Doctor briefly left in limbo after Eir cuts broadband access over changed name

Whatever about a company letting you or me down, the idea that it would leave a GP’s practice hanging and put patient appointments at significant risk seems particularly reprehensible.

But that was the experience of a doctor who contacted Pricewatch last week. The doctor is in a group practice and she started her mail by telling us that the practice’s day-to-day operations “depend heavily on broadband, so much so that we cannot function without it now”.

She went on to say that when the practice loses its broadband it loses its phone lines and patient files. It also struggles when it comes to sending prescriptions to pharmacies, receiving blood test reports, radiobiology reports, sending referrals and making appointments.

In short, it can’t really function without access to the internet.

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“My colleague retired and as his name was on our broadband account, I couldn’t make any changes to it,” she says. “I phoned Eir, explained our business and they recommended we change the name on the account and helpfully told me to send in the change of ownership form. I had three separate phone conversations with Eir about changing the name and I sent in the form three times over a five-month period and each time I got no acknowledgment of the form and no communication at all from Eir.”

But while the absence of communication was bad, a whole lot worse was to come.

Our doctor correspondent phoned the company to inquire about the form “about a month after I sent it each time and each time got a very helpful person who talked me through the process and asked me to send the form again.”

Last week, her retired colleague spotted an email from Eir to say they were in the process of disconnecting him.

“That email arrived at 10am and my colleague spotted it and sent it to me at 5:10pm. Immediately I phoned Eir customer services to be told they were closed and technical support were open but could not help me as the process had started.”

The following day the doctor went into work and the broadband was gone. “We could not function as a GP practice and had to cancel most patient appointments. I spent all day begging Eir to reconnect us but was told it would take 10 days. They pointed out that the change of ownership form did say we would be disconnected for 10 days and I missed that sentence.”

She accepts that and says it was her fault. “However at no point in any conversation with [the] Eir team was I warned that the change of ownership form would trigger the shutting down of our broadband for 10 days. If I had been told our service would be interrupted for even one hour I would not have gone ahead,” she writes..

“We have very complicated IT systems and I had previously been warned by our IT providers that if we ever change broadband provider we need to warn them,” she continues as she makes the point that she was aware that a long-term disconnection would cause difficulties.

“I cannot believe that Eir would disconnect an essential service such as a GP practice without any prior warning,” she writes. “Would our electricity, water or gas be shut off without warning us? As a GP is an essential service, Is there anyone I can appeal to get reconnected fast? I should have read the whole form so the fault does lie with me but I do feel Eir should have better advisors on their phone lines.”

It should go without saying that broadband is an essential service for us all and to expect anyone to lose access for 10 days simply because they are changing the name on the account is insane.

It is doubly so if the broadband connection belongs to a doctor’s surgery and having access could literally be a matter of life and death.

We also struggled to understand — as did our reader — why she was not told the shutdown was going to happen and why, when she alerted the company to the problem, nothing could be done to help her out as a matter of urgency.

We contacted the company last Monday morning and the good news is that within 24 hours the practice was back online.

We subsequently received a statement from Eir in which a spokeswoman said it was the company’s “aim is to always work with our customers to ensure a quick resolution to any issue. The change of ownership request for two accounts was received by Eir in June, but there was some incompleteness in the request which delayed processing of the change. We have launched an investigation and we see that we further delayed processing by not requesting this information sooner. We should have highlighted further the GDPR requirements of the contract change.”

She said the terms and conditions “state that a change of ownership will require the cessation and re-provision of the line, resulting in a 10-day period of no service. Accounts must be ceased to protect the previous owner’s historical data. We are working with our GDPR team to understand what improvements can be made to ensure a faster turnaround time while still protecting customer data at all times.”

‘Whatever, about a delay of three to four weeks, but, going on eight weeks is unacceptable’

—  Pricewatch reader

That wasn’t the only Eir connection story we heard last week and within hours another would-be customer had sent us their tale of woe which, he said, was “causing us a great deal of distress”.

Patrick Cassidy said that he was “mindful” of Pricewatch’s long-standing advice to “shop around” for utility providers as he placed an order with Eir on July 4th to change from Sky for both his landline and broadband.

“Immediately, we had our contract and router in the post [but] regrettably, we are still waiting to be connected. We have neither landline or broadband” And this despite 14 calls to Eir’s customer service department.

“Our call this morning, before we were connected to a customer care person took all of 30 minutes,” he writes. “We have been given a list of excuses each time we call — from awaiting a works order from [the local council] to problems with the telephone pole. We have had telephone service here for the last 45 years,” he points out.

“Whatever, about a delay of three to four weeks, but, going on eight weeks is unacceptable,” he continues. “We would like to point out that despite numerous requests to ask for either an engineer or supervisor to call us as a matter of courtesy, this has not happened.”

He also contacted his local council who “assured us that there is no works order with them for our address”.

We highlighted the issue with Eir.

The spokeswoman said that Eir has been in contact with the customer “to apologise ... for the inconvenience and frustration caused due to a delay in resolving a fault on the new service installation. The issue occurred as there was damage to the telecommunications pole serving the property which required significant repair work. The repair team has completed this work and full service has been restored.”