Eircom threatening me over disputed bill

mufcboy1999

How's things everyone...

Long story short I was having trouble paying my eircom broadband bill so they cancelled my services at around the 200 euro mark which was fair as at the time I was struggling financially. I had every intention to pay it eventually when i got sorted too.

Eircom continued to bill me for months without actually giving me the service I was billed for so before I knew it that 200 euro became over 600!. They hounded me for it for months and I refused to pay simply because I dont believe I owe them that much, I mean how can they continue to bill me for a service I wasnt receiving ?

Anyway after plenty of private number calls from debt collectors I received a call from a solicitor stating this is my last chance to pay the 600 euro plus or Eircom are bringing me to court.

Im furious about this as I feel Eircom are really pulling a fast one in my eyes. I was a customer for 3 years and never once renewed my contract despite members of their sales team ringing me trying to get me to do so, the solicitor was telling me Im still under contract because it was rolling from year to year.

What should I do? has anyone had anything like this happen to them... without sounding like an idiot or a fool im determined not to fork this money over to eircom, whatever about the 200 euro but no way am I paying them the extra 400 for something I was getting.


thanks

chops018

I'd probably go see a Solicitor over the the matter. He/she will be able to give you proper legal advice on how to proceed.

rovoagho

Were you contracted to them for a period of time? If you were, they're entitled to bill you for the full contract period.

mufcboy1999

rovoagho wrote: »

Were you contracted to them for a period of time? If you were, they're entitled to bill you for the full contract period.

I would of signed up as a new customer around 3 years ago on a 1 year contract never a 3 years.

I'd probably go see a Solicitor over the the matter. He/she will be able to give you proper legal advice on how to proceed.

ye I might have too but tbh its not something I can really afford now.

source

It sounds like your service was suspended not cancelled, you will keep accruing standing charges on the account until the service is fully cancelled.

I'd go see a solicitor but I'd also have a read of the terms and conditions before hand, you may be able to answer your question there.

psalbmb

This happened to be before with Vodafone. Unfortunately, You've signed up to a 12 month contract with them, if you don't pay the bills, they will eventually disconnect you and bill you for the remainder of the contract as your in breach of it. I wouldn't waste time and money going to a solicitor as they will tell you the same. Just suck up and pay it off bit by bit and never go with them ever again

LionelNashe

I'd say at least consider paying the 200, which you do owe. In their eyes, if they have to chase you for the 200 then they might as well keep chasing for the 600, whereas if you pay the 200 they may let the rest go. And get a copy of the contract and read it.

mufcboy1999

Thanks for the replys lads.

I entered what I taught was a one year contract though I had no idea it would roll on year to year and it was a verbal agreement. I'm pretty sure I didn't even get a contract when I became a customer 3 years ago.

People who change their phone number and switch address's so they can't get in touch , how do they get away with it because I know someone's done this and heard nothing else.

thehouses

mufcboy1999 wrote: »

Thanks for the replys lads.

I entered what I taught was a one year contract though I had no idea it would roll on year to year and it was a verbal agreement. I'm pretty sure I didn't even get a contract when I became a customer 3 years ago.

People who change their phone number and switch address's so they can't get in touch , how do they get away with it because I know someone's done this and heard nothing else.

This sounds strange to me, normally when a contract is let roll it goes on a month to month contract. That's the way it was with Meteor and UPC before with me. But then again each contract would have different terms and conditions.

LionelNashe

mufcboy1999 wrote: »

Thanks for the replys lads.

I entered what I taught was a one year contract though I had no idea it would roll on year to year and it was a verbal agreement. I'm pretty sure I didn't even get a contract when I became a customer 3 years ago.

thehouses wrote: »

This sounds strange to me, normally when a contract is let roll it goes on a month to month contract. That's the way it was with Meteor and UPC before with me. But then again each contract would have different terms and conditions.

Exactly - don't take the Eircom solictors word for it. He could have been misinformed, or he could have made a mistake. It's very possible that you don't owe any more than 200.

Cushie Butterfield

mufcboy1999 wrote: »

Eircom continued to bill me for months without actually giving me the service I was billed for so before I knew it that 200 euro became over 600!. They hounded me for it for months and I refused to pay simply because I dont believe I owe them that much, I mean how can they continue to bill me for a service I wasnt receiving ?

In a previous post you said you were due to move house in February 2013, get Sky tv & UPC broadband http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=83303049&postcount=47

Did you go ahead with the move & if so did you cancel your Eircom account when you moved? Was the account taken over by or transferred to another party, or did you arrange with Eircom to transfer your account to the new address?

With regards to the contract, did you avail of any promotional discounts or speed upgrades when in (your rolling 30 day) contract? If so this would more than likely have initiated a new 12 month contract. When you change address & want to transfer your existing Eircom account with you, if you are at the time in a 12 month contract there are no changes to the existing contract, but if you are out of contract (in a 30 day rolling contract) you enter a new 12 month contract when services are transferred to the new address. So, if you did change address & get your Eircom account transferred with you the likelihood is that you are in contract until February 2014, so even if they disconnected you & terminated the agreement they would still come after you for charges up to February 2014.

I'm not saying you were told any of this or agreed to any of it either, but Eircom should be able to supply you with either a copy of a signed agreement or a transcript of a recorded telephone verbal agreement.

I suppose the best thing for you to do is establish for sure wheter or not you were actually in contract, & get proof from Eircom that you were informed of & agreed to this.

You may want to start with posting over on the Talk to Eircom forum & make a general enquiry as to when your contract expired with them & asking them for proof of this by PM or how you go about getting it.

If they can't come up with proof, then you could contact ComReg & ask them for advice on how to proceed - they might be in a position to intervene on your behalf.

In the meantime you should make every effort to pay the €200 that you know for sure that you do owe them. you should pay this directly to your Eircom account number & not to a debt collection agency.