Help! don't want to leave eircom but other provider initiated irreversible tranfer.

chutney50

My parents have had an eircom account for years with phone, broadband, eircom net email.

Friday last 23rd a VP rep came to the door and said he could offer us cheaper calls/broadband deal. It appeared that the only way to get the fine details of what they were offering was to sign the contract, the details would arrive in the post this week, and on top of the standard 7 day cooling off period, the sales rep amended our carbon copy of contract to say cooling off would start from receipt of material. I merely wanted to compare details of the two packages.

Material didn't arrive. Today Friday 30th, I rang eircom to check out what a change in provider would incur for us. It seems that in sept 2012 my father (who is almost 80) must have changed his package with eircom and thus entered into a 12 month contract by so doing (likely over the phone? - he doesn't remember). The woman said that an order for transfer of phone line had been placed that day and is due to come into effect on Tuesday 4th Dec. She cannot lift the order.

The other provider immediately cancelled our contract/order with them so broadband will now not transfer across to them. He sympathises but said it is impossible to stop the automatic process of releasing the phone line from eircom and generating a Univeral Account Number (the first stage in the phone line transfer). They will not take it over though, they will contact me as soon as it comes through so that I can ask Eircom to take it back over.

I rang eircom back in relation to this. The helper there contacted the winback team who confirmed that yes, we would be in breach of contract and charged accordingly for the 9 months or so remaining on the new contract (unclear whether as it is a bundle we would be charged for the phone section only as we have stopped transfer of broadband from eircom?? - the difference is 139 euro cf 330), regardless of the fact that disconnection from eircom for the phone line may be only a matter of hours.

We did not realise they would initiate irreversible phone line transfer before agreed cooling off period had elapsed. All we want to do is remain on our current Eircom bundle/contract without breaking it.

Can ANYthing be done for us? Please help.



PS The Eircom helper agreed to put a note on our account to say that we never intended to transfer away from eircom.

Sponge Bob

you have a 7 day cooling off period so you should be OK. Just send a formal complaint to the other carrier and they should release the line back.

chutney50

Thanks SpongeBob but the issue is that the automatic process for transferring the line has started and can't be undone. VP aren't quibbling our cancelling of contract with them. The issue is that Eircom say that, regardless, once Tuesday comes and the phone line is released from Eircom we will have broken our contract with them, and so will have to pay the balance of the year's contract.:(

Sponge Bob

Once you sign/or verbally agree a contract with eircom and port out within the contract term then eircom can hold you to it. However the breach is technical and seems related to the port being initiated within a cooling off period. Were the cooling off period respected the cancellation of the port request would have stopped the port and no breach could have occured.

The cooling off period is 7 WORKING days, not 7 Calendar days.

Throw yourself upon Tonys mercy on monday and see what he can do....seeing as you will be an eircom customer again by c.Wednesday.

Meanwhile.

http://www.askcomreg.ie/tell_us/phone_and_broadband_contracts.247.LE.asp

Changing your mind
The period for changing your mind after initially agreeing to a contract is called a cooling-off period and comes under the Distance Selling Regulations. This legislation is administered by the National Consumer Agency. You have at least 7 days to change your mind.

The cooling-off period begins from when you enter into a service contract or when you receive the goods. The contract is not binding unless you receive written confirmation or confirmation in another durable form.
Although you are allowed to cancel the contract without any penalties during this cooling-off period, you will still have to pay for any phone and, or, broadband use with the service provider during this time.
The 7 working day period during which you can cancel without penalty applies to sales made over the phone/internet or by a salesperson calling to a consumer's home.

Next time make sure you are not within contract. !!

chutney50

Thanks so much, Sponge Bob.

The issue partially seems to be that "cooling off period" and "initiation of transfer of services", seem to be two separate things to vodaphone. We now see there was a clause in the contract we signed which was not pointed out to us, saying "if you avail of your right to cancel within your 7-day cooling-off period, reconnection to your previous provider may be required" with an option to delay order initiation until expiry of the cooling off period. Not ticked.

Next time make sure you are not within contract. !!

The issue is more: make sure you never sign anything offered to you by a doorstep sales rep. In fact don't even open the door.:(

Sponge Bob

chutney50 wrote: »

The issue is more: make sure you never sign anything offered to you by a doorstep sales rep. In fact don't even open the door.:(

Fraid so, that applies to the chancers eircom sends out too.

Irrespective of whether the box was ticked or not your cooling off rights were not respected. If Tony or Mark can sort matters well and good, otherwise you will have to raise a formal complaint against Vodafone and cc it to consumerline@comreg.ie to help focus minds on the matter.

The email address to contact is athome.ie@vodafone.com , subject Formal Complaint and cc to consumerline@comreg.ie

From > https://community.vodafone.ie/t5/Services-at-Home/Formal-Complaint-contact-details/td-p/38092

HTH

chutney50

Thanks, I hope eircom can help on Monday.

chutney50

BUMP?

eircom: Alan

Hi chutney50

Please PM me your eircom account details as i will look into this for you and get back to you very shortly.

Regards

Al

chutney50

Just to say I am unbelievably grateful for the help and reassurance I got from Alan at eircom today. Thank you so much, Alan.
Thanks Sponge Bob for your comments too.
We are now just waiting for that UAN. I will be out of the country for a few days from Wednesday onwards, but I am trying to teach my mother how to send Alan a PM if we can't get it by tomorrow.