Eir in court over Donegal overcharging case

Phone company Eircom has been fined €10,500 after it admitted overcharging a number of customers including one in County Donegal
Eircom Ltd, trading as Eir, pleaded guilty at Dublin District Court to offences under the Communications Regulation Act 2002.
The prosecution was in connection with complaints by five people who went industry watchdog ComReg after Eircom’s customer service teams failed to resolve their problems.
The court heard that one woman had moved from Belfast to Glenties, and opted for a landline and mobile broadband service which did not work.
She was overcharged €592 and cancelled her direct debit payments after which she got disconnected.
ComReg compliance analyst Una Milton agreed that the woman was upset and in an emergency she would not have been able to contact anyone.

Defence counsel Joe Jeffers asked the court to note Eircom had refunded them and had co-operated with the investigation.
He said the company has put in place new ways of dealing with customer issues.
This has seen complaints drop from 1,000 to 300 a month, he said.