How a person who died in 2006 was billed for a non-existent phoneline

Last week we heard a story about Eir that left us both gobsmacked and wondering how it could be possible for a company to bill a person who died more than 15 years ago for a service to a house that has long since been demolished.

A couple of months ago, a reader called Marie O’Connell “started getting odd texts” to her UK mobile phone from Bank of Ireland saying she needed to “ensure that there was enough funds in my account to pay Eircom”.

Confused, she contacted Bank of Ireland in the UK where she has a current account but was relieved to learn that all was well and nothing untoward was happening with her UK account.

“They reassured me and said it sounded like some sort of phishing/fraudulent message and to ignore it.”

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But all was not well, not by a long shot.

“Roll on a few months and I get another similar message with a bigger amount of money. I contact BOI again and the guy said you don’t happen to have an account in Ireland do you?”

As it happens Marie did have such an account.

The next person wouldn't cancel my mum's account even though she has been dead for 16 years and her old house has been demolished and rebuilt

“I have lived in the UK for 30 years but I do have a legacy BOI account. It has/had some money in it left over from sorting out my mum’s estate but I haven’t touched it for more than a decade. It was my little nest egg of euros in case of dire emergency.”

So, the Bank of Ireland team in the UK put her in touch with their counterparts in the Republic “and they found that Eircom [that is Marie’s word although the company has long since rebranded as Eir] have been taking money out of my old Irish account and have cleared it out”.

And as if that wasn’t bad enough – and it really is – there was worse to come. “I now apparently owe them money for a phoneline that doesn’t exist!”

You might be forgiven for inserting an incredulous “what?” at this point. We certainly did.

“My mum had dementia and I was her POA. She died in December 2006. It took a while to sort out her estate and sell her home which finally happened in July 2010. I cancelled the Eircom account at that time and thought no more about it until today. This has come as a huge shock.”

How could it not?

“After a lot of palaver, I finally managed to get through to Eircom as obviously I didn’t have the account number any more but I did have mum’s old phone number. The first person I spoke to seemed shocked but was unable to help. The next person wouldn’t cancel my mum’s account even though she has been dead for 16 years and her old house has been demolished and rebuilt! I seem to be going around and around in circles and this isn’t helped by trying to do this from a distance.”

So what does Marie want? Well for starters she would very much like it if Eir stopped billing her late mother. She wants the account cancelled and “then I would like to get the money back in my account ASAP”.

Response: We made contact with the company last week and received the following statement. "Thank you for highlighting this matter, we have reviewed the account records since 2006 and unfortunately there is no record of an account cease request from 2010. The account holder's daughter contacted the care team this month to discuss closing the account. The care agent advised next steps to register a bereavement online, those steps were agreed, and once that was completed any refund due would have been returned. We acknowledge this has been upsetting for the account holder's daughter, we have ceased the account and organised a refund."

‘Wits’ end’

We were not done with telecommunications companies just yet. “I’m really hoping you can help. I’m at my wits’ end,” so begins the mail we received from a reader we will identify as K in connection with Sky. “We are two full-time working parents, have just signed on to buying a new family business, and we have one autistic child. My own dad has dementia and he is in hospital, and my mother-in-law has end-stage lung disease.”

K is complaining about none of those things, just setting the context for her complaint, which is “like the last straw for me and [is] taking up hours of time and headspace”.

K ordered television and broadband (which needs to come via a landline) from Sky in early March and while the television installation “was not straightforward, [it] is now working”. However, “despite numerous phone calls and attempts at online contact, with multiple false reassurances, my landline and broadband is still not installed”.

She says the “team at Sky redirected me to KN/Eir who were to provide some part of the service. Each company now tells me their role is complete. I still have no socket in my house for a phoneline to connect my router. It is now over six weeks since I ordered the landline and broadband.”

To make matters worse her “account has now been restricted as I have not made full payment based on the failure to provide services. So I can’t cancel it. Even if I could cancel I fear I would be charged for early cancellation of the bundle. I have just filled in an online form on the ComReg website. What more can I do?

“I don’t want to have TV and broadband from different providers. So my account is in arrears and services not yet in. If you think it’s best to just pay and seek a refund I can do that as it’s not a question of not having the cash, but rather a point of principle at this stage!”

Response: After we made contact with Sky, it made contact with our reader. In a statement the company said it has "apologised for this frustrating experience". We were assured that engineers would be on site last Thursday to sort out the problem. A spokesman said that our reader's account had also been "credited" which brings that particular saga to an end, we hope.

Cooling-off period

Then we had a query in connection with another provider. “My name is Kieran and I am writing as I cannot progress an issue with Vodafone relating to their TV and broadband service,” his mail began.

He then tells his story.

“A Vodafone sales rep called to our home in early November 2021 and we signed up to a package deal for a new fibre connection and TV. I was informed of the 14-day cooling-off period. On install, the fibre cable was not long enough to reach the TV location in our house.”

So the engineer said it would be okay and it would be possible to “run the TV connection via a wifi extender. I purchased one in a local electronics store and the engineer set it up. The TV appeared to be working satisfactorily. However, it soon became glitchy and would freeze frequently.”

Not what you want when you are watching the telly, all things considered.

“I contacted Vodafone within the cooling-off period and they suggested their ‘super wifi extender’. I agreed and requested an extension to the cooling-off period which was extended by, I believe, another seven days. An engineer called and set up the new equipment, again all appeared well, but unfortunately the TV stream became glitchy and would freeze frequently especially when using online streaming platforms.”

So, Kieran contacted Vodafone again and “informed them I wished to terminate the contract as the service was not satisfactory. I was told this was fine and that there would be no charge as it was within the extended cooling-off period.”

A disappointing scenario for sure but at least Kieran wasn’t out of pocket.

“In January, I received a text from Vodafone informing me that I had an outstanding balance of €1,055.21. I rang and spoke with a rep who said to ignore it, that it was a technical glitch on their billing system. A few days later my account was debited by €1,055.21.

“I rang Vodafone who said it was taken because their system didn’t recognise the extended cooling-off period and that I would be refunded in 10-15 working days.”

Kieran has been “ in contact at least once a month since then looking for the refund to be paid to my account. On every occasion I have been informed that the payment isn’t being automatically processed as it is such a large amount. On every occasion I have been promised that I will receive the repayment within 10 working days. I have received a text each month informing me that my balance is -€1,055.21 and that payment is due on X date each month. I am still waiting unfortunately.”

He says he is at his “wits end with this and I cannot see any point in further phone calls to Vodafone as I receive the same empty promises every month. I am wondering should I proceed to the small claims court with the matter?”

Response: Pricewatch contacted Vodafone and we were assured that it strives "to give the best customer service experience" to all of its customers. Which is nice but it didn't happen on this occasion. The statement accepted that and stressed that it "recognised that this customer did not get the service we aim to give and we sincerely apologise for any inconvenience caused. The customers' refund has now been fully processed and it will be with them soon."

‘Warning’

We got a mail from a reader by the name of Terry Pattison which might strike a chord with many people. He also wrote to the editor and his letter was published, but we think it bears repeating.

“This is a little warning to people who, like myself, have reached the age of 80,” his mail starts. “Today I received an email from VHI Multi-Trip Travel Insurance, of which I have been a member for 30 years. I always buy ‘worldwide’ cover. The email said, ‘Your Vhi Multi-Trip renewal is available to view’, and asked me to sign in to MyVhi.

“When I do this, and enter my password, I get a page with both my health plan and multi-trip plan, which is flagged ‘28 DAYS TO RENEWAL’.”

So far, so what, you might be thinking. “If I click on ‘view’ on my multi-trip policy, I come to a page which gives payment information and offers a heading ‘key benefits of your plan’, which leads to ‘individual >65 worldwide benefits’ , which leads to ‘view benefits’, which leads to a summary of benefits with a ‘show more’ tab which gives a longer list of benefits.

“This all looks very good. But if I were to go ahead and renew, I would not have realised that when I went to visit my grandchildren in the USA next month, I would be without medical cover after five days!”

Sorry, what?

“Only when I go into ‘view policy documents’ and delve through the fine print would I discover that under ‘trip, age and region limits’ am I only allowed five days’ cover in ‘zone 3’ – the USA and the Caribbean. It would be so easy for anyone to miss this limitation and travel to the USA, not aware that they are not medically insured for a large portion of their trip,” Terry says.

“Policies like this are common among the big insurance companies – they all use reinsurance companies which are not in Ireland. Amazingly, a flyer from my local SuperValu offered travel insurance which is very competitive and has no age limits!”

Terry wants us to “warn all the old fogies to get their specs on and read the small print!”

With that done, we also contacted VHI to ask if more could be done to alert people about the pretty serious limitations of their cover once they stay more than five days in the US.

Response: A spokeswoman said VHI's multi-trip travel insurance "offers travel insurance for over-80s travelling throughout Europe for up to 30 days, and the remainder of the world for 21 days, excluding the USA, Canada and the Caribbean where the duration of cover is five days".

She said: “Travel insurance is a risk-rated product and a number of factors are considered when developing terms and conditions including the costs of healthcare in certain areas. These factors affect the premium and terms of the policy. Zone 3 which includes the USA, Canada and the Caribbean represents a different risk profile due to the significantly higher costs of healthcare in these areas.”

She concluded by saying that VHI was “not the underwriter of our travel insurance products, however, we do conduct regular benchmarking exercises to ensure that our VHI multi-trip policy is in line with the market. Our products and benefits are reviewed regularly and for this reason our terms and conditions in respect of multi-trip travel policies are under constant review.”

‘Violation notice’

“I’ve run into a little bit of a cul-de-sac in dealing with Eflow, the road tolling company,” starts a mail from Aidan Brenna.

“First of all I’m a customer of theirs of several years standing. Late last year I completed a return crossing of the M50 and to my surprise I received a ‘violation notice’ in the post. I tried phoning and waited and waited. I tried emailing – no response. Eventually when I took to Twitter I was told the error had been taken care of. So far, so good.”

It wasn’t good, however.

“In January I completed the same journey with the same result – a violation notice. A little frustration, a little anger, a little bit of inertia and a little bit of curiosity (how far will they go with this?) prompted me to ignore the notice. Now I have received a solicitor’s letter saying the next step is court! I’ve now sent several emails and made several phone calls to Eflow who, in essence, say it’s now an issue for [the solicitors] to deal with.”

So Aidan rang them to be told he could pay the outstanding toll. “Maybe I should have. Maybe you would advise me to do so. Maybe I’m picking a trivial point of principle on which to stand, but I declined to pay. At this stage I would think the least that should happen is the toll should be waived. In fact good customer service practice might suggest a credit being applied to my account. Neither of these solutions appear likely.”

He now wonders if he will have to visit the District Court.