Utility companies 'hiding behind GDPR' - Mayo councillor

UTILITY companies have been accused of hiding behind GDPR in not dealing with customer complaints and queries.

The situation has been heightened since Storm Éowyn, with many older people left without their security pendants due to their landlines still being down, and broadband also knocked out in other cases.

But when someone rings on their behalf, they can't make progress as the utilities will only speak to the account holder.

Councillor Michael Kilcoyne told a Castlebar Municipal District meeting of dealing with families after a bereavement through his funeral home and ringing to get a bill switched over. First thing is you're asked 'can I talk to the named customer'. The answer: No, they're deceased. And still they want to speak to them.

“I had this a week ago,” he told colleagues. “They hid behind GDPR.”

Another lady was trying to add her name to her electricity account as her husband is in a nursing home and she is entitled to units. They wanted to talk to the customer, but the gentleman wasn't in a position to talk about anything never mind the electricity bill.

Councillor Donna Sheridan pointed out the Act permitted elected representatives to receive and give information and they should be quoting this when they make contacts for people.

It's outrageous that so many people don't have connectivity to broadband and phone lines, Councillor Cyril Burke told the meeting, especially older people with panic buttons.

People don't know what service provider they're with, they get asked for reference numbers, and the whole thing is in crisis as far as he was concerned.

He has connectivity issues himself and his experience was to receive messages that he's 'on the list'. Yet that day he got to speak to someone and he wasn't even logged as having called.

“It's a mess,” he said. Poles and lines down along the roads and no one knows who is doing what to get the service running.

Councillor Harry Barrett suggested they write to CommReg to have some sort of humanitarian clause built in.

Meanwhile Councillor Donna Sheridan urged everyone to shop local when it came to broadband.

She got connected through local company Westnet, who were 'amazing', and she couldn't recommend them highly enough.