Eircom Customer "Service"

mossie

Some time ago I had an issue with Eircom and had no success in getting a response from them until I wrote to the Irish Examiner detailing my problems. Not surprisingly once my letter was published I was snowed under with calls from Eircom, and was visited by several technicians.

I have now run into another problem with Eircom, and once again have run into a barrier where no-one seems to have interest in solving my problem. This all began last November when I called 1901 to request the installation of a phone line in my new house in late January, and the transfer of my number to the new line. I went through the application with the girl on the line and she assured me my line would be installed not later than January 28th. I have since misplaced my notes of the persons name and my order reference.

I expected that I would receive a contract to sign, and when I had not received this a few weeks later I called 1901 again to be assured my order was progressing and I would receive the contact in the weeks before the installation. When I called 1901 again yesterday I was told there was no record of any order for me, and it would take at least two weeks and possibly up to two months before I would have the line installed. The gentleman said he would put an “expedite request” but could not guarantee that this would have any success. A call to Customer Services this morning was a waste of time as their attitude was basically – “there is no record of an order, tough luck”. Overall I am shocked by the carelessness of Eircom’s staff and the less than helpful nature of their Customer Services.

I accept that I should have retained the details of who I spoke to but this is still a very poor reflection on Eircom, the order was placed and taken by an Eircom representative, but someone in Eircom made a mess of it. As a result of Eircom’s incompetence I am now inconvenienced, and as a result may be without a phone, broadband, Sky etc for weeks or even months. The sooner the provision of phone lines is opened up to competition the better it will be for all of us.

Of course the there is the situation where, if you have a complaint, you have a form on the website where you cannot use more than 400 characters which isn't even enough for to start complaining:mad: And writing to Comreg is a waste of time, they don't ever seem to answer. Any ideas of any way to push Eircom to speed up this order??
Mossie

dotsman

Leave Eircom?

that's what I did. That's what a lot of people are doing. Ultimately, they are an Australian short-term-profit-squeezing company which laughs at its effective monopoly in the Irish market.

mossie

dotsman wrote: »

Leave Eircom?

that's what I did. That's what a lot of people are doing. Ultimately, they are an Australian short-term-profit-squeezing company which laughs at its effective monopoly in the Irish market.

I intend to but unfortunately to get my phone line moved Eircom are my only option

Sponge Bob

port your number to blueface instead .

wmpdd3

If there was a line there before, in theory it can be done in a matter of minutes.

If not it's a new connection and a engineer has to physically go out to connect the line, so there's not much chance of speeding it up.

For anybody ordering a new line or moving house etc, get a order no. when the request has been given over the phone. Atleast then you know the request went into the system.

God though, I'd love to see the notes on your account!!!!

tony1kenobi

I thought it was generally accepted that eircom will lie to you and a new line will take approximately 12 months to install.

An uncle of my ex used to (probably still does) line installations. He spent the majority of his time parking his van at an exchange and playing golf.

He is a pretty nifty golfer by my understanding.

mossie

wmpdd3 wrote: »

If there was a line there before, in theory it can be done in a matter of minutes.

If not it's a new connection and a engineer has to physically go out to connect the line, so there's not much chance of speeding it up.

For anybody ordering a new line or moving house etc, get a order no. when the request has been given over the phone. Atleast then you know the request went into the system.

God though, I'd love to see the notes on your account!!!!

It is a new line so I guess It's wait and wait...

IsThatSo?

7 years ago I had a similiar issue, in the end we waited 3 months for our line installation. There were constraints on them, in fairness, as it was a new estate etc.

The week I was due to start on maternity leave I rang them up and told them there was no way I could be at home all day on my own with no phone and a baby imminent. The response................Can you get a mobile phone? Now 7 years ago not that many people had mobile phones in comparison to today. Anyway, I nearly cried, it being my first baby I was nervous and had no idea about what would happen etc and genuinely needed a phone. The day I started my ML I came home and the phone was working.

They do have to give pregnant women priority, or they did back then. Not sure if its any use to you............but you could try it

IsThatSo?

Forgot to mention............I don't suppose you are in an area that can get NTL? I use them now for phone, BB and TV and find the service reliable and good value. Their CS can be pretty dire, but I don't need it often for it to be a problem

mossie

IsThatSo? wrote: »

They do have to give pregnant women priority, or they did back then. Not sure if its any use to you............but you could try it

Nope, single male. Thanks for the idea though.

mossie

IsThatSo? wrote: »

Forgot to mention............I don't suppose you are in an area that can get NTL? I use them now for phone, BB and TV and find the service reliable and good value. Their CS can be pretty dire, but I don't need it often for it to be a problem

No NTL but do have chorus who are the same crowd now right??? Anyway I have had bad experiences with them in the past too.

An update on my original post. I reported this to Comreg by email and was surprised to get a call back next day. The girl there said I would have to make a formal complaint to eircom. Now when I called eircom CS on Tuesday the lady there refused to take a complaint as I had no order ref but this time the guy did. Anyway Comreg are "very interested" in my problem and will pursue with eircom.

One question - how long after ordering should I expect to receive the contract to sign?

Thanks.
Mossie

Cabaal

Sponge Bob wrote: »

port your number to blueface instead .

I think he needs a PSTN line to get Broadband so that really isn't an option sadly..

I've ordered three eircom phone lines over the years and they sent me contracts in all three cases which I never signed and returned but they still activated or installed the lines

None of them took longer then 2-3 weeks to either activate an existing line or get an engineer out to do the work to put in a line

Wudyaquit

Had a similar issue. Ringing complaints seems to help - the people you get through to are complete idiots - they can't even contact people within their own company which says a lot given the industry they're in.

On the plus side - if they take more than 2 months to install, you get 2 month's free line rental. Ring customer services (1800 40 40 40, I think) and mention it and you should get it on the bottom of your next bill...

foggy_lad

Wudyaquit wrote: »

Had a similar issue. Ringing complaints seems to help - the people you get through to are complete idiots - they can't even contact people within their own company which says a lot given the industry they're in.

On the plus side - if they take more than 2 months to install, you get 2 month's free line rental. Ring customer services (1800 40 40 40, I think) and mention it and you should get it on the bottom of your next bill...

i recently ordered an eircom phone line thanks to their january offer of totally free installation regardless of whether line is in place, after being told last year that all work in the area would be done by last september i was a bit surprised to hear that the installation would be done on 25th of february at the earliest.