A DONEGAL pensioner was delighted to finally hear her son’s voice for the first time in almost a month over the Easter weekend.
Cynthia Alexander had been unable to phone her son Adam who lives in Transylvania after her landline had been disconnected by Eir, leaving her without a service for three weeks.
The pensioner felt like it was ‘talking to a brick wall’ when she tried to deal with the Eir’s helpline after finding out that she had been barred for making telephone calls.
“I think that it’s terrible that they would do such a thing in the middle of a pandemic. When I finally managed to get through to them I was told that I had an outstanding bill and that my phone would be reconnected once the bill had been paid.
“I explained that I hadn’t received a bill so, therefore, I was unable to pay something that I didn’t have,” Ms Alexander said.
The 80 year-old, who lives alone in sheltered accommodation in Ardara, suddenly found herself discommoded at a time of physical distance when social closeness is being encouraged and promoted by all.
“I had received my last bill on March 3, which I paid the following day, and had received no bills since. I thought the phone was broken until I made enquiries,” she said.
The Donegal News took up her case but we too found it difficult to get answers. Initially we were told that Ms Alexander didn’t hold an Eir account.
“Our care team have checked the number provided and this is not an Eir account. The lady will have to contact her provider,” the short response from Eir read.
Given that Ms Alexander is cocooning it took a while to relay the message back to her upon which time the new bill had arrived – on April Fools Day!
On seeing that the bill contained the company logo, the account number, the bill summary, itemisation etc we went back to eir.
“There was a discrepancy between the original number forwarded and the details on the bills. They are working to resolve this, this morning (Wednesday),” the company statement read.
We then asked Eir what Ms Alexander was expected to do and why was she not offered a sensible call package that would have included Romania (where one of her son’s live). We also asked what policies are in place regarding warning letters, limit alerts etc?
While the company has yet to response to those queries submitted by the Donegal News, Ms Alexander has since been contacted by the company.
“I paid the new bill the day it came in and I was reconnected earlier in the week.
“A nice lady from the company rang me and apologised. I’m satisfied that they’ve admitted that what they did was wrong and they’ve also sorted me out, financially, but I would like to still see that in writing. The simple fact remains that what they did was wrong,” Ms Alexander said.
“She (Eir employee) said something about it being an automated service and when someone goes outside their package it automatically triggers someone else to switch off the phone. She also told me that bills are only sent out at a certain time every month. That’s all fine but they cut me off without even picking up the phone to tell me what they were planning to do – and they’re a phone company,” she said.
“I’m a pensioner and a bit of an old hippy. I don’t have a computer but I always pay my bills on time when they arrive in the post. I’m living in isolation and I felt totally alone these past number of weeks,” Ms Alexander said.
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