Letter to ODTR (Unfinished

stormkeeper

<standard letterhead stuff>

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am writing to you to register a complaint against Eircom, due to the poor service I recieved from them.

On the <date> October of this year, I placed an order for a new phone line, as my family had moved house recently, and I don't wish to tie up my mother's phone line. I was informed that this would be done about a week from the above-mentioned date. After about a week, we phoned Eircom again to get the number of the engineer who handles the phone lines to ask about the status of the new line and we were told that it would be done a week after that.

A couple of weeks later I recieved a phone call from the Area Manager for Eircom asking me if I wanted ISDN. I let my mother handle the call, as she was handling everything to do with the new line. She explained to the manager that she didn't want to use ISDN as it would mean that she would have the one line, which she didn't want.

The manager explained to her that since the capacity was maxed out for the estate, they would have to install a new cable for the estate, which would take a few months to do, which would mean I'd have to wait to get a new phone line. Since I was unable to get my own phone line, my mum let me use hers, until my one was installed.

Around a week later, the engineer phoned and called around to install the line. Unfortunately I was unable to recieve the call at the time, or let him into the house. A few days later, I phoned him to choose another date to install the line, which was agreed on.

On the <date> November the engineer came round, and he started looking for a spot for the phone line. When he found one, he went to get his tools and equipment. One of the pieces of equipment was a big box. I asked him about it, and I found out it was a line-splitter. I asked him a few questions like "Once the cable is installed, will I be able to upgrade to a full phone line?" "Will this affect my connection speed?" and "Will I be able to get ADSL?"

I was informed that there will be no cable installed for the estate, and that the only way I was guaranteed speed was with ISDN, which my mum doesn't want. When I questioned the engineer about wanting a full line, he asked me if I wanted the line or not, which I replied yes to.

As I had to work that day, I went and got ready to go to it and left him at the job. When I came home that evening, I went to go online through the new line, and to my dismay, it took longer than expected, and also I was connected at a slower rate (26.4kbps) than I had with the single line (52kbps average), before it was split.

I am writing this letter to you for the following reasons:

1. I wished to have Esat ADSL installed at a later date, due to Eircom not rolling out ADSL in my area.

2. This line was not what I requested, as it is not truely a full line at all.

3. The above mentioned line has caused severe degredation to my internet connection, often needing about 2-3 connection attempts before even getting online, as anything before that usually results in an engaged tone. I also note that I end up having to connect to the internet again at least 3 times during the day, which usually results in about 9 connection attempts, at least daily, usually more.

4. Eircom should not have split my line, due to what they wrote in their copper management loop plan. Because of this, I will not be able to take of ADSL when it arrives here, without having to pay a lot of money to put a line in (after linking the other one), as well as installing the ADSL line.

5. Due to the above complaint, this means that they have broken the agreement in the document, which is considered to be anti-competitive behavior, according to <tbc>

<requests/what I am looking for will be posted here>

<ending text here, when I can think of it>

Yours Sincerely,


Joe Soap (real name here)

stormkeeper

As I've mentioned in the title, it's still fairly unfinished. However, I thought you guys would be interested in looking at (and deconstructing ) it to see if there's anything I could add or remove.

Cheers

De Rebel

Kennett - good for a first draft, but..... I am old enough to have written a fair few letters of complaint. Most of the recent ones achieved their aims!! I would suggest that less is best. You are providing enough detail for them to hang you.

My approach would be (with time and date details added of course)

I ordered a line
You supplied a split line
I understand that installing split lines after 01/04/2002 is illegal
Please can you remove the splitter and provide a second full line, as per my initial request.
Now.

Address your complaint to "The Complaints Department", Eircom, Cumberland House, Room 4B, Fenian Street, Dublin 2. Copy it to J. G. Ryan esq, Company Secretary, Eircom, 114 Saint Stephens Green, Dublin 2. For added impact send both letters by registered mail. Address a "copy for information" to COMREG at Communications Regulation Coommission, C/O. ODTR, Block DEF, Abbey Court, Irish Life Centre, Lower Abbey Street, Dublin 1.

Eircom have 10 working days to address a formal complaint.

When you get a response, either
{if it is an installed second unencumbered line} accept it gracefully and as Paddy20 would say, "Be happy"
{if it is anything else} send it to COMREG (the new name for the ODTR) as a formal complaint.

Note that the above 2 step process is necessary as ODTR/COMREG will NOT accept a complaint unless it has been addressed to Eircom in the first place

Good luck.

e&oe - just now i'm acting as a container for 2 bottles of bordeaux

stormkeeper

Thanks for the advice De Rebel, I'll be sure to keep all this in mind when I compose a new letter... ::Ponders::

i'll be sure to use the other letter as a reference to composing the new one, just so i have some idea of what i did.

MDR

very good letter,
I would add a heart felt bit at the end,
pulling at their heart strings,

something like

'I feel that I have acted with the best possible intentions in this regards, I have been both patient and forgiving. I am aghast at the manner in which I have been treated by Eircom, being dilberately mis-lead by both their sales team and engineer. I therefore am requesting that the ODTR, interceed on my behalf, to ensure that less informed telecom consumers than I, cannot be so ill-treated.'

or words to that effect ...