It's always good to see service providers investing in new technology in order to improve customer service. Electric Ireland seem to have got it very wrong though.
Three weeks ago when I calculated a bill was due and as no meter-reader had shown up, I submitted a meter reading by SMS.
Seven days later I got an estimated bill in the post for about €60 less than my reading. I took a new reading and submitted it on the phone via the voice-recognition system.
To-day, day 8 after submitting the last reading, I phoned customer service to find out why I still hadn't seen a bill. The customer-service rep informed me that it takes from "3 to 5 working days" for voice-recognition system readings to update on the accounting system. Readings given to a human on the are updated instantly. He also told me it can take another "3 to 5 working days" for an invoice to issue. He couldn't say why, but assured me I'd have my bill tomorrow, Friday or next Tuesday. Is thanksgiving a new Irish holiday now with no-one working on Monday next? Presumably, like the phone companies, EI send their bills to be processed by Fuji or KODAK in their big printing establishments, hence the longer lead-times.
Extraordinary carry on. The SMS system has let me down before but the additional time needed to process the voice-recognition submissions is new to me. Unions forcing the vocal submissions to be interpreted and processed manually?
Electric Ireland, going backwards thanks to technology. Could whoever designed and installed motortax.ie have a look at what they're doing wrong in EI?
Three weeks ago when I calculated a bill was due and as no meter-reader had shown up, I submitted a meter reading by SMS.
Seven days later I got an estimated bill in the post for about €60 less than my reading. I took a new reading and submitted it on the phone via the voice-recognition system.
To-day, day 8 after submitting the last reading, I phoned customer service to find out why I still hadn't seen a bill. The customer-service rep informed me that it takes from "3 to 5 working days" for voice-recognition system readings to update on the accounting system. Readings given to a human on the are updated instantly. He also told me it can take another "3 to 5 working days" for an invoice to issue. He couldn't say why, but assured me I'd have my bill tomorrow, Friday or next Tuesday. Is thanksgiving a new Irish holiday now with no-one working on Monday next? Presumably, like the phone companies, EI send their bills to be processed by Fuji or KODAK in their big printing establishments, hence the longer lead-times.
Extraordinary carry on. The SMS system has let me down before but the additional time needed to process the voice-recognition submissions is new to me. Unions forcing the vocal submissions to be interpreted and processed manually?
Electric Ireland, going backwards thanks to technology. Could whoever designed and installed motortax.ie have a look at what they're doing wrong in EI?
Last edited: