Can I get out of this Eircom contract?

whatawaster

Apologies if this is a bit long, but here's my Eircom story . . .

We have been Eircom broadband customers for 2 years - no problems really up until now.

About a month ago I informed Eircom I would be switching my account to a new address. I moved out of my old house on October 4th and my broadband was switched off in that address on that date. I moved into my new house on 11th October and the broadband was working as soon as I moved in. It worked fine for two weeks.

Then last Friday morning, it stopped working (red Internet light on router)
I phoned Eircom and to say they didn't have a clue what was wrong would be an understatement. Eventually they told me that the account had been cancelled that Friday morning at 9.30 by telephone. I was a little bemused about this as neither I nor my fiance had been in contact with Eircom.

Many phone calls later it transpired that someone who isn't me called up and cancelled the account. They even gave me his name - let's call him Mr. X. I asked them how this third party was a) given access to speak to someone about my account as he is not the authorised name on the account, or b) allowed cancel my service without either 30 days notice or notice in writing. No satisfactory answer from Eircom.

Thus began a series of back and forths with Eircom as I try and get this resolved.

Timeline has gone something like this:
Initial call on Friday to technical support. Put through to customer service. Customer service were to ring me back before they closed on Friday but they never did. Called back technical support on Friday and they advised me to call sales on Saturday morning.
I called sales on Saturday morning and they advised me that to switch my account back on I'd need to wait until Monday (The bank holiday). They were to put an urgent note on my account for someone to call me on Monday. Of course that call never arrived.
I ring on Monday and I'm told I have to contact cancellations on Tuesday.
On Tuesday cancellations tell me that they have to wait for the botched cancellation to clear before they can order new broadband for me.
On Wednesday they tell me my line has been re-activated and a broadband order will take another 24 hours.
Today they tell me there has been another problem with the cancellation/order. No ETA on broadband being back up.

I'm completely fed up.

It's not even the shocking customer service, the dreadful backwards systems they have in place. It's not even that I've been without broadband for a week (I fully expect to be compensated for this and they've already mentioned the words "goodwill gesture" and "rebate")

It's the fact that someone else was able to access my account.
Eircom didn't follow proper procedure imo - asking account #/name/confirming they are speaking to the account holder/30 day written notice before cancelling.
It's the fact that because I only just started a new 12 month contract that I could have been liable to significant cancellation charges.

At this stage I would love to walk away, go to Vodafone or Sky.

Question is, can I?

Or can Eircom do as they please? I've read the broadband terms and conditions and it doesn't seem to require anything of them, just of the customer.

dub45

I would suggest making a formal complaint to Eircom and ask for an explanation as to how a third party was allowed cancel your contract with immediate effect.

(http://www.askcomreg.ie/tell_us/complaints_and_queries.51.LE.asp)

I would also suggest posting your complaint in the Eircom forum (or requesting a mod to transfer this thread there)

whatawaster

dub45 wrote: »

I would suggest making a formal complaint to Eircom and ask for an explanation as to how a third party was allowed cancel your contract with immediate effect.

(http://www.askcomreg.ie/tell_us/complaints_and_queries.51.LE.asp)

I would also suggest posting your complaint in the Eircom forum (or requesting a mod to transfer this thread there)

Thanks, will do.

Have already posted in Eircom community forums also.

ArthurG

I would never defend eircom, but just wondering if your account had actually been switched over?. Could it be the case that Mr. X who cancelled the account was the previous tenant, and their account was still active?. Wouldnt be beyond the realm of possibility that eircom never correctly transferred your account over.....

whatawaster

ArthurG wrote: »

I would never defend eircom, but just wondering if your account had actually been switched over?. Could it be the case that Mr. X who cancelled the account was the previous tenant, and their account was still active?. Wouldnt be beyond the realm of possibility that eircom never correctly transferred your account over.....

No, I know the name of the old tennant, and it's not them.

I was thinking something along the same lines - that it might have been the new tenant in my old place. If only Eircom could give me a straightforward answer to this, but they don't seem to know themselves.

iscom

What puzzles me is 99%9 organisations won't even talk to someone if they are not the account holder and ask for proof of identity before they will disuse a account quoting the Data Protection act let alone cancel a account which would normally require a written request . . and if what you say in true then I would think they would be in breach of the act.

I would contact HO not customer service

whatawaster

iscom wrote: »

What puzzles me is 99%9 organisations won't even talk to someone if they are not the account holder and ask for proof of identity before they will disuse a account quoting the Data Protection act let alone cancel a account which would normally require a written request . . and if what you say in true then I would think they would be in breach of the act.

I would contact HO not customer service

This is what puzzles me. They always ask me for this proof before they speak to me.

But then they go and give out the name of the person who made the cancellation. They even gave me his phone number without me asking for it.

My suspicion is that the new tenant in my old house tried to set up a new account there and Eircom made a mess of it because they somehow still associated my current account with my old address.

performance123

Hi, my rant is a little similar to 'whatawaster' comment. About 3-4 months ago I changed my mother's home phone line from Eircom to Pure Telecom (which is another story!). Anyway after switching, she received a bill of €131 for Residential line early cease charge! I (the daughter) rang Eircom querying this bill on my mothers behalf, as she is elderly and has dementia. I was never asked if I had permission to discuss her account on her behalf. After a few calls following this up I was informed that she was in a contract which was made with my sister and without her consent! So today I rang again and this time I was asked if I had permission to speak on the account holders behalf and I said NO...the customer rep who I was speaking to would not discuss anything to do with the account, so I questioned him as to why I have never been asked this question before and he said they are now more strict on this and have been for the past couple of months...to which I said no ye haven't as my last call was the 5th December and I wasn't asked then either! So I would like to know what legal status have Eircom on this contract!

Cabaal

performance123 wrote: »

Hi, my rant is a little similar to 'whatawaster' comment. About 3-4 months ago I changed my mother's home phone line from Eircom to Pure Telecom (which is another story!). Anyway after switching, she received a bill of €131 for Residential line early cease charge! I (the daughter) rang Eircom querying this bill on my mothers behalf, as she is elderly and has dementia. I was never asked if I had permission to discuss her account on her behalf. After a few calls following this up I was informed that she was in a contract which was made with my sister and without her consent! So today I rang again and this time I was asked if I had permission to speak on the account holders behalf and I said NO...the customer rep who I was speaking to would not discuss anything to do with the account, so I questioned him as to why I have never been asked this question before and he said they are now more strict on this and have been for the past couple of months...to which I said no ye haven't as my last call was the 5th December and I wasn't asked then either! So I would like to know what legal status have Eircom on this contract!

Bottom line is if any eircom employee discussed any account details with anyone other then the named account holder, an authorized persons (sometimes a second or third person can be named on the account) or a person the account holder authorised while on a call (Hi this is mary, I've verified the account...now can you speak to my son/daughter kind of thing)

If somebody else agreed to a new contract with eircom and they were not authorised in the manners listed above then eircom have broken the data protection act and the contract is invalid.

If the new contract was agreed to on a call then the account holder should make a request to eircom for records, call recordings of when the contract was agreed to sighting that they did not agree to it and the records would confirm this,

The request for records is known as a subject access request and is made under the data protection act, I suggest having a look at http://dataprotection.ie

performance123

HI, I have since sent a compliant via Eircom's customer care online and this is the response they gave me.......

Many thanks for your email.

Yes,it was your daughter who took the sales call, the call was retreived following a complaint from yourself regarding contract (ref:1199277)' your daughter gave the account number which confirms authorisation as you are the only holder of it, therefore the complaint was rejected.

Surly by giving an account number, doesn't authorise someone to agree to a contract???