“I would be very thankful of any advice you can give me,” starts an email from a reader we will call Mary. For many months she has been trying to cancel her son’s broadband contract with Eir on the grounds that he has “a serious mental illness and has been unable to live at his own house since last year”.
Mary tried and failed have the account closed when she called into an Eir shop and when she rang the provider’s 1901 number. “I wrote to the company on February 6th using an address on the back of a bill and enclosed a cheque covering rental to February and asking for immediate cancellation. I sent this by registered post and kept a copy,” she says.
“However, the monthly bills kept arriving. Now it’s €313.07. I answered by letter sending receipt of registered letter but nothing changed. It would seem that my cheque was not cashed.”
She was dismayed to get correspondence recently with the phrase “notice of further action” displayed prominently on it. “This has caused me great concern as my son’s mental condition is poor and I need to keep this threat from him at the moment,” she writes.
“Despite trying several phone numbers and calling to an Eir shop I have not been able to explain the problem to anybody that can help. If I do pay the amount due I fear they will connect the service again and more bills will arrive.”
This should not have been as difficult as it has been and we contacted the company and the problem was resolved within days, after which we received the following statement.
“Our customer care team have been in contact with this customer and his mother to ensure they have been updated on the account status. The delay was caused as the registered letter requesting the account closure was forwarded to a postal address which is no longer in use. The account was closed on the 19th of June and the balance was cleared following that. We have apologised for the delay and both parties are satisfied with the outcome.”
