on doors. By your response I can only assume you don't want to do this maybe because of a fear culture in Eir. Absolutely shameful carry on. Its called doing the right thing.

tedpan

Why don't Eir take ownership, PM the op and email them directly as opposed to going through an apparently useless process??

Ulysses Gaze

n3lly wrote: »

Ulysses Gaze,

That was the response I was expecting but if I'm honest, I fundamentally want to highlight the inadequacy of the current process so that I can help spare the next family this ordeal.

I'm aware of GDPR regs and appreciate not being able to speak to non account holders, I'm actually ok with that.

My main issues here are:

i) no response to account change email address, it actually doesn't look like anyone owns the email alias at Eir.

ii) more importantly, my main gripe is around the 2 week waiting time to get an engineer out. Only after you cancel your account which terminates your service after 24hrs.

There's a simple solution here, allow a cancelation and new order to be completed at the same time, but the cancelation only takes place once engineer visit your site. Settle outstanding bill etc.

Living without internet and landline for two weeks would actually be ok, it's the fact that our alarm is connected to our landline. Knowing my mum would be without a house alarm was unsettling.

Anyway, it's taken since April 12th until today when my mum finally got a response from eir. (This post was simply a coincidence I believe)

Thanks for all the support everyone, Unfortunately I don't have time to chase Twitter etc (don't have an active account) and beside I should get back to my honeymoon.

I don't like taking to boards to raise a complaint like this but finding out my mum was in tears (she's doesn't cry easily) drove me to simply highlight this issue here.

Thanks again Thomas for responding, hopefully your managers can bring this issue to the table during your next team meeting.

All the best,
Steven

Steven,

I am sorry that this has happened to you and I hope that it works out for you. 

In my organisation, which has a significant customer care presence, if a complaint and/or order change comes in that is for another department, the reps on my floor will phone or IM the relevant department and let them know what is going on as a matter of course. Sometimes physically going to the desk of the relevant individual.

They all take initiative to do this. No-one told them to. 

This is 21st century Customer Care.

Seems Eir are stuck back in the 20th Century.

Fionn

sorry to hear of all the problems that this has caused.

I've had problems with accountchange@eir.ie myself and they must be the laziest and ignorant crowd I've ever dealt with,  how they get away with it is amazing!
I tried to get a telephone number for them and was told they have no number!  like in a telecom company......no number!

I know the reps here are doing their best but obviously they cant enact change, that must come from further up the ladder.

Eir is by far the most frustrating company I've ever had to deal with.

Captain Flaps

Just adding my weight to the shock at the inadequacy of response here. THomas, your reply has cemented the fact that I will never be an eir customer in my mind.

n3lly

Thanks to everyone who has given support to this thread.

Quick update. Eir have written to my mother (rather than a simple callback which would have fixed things a lot faster). They apologised for the inconvenience and sent their condolences for her loss.

Good news for them is that we'll continue to pay the nearly 70+ euro a month bill.

Glad this has finally come to an end. Over 10 weeks since first contact. 3 months to the day nearly that my dad passed away.

Hopefully Eir review the number of views that threads get on boards and this will get some internal traction.

Best outcome would be if we got some confirmation on here that this was going to happen.

Again thanks for the support . Going to sign off now.

Steven