On August 25th, a reader, John, placed an order in an Eircom shop for broadband, a phone line and television service. He took advantage of an offer for €30 per month.

“About two weeks later, I got a call saying a technician would come on the Friday afternoon to install the service. A friend agreed to go to my house and let in the technician, an outside contractor. The guy arrived and left an hour later, saying there was a problem with the line and the “box’”. He said it should be the exchange box down the road and not the one up the road, or words to that effect. He was to get on to Eircom.”

Eight days later an Eircom employee called and said the technician who had been there earlier should have been able to sort the problem.

A week later, another man from Eircom phoned and was “really helpful and said he would get it sorted with the contractor. A month later the technician phoned me and asked could he go to the outside of my house to sort a line. I said ‘fine’, but I do not know if he called. I have heard nothing since.”

On November 17th, John wrote to the Eircom chief executive and requested a solution. “I chanced my arm by asking for a gesture of goodwill as recompense. A week later, I heard from Eircom customer service offering to assist me, but I still have no service. I cannot get a definite date for installation despite much toing and froing. The customer service person assigned to my case is incredibly inflexible and is now infuriating me as there is no compromise from him or acknowledgement of responsibility for Eircom messing up.”

John is a separated dad. He lives on his own and wants to ensure he has broadband and TV when his boys visit at Christmas.

“I chose Eircom for the study hub service, as two of my boys are doing their Leaving Cert this year. To make matters worse, there are redundancies where I work and I am one of those people leaving.”

John also has an eMobile account, which is in arrears, as his ex-wife cancelled the direct debit. “I have paid half the arrears and owe the November/December bill of around €110. I have posted off the new direct debit form and agreed to pay the remainder of the bill on December 15th. Eircom will not install until they have confirmation I have paid this. A further delay. Also, they have offered me €114.21 credit and will not apply a contra to eMobile of this figure to enable my installation to proceed. Nor will they give me a date of installation and commencement of service.”

We contacted Eircom. In a statement the company said it was “extremely sorry for the customer service experience” our reader has had and was “very sympathetic to his personal circumstances”.

Its customer care team “has been in contact with him on several occasions this week to help progress the eFibre order and to work to a solution regarding the large outstanding eMobile bill.

“We will continue to liaise with him to ensure we reach a satisfactory outcome.”

Galway taxi driver goes the extra mile for a customer

We spend a lot of time highlighting bad customer service, but, as this is the last Pricewatch before Christmas, we wanted to finish with a good news story. As luck would have it, one has landed in our laps.

A reader in his early 20s was heading out for the night from his Galway city home and took a cab – from Galway City Cabs – in to the city centre. On the way he asked the driver to stop at an ATM.

When he put the card in it was rejected. It turns out he had put an old, cancelled debit card in his wallet and left his new one at home. He went back to the taxi driver and explained that he would have to go home, as he had no money, either for his night out or for the cab fare.

Then the driver did something most unexpected. He asked our young reader how much he had been planning to take out.

Our reader said €50. So the taxi driver gave him the 50 quid, dropped him off where he wanted to go and said he would call to his place of work the following day to collect the money.

Nameless Galway City Cabs driver, we salute you and we hope you have a very happy Christmas.