Are Eir really as terrible as the reviews are saying?

corks finest

The DayDream wrote: »

The comments from Carolan Lennon Eir CEO tell you all you need to know about this company. She basically claimed people in Sligo were too thick to work in a call centre and that was why call wait times and customer service was brutal.

I worked in a call centre for a UK broadband and phone company back in 2006-08 which was located in the same business park Eir is in now. 15 years ago a call centre could be staffed properly in Sligo. If they can't staff one now when the average joe and mary are probably far more tech savvy, that's on Eir.

Of course, after the last centre laid everyone off and moved to the Philippines for cheaper wages maybe the citizens of Sligo aren't seeing being verbally abused day in day out as an appealing option, when the wages are crap and you'll probably be out of a job once the company can find cheap overseas staff.

The wait times are long because companies constantly understaff to pinch pennies. They make so many mistakes because they know only 1 of every 5 people will read and question their bills. They keep you waiting as long as legally possible and make the menus so annoying so they have to pay as little humans as possible and also so you'll give up. It's all by design.

I can't imagine how the staff felt hearing the CEO say those things, they're already positioned as punching bag for angry customers and then the CEO doesn't even hide her disdain for the lowly paid people she uses to insulate management and herself from customers.

I would never ever use Eir.

I'd not put any other human being in touch with those apes

corks finest

The DayDream wrote: »

The comments from Carolan Lennon Eir CEO tell you all you need to know about this company. She basically claimed people in Sligo were too thick to work in a call centre and that was why call wait times and customer service was brutal.

I worked in a call centre for a UK broadband and phone company back in 2006-08 which was located in the same business park Eir is in now. 15 years ago a call centre could be staffed properly in Sligo. If they can't staff one now when the average joe and mary are probably far more tech savvy, that's on Eir.

Of course, after the last centre laid everyone off and moved to the Philippines for cheaper wages maybe the citizens of Sligo aren't seeing being verbally abused day in day out as an appealing option, when the wages are crap and you'll probably be out of a job once the company can find cheap overseas staff.

The wait times are long because companies constantly understaff to pinch pennies. They make so many mistakes because they know only 1 of every 5 people will read and question their bills. They keep you waiting as long as legally possible and make the menus so annoying so they have to pay as little humans as possible and also so you'll give up. It's all by design.

I can't imagine how the staff felt hearing the CEO say those things, they're already positioned as punching bag for angry customers and then the CEO doesn't even hide her disdain for the lowly paid people she uses to insulate management and herself from customers.

I would never ever use Eir.

I promised myself never to look at this thread again as it puts me in a dark mood as it brings back the way I was treated by those horrible yokes in customer care,they just don't care

straighttohell

The thing is, one is stuck with the fu**ers. I’ve tried to upgrade the modem I have with eir, gave up trying to contact them, but every few weeks without fail I get a nicely worded text, “ my bill is available to view...” Bastards.
Also I know people who’ve cancelled them expecting to jump to another provider and have ended up with no broadband.
Especially now, no broadband can mean can’t do my job. Can’t risk it.
This is real corrupt third world crap....
As someone said previously, shouldn’t go on this forum, gets me riled up.

richardw001

There was a bit of a talk in the Dail back 5 months ago - from what I can see nothing has changed/been done about it

https://www.rte.ie/news/business/2020/1209/1183452-eir-comreg-complaints/

If you have an issue with Eir then the things to bear in mind are:

- Eir don't provide an email address/correspond via email
- Still a huge waiting time on the customer care line - and when you do get
through don't expect any issue to be sorted easily

In terms of addressing issues my advice is:

- Forget the 1901 number
- Log the issue with that webmail contact form
- when they don't reply/address the issue - raise the issue as a case with
Comreg - explaining you cannot contact this company that are
supposedly operating in the country

Last comment I would have is to everyone really:

If you have elderly family members (a lot of people have stuck with them - from the Eircom of old days) - check their bills and make sure they are being charged correctly and reasonably. Older people are being hit with huge bills - when they might only use a landline and a little bit of broadband usage.

Why the Gov and Comreg can't put something effective in place here is beyond me - In my view a penalty like a 12 contract refund to customers where a Comreg complaint is upheld is what is needed here for them to start behaving like a proper company.

The DayDream

That's actually really good advice above re: the bills of the elderly etc. Eir really are ripping huge amounts of people off, who can't navigate their labyrinth (by design as I said) of 'customer service'.

The service I worked for were the same, they all have plenty of billing errors generated to keep the money rolling in. Telecoms are all scammers. And they are basically pump and dump stocks, as soon as they become profitable they are sold off for a nice jackpot. Hoover up customers with sign up offers than bend them over with ridiculous bills later.

And Eir don't even need to boost profits for a sell off, not for now. Tho it's the endgame for most of them.

paddy19

I'm reluctant to put my head above the parapet....

It worked for me but obviously your experience may be distinctly worse.
Signed up for the excellent €29.99 offer 12 months ago.

Decided to see could I actually exit without getting caught for the new €59.99 rate.

Month in advance tried calling, 30 minutes wait time. I won't wait 30 minutes to get served in a shop, so I see no reason to wait for Eir.

Lodged a complaint to ccm@eir.ie. This is the Eir customer complaint account monitored by Comreg.

Complained about response time and sent a copy of my last bill and requested cancellation day before contract expired. Got a reply agreeing to termination.

Last bill arrived and was wrong.
Replied to email saying bill was wrong.
Eir replied saying bill was cancelled.
Direct debit day came and went with no sign of Eir charge.

Got a letter from Eir with address label. Returned equipment via ParcelMotel.

Happy out.

Thoie

paddy19 wrote: »

I'm reluctant to put my head above the parapet....


Happy out.

Maybe they're turning a corner.

paganist

Looking for advice....
I use Eir for broadband and have 2 mobiles with them. My broadband contract was due to expire in April 2021. I found out yesterday they extended it to November 2021 because I changed one of my cell phones to a 30 day contract last November. To me this completely dishonest on their part, how can they extend a year contract when i switched to a 30 day contract???

The lady said I’m stuck on that contract and it would cost €250 to terminate. I tried 4 times yesterday to call their complaints line but it dropped off after around 8 minutes each time. I tried 1901 today but they don’t work on weekends....

straighttohell

The fact that you actually spoke to a human from eircom is itself an acheivment and is worthy of celebration......

paddy19

paganist wrote: »

Looking for advice....
I use Eir for broadband and have 2 mobiles with them. My broadband contract was due to expire in April 2021. I found out yesterday they extended it to November 2021 because I changed one of my cell phones to a 30 day contract last November. To me this completely dishonest on their part, how can they extend a year contract when i switched to a 30 day contract???

The lady said I’m stuck on that contract and it would cost €250 to terminate. I tried 4 times yesterday to call their complaints line but it dropped off after around 8 minutes each time. I tried 1901 today but they don’t work on weekends....

Best bet is email ccm@eir.ie, this email account is monitored for Comreg.

Thanks to our good friends in the EU, consumer contracts have to be clear.
If they are not clear then they must be interpreted to the advantage of the consumer.
https://europa.eu/youreurope/business/dealing-with-customers/consumer-contracts-guarantees/consumer-contracts/index_en.htm

I would complain that contract terms were not made clear to you when you changed to the 30 day option.

Yggr of Asgard

I hate eir (no other option now but to use them) but they make it truly clear that if you go for the discounted 30-day SIM only plan (i.e. the "Existing Customer" chosen) than you sign up for a 12 month renewal of your broadband contract:

Is my existing eir Broadband service recontracted if I add eir mobile SIM Only to my broadband bundle?
Yes. If you are an existing broadband customer and want to add eir mobile SIM only to your bundle, your broadband will be re-contracted for 12 months.

That is the price one pays for the 5€ discount in the mobile subscription.

Now it depends on how paganist ordered the 30-day SIM, if it was online, then slim chance of eir or comreg resolving this in paganist favor, as it's very clearly pointed out during the ordering process:

There is a clearly visible notice when ordering which you can only get passed by clicking a big green button:

Existing eir customer?
To add mobile to your existing bundle and avail of our loyalty pricing you will need to provide your eir account number.
By adding sim only mobile to your existing broadband bundle your broadband service will be re-contracted for a minimum of 12 months.

That 5€ saving is clearly not worth getting roped into another 12 months of their broadband but unfortunately, it's what it is.

Now if this were done over the phone or in a store than I would suggest checking the order confirmation mail/paperwork and if that does not state that the loyalty price is conditioned on the 12-month renewal, for sure there is a good chance that eir will resolve this in your favor.

paganist

Great info, thanks.

I genuinely had no idea that was the case. I switched to the 30 day sim only plan over the phone. 100% the guy never told because I’ve been waiting to switch broadband since last summer.

Ive emailed the complaint, I’ll wait and see how it goes.

paganist

A quick update on this.

I emailed ccm@eir.ie as suggested. It took a few emails but eventually I got rid of the 2 cell phone lines and home broadband without any penalties or charges.

Everything seemed to be grand until last week I started receiving bills again out of the blue with some random €99 charges. I replied to the ccm@eir.ie emails and am waiting to hear back.

It seems like the right thing to do is email ccm@eir.ie when you have any issues. You have everything down on record where they can be held accountable and if any of these random charges pop up you don’t need to spend a **** load of time on the phone getting pissed off, you just email.

yankinlk

paganist wrote: »

A quick update

It seems like the right thing to do is email ccm@eir.ie when you have any issues.

Thanks for the idea I might try it. I'm still getting bills over 14 months later but they have never rang, emailed or threatened me. (I'm on page 5 of this thread lol)

I honestly wonder how long the bills will continue, I have everything all boxed up, modem and TV ready to collect. They might be for the museum by the time this is resolved.

tobefrank321

They are hopeless. I signed up for 30 day sim only mobile broadband at 14.99 a month. The confirmation mail was wrong, saying my first bill would be 50 euro. Fair enough, its EIR, probably a mistake and they wouldn't screw up the actual bill. First bill arrives and its for 85 euro. And I only used about half the 30 gb limit. Going to email that address above for starters not not hopeful.

tobefrank321

Talked to one of their chat assistants, which is probably a bot. Advised me to call 1905. I try calling 1905, it says the number is unavailable.

tobefrank321

Issue resolved now after sending an email.

ppg

Moved to eir a month ago. Can't wait for eleven months to pass so I can change

rn

And now it's official.

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/consumer/and-the-worst-company-in-ireland-for-customer-experience-in-2021-is-1.4719216

Amazingly they are nearly twice as bad as the next worst companies.

Romero

Well I can only go on my experience with Eir, having taken a chance with their 48 Month Fibre package I got it installed last week but had to speak to their helpdesk a few times to get my number ported over from Virgin, I rang them on Friday afternoon around 4pm and it had ported by 12 Noon on Monday.

I had some queries about the pricing on the contract (had to setup direct debit for an additional 2 euros discount) and got it all sorted. I found on average I was waiting 15 minutes at most, sometimes quicker. helpdesk staff were friendly and knew their stuff so really I don't have any complaints about the service I got from the Eir helpdesk. I actually found it a hell of a lot better then my experiences over the years from Virgin Media.

So for broadband and landline package my experience with Eir so far has been positive.

Djcon

I was with Eir for years for phone and broadband. I had tv with virgin. I decided to leave eir in 2020 so i could move everything onto the one bill. Have to say i never had any major problems with eir. Several years ago their customer service was a nightmare constantly being transferred to another department, going around in circles. ocassionaly you would get someone who knew thier stuff.

I have to say in recent years thier customer service has come on in leaps and bounds to the point where they are no worse than anyone else and better than some. Even leaving them was handled in a friendly and professional manner. Only a few weeks ago i received a refund cheque for 40 euro, that i was not expecting.

personally in my situation i found thier broadband fttc, at the time was rock solid.

You will always get more negative reviews on the internet than positive and a lot based on hearsay. but most telecoms are much of a muchness.

Penn

I've been with eir for broadband for over 12 months. It's grand.

Phone contract with Vodafone was ending, so tried to switch to eir to get a combined broadband & mobile bundle. Got a call the next day saying they couldn't give me the offer I signed up to because it it was only for new customers (even though there was nothing on the site saying it was only for new customers, and I was a new mobile customer). Their Bill Pay department said their Loyalty team might be able to give me a discount. Called them. They couldn't find the account because it was signed up as a new account rather than adding to my existing one. Told to call the Sales team. Sales team couldn't find the account, told me to contact Bill Pay. I explained Bill Pay sent me to Loyalty who sent me to Sales, he put me on hold for a few minutes, then told me to go back to Loyalty.

After half an hour on hold, I emailed Bill Pay, told them to cancel the order I had made, I'd redo it and add mobile to my existing broadband account. Said phone would be delivered in 3-4 days.

Week later, nothing. I emailed their team, no answer. I called and was told since it was an online order, I could only email. So I emailed again a few days later. And again. And again. Money taken from my bank account for the new phone, but nothing.

Contacted them on Twitter, was told they'd get someone to call me. Few days later, still nothing. Messaged on twitter again to say if I didn't get an update, I would be cancelling the order. They responded to say they cancelled the order and I'd get a refund in a few days.

Renewed my contract with Vodafone even though it'll cost me about an extra €250 over two years. F*ck Eir.

SouthWesterly

Been with them for 4 years and now in a 2 year deal.

Found customer services great to deal with.

I've 500 mb ftth plus 2 mobiles sim only for 45 a month.

Cant go wrong with that 😁

rn

I have to say my experience is mixed. Had their efibre product in my old house. Installed straight forward. Rock solid 100 down 20 up as per the brochure. Fast forward to my new house, a new build. Cannot get connected even by offering my first born. What's worse is I keep getting different excuses as to why the won't connect me. Neighbour who did same as me got connected: his advice was just keep ringing until you get connected to someone who can do what you needed. Anyway too too much hassle. In the end got a WiFi bridge installed between next door neighbours and myself, they already connected and we split the bill. And it's working brilliantly. For half the price.

Ah-Watch

They're as bad as they say yes

I ordered broadband and phone from Eir in July after the landline had only been disconnected by Sky a few days beforehand. I had no less than 5, yes 5 failed activation / installation appointments from them and their follow up and support was beyond desperate. I was desperate to get broadband activated and persisted and still no luck. I even emailed Carolan Lennon twice pleading for some form of support or escalation and radio silence from them. Ended up ordering from Sky and it was activated 3 days later.

Eir also charged me for not returning the modem they provided despite me requesting they come and collect it as it was no use to me. I tried several times to reach out to eir and see why they were billing me for services that weren't even activated and despite 4 promised call backs I got none. I ended up passing it to Comreg and within 24 hours someone in Eir reached out and credited the charges but it shouldn't have taken me going to Comreg to get someone to answer why they were billing me for something they never activated.

I had a MBB from them and called last week to cancel it and it took me another 4 calls to get through, first 2 said the call centre were experiencing call routing issues and call again. It took me 37 minutes to get through to customer care despite the website saying 14 minutes and another 41 to get through to the cancellations department where I was met with the most disinterested, rudest person when I said I just wanted to cancel.

An utter disgrace of a company and that goes for Carolan Lennon too and her crappy comments on Sligo call centre employees and her non existent support herself. Sham of a company.

Captain cabbage

I have never had a worse experience with any other company by far. Its seems to be really badly managed.

Expect that the old eircom heads have no clue about running a successful mobile phone business.

I have cluster headaches and this is as bad as those. The frustration made me ill dealing with them over 2 years

Doodah7

On the flip side I have had a fair few dealings with eir in 2021 and all of them were resolved satisfactorily. The highlight being an issue on our phone line that was repaired within three HOURS of me logging the fault with eir. Added to that the issues of moving a relative from eir to Vodafone (for plan cost reasons) that went seamlessly as well as upgrading my wife's phone that went unnoticed in terms of line availability and functionality and I have no reason to complain about eir CS.

It is the nature of the Internet that those with issues will shout loudest while those who have uninterrupted service just take it for granted and go about their business. The moans will therefore always outweigh the praise.

Burt Renaults

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118350163#Comment_118350163

If everything is working, or the fault is a simple one, they're fine. But when things go wrong, they go very badly wrong. They mis-sold me a broadband package a few years ago (a technical error on their part, which should have been easy to resolve) and then made it impossible to escape from the contract. After paying for a non-existent service for several months with no resolution, I tried to cancel the contract. The only way out was to make a formal complaint. I did this twice, and both times the complaint disappeared off their system. I was left with no choice in the end, but to cancel the direct debit. It took a two minute phone conversation with their debt collection contractor (BCW) to resolve it in the end. They assured me that I wouldn't be hearing from them again. Nearly half a decade on, I still get the odd email from Eircom itself, demanding various sums of money (it's different every time), but it goes straight into my spam folder.

jethrothe2nd

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118350163#Comment_118350163

I've had cause to contact them a handful of times this year as well, and my general view is that the quality of service is very dependant on the agent. Training is obviously inconsistent. Wait times can still be quite long and a couple of the calls I had left me seething, but the big things that needed to be addressed were done so pretty efficiently. In those cases the agents clearly knew what they were doing.

I was considering moving providers, but in the end I just dumped the TV package which is nothing more than OK, and kept the BB which is stable and decent.

893bet

i have mobile and recently broadband through Eir business. They seem much better than the previous residential customer care.