Eir don't seem to care

This week's Independent News & Media Irish regional newspapers' column.

Michael Commane

Telecommunications provider Eir has been in the news of late.

Journalist Conor Pope dedicated a full page in ‘The Irish Times’ to complaints he had received from Eir customers.

Last week on RTE Radio 1’s Ray D’Arcy Show more Eir customers aired their complaints about the difficulties they were having with the telecommunications provider.

Eir is at pains to apologise for its current poor customer services, explaining that the company is now nearing completion of the process of bringing its customer service back in-house. It will have new regional hubs in Sligo, Cork and Limerick.

Chief Executive Carolan Lennon last week said that the changes the company is making will result in a better experience for Eir customers in the long term. She also said that results for the first half of the year are in line with expectations as it reduces costs by €32 million.

The company has reported hefty pre-tax profits and a solid start to this year.

I have heard many of the complaints and I have also read newspaper reports on the current finances of the company.

But I also have my own ‘real-time’ story, my personal up-to-date experience with Eir.

In 1988 or 1989 I had a landline installed in my home in West Kerry. That means the phone is in place for 30 years. The same phone line but alas a phone line that has changed ownership many times in that 30 years, with the present owners being Eir.

My current job means that I am not living full-time in West Kerry. In late February I spent some days in the house. On my arrival I discovered the landline was not working. I called Eir, gave details to an automatic voice service. I was subsequently told the fault was not an Eir fault. From my limited experience of wiring phones, I felt reasonably certain that the problem was with Eir.

Five days later I phoned Eir with the intention of closing down the line. I had been the perfect customer, had never once defaulted on a payment, always paid on time.

After approximately one hour and 15 minutes on the phone I had managed to speak to a real person and began the process of closing down my Eir phone line. Later that day the company sent me a cancellation reference code, which I then had to email with other details to the company. Even that was made difficult with trying to distinguish between the letter o and the number zero.

I phoned Eir on a Tuesday to cancel my landline. The following Friday I received a call from an Eir technician. He had arrived in my village. He told me that the fault was an Eir fault and that he was in the local exchange and needed to gain access to my house to fix the phone. When I told him that I had cancelled the line he expressed great surprise as no-one had told him about my closing the account.

In all my dealings with Eir, the people I have spoken to on the phone, the technician who travelled 30 kilometres to fix the phone, I have received nothing but politeness and kindness. They must have great patience.

It’s has been a nightmare. Is this how a large modern company should treat a loyal customer?

Shall I be reimbursed for the time the line was down? How long was it not working? Does Eir know? Does Eir care?

A story of how not to treat a customer.