Sir, Up until recently Telecom Eireann as the main (monopoly?) provider of telephone services to the consumer provided a service whereby you used their main product, i.e., the telephone, to contact them and pay their bill by credit card. No doubt this "pay by phone" facility was one which they properly, and with some success, encouraged other business to use. One has only to think of Ticket line, Interflora etc.
Imagine my surprise when last week when as usual I went to settle my account by phone (and credit card) and was told that the service had been withdrawn. Am I to expect a carrier pigeon on my window as an alternative method of payment? Or is this just another example of a large semi state with no competition doing as it (or its employees) pleases without any regard for the consumer without whom, I should hope, it would not exist. Yours, etc., Holyrood Park, Sandymount, Dublin 4.
PS For fear that I might be branded a Thatcherite, I would like to wholly endorse Nuala O'Faolain's comments in her column (April 1st) regarding the VHI and would suggest that other semi states look at the way that organisation has a clear vision of who it is there to serve, i.e., the consumer.