Advice Needed to respond to Eircom

Robin1982

Firstly, my situation: I rent a room in a large apartment with 5 others. Only 2 of us decided to go with subscribing to Eircom broadband using the Dolphins Barn exchange.

I signed a 12-month contract last Nov (2004). In April, as we don't have direct debit set up and the bill was late in arriving, we missed paying a bill. We waited until the next bill arrived and paid all the monies that were due. A week or so after that 2nd bill, my broadband stopped working.

A call to Eircom and after being shipped around different departments finally was told that Credit Dept had applied for my broadband to be ceased because of non-payment of a bill therefore resulting in breach of contract. I said that bill was now paid and wanted BB back. Told I had to reapply, I said "Ok, I reapply" and then told had to go thru official channels again. After initially being told I couldn't reapply because special offer was on at the time, a few days later I rang back and helpline people said "nay, all is cool, as long as you are willing to pay €99 reconnection, your back in business" - so I agreed (I use BB a lot) as long as the Broadband was working again.

However was then informed that no port free on exchange - apparantly once I was disconnected, the port was disconnected and must have been given to first person on waiting queue. Now I'm on the queue (for almost 6 weeks now) and with no end in sight may have to resign to the fact that I will have to pay the remaining 6 months of the Eircom broadband bills plus line rental etc without actually having broadband.

What should my next action be? Do I have any claim to refuse to pay the rest of the contract because i'm not getting what i'm paying for? Govt dept or anything? The one thing is that it's not my name on the bill its my housemate's but i'm the main user and the only one trying to do anything about it.

Any helpful comments appreciated...

kaizersoze

Why should you keep paying?
Eircom says you were in breech of contract and disconnected your service. My understanding from that is your contract is now terminated hence you have to re-apply for the the service, which means a new contract. Plus all monies owing has been paid.
If it was me I would cancel all with Eircom, get a cancellation number and go with someone else like BT or Smart.

Blaster99

If Eircom has no ports, then BT won't have any ports either, which leaves Smart. Is that not one of NTL's enabled areas as well?

dub45

Lucky you - Smart are in Dolphin's Barn so off you go!

kaizersoze

Blaster99 wrote:

If Eircom has no ports, then BT won't have any ports either, which leaves Smart. Is that not one of NTL's enabled areas as well?

Something tells me that this is Eircoms way of trying to teach him a lesson. Maybe it's true that there are no ports available, but I doubt it

dub45

kaizersoze wrote:

Something tells me that this is Eircoms way of trying to teach him a lesson. Maybe it's true that there are no ports available, but I doubt it

That would be silly on their part - why should they throw away money?

kaizersoze

dub45 wrote:

That would be silly on their part - why should they throw away money?

Have you never heard of companies (especially large ones) using this tactic? I know I have.
And even if their story was true, are they not throwing money away by not having enough equipment in the exchange to connect as many customers as they can?

Kristok

Thats the most ridiculous thing ive ever heard. Yes eircom hold grudges, they care that much about having their bills paid ontime that there going to send him into the arms of another company. Eircom are a company and if the bill has been paid in full they will be happy to reconnect him as long as its possible.

The equipment in the exchange costs a fortune and they are not going to add more ports unless there is significant need ie not one or two customers who wouldnt cover the cost.

As for the problem get onto customer service and make your case for a refund of any months youve been without broadband and paying for it. It wont get you your broadband back on but you will get your money if they gave the port away to someone else regardless of why that happened. If that dosnt work get onto comreg but it should its just a matter of keeping at them till you get a response.

JNive

exactly, you are willing to get and pay for the service, yet eircom are PHYSICALLY unable to provide it, so they cannot fulfil the original contract, hence you shoul dnot be liable for their inabililty to provide you with access to it ( possibly as force majeur opt-out clause in there somewhere )

Also were you given any warning letter after your bill , that it was overdue and that if unpaid would be disconnected. Also, the bill is assumed to have been 'served' 3 days after the posting date, so use that this as a measure of when the bill was received, any other delays are due to the postal service.

Also, i find it highly dubious that they would file for non-payment action after your paying of the due balance. in general, after 2 weeks from bill, they send a warning, and ingeneral if not paid within 2 weeks of the issue date of the following bill, then yes, there would be immediate disconnection, requiring a €20 re-connection fee ( for pstn line anyway ).

Also, eircom have a 6-month contract now

Kristok

Eircom are a big company if something gets started like a non payment of a bill it can be hard to stop it just because the person who started it stops it at his end. In all likly hood he dosnt know what happens after he clicks on bill not payed and its passed onto another department who pass it onto someone else etc. While it should be just a matter of saying ok the bills been paid theres so much bureaucracy going on stuff like this happens. The moral of the story is NEVER let bills go unpaid or you could be screwed.