back to article Nuns left in limbo after phone line transfer hell

A judge has hit Irish telco Eircom with a €16,500 fine, after the former incumbent left a nursing home for retired nuns without phone service for weeks, then overcharged the sisters for the privilege. Sorting out the snafu that left the Franciscan Missionaries of the Divine Motherhood nursing home in Ballinasloe, Co Galway …

  1. TRT Silver badge

    Ave Maria!!!

    I'll just pop you on hold for a moment there, so I will.

    1. TRT Silver badge

      Re: Ave Maria!!!

      I couldn't find a video link to that clip, which is comedy gold.

    2. Martin Summers Silver badge

      Re: Ave Maria!!!

      https://vimeo.com/131002381

      10:09

      You're welcome.

  2. Locky

    Hit Eircom with a fine?

    Better that than the thousand Hail Mary's I got for breaking a school window during a football match

    A nun scorned is a terrifying thing

  3. horse of a different color

    Presumably the money was only 'resting' in Eircom's account?

    1. ArrZarr Silver badge

      It's a pity the Judge's name was John and not Len.

      1. Anonymous Blowhard

        "It's a pity the Judge's name was John and not Len."

        Might be a relative...

    2. chivo243 Silver badge

      @horse of a different color

      and drawing some interest as well...

      1. Dan 55 Silver badge
    3. Dabooka
      Megaphone

      We need a Father Ted icon

      It's not the first time one would have been handy

      1. TRT Silver badge

        Re: We need a Father Ted icon

        That would be an ecumenical matter.

  4. Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse

    I'm surprised they needed to go to court...

    Because there is rigorous scientific evidence to suggest that praying can and might apparently perhaps, if one were to squint at an odd angle... solve all of the worlds proble...

    ...oh.

    1. TRT Silver badge

      Re: I'm surprised they needed to go to court...

      Well I blessed my system folder and it all started working properly again.

      1. Loyal Commenter Silver badge

        Re: I'm surprised they needed to go to court...

        They'd probably need permission from the Mother Superior to chmod, and I'm not sure +666 would go down so well

  5. Danny 5

    bonus

    Bonus points for the extreme use of puns, made me chuckle a few times!

  6. Your alien overlord - fear me

    I hope Eircom also gave the €21,000 to charity. Let's face it, it's not a charitable donation, it'll be a tax write off which a fine probably isn't.

  7. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

    It sounds like the usual call centre operation. Something fails so they repeat. With the same result. And it will keep on failing until someone escalates the problem. It really is in the call centre's own interests to have an escalation procedure of its own. If the customer ends up escalating it to the regulator it can get expensive; kudos to the nuns for doing that.

  8. Mage Silver badge
    Devil

    There is WORSE

    Getting Eircom fibre is a nightmare even if it passes your property.

    If you have no copper phone line, they cancel fibre order and install & bill for copper.

    It can take years to get them to admit a fault.

    The regulator occasionally slaps their wrist.

    If you think BT dealt badly with reseller faults...

  9. Martin 66

    surely purgatory, not limbo !?

    #catholicupbringing

    1. A K Stiles
      Coat

      Re: surely purgatory, not limbo !?

      I keep seeing that and wondering what kind of cup is being brought...

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Coat

        Re: surely purgatory, not limbo !?

        Must.. Not... Type... Obvious... Smut...

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I didn't know bishop brennan had a side job as a judge

    I was missing a Father Ted reference in this thread :)

  11. Mystic Megabyte
    Happy

    Down with this sort of thing!

    1. A K Stiles
      Happy

      steady now!

  12. BongoJoe

    Now a silent order

  13. Martin 66

    "Sorry sister, we can't connect your phone"

    "ahh go on go on go on go on go on "

    No wonder it took so many emails to get sorted

    "you will you will you will you will"

    "sorry we cant sister"

    "go on go on go on go on"

  14. Adrian 4

    Did they remain with Eircom or change again after that experience ?

  15. ukgnome
    Linux

    It is never a good idea to upset the penguins.

    1. allthecoolshortnamesweretaken
  16. Alister

    limited temporal means of communication

    Awesome, is this the power of prayer?

    Yes, I could have used the corrections link, but it's much more fun to take the piss...

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Eircom have a habit of doing this but clearly they were having nun of it.

  18. This post has been deleted by its author

  19. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Feck!

    &

    You're a judge? Well done!

  20. Andrew Moore

    Hmmmm...

    My most recent dealings with Eir was having them refuse to allow me to pay my bill online. Their excuse, my bill was unpaid.

  21. Fatman
    Joke

    "Catholic" upbringing

    I had the unfortunate pleasure of a Catholic Grammar School Education.

    Complete with `Sister Mary Alice discipline' administered by a steel drafting triangle.

    My knuckles still ache to this day (some 55 years later). I would hope that the proper punishment for those incompetents at Eircom be subjected to DAILY finger racking by each of the nuns living there.

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