Alternative Energy Suppliers

foggy_lad

of course it does! you are leaving the esb so they must return your deposit or they are breaking the law.

Fnergg

burly wrote: »

Hi All,

Bought a house 10 months ago and signed up with ESB, paid 300 deposit. I am thinking about making the switch but am wondering will esb give me back my deposit?
The original conditions were that i would get it back after 14 months of bills paid on time. At the moment i have 10 months, but does this condition apply in the event of me switching?

Thanks

You will get your deposit back - it will be credited to your closing account and any credit balance will be refunded by cheque.

The 14 months holding period only applies if you continued to be a customer of ESB. If you close your account any time before that the deposit is refunded via a credit on your account.

Regards,

Fnergg

Mountjoy Mugger

A credit on his account is of no use if he doesn't plan to be billed by the ESB again.

I'd insist on a refund, not a credit.

Sizzler

The bog switch :eek:

rameire

at last im a BG customer in total for energy.
a total of 60 days from application to completion.

to check I rang 1850 22 22 55 with my mprn number on my last elec bill.

wooooo.

Fnergg

Mountjoy Mugger wrote: »

A credit on his account is of no use if he doesn't plan to be billed by the ESB again.

I'd insist on a refund, not a credit.

As stated above, it would be a credit on his closing account.

Electricity is billed on credit and normally two months of it has been used before the bill issues. Depending on when a customer switches to a new supplier there could be anything up to two months usage still to bill.

The standard practice by all suppliers therefore is to offset the deposit against the closing bill and, if there is a credit balance, to refund it by cheque. The charges on the closing bill could be more than the €300 deposit in which case the customer would still owe money.

Regards,

Fnergg

Denethor

As far as I know Conduit are handling sales for the switch but Fexco will be running the electricity customer service alongside the gas.

dudara

Threads merged

dudara

PWEI

I got my confirmation of account closure from ESB today and also my final bill.
To my dismay my final bill was an estimate and way over the preset meter reading.The closing bill date was the 27th of April and yet today on the 6th of May the correct reading was over 500 units less than the estimate.So on the 27th of April it would have even been considerably less.Can anybody tell me how I'm going to get an accurate reading for the closing date of the 27th?

eden_my_ass

rameire wrote: »

at last im a BG customer in total for energy.
a total of 60 days from application to completion.

to check I rang 1850 22 22 55 with my mprn number on my last elec bill.

wooooo.

Good for you Rameire , just heard on the radio this morning that BG are running another campaign where they'll have people speaking about their experience of the Big Switch...naturally they're offering money to anyone who comes forward, and I'm assuming the more creatively positive a story the better. I'd love to see a Boardsie on the ad with something along the lines of "Well it only took me 60 days plus, a good few phone calls, internal contact with BG staff, wrangling with customer services agents..........but they didn't make me walk over fire I guess so it could have been worse - Make the switch, its an experience you'll never forget!"

Edit - 120,000 "switched"....I think they mean 120,000 in the queue, more accurate and complete journalism/bg marketing http://www.siliconrepublic.com/news/article/12874/new-media/extras-sought-for-ad-via-twitter

Fnergg

PWEI wrote: »

I got my confirmation of account closure from ESB today and also my final bill.
To my dismay my final bill was an estimate and way over the preset meter reading.The closing bill date was the 27th of April and yet today on the 6th of May the correct reading was over 500 units less than the estimate.So on the 27th of April it would have even been considerably less.Can anybody tell me how I'm going to get an accurate reading for the closing date of the 27th?

You should contact the ESB at 1850372372 in this instance. Explain that you are not querying the date of the switchover but that the estimate used is significantly out of line with what it should be. Give them the current reading and ask that a query be logged so that a more reasonable estimate can be arrived at (make sure to give the present reading).

What will happen then is that the revised estimate will be used to amend your closing account and it will also be communicated to Bord Gais so that they can use it as their start reading for your new account with them.

This is not the same as asking that the date and reading be changed to what you might have provided to Bord Gais first day. Many people will have applied to BG back in February and will have given their own reading. Very few of these were used and BG opted instead to switch customers at a much later date and at estimated readings. There is nothing you can do about that. It's only if the estimate at the switchover date is seriously out of line that you can ask for it to be amended and you are better off by contacting ESB in the first instance. I would not have any faith in BG being able to effect the amendment for you.

Regards,

Fnergg

foggy_lad

Fnergg wrote: »

You should contact the ESB at 1850372372 in this instance. Explain that you are not querying the date of the switchover but that the estimate used is significantly out of line with what it should be. Give them the current reading and ask that a query be logged so that a more reasonable estimate can be arrived at (make sure to give the present reading).

What will happen then is that the revised estimate will be used to amend your closing account and it will also be communicated to Bord Gais so that they can use it as their start reading for your new account with them.

This is not the same as asking that the date and reading be changed to what you might have provided to Bord Gais first day. Many people will have applied to BG back in February and will have given their own reading. Very few of these were used and BG opted instead to switch customers at a much later date and at estimated readings. There is nothing you can do about that. It's only if the estimate at the switchover date is seriously out of line that you can ask for it to be amended and you are better off by contacting ESB in the first instance. I would not have any faith in BG being able to effect the amendment for you.

Regards,

Fnergg

give them a figure and insist that is the amount that you have used as they can not really dispute it as reading the meter is their responsibility especially as you were closing your account! they are just trying to rip people off even more at this stage wildly overestimating bills and telling people they must pay as their estimate is supposedly accurate!

Fnergg

foggy_lad wrote: »

give them a figure and insist that is the amount that you have used as they can not really dispute it as reading the meter is their responsibility especially as you were closing your account! they are just trying to rip people off even more at this stage wildly overestimating bills and telling people they must pay as their estimate is supposedly accurate!

The estimates used for closing bills when customers switch supplier are generally reasonably accurate. Bord Gais have gone away from using customers own readings in favour a system based on the next scheduled ESB reading. If the next scheduled reading was, say, 1st May and the switchover date used by Bord Gais was, say, 29th April the reading as of the 29th April will be estimated based on the actual reading of 1st May. In such cases that will be very accurate if the scheduled reading is an actual as opposed to an estimated one. If it's an estimate it makes it more difficult to arrive at a reasonable estimate for the switch date.

It would have been simpler had Bord Gais decided to switch people as from the dates and readings the customers supplied but they changed tack on that. Blame Bord Gais, not the ESB.

The biggest problem with most regular billing estimates is that they are under-estimated. Then, when an actual reading is obtained, there is a higher than expected bill because of the accumulated usage caused by the undercharge.

The ESB will happily adjust any estimated bill if it is significantly under or over the actual usage. All the customer has to do is take a reading and phone it in. I understand that Bord Gais will not do that and will insist on the estimate being paid.

Regards,

Fnergg

burly

Fnergg wrote: »

As stated above, it would be a credit on his closing account.

Electricity is billed on credit and normally two months of it has been used before the bill issues. Depending on when a customer switches to a new supplier there could be anything up to two months usage still to bill.

The standard practice by all suppliers therefore is to offset the deposit against the closing bill and, if there is a credit balance, to refund it by cheque. The charges on the closing bill could be more than the €300 deposit in which case the customer would still owe money.

Regards,

Fnergg

Hi Fnergg,

Thanks for that reply, its a relief to know il get my deposit back or else have it credited on my closing bill.

eden_my_ass

Theres already a large thread on the actual process and experiences of people switching electricity supplier, but I'm interested in knowing the actual transition time people have experienced, and for comparison I've listed both main competitors to the ESB. Please save discussion for the main thread, all I want to see here are the figures, thanks!

Also if you're over 60 days and not switched yet, please select > 60 anyway since inevitably you will be 60 plus when it happens!

eden_my_ass

For anyone following this thread, I created a separate poll to gauge the efficiency of the two main competitors to the ESB in switching accounts over, please vote

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055561431

jor el

Took over two months for mine (Bord Gais), it's finally gone through now though.

helimachoptor

Still waiting after about 6 weeks.

eden_my_ass

Feel free to mention the exact timeframe in days if its notable for the superb service....or *ehem* otherwise...

rameire

60 days exactly from application with bg

MOH

E-mail confirmation from Bord Gais on 24/02 that my application had been accepted.
Letter yesterday telling me it's been processed and they're waiting for my final ESB reading, expected on 14/05.
This despite the fact that I included my meter reading with the application which was supposed to speed things up.
It'll be 79 days on 14/05 which is a farce, and it'll probably be longer than that.

It'll cost me 1%, but I might just switch to Airtricity straight away.

MrJoeSoap

Denethor wrote: »

As far as I know Conduit are handling sales for the switch but Fexco will be running the electricity customer service alongside the gas.

Don't let the truth get in the way of a good rant.

MicraBoy

Reusing MOH's template (sort of)!

E-mail confirmation from Bord Gais on 05/03.
Letter yesterday telling me it's been processed and they're waiting for my final ESB reading, expected on 20/05.

It'll be 76 days on 20/05.

eden_my_ass

I'll copy that template one more time,

Applied 27/02

Never received as much as a confirmation email

Tried to submit various meter readings, refused.

Submitted meter reading after phone battle 1st May

Letter yesterday, ref number 10x saying I would be switched at next ESB bill 19/05...83 days I think I calculated if it happens then. I like the idea of an immediate switch to Airtricity, a little in your face for BG

Fnergg

MrJoeSoap wrote: »

Don't let the truth get in the way of a good rant.

And the truth is....?

Regards,

Fnergg

TheDriver

Took me 50 days roughly thouigh got call saying it would be middle of June, then suddenly letter saying i was switched

jor el

My application was on Feb 27th. The letter I got last week said that a final reading had been made with ESB, and that I was now a Bord Gais customer. Must check what date it said I was switched on. I submitted an accurate reading with mine too, but that seems to have been ignored. A switch to Airtricity may be on the cards.

Sizzler

Applied around March 10th to BG and switch went through on April 29th.

What gets me is I got several letters from ESB / ESB Networks saying they had closed my account etc. but not ONE letter said "Please don't go or stay with us for A,B,C benefits'.

They are missing a trick there.

eden_my_ass

Sizzler wrote: »

Applied around March 10th to BG and switch went through on April 29th.

What gets me is I got several letters from ESB / ESB Networks saying they had closed my account etc. but not ONE letter said "Please don't go or stay with us for A,B,C benefits'.

They are missing a trick there.

As far as I'm aware they might not be allowed by the regulations to try to poach you back in the official account ending contact...but you may get some marketing in the future perhaps.

jkmanc1974

eden_my_ass wrote: »

As far as I'm aware they might not be allowed by the regulations to try to poach you back in the official account ending contact...but you may get some marketing in the future perhaps.

Think that you are right ref the above and the regulator, Eircom have the same issue where they are not allowed to try and win the customer back after they have switched for 6/12 months...

On the Bord Gais issue - switched across about 6 weeks ago, have heard nothing yet from either BG or ESB hence will probably be getting another bill at least from the ESB judging by the posts here.

Brgds
Johnny