Your call is valuable.................

[GerryC]

Just spent an hour or so on the phone. I have an aunt who lived alone out the country, a year ago she was transferred to a nursing home as cognitive imparement was setting in - she was out on the road at night looking for cows, it had been 20 years ago since she kept cows.
The nursing home arrangement is now permanent so I decided to tidy her affairs & among the pile of mail in her hall way were letters on her electricity bill arrears - the state subsidised this as she was a pensioner living alone; that no longer holds.
The latest letter from Electric Ireland asked that my aunt ring a specific number & ask for a specific person to discuss the arrears.
I wish to keep her house in good order & to pay the essential bills so I phone the number & ask for the person. It did not work that way, I must talk to the person who answered the phone who was a non national (no I'm not racist) who could not discuss the account as I am not my aunt. I say I wish to pay, she was happy to take my credit card number to discharge the amount but could not talk about the account (she would not say the amount owed but confirmed it when I read it out) or have future bills directed to me.
Ring customer services says she in that charming non national way (I.m still not a racist). I do & get if it is about this press this & about the other pres that etc etc etc. Except there is no number to press for what I have outlined above. Eventually I get a real person & the line goes dead.
I start again & get another real person after pressing buttons for this that & the other for some time but it appears no one can do anything beyond taking money 'till my aunt authorises it. She does not know what day of the week it is. I can pay the bill for her but can't have that bill sent to me.
& so it goes - my call is valuable & may be used for training purposes............Silvia's mother said..............& please wont you call back again.............

 

[neilflash]

You may want to look at the data protection act you cannot discuss anybodys account unless you are listed as a third party on the account or have power of attorney.
or look at it another way how would you like me to ring up your bank and discuss if you can afford anything ?? or how much you owe the bank.
I deal with this Sh*t everyday and i know your intentions are good and you are just trying to sort out a relatives affairs. but the law is the law like it or not dont shoot the messenger

 

[GerryC]

You may want to look at the data protection act you cannot discuss anybodys account unless you are listed as a third party on the account or have power of attorney.
or look at it another way how would you like me to ring up your bank and discuss if you can afford anything ?? or how much you owe the bank.
I deal with this Sh*t everyday and i know your intentions are good and you are just trying to sort out a relatives affairs. but the law is the law like it or not dont shoot the messenger

I accept what you are saying but the fact that they will take my cash makes it appear a one way street.
Incidentally I did not make it clear there were communication issues with the non national. A lot of repeating & spelling.
In general I am dumping on how complex life has become & that for all sorts of noble reasons we end up being painted into corporate corners.
The 3rd party listing issue is also fair & arose but my aunt must consent - how can someone suffering cognitive imparement consent to anything.
It might be easier not to pay but no power = no heat (OFCH) = house getting damp = other issues.
I see income for the legal profession here.

 

[Kamikaze]

I suspect, Gerry, that if you had said that you wanted to make changes to the current arrangements, whereupon you would clear the account and pay future bills, they may have been more inclined to be flexible. Maybe not.

Rules are rules.......except when a little flexibility means receipt of money and inflexibility means not.

 

[Jockser]

In general I am dumping on how complex life has become & that for all sorts of noble reasons we end up being painted into corporate corners.

It's great isn't it ? They don't want people phoning because it's too expensive to have someone sitting there talking to customers who don't want to buy anything / spend more money.
But very often you can't resolve issues online, you need to talk to a human-type person

power of attorney

Think that would be the easiest way. If she's in the home a while someone must have power of attorney.
Failing that type up a letter from her, there must be a copy of her signature around the house

 

[Dahoum]

Get a letter on headed paper from the Nursing Home or her doctor explaining the situation, send it to them and forget them.

And if she hasn't got a legal representative and you want to (commendably) maintain her affairs for her - get that sorted out too.

Some notes on such issues here at the Alzheimer's Society web site

 

[(RIP) petcul]

Can you get power of attorney Gerry?

Might save a lot of future hassles.

Having said that most large organisations with a "customer service focus" are more bureaucratic that the civil service ever was. They seem to have a script and, on pain of death, cannot vary from it. That's why in MHO they never come up with helpful solutions.

Ye see! Ye've started me on it!!!

 

[GSless Girl]

can you just put her bill on your bank account as direct debit, you'd only need her ESB account number and surely it could be done online yourself without the aid of the unfriendly customer services options 1 to 4

 

[Daisy Duke]

Why not just get a female to phone up and pretend to be your aunt, pay the outstanding bill and tell them that she is moving out and that you will be taking over the property and will set up a new account. Once they give you a date for the cut off phone them up and have it connected back up in your name.

 

[(RIP) Bin Ridin]

Jaysus leave it to a female.....

 

[Glenboy]

I had issues with the ESB a couple of years ago involving the transfer of a bill from an old national school to a community centre of which I'm on the committee, anyway I was getting absolutely nowhere with a succession of phone calls but finally got it sorted using email. This had the advantage of having a trail of my efforts to resolve it - it took a while to get a reply but at least I could show that the delays were all at their end which made it impossible for them to apply penalties.

Dahoum's idea of a letter from the nursing home is good, you could scan this and attach to an email.

Best of luck with it anyway.

 

[Damien]

Call them up Gerry and inform them that you are the new tenant and want the bill in your name. Give them meter readings and agree to a contract from that date on.

Let them sing for the arrears, they are not flexible, so do the easy option.

See you on Saturday, looking forward to another great night.

 

[vireo]

Hmmm....call centres eh? (or CONTACT centres as they like to call them these days - a contact centre differs in that rather than just taking your call and logging the details etc, it is supposed to resolve the call fully........hmmm)

Anyway, as a rule, the customer service agent will have a superior ("team leader") there and then on the premises. If you are not getting satisfaction, escalate the call immediately - but politely - by requesting to the speak to the team leader. They are most unlikely to bend the rules viz-a-viz the law as others have stated, but will have greater authority - and if you dont get satisfaction at that point, ask to escalate the call to their superior (customer service/call centre manager perhaps) possibly not always present, but you can insist on a call back from them at a later time. Its important to remember that ALL of these converaations and interactions are written down - either while active on the call or immediately after hang-up - in a CRM (customer relationship management) system by the CS agent and form a permanent record to which you can get access under Data Protection acts, so dont be afraid to make them aware of this if they get shirty.

Lastly, if you get answered by a voice recognition system (virtual reality type 'person') just say "Agent" when asked to state the reason for you call and you will be put through to a human(ish).....

Sorry that none of the above will actually resolve your current issue, but it may help with some of the frustration of ringing these service prevention lines........