eFlow Customer Service getting worse.

GerardKeating

So i just did a trip to dublin and properly paid my M50 tolls (by phone, since the web site seemed not to be working at time)

And (as expected) got the usual letter for non-payment, so i dropped off the usual email to customer service and got an auto-reply.

Seem that "Direct e-mails are not handled anymore due to spam and required information"

When did this start, not actually bother with the M50 since christmas.

gerard

helimachoptor

I tried to pay online and the link wouldn't work, totally forgot about it and got a letter in a month later saying i owed 100 euro, so dropped off a mail to them and not a word back, completely incompetent.

mfield

I dropped the brother up to the airport so had to pay for going over twice. I pulled into a garage and paid the €6 on the way home.

Then I get a letter saying I went over a third time on the same day and I wasn't even near the place?!

I rang them, and they told me they'd have to get a higher-res picture and come back to me?!?

Why isn't the original photo a high res shot to start with?

Total disaster stuff! :mad:

astrofool

Haven't been through the toll since last September, but when I logged in yesterday, saw that there were two uses from the middle of February (both early morning on different days). They said they'd get back to me at some stage with what happened.

The STUPID way they do their statements where they still include your last payment, even if you didn't use the toll is ridiculous.

Anyway, shambles of a system.

baloonatic

Similar story for me, it's a joke. I tried to start an account last night and the website kept crapping out on me, what kind of idiots manage the customer service?

Zoney

I was under the impression they send out the "you haven't paid, pay this penalty now" letter to *all* first time no-registration users even if they have paid. To discourage people from not going with one of the annual options or what have you.

It all seems like an awful scam.

IIMII

baloonatic wrote: »

Similar story for me, it's a joke. I tried to start an account last night and the website kept crapping out on me, what kind of idiots manage the customer service?

Same here. Decided to ditch eazypass to stop the continous letters and just get the eFlow tag. Won't let me sign up on line though as it keeps crashing, and they won't answer the web form

tommy57

i have a post pay account before xmas they took decembers payment and october ,november all at the same time only problem was i had already payed october and november.rang them up told them and they said they,d fix it.forward on 2 weeks no reply,i rang them and they said instead of putting 70 euro back in my account they credited my eflow account(how thoughtful}.so i said i want it back in my account not a eflow one and was told i,d have to shut the account to get my money back.i said fair enough and was told i would have check by mid feb.rang them today my account is still open and they havr no record of my 70 euro.

IIMII

tommy57 wrote: »

i have a post pay account before xmas they took decembers payment and october ,november all at the same time only problem was i had already payed october and november.rang them up told them and they said they,d fix it.forward on 2 weeks no reply,i rang them and they said instead of putting 70 euro back in my account they credited my eflow account(how thoughtful}.so i said i want it back in my account not a eflow one and was told i,d have to shut the account to get my money back.i said fair enough and was told i would have check by mid feb.rang them today my account is still open and they havr no record of my 70 euro.

Balls, not much better in their system either then. I think I'll just have to start avoiding the M50

cleo1

I'm in the same boat, any trip I take I get a letter to say I haven't paid. Really at the end of my rope now with them. Same dispute going on for months. Rang them again today nearly in tears with the frustration after receiving another 3 letters. They told me it was now in the hands of a solicitor. I really feel like just paying the whole amount now just to get them off my back. Even though I have bank statments to say I've paid. I'm no longer using the toll, today I had to go to Sandyford but opted to go through town for fear of having to go through all the hoo ha yet again!
rang the national road authority to try and speak to someone about it, and guess what, you are put through to eflow customer service when you ring them. They told me that there is no direct line to the National Road Authority for the public to contact them. No surprise there, im sure there lines would be jammed! What are others doing? I really dont want to end up in court.

Chris_533976

Send them a scan of the bank statements and a solicitors letter of your own telling them in a nice way that you paid, and to shove it up their ass.

countersue them for harrassment

cleo1

After they said about it being in the hands of a solicitor, I said i'd be consulting one as this was now harrassment. Has anyone else been threatened with legal action?

Carawaystick

on breaking news on the irish times website tonight.
will it be a sham or not???

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2009/0416/breaking70.htm

quote[the irish times]
M50 toll operator 'accepts failings'

The company operating the M50 barrier-free toll, BetEire Flow, is to run a competition between its existing customer service provider and a possible replacement firm in a bid to improve customer service.

The move is in response to what the company accepts are “failings" in its customer service which have left a significant minority of M50 users frustrated at incorrect toll charges and difficulties contacting customer service representatives directly.

The French consortium operates barrier-free tolling on behalf of the National Roads Authority (NRA) and has contracted out its customer service support to Teleperformance.

BetEire Flow decided to review the system when complaints remained at higher-than-expected levels after “bedding in” the new system once the M50 barriers were removed last August.

As part of this review Co Cork-based firm Abtran will run a parallel customer service operation for M50 customers, alongside Teleperformance, for the next two months.

BetEire Flow will then decide what action to take. It is not clear what proportion of M50 customer queries will be handled by Abtran.

The competition with Abtran follows a recent report in The Irish Times on BetEire Flow’s concern with the ongoing customer service difficulties. The NRA is also unhappy with the level of complaints from M50 users, as is the National Consumer Agency.

A spokesperson from Abtran was unavailable tonight. A spokeswoman for Teleperfomance declined to comment.

In a statement BetEire Flow said: “Customer service is something we take very seriously. We accept there have been failings. In response, we initiated some weeks ago a strategic review to resolve matters to customers’ satisfaction.”

Teleperformance handles general M50 tolling queries and also provides customer support for eFlow, which provides tags behalf of the NRA and BetEire Flow.

It employs 2,400 people in Bangor and Newry in Northern Ireland and provides customer service to a range of firms including Sainsburys.

An NRA spokesman said: “Unfortunately there are still too many errors. We are working with BetEire Flow and Teleperformance, asking them to reassure us that this level of service will improve.”

Reasons for inaccurate readings include obscured number plates, incorrectly positioned tags and drivers swapping tags.[/quote]

givyjoe81

cleo1 wrote: »

I'm in the same boat, any trip I take I get a letter to say I haven't paid. Really at the end of my rope now with them. Same dispute going on for months. Rang them again today nearly in tears with the frustration after receiving another 3 letters. They told me it was now in the hands of a solicitor. I really feel like just paying the whole amount now just to get them off my back. Even though I have bank statments to say I've paid. I'm no longer using the toll, today I had to go to Sandyford but opted to go through town for fear of having to go through all the hoo ha yet again!
rang the national road authority to try and speak to someone about it, and guess what, you are put through to eflow customer service when you ring them. They told me that there is no direct line to the National Road Authority for the public to contact them. No surprise there, im sure there lines would be jammed! What are others doing? I really dont want to end up in court.

Dont be worrying, if you have evidence from the bank that you have paid you are fine. Even if they drag you to court, you'll get the case thrown out with your evidence and hopefully they judge gives em a rollocking for wasting his/her time.

I used it twice in one day for the first time a few months back. Surprise letters came out, ring up and customer service is in the North? Crazy system whereby billing and customer service are in two totally different countries never mind offices. The guys says occasionally the system gets it wrong... I say iv only used it twice, and you have billed my in error twice.. thats a 100% fook up rate.. The guy could only laugh :rolleyes:

Davidth88

They are a total and utter joke.

I have used the bridge maybe 10 times ( return ) since it changed to this system

Each time I pay the toll by cash by the next day, 5 times so far I have recvd letters saying pay 6 euro because you didn't pay. I just pin my reciept to the letter and ignore it.

Advice ..... SAVE your reciepts .

Cancel ALL accounts with them , I would not trust these people with my bank account details .

Novella

It's all a nightmare. Went to the airport about two weeks ago so was on the m50 twice, there and back. When I got home, I went online to pay the six euro but my laser card details wouldn't be accepted. I rang the phone number it said to ring if you had any problems paying online. Couldn't get through to anyone to pay. In the end, I rang my parents and asked my dad could I try to pay using his credit card details. He said it was fine, gave me his details and it was paid.
Next thing I get a letter saying I owe twelve euro because I drove the road four times.... which I most definitely didn't. What the hell?! I just ignored that though and haven't heard anything since.

GerardKeating

GerardKeating wrote: »

So i just did a trip to dublin and properly paid my M50 tolls (by phone, since the web site seemed not to be working at time)

And (as expected) got the usual letter for non-payment, so i dropped off the usual email to customer service and got an auto-reply.

Seem that "Direct e-mails are not handled anymore due to spam and required information"

When did this start, not actually bother with the M50 since christmas.

gerard

They changed the URL for the query form, would be nice if the auto response email reflect this, it still shows the old URL...

Capt'n Midnight

Truly hatted it, could not register on line for video accounts, took several phone calls to sort it out. I've spend more on phone calls than on tolls. The letter that looks like you still owe them money is completely unprofessional. I'm still not 100% sure they aren't going to gouge me later on.

I'm not suprised that half the customer support agents quit in the first few weeks

jake59

Well I have just spent the whole morning dealing with eflow and their solicitors Pierse and Fitzgibbon in Listowel and have not got anywhere. I received 2 separate solicitors letters for 152euro each (304 in total) relating to a journey made in January over and back across the toll bridge. I remember paying the 6euro at the statoil at Newlands Cross before heading home to Carlow. I rarely use the toll bridge so it wasn't too hard to remember this journey as I was bringing my daughter to a hearing specialist on that date. My problem is that even if the fee paid by me didn't come up on their system I never received any sort of notice to this effect. The first notice I get is not even from eflow. Its from their solictors so as such eflow will not deal with me and as far as the solicitors are concerned they want the full fee paid within 7 days or else a judgement and civil summons will be issued against me.
Unfortunately I don't have the receipt as I never thought anymore of it once it was paid and never thought I would be receiving solicitors letters through the post. I have rang the consumer agency and just waiting for my own solicitor to get back to me so this is all just a rant but what is the story with these people?? They would rather waste everyone's time and money going to court rather than investigate the matter. I dunno, I'm at a total loss here.

GerardKeating

jake59 wrote: »

Well I have just spent the whole morning dealing with eflow and their solicitors Pierse and Fitzgibbon in Listowel and have not got anywhere. I received 2 separate solicitors letters for 152euro each (304 in total) relating to a journey made in January over and back across the toll bridge. I remember paying the 6euro at the statoil at Newlands Cross before heading home to Carlow. I rarely use the toll bridge so it wasn't too hard to remember this journey as I was bringing my daughter to a hearing specialist on that date. My problem is that even if the fee paid by me didn't come up on their system I never received any sort of notice to this effect. The first notice I get is not even from eflow. Its from their solictors so as such eflow will not deal with me and as far as the solicitors are concerned they want the full fee paid within 7 days or else a judgement and civil summons will be issued against me.
Unfortunately I don't have the receipt as I never thought anymore of it once it was paid and never thought I would be receiving solicitors letters through the post. I have rang the consumer agency and just waiting for my own solicitor to get back to me so this is all just a rant but what is the story with these people?? They would rather waste everyone's time and money going to court rather than investigate the matter. I dunno, I'm at a total loss here.

Letters should go to the registered address for the car, mine to to the house i used to live in last year, must get it updated.

How did you pay, if it was other than payzone, you must have used a debit or credit card and should have a record.

The only payment option which does not give one a proper audit trail is cash in a payzone outlet, if this was how you paid you basically have two options, pay the incompetent thieving morans, or go to court.

If it gets to court, do you think you can remember where and when you paid, if so, you might be able to supoeana the records of payment made in the outlet at the relevevant time.

Even if you win, it might be cheaper to pay up, but since they have go legal you have no real option other than to a solicitor..

rednik

Spent over six months fighting with these clowns and only last week did I receive two letters of apology stating they were totally in the wrong. Why it took so long is beyond me. I think they should change their name to eSlow or even vereSlow. Absolute joke of a service.

Zoney

I hope people remember that it is the government who are ultimately responsible for this charade.

Apparently one in four people still have the blinkers on.

Sponge Bob

jake59 wrote: »

Well I have just spent the whole morning dealing with eflow and their solicitors Pierse and Fitzgibbon in Listowel

Oh Whoops Pierse and Fitzgibbon :eek: . Good luck !

p2kone

eflow are a proper shower of robbing bastards!

Seth Brundle

There is a thread in motors on the whole fiasco.
The solicitors allegedly will not discuss the issue with the driver, nor will eflow.
I would just bin any letters from eflow/P&FG. If you paid then leave it at that - let them sort out their own crappy system as you shouldn't have to waste your time doing it!

Carawaystick

Eflow is not a separate company but a registered business name of the NRA.
Therefore the published customer complaint procedure published by the nra for their customers is outlined here
http://www.nra.ie/AboutUs/CustomerService/

You write one letter to the regulatory manager, nra, St Martin's House, Waterloo rd., Dublin 4.
ignore the solicitors and the eflow people.

You can even email info@nra.ie and mark it for attention of the regularitory manager.

the NRA's customer charter is here
http://www.nra.ie/Publications/DownloadableDocumentation/NRAPolicyDocuments/file,11159,en.pdf

the proof that eflow is the nra is here
http://www.cro.ie/search/
enter Eflow and click on 'business name' or 'both' button

Sandrajc

Hi, I'm in the same situation as Jake my car is registered to my parents house but I live in Dublin and go through the toll back and over every 6 wks. I am visiting home this bank hol wknd and today when I stumbled upon 2 letters, they were from the mentioned solicitors telling me i owed €304 for passing through the toll in January, to be paid within 7 days or the next notice i will receive will be a summons to court and my credit rating will be affected. The letters were issued 22 April'09 so Im obviously over the 7 days and it looks like ill be summoned to court!! This is the first iv heard of these fines I got no letters quoting the STR numbers the STR numbers were not even in my account details when I logged in to pay STR numbers for the start of this month, in which I did see two other STR numbers wanting €43 that I had not received any letters for either and so I emailed the custumer service desk about them and only noticed the reply today telling me to copy and paste it to somewhere else - which I cant figure out how to do as it just links me back to the 'parent site' - does anyone know how to do this? I will be phoning eflow on Tuesday once I get proof of my January payment but Jake can you please fill me in on whats happening in yuor situation as I certainly can't afford a solicitor for this crap and I will want to buy a house someday so I dont want my credit rating affected. i am so annoyed and stressed over this they have ruined my weekend. God knows what they think I owe them, this is completely unfair to everyone. Any advice/experience is welcome.

jake59 wrote: »

Well I have just spent the whole morning dealing with eflow and their solicitors Pierse and Fitzgibbon in Listowel and have not got anywhere. I received 2 separate solicitors letters for 152euro through the post.

meathstevie

I sold a car in late october, had a receipt-contract signed with the buyer and signed and dated the back of the logbook. On the 6th of november the new owner drove my old car through the bridge twice and probably didn't pay or got registered incorrectly. Surprise surprise e-flow started to send me letters. To top it all of on the particular day I couldn't have passed through the bridge as the first passage was about 1/2 an hour before I was on a flight taking of from Dublin airport travelling to England to pick up a car. The second passage was the same day at about the time I was having a kip in my new eight year old pick-up in the port of Holyhead - Wales. I explained all this to one of their customer services people and offered him to send proof of all this but guess what...the letters kept coming. I rang them once more and they started talking about sollicitors and recovery agencies when I blew my lid and told them that the they could f-off and that the first one to show up at my door on their behalf was either going to be very brave or very stupid.... . This is nearly 4 months ago now and surprise surprise I haven't heard a thing from them.

AlekSmart

Zoney wrote: »

I hope people remember that it is the government who are ultimately responsible for this charade.

Apparently one in four people still have the blinkers on.

Indeed they have Zoney and you are SPOT ON !

I remember being amazed,nay,stupified at the pre E-Flow hysteria on the boards about signing up for tags and assorted other methods to make it easier for the NRA to empty one bank account.

The ENTIRE fiasco has its roots in the blatantly self serving Fianna Fail West Link toll decisions back in the early 1970`s...once they got away with that it was only a matter of time until we reached the dizzy heights we now occupy.

icdg

Carawaystick wrote: »

Eflow is not a separate company but a registered business name of the NRA.
Therefore the published customer complaint procedure published by the nra for their customers is outlined here
http://www.nra.ie/AboutUs/CustomerService/

You write one letter to the regulatory manager, nra, St Martin's House, Waterloo rd., Dublin 4.
ignore the solicitors and the eflow people.

You can even email info@nra.ie and mark it for attention of the regularitory manager.

the NRA's customer charter is here
http://www.nra.ie/Publications/DownloadableDocumentation/NRAPolicyDocuments/file,11159,en.pdf

the proof that eflow is the nra is here
http://www.cro.ie/search/
enter Eflow and click on 'business name' or 'both' button

Actually that only proves that the "eFlow" brand name is owned by the NRA. The system itself is operated by BetEireFlow Limited, itself a joint venture between the Societe des Autoroutes du Nord et le Est de la France (operator of tolling systems in northern and eastern France) and CS, who have a contract with the NRA to operate the system.

This is similar to the way, for example, that many UK train operating company brand names are actually owned by the Secretary of State for Transport (because they originated as British Rail brands) and licenced to the TOC for the duration of the franchise.

Carawaystick

Nope, the NRA have beteireflow as their agents, but are ultimately responsible for running the bridge. This is why there is no VAT charged. If it was a private company/business, then VAT would be charged.

Same story but different agents operate the other toll on the m50 at Dublin port.

All the other toll roads collect VAT and are run by private businesses.

beteireflow are just agents for the NRA, like dsps are for Dublin Corpo.

bog master

Doing some accounts work for a client and noticed for the Feb Statement, VAT is being applied on the toll yet website says VAT Not Applicable.

NET 2.81 VAT 0.59

And still using old VAT Rate of 21% vs Current 21.5%

Whats going on?

helimachoptor

Got a letter this morning to say my appeal has been declined and I owe them 100 euro, what power do these goons actually have?

GerardKeating

helimachoptor wrote: »

Got a letter this morning to say my appeal has been declined and I owe them 100 euro, what power do these goons actually have?

They can take a civil action against you.

If you are 100% sure you paid and can prove it in court, let them take you and counter sue for the agro..

helimachoptor

GerardKeating wrote: »

They can take a civil action against you.

If you are 100% sure you paid and can prove it in court, let them take you and counter sue for the agro..

There in lies the problem, I dont use the toll much, and normally I wait (forget) to pay until I get the letter saying I have to pay 6 euro. Now I have done this a few times.

But this particular time, the website was not letting people in to pay online, I tried from work and home over a 2 day period. So I forgot about it.
Got a letter then to say I owe 47.50 per trip, yet when I went into the website to check it, I wasnt even able to get in to the pay section.

I have no problem paying the 12 euro but I will not be paying the 95 euro.

GerardKeating

helimachoptor wrote: »

There in lies the problem, I dont use the toll much, and normally I wait (forget) to pay until I get the letter saying I have to pay 6 euro. Now I have done this a few times.

But this particular time, the website was not letting people in to pay online, I tried from work and home over a 2 day period. So I forgot about it.
Got a letter then to say I owe 47.50 per trip, yet when I went into the website to check it, I wasnt even able to get in to the pay section.

I have no problem paying the 12 euro but I will not be paying the 95 euro.

Website is not the only option, there is the equally patetic call centre.

Also any payzone outlet...

helimachoptor

GerardKeating wrote: »

Website is not the only option, there is the equally patetic call centre.

Also any payzone outlet...

Yep I know, but as I'm in an office its by the far the easiest way for me, I may call them and see if they can sort something out

CiaranC

helimachoptor wrote: »

There in lies the problem, I dont use the toll much, and normally I wait (forget) to pay until I get the letter saying I have to pay 6 euro. Now I have done this a few times.

But this particular time, the website was not letting people in to pay online, I tried from work and home over a 2 day period. So I forgot about it.
Got a letter then to say I owe 47.50 per trip, yet when I went into the website to check it, I wasnt even able to get in to the pay section.

I have no problem paying the 12 euro but I will not be paying the 95 euro.

Just ignore the *****, they stop trying eventually

jaylo

similar problem, eflow have now passed me onto this crowd, pierse and fitzgibbon who are charging us upwards of €1362 for journeys dating back to last year. Fines arrived through the post for 08 journeys in spring 09, and by then they had risen to alarming rates. eflow are awful - not our problem talk to the solicitor. I had, I thought sorted this out weeks ago when two agents assured me on separate occasions that the debt would be cleared by signing up for one of their video accounts, and that would be the end or it. Last week however, a stream of letters from these solicitors began, and apparantley we haven't had them all yet! Has anyone had to deal with such large amounts from eflow? It might be worthwhile getting the solicitor onto this one, any opinions?

mick-fitz8585

Lads hope one of u can help i went over the m50 on the 12 of april and had forgot to pay the toll be 8pm the next day,i got around to paying it on the 21 of april as it left my mind, iv know got a letter saying iv to pay a 47.50 fine for LATE payment,

Do these really have a leg to stand on charging 40 odd euro for a 3 euro late payment which was pay,d before any letters showed up at my house

Any help would be great

GerardKeating

mick-fitz8585 wrote: »

Lads hope one of u can help i went over the m50 on the 12 of april and had forgot to pay the toll be 8pm the next day,i got around to paying it on the 21 of april as it left my mind, iv know got a letter saying iv to pay a 47.50 fine for LATE payment,

Do these really have a leg to stand on charging 40 odd euro for a 3 euro late payment which was pay,d before any letters showed up at my house

Any help would be great

The only leg they have to stand on is the relevant legislation and they are following that to the letter.

You admit that you forgot to pay, the penalties for doing so were well publicised at the time.

Cuddlesworth

Ignore them. They can try take you to court, feel free to present your evidence of a paid journey, then claim for expenses such as phone calls and wage earnings lost for being made go to court. I really doubt any court cases will ever see the light of day.

Carawaystick

You cold read through the consumer protection act
section 43 (3) (c) outlaws the misleading advertising of the price of a service.

The ads on the M50 say the price for a car is EUR3 and discounts may apply.
obviously, charging more than the stated price falls foul of this.
As the M50 between the N4 and N3 is under a byelaw, then this national law trumps that and there is no more than EUR 3 to be paid by a car driver.

Check the misleading commercial practices section of the act.

Zoney

I sincerely hope that this nonsense gets to endemic enough levels that there will be no option other than for the govt. to give up on the whole scheme. It is outrageous.

GerardKeating

Carawaystick wrote: »

You cold read through the consumer protection act
section 43 (3) (c) outlaws the misleading advertising of the price of a service.

The ads on the M50 say the price for a car is EUR3 and discounts may apply.
obviously, charging more than the stated price falls foul of this.
As the M50 between the N4 and N3 is under a byelaw, then this national law trumps that and there is no more than EUR 3 to be paid by a car driver.

Check the misleading commercial practices section of the act.

Actually (and i hate to defend the waste of space tools in BetFlow/NRA) there is nothing misleading about the tolls and fines.

The signs correctly dispalys the toll. And the fines for late payment were widely published...

CiaranC

GerardKeating wrote: »

Actually (and i hate to defend the waste of space tools in BetFlow/NRA) there is nothing misleading about the tolls and fines.

The signs correctly dispalys the toll. And the fines for late payment were widely published...

There is no sign before the last exit before the toll in either direction.

GerardKeating

CiaranC wrote: »

There is no sign before the last exit before the toll in either direction.

Hmm, now that you mention it, was there ever?

Carawaystick

GerardKeating wrote: »

The signs correctly displays the toll. And the fines for late payment were widely published...

but there's nothing advertising that a late payment causes an increased charge, which the nra call a standard toll request - it's not a fine as only a court can impose a fine.
If the standard toll request is higher than the advertised price then that's an issue which is misleading to an average customer, and therefore could be ilegal.

brian ireland

This thread prompted me to look at my eflow account.
I don't use it that much maybe once every two months. There is a charge on my account for 18 march @ 7.36 am. I was in work on this day at this time and did not use the toll. I called and they said it was a charge for a previous journey,
so i asked when way the journey made? Answer don't know.

I said my very few journeys on my account all have times indicated are for two way trips. This is a one way trip, How? Answer form etoll Don't know!!

I asked for a photo of the my car reg on the alleged journey. Answer we don't have one.
I know its only 2.50 but if they done that everyone one a year it would be a lot of easy money..
Anyway now they will investigate it and get back to me..

helimachoptor

I logged in to see my fines... It wont evengive me the option to pay, utter clowns