asked the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs whether his Department has apologised to a Dublin professional firm whose telephone service was disconnected without warning after payment of an account, payment of which was properly delayed because of an admitted error on the part of his Department in charging the subscribers in question with a telephone call which had not been made by them; and if in view of the public uneasiness regarding the peremptory discontinuance of telephone services where subscribers legitimately query mistakes he will give an assurance that such conduct will cease.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Disconnection of Telephone Service.
63.
Mr. Ryan
The facts are not as set out by the Deputy. The subscriber was, after the normal period of credit, given written warning of disconnection within seven days. Action was not, however, taken until the seventeenth day afterwards when the Exchange was instructed to withdraw outward service on the following morning. The subscriber paid his account at a post office counter late on the seventeenth day, the payment was brought to credit the next day and full service was restored on the following day.
There was no error in the account which was paid in full by the subscriber. An inquiry, received after issue of the warning of disconnection, for details of certain charges was answered, apparently to the satisfaction of the subscriber, well before outward service was withdrawn.