Thousands of Eircom customers could be paying for phones they no longer use, it was claimed today.
According to John McGuinness, vice-chairman of the Public Accounts Committee and Fianna Fáil TD, Eircom may be charging for equipment no longer in use and he is to ask the company to investigate the equipment charges that appear on telephone bills.
Mr McGuiness said that on a phone bill he had seen, a customer had been charged €4.22 per quarter for a phone that had not been used for many years.
"If you are paying for a phone that you replaced say 10 years ago without telling Eircom, you will have paid . . . for nothing," he said. "I believe thousands of people need to look carefully at their bills."
Mr McGuiness believes that many households would simply have replaced old hired equipment with phones bought from electrical retailers without cancelling the hire charge with Eircom.
"Eircom would continue to raise the charge until they are advised and that charge would appear on line rental bills even when another service provider is involved," he added.
Eircom issued a statement today in which they say that their customers are offered the opportunity to either rent or buy telephone handsets.
If a customers rents a handset, the statement explained: "Rental charges are clearly displayed on customer's bill, under the heading 'recurring charges' on the first page. This section is then clearly broken down on page 2 of the bill and shows the name/model of the phone that is rented and the charge incurred during the billing period.
Eircom stated that the rental charge for either a cordless or corded phone is €2.55, including VAT, per month and customers are guaranteed a replacement phone from eircom should the handset become faulty.
"The choice to rent or purchase remains with the customer. If a customer chooses to stop renting a phone they have the option of buying out the handset for a fee, or purchasing a new handset themselves," said the press statement.
Mr McGuinness said that he was concerned about what he called apathy charging. He said that all companies should be required to bring such charges to the attention of their clients once they become ware that they are benefiting from ignorance.
Eircom insist that it has "repeatedly communicated with customers on this issue, informing them of the options to rent or buy telephone handsets", and advised that any customer who wishes to change their existing arrangement should call 1901 free of charge.