Ardfert anger as Eircom line goes down yet again
SIGNIFICANT business was lost in Ardfert at the weekend when the Eircom phone and broadband lines went down as the result of equipment failure on Cnocanfhómhair outside Ballybunion.
Traders lost substantial business in Ardfert as a result with customers unable to buy lotto tickets or pay for their goods with Laser or credit cards — for the third time in a year.
Lines were down from midday Saturday until late Monday afternoon. Eircom told The Kerryman that the problem was as the result of equipment failure on Cnocanfhómhair, but that workers began repairs immediately.
"It was a huge inconvenience," Michael Maguire of Maguire's Spar said. "The lines went down around lunchtime on Saturday and weren't fixed until 3pm on Monday so we lost a fair bit of business as a result." Despite making contact with Eircom, Mr Maguire was unable to deal direct with a human employee: "We only got the voicebox and couldn't find out what was happening.
"I have no doubt in my mind that if this had happened in Tralee it would have been fixed immediately.
Norrie Horgan of Horgan's Centra said the loss of business was significant due to the problem.
"It really does affect business. We would have lost a lot over the weekend as a result. We got onto Eircom and were told they were fixing the problem but they couldn't give us a timeline on it so we were in limbo for the whole weekend really. I would say it's close to the third time this has happened this year and it is becoming very frustrating," Ms Horgan said.
Another business person who didn't wish to be named described it as 'a damned nuisance'.
"What happened was there was an issue with one of the radio links for Ardfert on Cnocanfhómhair," Eircom senior press officer Dearbhaill Rossiter said.
"It came onto the system late on Saturday afternoon and we set to work immediately to establish exactly what was affected. It was seen that it was Ardfert and Cnocanfhómhair that was down. Unfortunately a piece of equipment had to be replaced and that had to come down from Dublin overnight. A specialist team was needed and they arrived Monday to repair the damage with everybody back up later in the day."
- DÓNAL NOLAN
