Photo form Fair Society
Tsunami of Litigations Over contracts
We got our 'bill' today and opened it. We honed in on the 'thank you for registering with Irish Water' comment and decided to ring them. We pursued it down the phone and insisted on knowing precisely when and how we had registered.
We were informed that we had registered on a date in February over the phone - we explained categorically that this was not the case.
The operative went away for a while and came back sounding very unsure.
At this point we called everything in - suspecting that an act of fraud may have been committed.
If someone claims that we made a phone call blah blah! sure you guys do this every day.....
But we demanded a transcript of the call in question, plus the call we
were currently on, and copies of all data relating to ourselves that they may have obtained.
I would hate to think of tens of thousands of people making similar phone calls and questioning how and when these were set up. It would be terrible. I'd hate to see such a 'excuse the pun - tsunami of litigation concerning fraudulent misrepresentation of contracts.
Irish Water Sends Bill to Dead Man
A widow of a deceased man from Gorey Co Wexford wrote in The Hub Ireland " I'm at a loss for words... not only did Irish Water send the deceased man a bill but acknowledged on said bill he died.
This morning's post. Two letters from Irish Water addressed to my deceased husband. Nearly 6 years dead and you dare to put that on a letter. No, I will not be contacting you to clarify your error". She went on to say that she hopes she is the only person this has happened to "as this is a callous disregard for human decency."
The Irish Times quoted a spokeswoman for Irish Water “Irish water will be sending bills to 1.5 million customers over the coming eight weeks.
“It’s a significant task and we expect to face challenges where we have incomplete customer information, where customers have not yet registered or where customer information needs to be updated.
“We totally understand and apologise for upset caused by incorrect customer information, and our contact centre staff are ready to accept customer registrations or to correct any data inaccuracies quickly so that information is correct for future billing cycles.”
This action by Irish Water is one of the most significant and revealing actions by the company to date. Could Irish Water have sent a bill to a dead person with the address Alan Montague (RIP) with the knowledge he was dead? Did Irish Water include (RIP) after the name?
If Irish Water did then there are serious questions to be asked. Why, for example? Their explanation in the Irish Times cuts no ice. They knowingly sent the bill in the expectation of getting a response to update their details. If that's the case it could be regarded as an extremely callous if not repugnant act. Can there be any excuses?
Could it be that this address including (RIP) was passed on to Irish Water? If so by whom? This could have serious implications with regard to data protection.
Minister Alan Kelly and the Government must ask these questions of Irish Water. The family deserve an explanation and a proper apology.
Bill from Irish Water