This week’s INM/Mediahuis Irish regional newspapers’ column
Michael Commane
Last Thursday week Environment, Climate and Communications Minister Eamon Ryan was talking on RTÉ Radio 1’s Claire Byrne Show before heading out to the COP27 conference in Sharm El-Sheikh in Egypt. He spoke about how we are at the vanguard when it comes to wind generation. Two-thirds of our electricity is on occasions generated by wind, which is impressive. Mr Ryan made great sense and I got the impression he was on top of his brief. 44,000 family homes have solar panels on their roofs and they now have the facility to sell electricity back to the grid.
But as he was speaking my mind wandered back to my experiences with Electric Ireland.
On the previous Tuesday I dialled 1800 372 372 to obtain information on how to use my new smart meter. That is the telephone number that is printed on the top right-hand side of my Electric Ireland bill.
I dialled the number three times. Each time I was told by an automatic answering machine: ‘The number you have dialled has not been recognised, please check and try again’. Sometime later I tried it again and guess what, I got through to Electric Ireland. I spent an inordinate length of time waiting to get speaking to a human voice.
When I asked about my new smart meter I was told I would be redirected to a different number and the wait time would be approximately 15 minutes. I terminated the call.
I phoned the Commission for Regulations of Utilities (CRU), who told me, yes they were aware of the problem with that number. Sometimes it works, other times it doesn’t and Electric Ireland is aware of the issue.
Can it get any crazier than that? Yes, it can, the following morning I phoned 1800 372 372 again. There was no ringing tone, silence for close to a minute, before an automated answer told me I was through to Electric Ireland. After all sorts of useless information I was told that my wait time would be approximately 65 minutes. I closed the call.
It does appear the problem with the 1800 372 372 number has been resolved but why were customers not informed about the problem?
Just as the Eamon Ryan interview was concluded I received this SMS from Electric Ireland:
'Dear Customer, we are currently experiencing high call volumes. We apologise that you were not successful in speaking with a representative on your recent contact. You may find the answer to your query on our website https://www.electricireland.ie/help/billing.'
Some weeks ago I sent two queries via such a medium. So far they have not replied.
On a subsequent call I was told that Electric Ireland would phone me within two working days to answer my queries about the smart meter. So far I have received no call back.
Electric Ireland’s customer care is shambolic. I sincerely hope the generation and distribution of our electricity is not in a similar shambles.
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