The CEO of Eir admits customers have been left with "sub-par" care over the last number of months, but made the commitment that it "will get fixed".
Of the 5,354 complaints to ComReg between July and September, two thirds were about Eir.
Such was the volume of anger and complaints about the telecoms company's pandemic service or lacktherof, various politicians including Tanaiste Leo Varadkar and Fianna Fáil's Robert Troy met with the company to discuss and understand why there was such dissatisfaction.
CEO Carolan Lennon blamed closed stores, remote working and a hiring freeze, at the Oireachtas Communications Committee today.
She also blamed the decision to locate a call service centre in Sligo as a “mistake” as people there didn’t have the requisite skills.
''Sligo didn’t have experience of customer care centres before Eir set up there''. She added that it took people there longer to train, which contributed to the delay in opening the centre there. She also says that she did not mean to offend Sligo.
Ms. Lennon clarified to the Oireachtas commitee that she is "not blaming staff" in Sligo. "If I said it incorrectly, I apologise. We underestimated how difficult it would be to get a contact centre off the ground in Sligo. They are my mistakes... I am responsible as CEO."
She says they carried out 200,000 repairs during a very challenging time:
"But during this pandemic we have fixed 200,000 faults. My field guys, over 1,000 people have worked right through this pandemic fixing faults, over 200,000.
She added: "But we absolutely have had sub par care, it's my responsibility, I'm the CEO and we will get it fixed."
