Mobile telecom provider, Three Ireland, is to refund over €2.6m to customers who were charged for services after they had cancelled their contracts.
A self-review of the company's billing system, prompted by a similar probe by the telecoms regulator Comreg of other operators, found that rather than refunding such post-cancellation charges, Three had been keeping them as credits on inactive accounts.
The telco was only issuing refunds to customers when it was requested by them.
The review also found that other forms of credits that were not related to post-cancellation charges were being held on inactive accounts.
These charges had not been claimed or proactively refunded by Three after contracts were cancelled by customers.
In total 173,000 customers were impacted by the issues with €1.28m in post-cancellation charges and €1.4m for other credits owed.
Three is to begin the process of refunding the customers, a process that will begin this month and take six months to complete.
The money will be refunded through electronic fund transfer to the customers’ accounts.
The company has also given an undertaking that future credits will be proactively refunded and will not be left on inactive accounts.
