Is eir the worst company in Ireland for customer service?

Thirsty said:
I'm still getting bills for relative despite having closed account with Eir; and have written confirmation that its closed!
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I have the opposite problem, if you could call it a problem
I have an Eir business sim that I cancelled in 2017 but for some reason is still active
when I noticed it first I contacted Eir a few times informing them that the sim was still active but they informed me the account was closed
I called into an Eir shop and informed them of the issue and they told me it was impossible that the sim could be active on a closed account
I contacted Eir one final time and asked them if they didn't believe me that the sim was still active they could ring me to confirm
and the answer I got was "We are email channel we are not able to ring you."
So since November 17 I've had an unlimited mobile sim free of charge

I would like to point out before anybody accuses me of impropriety I don't use this sim as I have a GoMo account but I do take it with when traveling as a backup should there be a problem with the GoMo
 

What is grossly offensive to me is that the CEO was flat-out blaming the Sligo staff for the call centre delays when the delays are a long standing issue with Eir. This typifies the attitude of senior management caught in the crosshairs - resort to blaming the staff down the line for a problem initiated by the senior management. The call centre staff didn’t make the decision to establish the call centre in Sligo and weren’t responsible for the management and training programs. This is reprehensible on the part of the CEO and unfair on the staff concerned. As our TDs pointed out in the Committee today, there are other call centres in the area who operate without issue. It’s high time the CEO and Eir management took responsibility and stop passing the buck down the line. It does nothing for the morale of the staff concerned.
 
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With respect to all posters above and in the eir call-centres, I think the call centre/staff training issue is just a waste of money, time, construction work and real estate. If I were a shareholder I'd be calling for heads to roll, lots of them.

First and foremost make the products and services supplied by eir the best available. Not just good or great but excellent, the best in class, best in the world. Once that is achieved, there is no need for over-resourced complaints services, all that wasted energy and money can be directed on meeting new customer demand and product innovation.

Improving and building up the complaints service means eir is diverting much needed funding and attention to a non-profit making activity, also known as rework. For years in the electronics industry wearing my OD hat I argued with engineers, technicians, cost & management accountants that testing was not a value-added activity but a cost-increasing one. "But we can't ship untested product" they said. "You can if you build it right the first time" was my permanent response.

Similarly with eir, do the job once, do it correctly and develop a sense of pride in being the best rather than being branded the worst. The CEO in front of the politicians and consumers apologising for her decisions and her staff's poor performance? That's no way to run a business.

"Where's your pride?" as Ciaran Fitzgerald Irish rugby captain was overheard to ask on the field in a famous match. Where is your pride eir?
 

It typifies the attitude of very poor management! Good management never throw the team under the bus. How can they ever expect staff there to feel valued if that is the attitude from the top?

She now sounds like the school kid who forgot their homework and tries to blame everyone and everything else other than themselves.
 
Every problem in any organisation is a failure of management. Either they structured the organisation incorrectly, hired the wrong people, trained them badly or lost control of the organisation and allowed other forced to take control. When you get paid to make decisions you also get paid to take responsibility.
 
It only took five minutes to get through this morning. They must have been trained well last night !
 
joer said:
It only took five minutes to get through this morning. They must have been trained well last night !
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Whatever Carolan Lennon is or isn't she is an able dealer and I reckon she was caught unawares on Primetime where the interviewer had his homework done well and probably had read some of the posts here. Blaming Covid for a problem that existed long before showed that she neglected to do her homework or listened to the wrong people (probably her own management above the rank of Team Leader). Like somebody said she threw the Sligo staff under a minibus. but I think some of what she was saying was misunderstood by some viewers. When she realised her situation was grave she changed tack somewhat and her body language suggested that "Hey! There's a big problem here and I've been a subject of the mushroom syndrome by my own management."

Carolan faced a government committee yesterday and had to answer the same questions to appease our political representatives. I bet by now Carolan has called in her management team and replayed the Primetime segment where she participated. Furthermore, I bet she was asking questions of her management rather than the other way round. Whatever way you look at this Carolan Lennon was thrown under the bus too and a rickety double-decker to boot. If I were one of her management I'd be watching my back from now on. Carolan is a wounded lioness and If I had been feeding her with tripe I'd be awaiting a reaction.
 
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Leper said:
Whatever way you look at this Carolan Lennon was thrown under the bus too and a rickety double-decker to boot. If I were one of her management I'd be watching my back from now on.
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She's been with the company for over 10 years, and CEO since Feb 2018. She must have had her head buried in sand to be so unaware of customer service issues.
 
Leper said:
but I think some of what she was saying was misunderstood by some viewers
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Whilst that very well may be, she was absolutely clear in relation to what she said about the staff hired from Sligo and its environs (and indeed Sligo itself).

She said (and I’m paraphrasing) that developing the call centre in Sligo from scratch was “a mistake” because the staff there took longer to train because of their backgrounds in retail and hospitality, and there wasn’t any experience of call centres in Sligo. In other words she said that the good people of Sligo and surrounds comprising the local labour force just weren’t up to it, and this gave rise to the delays.

Remarkable.
 
Leo said:
She's been with the company for over 10 years, and CEO since Feb 2018. She must have had her head buried in sand to be so unaware of customer service issues.
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I don't think so Leo, but I am open to correction. I reckon she was out of touch with the staff that "do" and I think she believed (up to now) in her own popularity, a cornerstone where many a person failed. Worse again, she believed what her management informed her. If I were giving her advice I'd be saying do what Fergal Quinn would have done and try some time in the shop floor. She'll learn much more from her call centre operators than she did from her management team who in her eyes are now found out. Any GAA Banisteoir will inform you:- "Lose the Dressing Room and you're finished." Ms Lennon has a little time to get her producing staff onside. If I were her, I wouldn't delay. Sligo would be my first port of call too.
 
Well that's a fair point so. It's not a reflection on the intellect or ability of the people of Sligo, rather it reflects badly on the company who decided to locate where there was no suitably trained or experienced workforce.
 

Profile piece here.

A wise man once advised me that good leaders trust but verify. It's hard to think that in over 10 years with the company she never encountered people who complained about customer service.
 
Purple said:
Well that's a fair point so. It's not a reflection on the intellect or ability of the people of Sligo, rather it reflects badly on the company who decided to locate where there was no suitably trained or experienced workforce.
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Except what she said is (unfortunately) a reflection of what she thinks about the abilities etc of Sligo workers. I’m based in the west and our workforce is just as able as any other workforce in the State. I don’t think the decision to locate to Sligo reflects badly on the company at all. Rather, what reflects badly is the seeming inability to properly manage and train a workforce.

What reflects really badly is a CEO specifically (and publicly) calling out a section of of her workforce in a particular region as not being fully competent or sufficiently able.
 
Im not with Eir, and Im pretty glad with that having read the horror stories. I do think though the CEO has an incredibility difficult task in running such a big company, and hopefully she can make the huge changes needed to win back the public's confidence.

But there is a part of me that also feels her pain, and likens the position as that of a Football Manager, they get some stick when their players have a disastrous game, the fans all want the head on a plate, but they can only do so much, the player is the one kicking the ball, but the Manager gets it in the neck when they mess up, but unfortunately, at this company is so poor with customer confidence, management changes may be the only way to regain that confidence.

I hope she can turn it round before its too late.
 
I watched the interview and I didn’t think that Carolan Lennon was overly critical of Sligo people at all.

My recollection is of her saying that Eir opened a call centre in Sligo which, as an area, doesn’t have a big history of having call centres, so the people tended to come from sectors such as retail. So, as a result, the call centre didn’t hit the ground running and wasn’t up to speed as quickly as Eir had hoped.

I don’t see the grave offence caused there?
 
LS400 is kind of right, but I don't think it's Ms Lennon's ground team that which she has her problems. It's her management team i.e. the people who do not have to deal first hand with the public. The call centre staff is customer facing albeit by telephone and in the Eir shops. they come into direct public contact We haven't heard from Eir's call centre staff here yet although I've extended several invitations. Are they afraid of something? Have they been warned to keep away from fora such as this? If the Sligo staff are so offended why do we not hear from them?

Also, I agree 100% with Gordon Gekko's post. I don't think the people of Sligo or indeed the Sligo Eir staff were offended .
 
exactly.
 
That sounds like the issue is the insecurity of some people who heard the comment rather than the comment itself.
 
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