Eircom and "Eileen".

I

IsleOfMan

Registered User
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Just got my Eircom phone bill of €74.01 to find that my total cost for phone calls in this bill was €16.17. The rest was made up of line rental, V.A.T. and a miscellaneous charge of €5.04 because I didn't make enough of phone calls this month under the Eircom Bronze options package!!!. And thanks to "Eileen" in sales at Eircom who disconnected her line while talking to me because she couldn't handle my query. And oh, Eileen, I have logged a complaint about your manner.

My broadband is with BT. I haven't switched my line rental to them though and this is still with Eircom. Anyone made the switch smoothly?

Anyone use www.clearwire.ie ?
 
Re: Eircom and "Eileen" - bumping up bill

Same happened to me. Eircom recently charged a penalty of €11.38 because, like you, I didn't make enough calls on an Options package. First I heard of that. Total calls including dial-up internet came to €24.28. Is eircom scraping the bottom of the barrel? I'm definitely moving. And to think I had some (misplaced) loyalty feelings about leaving Eircom!

On the wads of paper they send out with their bill, they only quote the cost of Internet access when one uses 1892 which is some kind of package. Don't know what the actual cost is. Bye bye eircom! To their credit, with one recent exception, have always found staff very pleasant and helpful.
 
Are you both sure that such penalty clauses were not specified in the terms & conditions of the agreement that you signed up to?
 
Does the package in question have a flat cost, e.g. €20 per month, no matter how many calls you make? Can you carry forward any 'unused' minutes?
 
Guys,

I'd be very interested in your feedback on the following.

I recently made the move from eircom to a competitor who were offering me free line rental. I asked eircom what incentive they would offer me to stay with them and they said none.

I was astonished at this and told them they needed to go back to business school and that when their dominant market share begins to dwindle they might just change their tune about being so nonchalant about losing customers.

Their reply to this was to state that it's because of this dominant market share that they can't offer incentives...or in their words "because we have the dominant markt share that we are restricted from offering incentives. It would be deemed unfair practice."

Does this make sense to anyone? Does it ring true? In who's eyes would it be deemed unfair practice?
 
Perhaps it could be deemed monopolistic or anti-competitive (even if that seems like a contradiction in terms) behaviour if they offered incentives? Sometimes it's hard to see how the confluence of industry regulation and anti-competitive legislation makes sense!
 
I understand the theory (at the macro level) but it does seem to lead to contradictions as far as the individual punter is concerned (at the micro level). Then again, macro level issues like this (and in economics in general) were never my forté.
 
Sherib, I never signed anything when I am supposed to have taken on the Options package. I remember being told over the phone that I would receive a discount if I made a certain number of phone calls. I was definitely not informed that I would be penalised if I didn't make a minimum number of phone calls. I complained and they have reversed the "penalty". When I phoned yesterday I actually spoke to 7 people and a computer.....
 
ollyk1 said:
It makes sense to me. If you have a competitor who has a big slice of the market they can therefore afford to offer a discount that undercuts the competition until the competition is forced to leave the market and they can then jack the prices up.
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Fair enough, but then wouldn't that mean that eircom are not allowed to lower prices at all?
 
ClubMan said:
Then again, macro level issues like this (and in economics in general) were never my forté.
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What the hell are you saying Clubman. You know everything. That's one of the constants in my life and I have thousands of posts on AAM to prove it. Don't start messing with my head!!
 
Had the foot-in-the-door-rep out from eircom the other night. They finally noticed Id disconnected my line 6 months ago and they would like to entice me back by offering free phone calls. I said the only way Id get them back is if they give me free rental. Cant do it he said. You wont get cheaper then us he said. Will I not? Brought him in and rang a friend in the states with babble (VOIP, similar to skype) for free on my NTL broadband connection. The rep got demoralised and left. Funny as hell. He didnt even know it was possible to make calls on Broadband.
Bye, bye eircom, please call again whenever I need cheering up..
 
Gabriel said:
Guys,

I'd be very interested in your feedback on the following.

I recently made the move from eircom to a competitor who were offering me free line rental. I asked eircom what incentive they would offer me to stay with them and they said none.

I was astonished at this and told them they needed to go back to business school and that when their dominant market share begins to dwindle they might just change their tune about being so nonchalant about losing customers.

Their reply to this was to state that it's because of this dominant market share that they can't offer incentives...or in their words "because we have the dominant markt share that we are restricted from offering incentives. It would be deemed unfair practice."

Does this make sense to anyone? Does it ring true? In who's eyes would it be deemed unfair practice?
Click to expand...

Eircom have a published price list and they have to stick to it. They are not allowd to give ad hoc discounts-if thery do they will end up in the high court if competitors find out.
jd
 
jdwex said:
Eircom have a published price list and they have to stick to it. They are not allowd to give ad hoc discounts-if thery do they will end up in the high court if competitors find out.
jd
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I witnessed a local Eircom account manager committing to give additional discount on top of their published price lists during a contracts negotiation with a nudge/wink attitude towards the published pricing about 6 years ago. They didn't get the contract.
 
Anyone who signed up to the 'gold silver and bronze' options undertook to ''spend' a certain amount each billing period. if you didnt spend it you were charged the difference. i used mine up on the net but when i committed to pigsback as my isp this left me with a committment i wasnt fully using so i switched to talktime for as near as no difference the same outlay and you can save up usused minutes on this one. both at work, two kids in college, off peak suits me fine but it mightnt suit others. otherwise i would probably go with euphony. i entered the december billing period with 1500 unused minutes and added a further 1200 but by the time college reopened they were practically all gone.:rolleyes:
 
RainyDay said:
I witnessed a local Eircom account manager committing to give additional discount on top of their published price lists during a contracts negotiation with a nudge/wink attitude towards the published pricing about 6 years ago. They didn't get the contract.
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Possibly the laws enforced by Comreg were not in place 6 years ago?
 
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