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Eir email service suffers data loss

Eir, Ireland’s largest telecoms company, has admitted to losing “sent” and “received” emails from some of its customers during an IT upgrade in late 2022. The company said that emails older than 45 days were deleted and could not be recovered, with approximately 4% of service users affected. In response, Eir launched an investigation, identified the root cause and put measures in place to prevent a recurrence. The company apologised to those affected and offered six months’ free service to customers. However, some customers have complained about a lack of communication and compensation.

One customer, Kevin O’Hanlon, contacted the Irish Independent to ask whether Eir had recovered any of the lost data and what compensation was being offered. Eir did not respond to his email. In response to the newspaper’s inquiry, Eir issued a statement explaining the situation and offering a dedicated customer care email address for affected customers: eirwebmailsupport-gp@eir.ie.

If you are an Eir email user and have been paying for the service out of fear of losing your contacts and old emails, or simply because you are not tech-savvy, there are other options available. Gmail, for example, offers a relatively simple way to import your eircom.net account’s content into a new account. You can create a Gmail account for free, then go to “settings” and “accounts and import” to follow the instructions. However, it is important to note that you cannot keep your eircom.net email address. Once you stop paying Eir, your Eir email address and all associated data will be deleted. Therefore, you will need to inform all your contacts that your email address has changed.

Eir’s data loss incident highlights the importance of backing up your data and choosing a reliable email provider. It also underscores the need for companies to communicate effectively with their customers and offer appropriate compensation when things go wrong. If you have been affected by Eir’s data loss, we recommend contacting the dedicated customer care email address and considering importing your Eir email account content to another email address.

Email your questions to ­aweckler@independent.ie.