I will no longer be a slave to Eircom
22 June 09
Last week I met a friend who works in Magnet Broadband. He suggested I should think about switching to their service from Eircom.
Like most customers I'm a complete slave to Eircom. So the next day I checked my broadband package. Instead of switching I called Eircom and asked if they could give me a faster broadband package? The sales agent said that it would take just 24 hours to upgrade. All they had to do was flick a switch and faster broadband would travel down the line.
You can imagine my panic the following morning when I got to my office and quickly realised that not only had my faster broadband not arrived, I now had no broadband at all. Instead of upgrading the broadband, they shut it off. Absolute panic ensued, because nobody could do any work. I went to call Eircom. But as usual who do you call when you call Eircom? The first person I spoke to gave me another number to call, but apparently it wasn't the job of the second person to help me. The third person I spoke to was a technical support man, whose computer didn't work (I kid you not), and the fourth person was a customer service representative (in title only) who said it would take 36 hours to reverse the situation. I asked to speak to a customer service supervisor, who turned out to be rude and aggressive. When I pointed out to him that this was all very frustrating, he didn't seem to care. He said he would call me back in a half hour.
An hour later I went in search of the elusive supervisor only to discover he was gone on a break. By this stage I had called the computer network company I use, Dublin-based Computerdoctor.ie, to see could they help. They quickly dispatched a technician.
I was getting nowhere with Eircom so I decided to call their Press Officer Dearbhaill Rossiter to see could she help me get back my missing broadband. She was very professional and apologetic, took my details and said she would be back to me.
Meanwhile Brian form Computerdoctor.ie arrived and managed to temporarily get us back online by getting the loan of a broadband connection from another company in the building.
Twenty minutes after calling the Eircom Press Office positive things began to happen. The supervisor called me and had completely changed his tune. He said he was on to the problem and that it should be fixed very soon. Soon after, as if by magic, the red light on my modem went green and Eircom Broadband was back.
Dearbhaill Rossiter said she was sorry I had such a bad experience with Eircom and said she would take the matter up internally with the relevant departments. I thanked her for the speed and professionalism she showed in sorting my problem. I'd got the complete run-around until she intervened. I asked why it was that the press office is much more efficient at customer service than the customer service department. Yet again I've got out of a fix because the press team intervened. A couple of weeks ago it was 02 and now Eircom. While this is good for me, it's pretty crap if you don't know an efficient press officer.
I wanted to give Eircom extra business and what have I got in return? I'll tell you what I've got - a bill of €150 from my network technician, 12 man hours lost in the office, and a very bad taste about the whole incident.
I'm going to stop being a slave to Eircom and get a new broadband provider.
by Jack Murray, Mediacontact.ie
