Corporates without Kindness and Compassion

by Michelle Clarke - Social Justice and Ethics Thu Jan 19, 2006 20:55

I wrote the above article in near desperation.

I have had an ongoing dispute with Eircom about double billing and broadband since early 2004.

Without notice I was cut off from phone use just before Christmas, a time when a person who lives alone with intellectual and other disabilities needs a source of communication. I am particularly reliant on the internet because it keeps my brain alert and is part of my rehabilitation from acquired brain injury.

I actually had to walk to the library in the new year and ask if they would allow me keep my dog on my knee so that I could write the above. They kindly said yes.

Today, having tried Eircom once again. I spoke to a most helpful woman Carmel from Limerick. Unlike others, she listened to what I was trying to explain. She acknowledged that I was double charged and that ComReg had dealt with this in the past and certain repayments were made but the problem was not rectified.

No means of communication had a serious impact on my Christmas personally. Then that is for me to overcome.

The woman, with MS, in Wexford who died. Let us all please think of what illness and grief can do particularly at lonely times during the festive season. A death wish or suppression of appetite take hold within a few days realistically.

Eircom is about publicly quoted shares on the Stockmarket. Many lost money on this flotation but a number made a considerable amount of money.

Those with vested interests benefiting from a monopoly company that was state owned have an added obligation to ensure that the services they provide to all people are of marketable quality.....Broadband in Ireland I hear rates the 2nd worst provision in Europe.

Shame: Ireland is embracing the Knowledge Economy spectrum but this will not be possible unless the service provided by these corporates meets a standard.

Michelle Clarke
'You have to be the change you want to see in the world' Gandhi

by Michelle Clarke - Social Justice and Ethics Tue Mar 11, 2008 20:51

For People with Disabilities, Acquired Brain Injury, the elderly

The Instrument - the phone. Add broadband, the internet, the phone line, the phone book

Potential for the Corporate viz a viz Disabilities - I would say dynamic potential.

I am adding this note to say, that inspite of the efforts of a friend, we remain with only partial resolution to the problem since this letter in 2006. I hear of others with similar problem and now we know that Broadband rates 2nd from the bottom, in Europe, and yet Corporates fail to listen to their 'ears and eyes'.

What does marketing mean in Ireland now?

There is another entry with 28 comments

Michelle

Suggestion to Eircom: This is brain awareness week......review this source of communications.

by Domhain Sceadaman - The Plain People of Ireland Wed Mar 12, 2008 10:47

Eircom is a national embarrassment. Communications are vital to any nation, especially an island nation. Hundreds of thousands of jobs are dependent on digital communications. This is especially so in the knowledge economy that will form the basis of the post – services economy ,when all of the back-office jobs in the financial services sectors, and others, move to India and China.

Without nationally available broadband speeds of at least 24meg we will be left far behind. The benefits to persons with any form of disability that can be derived from high quality, reliable, broadband are immense, and in many cases life changing.

The only way to make this strategic leap is for the government to nationalise Eircom and to install, as a matter of urgency, the necessary equipment.

Domhain Sceadaman

by Michelle Clarke - Social Justice and Ethics Wed Mar 12, 2008 17:28

Too many people have been forsaken since the floating of Eircom a number of years ago. Investments and profits have yielded investors, shareholders, staff, and Chiefs profits at the expense of the upgrade in technology, communications and broadband speeds needed to enhance Ireland's competitive advantage.

Then Babcock and Brown, an Australian company, saw its opportunity and there was a dawn raid (in financial circles) and a take over of Eircom, with its healthy Dublin 2, 4, property base. In other words, they would benefit from asset stripping without the commitment needed to the Irish market.

Domhnain, nationalisation sounds a rather scary option......we have Northern Rock being nationalised in the UK and now media coverage has enveloped that our leading banks are facing nationalisation too......

Eircom had amazing opportunties and could have paid heed to the communications of people with disabilities and others........listening is an art and there are many clues to be found in complaints and emails, that are easily fixed.

Michelle

by Rainman - Media Monopolies Tue Sep 29, 2009 16:02

Eircom is for sale again and is about to be sold to a Singaporean company. It has changed hands a myriad of times in a decade. People have lost considerable amounts in share sales and who knows what the outcome will be this time.

BT are contenders for the broadband market here in Ireland. Yet, this does not appear to be on a Government priority listing at a time the Irish people are voting yet again about the Lisbon II Treaty. Why not? It is said that only 50% of the population use broadband.

Ireland is supposed to have moved forward, within the European funding programmes, to being a Knowledge economy. I would suggest that if this is so, why is Broadband speed and coverage not a priority.

Why is there so little coverage to what media is all about in say the Irish Independent? This, of course, is another story that the media is scarce about reporting on.

We need to be aware of media moguls and power freaks. These lead to monopolies and they are hard mindsets to shift viz a viz workers and fair pay. The O'Reilly Dynasty and the O'Brien dynasty (both self made) are at loggerheads, and worse 'it could be said to be quite personal'. The people who lose are the clients, the shareholders, the bondholders.

by Shergar - Transparency and Ethics Mon Oct 12, 2009 17:54

Yes

How many times has Eircom changed hands? We see so little of the news of its pending sale in the media and yet something as important as our communication network and ownership, is of significant importance, I would think.

Meantime, we see little about the Independent newspapers and the sparring match that is going on between two world league entrepreneurs and their particular financial power to influence media coverage.

media is the order of the day. Marc Watson BT Vision Chief Executive , a former barrister who masterminded the deal to get Beckhams wedding photos into the OK magazine....is now reviewing a fledgling pay television service to the mass market.

Where is our vision? We need to focus on fast speed broadband. RTE pays too much to its presenters; there is a loss of vision and competitive advantage with the existing commentators. It has become a bureaucratic nightmare I would suggest and rather than respond to the privatisation of other radio networks, it has ballooned into a state mentality of one up man ship and a job for life.

Eircom is the start of a new wave. Chances are it will be bought out for a song (due to the recession); sold to either BT or the Singaporean company and it will then through mergers and acquisition (and most probably no need for insider trading) slip in with a pay for media up beat system like what is envisioned in the UK.

I heard little from the Greens about the forthcoming Budget but I heard less about upgrading broadband? Ireland needs Vision urgent style if we are to embrace this knowledge economy vision of the European Union - yes, with a re-run and a change of view, we have now ratified the Lisbon Treaty.