Eir get an earful in the Dáil from Tipperary TD

Photo © Tipp FM.

A Tipperary TD has strongly criticised Eir in the Dáil for their customer service, saying their waiting times for repairs are “outrageous”.

Deputy Mattie McGrath raised the issue with Communications Minister Eamon Ryan, and stated that the average waiting time to get an Eir customer service agent was 57 minutes.

The Tipperary deputy said that many locals have been left without basic phone services due to the challenges of getting faults fixed.

Minister Ryan said he’d raise the issue further with the regulator Comreg, and acknowledged the frustration of customers

“There is a universal service obligation on Eir. It is Comreg’s job to monitor, manage and where appropriate to reprimand companies if they’re no meeting the basic service requirements set out in that.”

“I will certainly forward your complaints to them to get the message across that what you are seeing on the ground in Tipperary is not up to what is expected of a universal service provider.”

Deputy McGrath said he was frustrated with the response, and doesn’t think it goes far enough in solving the problems.

“Minister that reply you read out there is patronising, it’s insulting and it’s toilet paper – it’s disgraceful.”

“You said an hour to wait for a call – they can’t get them. They ring every day for months they don’t get them. And they don’t get called back. You can’t get your line disconnected not to mind get a phone put in.”

“So people are flocking away from them and this company is faltering – its about to fail – and it will fail.”