eircom’s phone watch

Red faces all round at eircom then after the company was forced to admit it had charged people who had tried but failed to get through to a Late Late Show competition hotline. Thousands of viewers were overcharged by an average of €1 a pop after trying to connect to premium rate phone lines on the three most recent shows before last night’s programme. Some viewers dialling from mobiles could have faced even higher charges. “The problem appears to be the result of a software upgrade in Eircom’s network, implemented by one of the company’s key suppliers. This upgrade may have resulted in some customers being charged for attempted but uncompleted calls,” eircom said in a statment filled with completely unnecessary conditional words. “May have resulted in” “appears to be” - Pah! Eircom assured affected customers that they would be “fully rebated”. That’s nice of them. What about a little compensation too to teach the company a lesson. And I wonder was it only the Late Late Show that was affected by the software glitch given the increasing prevelance of premium rate phone lines across TV and radio schedules.