Eircom Charging Me Before Line Connected?

D

DubShelley

Registered User
Messages
187
Hi There,

Just wondering if anyone has had a similar experience. I ordered a phoneline on Tuesday 28th September. I got the number straight away over the phone and was told that the line would be activated within 48 hours. By Friday, the phoneline still wasn't working so I contacted Eircom again and they said they couldn't see any issue on their side so they would have to send an engineer out to have a look, which could take up to 10 working days.

On Tuesday I gave them a quick call to see what the process was, i.e. would I get much notice of when the engineer was calling as I was in work all week. And lo and behold they couldn't find any record of my fault report so they had to report it again!

So basically, 2 weeks later I still have no phoneline but of course, I just got a bill for almost €30 to cover line rental from 28th September to mid October!!! I called their customer service and spoke to a very rude person who basically said it wasnt Eircom's fault, it was "just unfortunate that the phone line wasn't working".

Are they within their rights to do this, even though I have not had any service?
 
Had a similar experience with NTL a few years ago (am now with SKY).

The basics were the same as your story, service disrupted for a number of days so following many phone calls in which I demanded a refund for the outage period they refunded something like €6 to my bill.

It might seem like pennies and it may well have cost more in my time and effort but sometimes you have to stand up for your principles and I believe you should not have to pay for a service if the service has been disrupted through no fault of your own.

Don't know what it says in the small print of your Eircom contarct though.....
 
Update

Thanks for your reply JMR!

I called Eircom expecting a fight...but they issued a credit straight away so that I'm only charged line rental from today!

I may have only saved around €12 but better in my pocket than theirs!!
 
Hi DubShelley
I returned to Eircom from Vodafone on 6th August to a Bundle costing €51.78pm. I have just received a bill today for €267.68!!!. I called Eircom in a total panic and was told that my service and connection charges were €145.72 (charge for line and broadband)and were up to Dec. I am totally confused as I thought I would be getting a bill ion the region of €104. Can any body help? Do I have to pay these charges? I was provided with nothing from Eircom. Help!
 

Hey MissyMoo,

On my bill it has the charge for line connection at -44.04 under the "Free line connection promotion". I connected with the bundle of around €42 per month for phone and broadband. This was a brand new line in our house - never had a phone before, I'm not sure if this makes a difference to the charges.

Shelley
 
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