Eircom Phonewatch door-to-door €1500?

condra

Has anyone else had these guys knocking on your doors?

My father recently dealt with a VERY PUSHY agent, who insisted the following:
- €1500 was "cost price" and a limited promotional offer.
- Eircom were not making any profit on Phonewatch.
- Payment had to be upfront, and the agent could not leave any leaflets, brochures or contact details.

Do these guys work for Eircom or are they marketing company sales guys?

I know you could say "just close the door if you're not interested", but some older people are too polite to do that, and my dad felt like this guy was taking advantage of his politeness. The agent even insisted on calling back the following day, which he did.

The Eircom site itself says the following:

Our alarm systems range in price depending on your requirements and the size and layout of your home. Pre-wired alarm systems are available from €599 and wire free alarm systems from €680*. As a new customer you will receive three months free alarm monitoring in your first year - bringing the total alarm monitoring cost to €25.50 per month payable by direct debit or €229.50 paid on installation of your alarm system.

Seems pricey enough, but still nowhere near €1500. Eircom are also appearantly offering a €200 euro discount if you order online.

The various options are a bit confusing, especially when trying to compare Phonewatch with competitors schemes, but this pushy door to door stuff seems like a bad way of doing business to me. Maybe that's naive.

I dont know much about home security though. Is €1500 a decent price? I'm not sure exactly what sort of monitoring options this price included.

Incidentally, my father has actually decided to get rid of Eircom as his telephone landline supplier and switch to NTL. It's something he has been thinking about for a while, but this guy pushed him over the line, and from now on Eircom are in his "bad books".

taram

The fact he had no leaflets and wanted an upfront payment is dodgy to me, eircom has no qualms about sending leaflets about every little thing in the mail, never mind on a sales agent. My family got phonewatch about 6-7 years ago, and find it indispensible tbh. We have I'd say 75% of what's on the equipment page on their site and think it was around 600 including 2 years of monitoring including, this is for a 6 bed house. Was the 1500 a blanket price? Because each item and different monitoring options cost very different prices.

Oh also eircom phonewatch monitoring/repair people are totally different from normal eircom, ie. they know what's going on and are nice

Cabaal

Sounds like a con alright, I'd say report him to Gardai and at the very least advise Eircom.

Sounds like somebody trying to con money out of old people

MunsterCycling

Let the boys in Blue know these feckers are in the area.

MC

Paulw

Call Eircom PhoneWatch and let them know. All Eircom PhoneWatch staff would have proper photo ID.

Eircom PhoneWatch are a separate company from Eircom (although Eircom obviously own them).

This whole thing sounds very very dodgy. Report it to the Gardai and also to Eircom PhoneWatch.

PeteK*

womoma wrote: »

- Payment had to be upfront, and the agent could not leave any leaflets, brochures or contact details.

Got the offer but we got all that crap too ...

Sponge Bob

what was the contact number left by the scammer ???

_Whimsical_

womoma wrote: »

Has anyone else had these guys knocking on your doors?

My father recently dealt with a VERY PUSHY agent, who insisted the following:
- €1500 was "cost price" and a limited promotional offer.
- Eircom were not making any profit on Phonewatch.
- Payment had to be upfront, and the agent could not leave any leaflets, brochures or contact details.

Do these guys work for Eircom or are they marketing company sales guys?

My mum had these guys to the door too and after checking them out afterwards it turned out that they were from a genuine marketing company working on behalf of Eircom. The guy she dealt was incredibly pushy and instant that it was a one day only deal and the contract had to be signed by 5.30 (he arrived at 4 and stayed wearing her down until 5.30!).He also said he could leave no leaflets,info or contact details because he claimed Eircom would be over run by people ringing up the next day when they'd thought it over and realised this was the offer of a lifetime. His tactics were deplorable. He went around the downstairs of the house pointing out the many "security risks" and told her about how his own mothers house had been broken into via similar windows and she had been traumatised for years after it.

He didn't ask for cash up front but insisted on bank details for a direct debit there and then. She signed up but thought better of it as soon as he was gone and cancelled it under the 10 day cooling off period.

I met him just as he was leaving and he gave me a big speel about how he'd be in my area soon offering a great deal on Perlico broadband! Also claimed door to door selling was a piece of cake and that he had X type of posh car and a 3 bedroom appartment after just two years in the job.He even suggeted that I'd be "ideal" for this job and should consider applying to the company too as the sales training and commission were excellent.

They are the greasiest of sales people. I definitely would not entertain the idea of buying anything from door to door sales after the experience.

Sponge Bob

Sadly there is nothing new about eircom sending these c***s out harassing people .

Their last major campaign of this type was in 2004 / 2005 to counter Smart , remember

http://archives.tcm.ie/businesspost/2004/02/01/story728797555.asp

Often, he said, the potential customers would say they were not interested and would slam the door in his face. "I have had people chasing me down the road. I got punched once," he said.
He said that at the end of a long day a salesperson "will literally tell people anything just to get a sale".

Back then this scum was all working for a company called CPM International which still proudly lists eircom as a 'client' as you can see here

Now see

http://www.jobs.ie/Jobs.aspx?EmployerId=35596

furthermore they currently claim about eircom that

http://www.cpmire.com/default.asp?wci=Node&wce=1495

CPM provide a outsourced team of 250 full time permanent sales professionals, the team making 1,000's of contacts each week, with focus on new customer acquisition and cross selling/up-selling Broadband and other telecom services

The person in charge of these is Named Here ( Hi Kathleen) and her phone number is also in that link and in this other link here .

Get a name and complain direct to CPM if these scammers show up at your door .

They will also be going around annoying people about An Bord Gáis and its products

condra

Thanks for all the replies.

Yep, I'm quite sure they were legit, but what a scummy way of doing business. Unfortunatly, you have no choice but to be rude to these guys to get rid of them.

I'm pretty glad now that my dads getting rid of Eircom all together. Commercial dawrinism, or something.

rubadub

womoma wrote: »

- Eircom were not making any profit on Phonewatch.

Never knew eircom was a charity. Wonder who was paying the guy who called, or was he a volunteer, next time ask him if he will cut your grass for free too.

There was no doorbell on my house when we moved in, still do not have one years on, I would recommended getting rid of one to anybody!

Anybody I would want to answer the door to will phone in advance or when outside, if it was really important a person would hammer the door until we heard. I don't think there has ever been an instance where I ever said "we should really get a doorbell".

condra

Sponge Bob thanks especially for that reply. I'll pass that information onto my dad.

tony1kenobi

Eircom rep: and out gardai response time is...

Tony: Will they respond fast enough to stop this baseball bat cracking your skull?

Eircom rep: thanks for your time.

Nody

Don't bother to complain to the sales company; complain to their client. Write a letter to the company they are selling for that because of the acts of the sales rep in area Y at date Z who did X you will never consider them for any services. Hit the sales company where the cash is; in their client withdrawing business from them; basic outsourcing complaint route to take

Sponge Bob

even better , complain to the eircom MD ( Cathal Magee , eircom HQ , Heuston Square , D8 ) if CPM do not act promptly to deal with your complaint .

screwlox

Eircom, and Eircom Phonewatch are two completely independent companies.
Thats what they meant by 'Eircom makes no money from Phonewatch'.

Phonewatch sub-contract out their door-to-door sales to ANY Tom, Dick or Harry. They are not paid a salary - just €100 for every system they sell.

No I.D is quite common, I got 2 of them arrested before after trying to flog my mother one - because it was a friday night and Phonewatch was closed for the w/end, they were kept in custody until Monday morning when the cops could verify who they were (Haha, serves them right!).

Nick Quigley is the CEO of Phonewatch, write to him directly.

condra

screwlox wrote: »

No I.D is quite common, I got 2 of them arrested before after trying to flog my mother one - because it was a friday night and Phonewatch was closed for the w/end, they were kept in custody until Monday morning when the cops could verify who they were (Haha, serves them right!).

You're telling me you got a couple of sales guys 3 nights in a cell because they tried flogging an alarm system to your mum?

MunsterCycling

womoma wrote: »

You're telling me you got a couple of sales guys 3 nights in a cell because they tried flogging an alarm system to your mum?

Without ID is the point, always say no to unsolicited doorstep callers.

MC

eth0_

screwlox wrote: »

No I.D is quite common, I got 2 of them arrested before after trying to flog my mother one - because it was a friday night and Phonewatch was closed for the w/end, they were kept in custody until Monday morning when the cops could verify who they were (Haha, serves them right!).

What a load of absolute rubbish. You've been watching too many episodes of CSI.

delllat

screwlox wrote: »

Eircom, and Eircom Phonewatch are two completely independent companies.
Thats what they meant by 'Eircom makes no money from Phonewatch'.

Phonewatch sub-contract out their door-to-door sales to ANY Tom, Dick or Harry. They are not paid a salary - just €100 for every system they sell.

No I.D is quite common, I got 2 of them arrested before after trying to flog my mother one - because it was a friday night and Phonewatch was closed for the w/end, they were kept in custody until Monday morning when the cops could verify who they were (Haha, serves them right!).

Nick Quigley is the CEO of Phonewatch, write to him directly.

u are full of sh1t -gardai wouldnt even have the power to detain someone for that length of time unless they were being questioned for a murder or somethin serious and even then their detention must be authorised by a high up garda or a magistrate

also the guys knocking the doors are probably cobra ,theyre slimy scumbags that are taught to use agressive tactics and lie through their teeeth to get the sale

condra

I cannot understand why some people feel the need to make stuff up. Reminds me of a guy I went to school with, who was allegedly "in training to be an airforce pilot".... *sigh*

Anyway, thanks everyone who contributed to the thread.

Aldee84

screwlox wrote: »

Eircom, and Eircom Phonewatch are two completely independent companies.
Thats what they meant by 'Eircom makes no money from Phonewatch'.

Phonewatch sub-contract out their door-to-door sales to ANY Tom, Dick or Harry. They are not paid a salary - just €100 for every system they sell.

No I.D is quite common, I got 2 of them arrested before after trying to flog my mother one - because it was a friday night and Phonewatch was closed for the w/end, they were kept in custody until Monday morning when the cops could verify who they were (Haha, serves them right!).

Nick Quigley is the CEO of Phonewatch, write to him directly.

Boy aren't u very sad getting 2 guys arrested. Is your mother or you not capable of closing the door???pathetic if that's what you find humour. Probably people like you that need to be locked up

Aldee84

As an employee myself in residential selling, I can totally understand about having I.D. I would be sent home from work if I didn't bring my I.D. I can also agree that people do not like sales people calling to their doors. At the end of the day I am just doing my job to keep a roof over my head and people should also realize there are decent people out there like myself who don't hound or intimidate people in their own homes. I am far from doing this job foe the love of it. I lost my previous employment due to downturn and had a good accounts management job on the road and had no other options with jobs than to take what I was offered. I find my job particularly hard and have met some awful people who want you to call on their door so they can abuse you and make you feel worthless.

civildefence

As well as their own technicians, Phonewatch use authorised agents (i.e. sub-contractors who sell and install their systems on a commission basis) similar to the various crowds who install satellite dishes for Sky. But €1,500, although steep could well be a legit quote depending on the size of the house. Wireless alarm equipment costs a lot more than standard equipment.

mikemac

screwlox wrote: »

l.

No I.D is quite common, I got 2 of them arrested before after trying to flog my mother one - because it was a friday night and Phonewatch was closed for the w/end, they were kept in custody until Monday morning when the cops could verify who they were (Haha, serves them right!).

Did you get them arrested for murder or some other serious charge??

You have an anonymous username, there is no need to be making up stories......

delllat wrote: »

or a magistrate

not in this country

jamesbond

womoma wrote: »

Has anyone else had these guys knocking on your doors?

My father recently dealt with a VERY PUSHY agent, who insisted the following:
- €1500 was "cost price" and a limited promotional offer.
- Eircom were not making any profit on Phonewatch.
- Payment had to be upfront, and the agent could not leave any leaflets, brochures or contact details.

Do these guys work for Eircom or are they marketing company sales guys?

I know you could say "just close the door if you're not interested", but some older people are too polite to do that, and my dad felt like this guy was taking advantage of his politeness. The agent even insisted on calling back the following day, which he did.

The Eircom site itself says the following:


Seems pricey enough, but still nowhere near €1500. Eircom are also appearantly offering a €200 euro discount if you order online.

The various options are a bit confusing, especially when trying to compare Phonewatch with competitors schemes, but this pushy door to door stuff seems like a bad way of doing business to me. Maybe that's naive.

I dont know much about home security though. Is €1500 a decent price? I'm not sure exactly what sort of monitoring options this price included.

Incidentally, my father has actually decided to get rid of Eircom as his telephone landline supplier and switch to NTL. It's something he has been thinking about for a while, but this guy pushed him over the line, and from now on Eircom are in his "bad books".

be careful of the ntl where alarms are concearned,the dialers dont work on ntl lines

jamesbond

Aldee84 wrote: »

Boy aren't u very sad getting 2 guys arrested. Is your mother or you not capable of closing the door???pathetic if that's what you find humour. Probably people like you that need to be locked up

these guy's are pushy alright,try to get you to sign and give bank details,ive heard of some break ins after the fact with no signature there being investigated,there scams to try case your home prior to breaking in

jor el

screwlox wrote: »

No I.D is quite common, I got 2 of them arrested before after trying to flog my mother one - because it was a friday night and Phonewatch was closed for the w/end, they were kept in custody until Monday morning when the cops could verify who they were (Haha, serves them right!).

Spinning blatant lies about your competitors there screwlox? Not a very good way to run a business.

screwlox

No, no blaitant lies....

I've no reason to make up the story, believe it at your will - or don't, I couldn't really care.
The Garda happened to be a good friend of my mothers, and had got several complaints about their suspicious persuasiveness that night, therefore obviously felt they had sufficient grounds to detain them. I'm not the garda, so obviously I don't know the finer circumstances, but I'm sure he had good reason. he even rang to tell me the following monday.

I think it has already been clarified that there are 'certain' scumbags without I.D who DO go around selling Phonewatch alarms...

Blue_Wolf

taram wrote: »

The fact he had no leaflets and wanted an upfront payment is dodgy to me, eircom has no qualms about sending leaflets about every little thing in the mail

Actually a lot of companies who are doing door to door are not handing out leaflets due to cost saving. These include Sky and Eircom phone watch. 1500euro upfront with no contact details haha god in should try that one when I'm stuck for cash!

I had 3 eircom reps at my door at once and they left me with contact details and quoted roughly 250euro which I thought was quite pricey!

delllat

Blue_Wolf wrote: »

Actually a lot of companies who are doing door to door are not handing out leaflets due to cost saving. These include Sky and Eircom phone watch. 1500euro upfront with no contact details haha god in should try that one when I'm stuck for cash!

I had 3 eircom reps at my door at once and they left me with contact details and quoted roughly 250euro which I thought was quite pricey!

they are NOT allowed to collect a cash payment

they are ONLY allowed to make you sign a direct debit for the service

1500 is probably TOO MUCH unless you live in a 20 room mansion

altor

Blue_Wolf wrote: »

I had 3 eircom reps at my door at once and they left me with contact details and quoted roughly 250euro which I thought was quite pricey!

what where you paying for ? a live bell outside the house, because thats all you would get off phonewatch for that price :rolleyes:

I had a rep round today looking for me to come back to Eircom, he had a fantastic deal for me so he did, 600 free minutes and 3MB broadband for €65 a month :eek:. I'm with BT, €67 a month for free local and national calls and 7.6MB broadband. Needless to say he couldn't compete with that and walked away :rolleyes:

Blue_Wolf

delllat wrote: »

they are NOT allowed to collect a cash payment

IMO if someone is daft enough to pay cash on their door step they deserve to be stuffed. Reminds me of travellers who call upto peoples doors offering service. " Want your gutters cleaned?" They sit up on your roof, have 3 fags clean a little bit out, 30min later they are looking for 200euro.
This happens on a daily basis. I don't understand people who entertain them.

darc

Blue_Wolf wrote: »

IMO if someone is daft enough to pay cash on their door step they deserve to be stuffed. Reminds me of travellers who call upto peoples doors offering service. " Want your gutters cleaned?" They sit up on your roof, have 3 fags clean a little bit out, 30min later they are looking for 200euro.
This happens on a daily basis. I don't understand people who entertain them.

FEAR

The travellers who do this (and it is travellers before I'm accused of racism) bully & intimidate their victims who are left relatively powerless by current laws.

Arciphel

These guys called to my door tonight in D15, sounds like the same crowd, offered me the system and three years monitoring & maintenance for €1500. he told me this was a substantial saving that they were offering to the first four people in my area to install the system, apparantly the reason is that they hoped that us having the system would entice other people in the area to upgrade :rolleyes: not a great strategy when a lot of the houses in the area are rented out. Anyway, sounds like he was chancing his arm.

condra

The pound in Ashtown give away free alarm systems, they just need to be fed and walked.

smelltheglove

They were out with me during the week in Lucan and thought of this straight away. I told the guy he'd be wasting his time as I just didnt have the money. He left pretty quick, a little bit of nice day etc and then off he went. There were 3 guys in total and they were in my estate for a good 4 or 5 hours ensuring they got someone at every house, there is only around 200 houses in my estate.

lovelyleitrim

these people are sales people working for a marketing firm accordingly "on behalf of eircom". they go around door-to-door ina housing estate (usually) and tell every1 the same bull**** story no matter what shape, size or number of rooms in the house, they will tell you that it sounds like the perfect alarm system that will suit you and your house. their wages are based on commission and they will try every trick in the book to sell it to you.if they call to your door dont entertain them, tell them straight off that your not interested and close the door. to me its a complete scam and is also a complete rip-off. if you want one of these eircom phonewatch alarm systems i recommend you look up their website and give them a ring.

altor

lovelyleitrim wrote: »

these people are sales people working for a marketing firm accordingly "on behalf of eircom". they go around door-to-door ina housing estate (usually) and tell every1 the same bull**** story no matter what shape, size or number of rooms in the house, they will tell you that it sounds like the perfect alarm system that will suit you and your house. their wages are based on commission and they will try every trick in the book to sell it to you.if they call to your door dont entertain them, tell them straight off that your not interested and close the door. to me its a complete scam and is also a complete rip-off. if you want one of these eircom phonewatch alarm systems i recommend you look up their website and give them a ring.

They are from a company called cobra, they are set targets so have to keep there sales up. There have being loads of complaints about them but most people who dont know what they are doing and will just buy the alarm off them as there sales people sell it well, even if half them dont know much about alarms.

Something they dont tell you is the alarm comes with a dummy external bell box which means if down the road you decide to stop having the alarm monitored and your alarm goes off it will only ring in the house, plus they dont say anything about your phone line that will be used to monitor the alarm. On most houses this is easily cut, which means you may as well not have the alarm monitored as a cut phone line will not ring the monitoring station to alert them your house is being broken into.

Bottle

Just had them around this evening and unfortunately had not seen this thread before.

I thought something was up, yer man was seriously pushy and eventually had to ask him to leave.

slowhandrow

We had them today, around the Blackrock/Booterstown area. We got broken into about two years ago now. My dad in in his seventies and is genuinely interested in an phonewatch alarm. My brother has one next door and is very happy with it.
Thinking they were from eircom he invited them in, I was unaware they were in the house until I heard someone asking to see the rooms. They quoted €1399, a little pricy! Then they went on to say that we would need another two sensors and we would have to pay€90 to the installation person on the day.
The salesman was very pushy and said the usuial; this is the last contract and had to be signed today and that all the others had been snapped up bla bla bla.
I asked him if he worked for eircom and he reluctantly told me that he worked for a promotions company. I forget the name. I told him to leave his contact details, he said he couldn't because it would be unfair to the people who already signed the contract (unfair?!?).
My dad would never have signed the contract under pressure but the guy just wouldn't let it go. I unpolitely told him to f**k off.
Im going to get a quote off eircom directly on monday and report them also. It'll be interesting to see the price difference.
It was a mistake letting them in but as i said my dad was genuinely interested in an alarm and was under the impression they were from eircom.
Don't be fooled!

altor

They are very pushy, I would complain to PW about this. It is them who have these people out selling there alarms.

the_syco

jamesbond wrote: »

be careful of the ntl where alarms are concearned,the dialers dont work on ntl lines

You can get Phonewatch with a sim card - no phone line needed.

altor

the_syco wrote: »

You can get Phonewatch with a sim card - no phone line needed.

The down side to getting the GSM installed is it can be easily blocked meaning your alarm wont ring PW if a blocker is being used. The best way to go is either a protected phone line, radio or a dual com GSM.

PW dont use any of these plus dont tell you of the risks involved in just using a GSM.

legalizblack

condra wrote: »

Has anyone else had these guys knocking on your doors?

My father recently dealt with a VERY PUSHY agent, who insisted the following:
- €1500 was "cost price" and a limited promotional offer.
- Eircom were not making any profit on Phonewatch.
- Payment had to be upfront, and the agent could not leave any leaflets, brochures or contact details.

Do these guys work for Eircom or are they marketing company sales guys?

I know you could say "just close the door if you're not interested", but some older people are too polite to do that, and my dad felt like this guy was taking advantage of his politeness. The agent even insisted on calling back the following day, which he did.

The Eircom site itself says the following:


Seems pricey enough, but still nowhere near €1500. Eircom are also appearantly offering a €200 euro discount if you order online.

The various options are a bit confusing, especially when trying to compare Phonewatch with competitors schemes, but this pushy door to door stuff seems like a bad way of doing business to me. Maybe that's naive.

I dont know much about home security though. Is €1500 a decent price? I'm not sure exactly what sort of monitoring options this price included.

Incidentally, my father has actually decided to get rid of Eircom as his telephone landline supplier and switch to NTL. It's something he has been thinking about for a while, but this guy pushed him over the line, and from now on Eircom are in his "bad books".

at the moment I'm a sales rep for eircom phonewatch and what were you explaining here is wrong.It's true that we are not allowed to leave any contact nr. or to come back another day at the same door unless we were sent by eircom because it wouldnt be a promotion anymore.we only sell promotions so that eircom phonewatch can generate more sales by gettin your neighbours to call them and ask for an alarm. Now by doing that you would get the full price and that works out at @ 1200eur when we sell it for 600 (wirefree monitored alarm).what your man was doing there is obviouslly wrong and that's not the way he sould've act so you can contact his marketing company and relate your problem and they would get rid off him

altor

legalizblack wrote: »

at the moment I'm a sales rep for eircom phonewatch and what were you explaining here is wrong.It's true that we are not allowed to leave any contact nr. or to come back another day at the same door unless we were sent by eircom because it wouldnt be a promotion anymore.we only sell promotions so that eircom phonewatch can generate more sales by gettin your neighbours to call them and ask for an alarm. Now by doing that you would get the full price and that works out at @ 1200eur when we sell it for 600 (wirefree monitored alarm).what your man was doing there is obviouslly wrong and that's not the way he sould've act so you can contact his marketing company and relate your problem and they would get rid off him

Can you explain what you sell for 600Euro thats worth 1200Euro ?

Varik

If anyone is pressed in to signing something (like old people) from a door to door sales man if you did not ask them to come you can cancel the order you make with them and they can't do anything to you.

Will_H

My parents who are in their mid 70's had signed up for this last Thursday, unbeknown to me, after a rep spent over 90 mins in the house with them after knocking on their door.

€1,399 up front for a 3 year contract! And that included a €100 discount. Woo Hoo!:rolleyes: They were due to pay by bank draft on Monday but [luckily] the rep hadn't called in to pick up the draft.

Only for I was up in their house yesterday, they would have gone ahead with it. Needless to say, I had them call PW today and cancel. Also, the rep had told them they only had 7 days to cancel after signing the sales order form. :mad:

Who pays for anything upfront, never mind for something 3 YEARS up front!

If you want to go ahead any get PW by all means do so. But to prey, yes, prey, on elderly people is a disgrace. As I said to my own father, would he have invited that rep into his home for an hour and a half if he had said he was from 'John-Jo's Super Duper Alarms'..!?!? I don't think so!

As an addition, whilst I was in their house, eircom PW rang (I had answered the phone) asking if they had the bank draft ready for collection.....

P.S. If there is a John Jo's Super Duper Alarm company out there - sincere apologies. Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

altor

Your parents wont be the first and they be the last to have this done to them. The best thing to do is send a letter to there head office and also to the NSAI who certifies them outlining your issues and complaints.

Varik

Will_H wrote: »

Only for I was up in their house yesterday, they would have gone ahead with it. Needless to say, I had them call PW today and cancel. Also, the rep had told them they only had 7 days to cancel after signing the sales order form. :mad:

Like i said if they did not ask the rep to come round in the first place they don't have to go ahead with any order made.