A judge has fined telecom giant Eircom €7,500 for threatening staff with disciplinary action if they handled customer complaints according to its own code of conduct and Irish law. The company also paid €10,000 in costs and pleaded guilty to 12 offences for breaching the Universal Service Regulations.
A judge has described as "disgraceful" how telecom giant Eircom threatened staff with " disciplinary action " if they handled customer complaints according to its own code of conduct and in compliance with Irish law.
The court heard that a mother who was unable to make 999 calls when her daughter needed "urgent" medical attention was wrongly told there was nothing wrong with her service. Her dad also ended up in hospital after a missed delivery of his breathing machine. The analyst outlined the offences, which included failing to comply with and implement a code of practice to settle unresolved disputes, provide a first point of contact for complaints, a means of recording complaints, acknowledge a complaint, give a unique identifier for reference, and respond to the problem within ten working days.
The witness quoted the manual: "Under no circumstances are the complaints number or the complaints webpage address to be provided to the customer, and an agent found doing this would be subject to disciplinary action." The witness outlined the impact on one customer. The court heard that in December 2022, her mobile service dropped, and she did not receive calls. A local engineer informed her it was a mast issue. Over six months, the woman called Eircom 13 times and sent five emails and eight messages via social media without sorting out the issue.
The judge noted Eircom had prior prosecutions in 2013 and 2015 in cases brought by the Data Protection Commission. One resulted in a €3,000 fine, and the other led to it getting the Probation of Offenders Act after donating €35,000 to charity.
Telecom Eircom Fine Customer Complaints Disciplinary Action Irish Law Universal Service Regulations
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