For 51 weeks a year this page gives out about companies that have let our readers down but ’tis the season to be jolly and of goodwill to all so with that in mind we thought we’d highlight some of the good news stories we’ve heard in recent times.
Graeme lives overseas and found himself back home in Ireland for a “very quick trip” recently.
He travelled from Cork to Galway by train – a challenge, given that there is no direct service between the capital of the west and the capital of the south – but that is a whole other story.
Graeme notes that the journey required two changes – one at Limerick Junction and a second one at Limerick Colbert.
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“Everything was running smoothly on the train until we got to Mallow when the train broke down,” he says.
An Irish Rail staff member called Dana was charged with keeping passengers informed and made an announcement over the intercom about the delay and spent time “walking up and down the train explaining the problem to any one that asked”, Graeme says.
“Over the next hour she talked to me on several occasions and suggested rerouting me through Dublin and then on to Galway. But I explained to her that I was on a very tight schedule,” he continues.
The reason he was under so much pressure is that he was being picked up in Oranmore before being driven to Cong for a meeting and then being driven on to Dublin for another meeting that evening.
“Eventually the train limped into Limerick Junction where all the passengers were moved on to other trains. A special train came from Limerick to pick those passengers going to Limerick but by the time I got there I had missed the connection to Galway,” he writes.
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“But guess what? When I arrived in Limerick Colbert there was a complimentary taxi waiting to drive me to Oranmore compliments of Irish Rail. It appears that the woman on the train rang her supervisor, explained my problem and this was the result. What service!”
We can only salute Dana and her supervisor.
That wasn’t the only good news story we heard about Irish Rail and a reader called Mary got in touch to share what we might call a Christmas miracle, one which, she says “serves to highlight the best of human nature”.
She was travelling from Connolly station to Rush/Lusk in the middle of November and when she alighted – to use the word so beloved of train people – at Rush she “almost immediately realised that my Public Service card / Travel Pass was left on the train, having been inadvertently pulled from my pocket with my phone”.
She emailed lost property who responded within a few hours.
“But thanks to the Irish Rail staff I already had card back,” she writes.
“In a rare moment of inspiration I called the Drogheda station and from this call I was given a phone number for the station master,” Mary says. His name was Seamus and he “took details, indicated that the train was due in a few minutes and he said he would have staff check it and call me back if the pass was found”.
The call came and Mary was asked if she could be on the platform at Rush/Lusk at 1.10pm as the driver had her card for her. “And that is exactly what transpired – the card was handed through window to me on schedule. Go raibh míle maith acu.”
From Irish Rail to Ikea. Daragh got in touch to highlight “some really good service” from our Swedish friends. “I know you usually talk about bad customer service but you touch on the good service too, which I think is really important to highlight,” his mail begins.
We couldn’t agree more; we just wish we had more good-news stories to share.
“Around five years ago I got a lovely Ikea kitchen installed,” Daragh says. “The whole design and installation process with Ikea was faultless, with excellent communication. I’m definitely not a DIY or home interiors planning expert so it was great to deal with a company which managed everything so well.”
He explains that the kitchen cabinets were an off-white colour. “But after a few years all the cupboards and cabinets began to darken and turn a kind of magnolia, off-yellow colour. I only noticed it when I got one of the cabinets replaced and could see the stark difference,” he says.
“Seemingly some discolouration is to be expected with white cabinets and appliances over the years, especially in darker rooms, but I did some research online and found I wasn’t the only person to whom this had happened with this particular kitchen,” his mail continues.
“Anyway, to cut a long story short, after a bit of back and forth, Ikea agreed to replace all the cabinets and doors for free and arranged for builders to come out and fit the new cabinets and doors for free also. Again, there was excellent communication and the whole process was seamless. I really couldn’t have asked for more. I was dealing with a lovely, professional lady in head office in Ballymun called Jackie so please give her a shout-out.”
Happy to do that, Daragh.
We also heard from Helen whose story started in a fashion that could best be described as cross.
“I recently spent €115 through Ticketmaster on a once in a lifetime treat of an evening at Swan Lake / Georgia Ballet Company in Bord Gáis Theatre on Wednesday, November 20th,” she says. “I have an adequate, but not especially generous, pension. I used to be a frontline worker in the HSE so you can appreciate what I mean by ‘not generous’. It was a big purchase for me.”
She received emails from Ticketmaster stressing that they would not accept screen shots of my emailed ticket, which is fair enough,” he mail continues.
She was told to download the Ticketmaster app, which she did.
“Then despite their emails to me, the Ticketmaster app told me I have no ticket booked. I couldn’t find where my ticket was stored, despite quoting the number-code sent in the email. At this stage I was almost in tears. I eventually found a long winded contact form which took ages to fill in as bits kept disappearing. Finally, and in tears, I managed to send off the enquiry form. I received an automatic reply with yet another number code. They said they would be back to me within 24 hours.”
This all happened just before the event so she was very upset, so much so that she said it was “spoiling the anticipation of an evening of live ballet”.
But this is a good news page – at least today it is – so you might be wondering where the good news is.
A couple of days later we heard back from Helen. “I sent you an email last Monday with a bit of a rant (an overreaction) about Ticketmaster,” it started. “You very kindly responded and I calmed down. I got to Bord Gáis Theatre yesterday evening and really enjoyed Swan Lake (despite two big heads in my sight line).”
We’re guessing she found her tickets. But there is more.
She discovered that in future, “if I can make early decisions and plan properly, I can get myself to the Bord Gáis ticket office and book there in person; no hassle, no service charge. I spoke to two different people last night who do just that. For all the talk about dangerous Dublin, I caught the Red Luas to Mayor Square. After the ballet I was almost first to leave the theatre and despite walking on my own, I never had any reason to feel nervous or uncomfortable while returning to catch the Luas. I couldn’t get over the amount of building / street lighting in the area.”
Next up is Barbara. As keen readers will know, we have highlighted many stories over recent years about how readers have lost many thousands of euro to scam artists and criminals and far too often when the money is gone, it is gone for good.
But Barbara’s story had a happier outcome.
“You recently included in your column a piece about a man whose account was compromised. While ultimately he was successful in having the money credited back to his account, his dealings with the bank were very poor and caused a huge amount of stress,” her mail begins. “It prompts me to write to you with a good news story from AIB regarding fraudulent activity on my account a year ago.”
Barbara fell for the eflow scam that was doing the rounds at the time – and probably still is. The scam is pretty basic. People get a text message alerting them to an outstanding amount owed to eflow. The message contains a link and if it is followed and financial details are entered victims can lose a lot of cash quickly.
“But this scam was worse,” says Barbara.
“Having given credit card details via that link, I received a call from someone purporting to be from AIB fraud section advising me that my account had been compromised as a result of the eflow text I had received a few minutes earlier. It never occurred to me that this person was not from AIB. He was very polite with a customer orientated approach.
[ One in five online shoppers have lost money to scamsOpens in new window ]
So, in short, Barbara “fell for it hook, line and sinker, and I did everything that you are warned not to in terms of disclosing security details. But I felt quite relieved after the call, thinking that I had had a near miss and went along my merry way.”
The following day Barbara got a call from the real fraud section of AIB alerting her to fraudulent activity on her account which the bank had subsequently frozen. She was horrified to learn that €15,000 had been taken from her by criminals.
“I explained to the official (who had given me an AIB telephone number and her bank identity number, enabling me to call back on another line and verify her details), what exactly had ensued. She said that they were working on it and that she would get back to me later that afternoon with a decision as to whether or not the bank would credit my account with the loss,” Barbara writes.
After what must have been a very anxious couple of hours she got the promised call back. “She gave me a bit of a talking to, given that I had given the information to the scammer, but confirmed that the bank would cover the loss. That evening when I checked my account, everything had been refunded to me. To be honest, given that I had disclosed my bank details to the fraudster, if the bank had refused to underwrite the loss, I think I would have had to accept it,” she says.
“The following day I had to go to my local branch in person with ID to enable them to reset my account and cancel all bank cards. The official there was very efficient and also very kind and walked me through the procedure. I rang the fraud section of AIB the following day to thank the official who dealt with my case and I subsequently wrote to AIB to mention the two officials I had dealt with [and] I thought that I would let you know of this good news story.”
We also have another – far more serious – story to share from a woman from the Dublin area.
“I have been undergoing cancer treatment since 2020. Unfortunately it progressed to a terminal prognosis,” she writes. “We had a terminal benefit with our life insurance policy that stated if I had 12 months or less to live our mortgage would be paid off. Myself and my husband drew down on the mortgage not long before my cancer diagnosis and the pandemic.”
[ What's the most important item on your insurance policy?Opens in new window ]
She says that Aviva “processed the claim very quickly and with only a few follow-up calls to my GP. My husband got a call the week the claim was approved by Aviva from PTSB.
“The contact at PTSB said he’d be in touch regularly and the whole process shouldn’t take too long. Within a month Aviva paid the claim, we were kept abreast of all developments, there was little to no paperwork needed from us, they never needed to speak to me which would have caused me undue stress, and as of last week our mortgage account has disappeared from our PTSB apps, and a lump sum we were owed as we overpaid the value of the house by a bit, was transferred in one day. We now no longer have to worry about money at all and my husband can take precious time off work to spend together.”
She says that to “say the process was easy is to understate it. Thanks to your previous articles regarding terminally ill mortgage holders with PTSB, they seem to have changed their policy dramatically and we are the happy beneficiaries of that. Which during these very difficult times has been so helpful.”
