Alternative Energy Suppliers

_Whimsical_

And to think I chose Bord Gais over Airtricity just because I thought they would have better established procedures for dealing with mass billing etc!

Davy

This could be a very serious problem for them. Its quite shocking how many times this thing happens with the ordinary public take the hit and nothing gets done about. We have to keep watching our accounts yet they cant encrypt their laptops

MOH

That's the last straw. First they take a month longer to transfer me than they claim, then they hand out my bank details. Airtricity here I come.

admiralofthefleet

does anybody know where on the bord gais website i can access my electricity account? i have looked but cant find it anywhere

discostu1

does anybody know where on the bord gais website i can access my electricity account? i have looked but cant find it anywhere

Somewhere in Dublin theres a laptop with your name in it (it also has mine)

Davy

Anyone who got the solicitors letter might be interested in this:


The Irish Times

Monday, June 22, 2009
Red-letter day for ESB customers

Last week we featured a story from a person who received a threatening solicitor’s letter from the ESB about his last month’s payment after he switched from the ESB to Bord Gáis Energy.

An ESB spokeswoman said that the letter was sent out “inadvertently” as a result of a glitch in the system and she denied that such an approach was common practice.

It turns out he was not the only one to get legal missives from the ESB, as our readers were quick to point out. A reader called Holly “was sent a similarly threatening letter demanding payment of €11.93 (for a bill which I never received)”. She says that “failure to comply within seven days would have led to a debt collector being sent to pick up the tab – and I only received the letter eight days after it was dated. I am ever so glad that ESB has finally let my account go to Bord Gáis, after three months of waiting for us to be switched over. To hell with them.”

John Murphy said he had “the exact same experience” and when he contacted the ESB “to ask why I was treated so shabbily”, he says that the representative just “continuously repeated the mantra that the direct debit had been cancelled. If anything were needed to demonstrate that the ESB does not understand the true nature of competitive markets it is this.”

The same thing happened to a reader called Anna, “which suggests this is not a one-time inadvertent mistake. This practice, while disrespectful, can also cause cash-flow problems for older people.

“My mother puts the same amount of money into the account every week to cover the bills – a method which in effect is a saving mechanism for winter but also allows her to budget effectively. Receiving the bill with the solicitor’s letter meant that she felt like she had to pay the bill straight away in one lump sum.”

Brendan Keenan had a similar experience when he switched to Airtricity. “Unusually, the solicitor’s letter had no phone number on it, nor was it listed in the phone book, nor directory enquiries. I had to ring the Law Society to get the number. I was informed by the solicitor that it was a mistake. I received an apology by phone the following day. How much did all that cost the ESB?”

How much indeed, and just how many of these solicitor’s letters have the ESB sent out? We contacted the company again and a spokesman said that solicitor’s letters had been sent to “a good number of customers”. He said that the ESB issued some 13m bills each year and such a high-volume business required a lot of automation. He said the normal process meant that if someone went into arrears, they were sent a number of reminders and were contacted by phone. He said a solicitor’s letter would only be sent at the very end of the process and pointed out that the ESB was widely recognised as having an understanding approach to people with financial difficulties who were struggling to pay bills.

The entrance of competitors into the domestic market had exposed a flaw in the ESB’s computerised system, which effectively meant that some people who switched with sums outstanding leapfrogged through several steps in the credit-management system. This automatically triggered the sending of a solicitor’s letter.

He was unable to say exactly how many people had been affected but said the automated letter had now been pulled from the system and people who had received the threatening correspondence in error would all receive written apologies.

Cabaal

admiralofthefleet wrote: »

does anybody know where on the bord gais website i can access my electricity account? i have looked but cant find it anywhere

You can't do on-line a/c management for electricity yet, BG state officially that they are due to roll out this facility in July

Axwell

My housemate who owns the house I live in filled in the application at the start of May with a guy that was calling door to door, said they would sort everything no need to do anything. In the meantime we get an estimated ESB bill for €400 which is way over the amount, so he rings them about it and they say we cant take an updated reading from you because you are now a BG customer. Rings them and they say thats fine we will send the reading in for you and ESB will be in touch so refund you. He asks will it be done in time before ESB try take the money and they say oh yes definitely. So time passes and he finds out the money came out of his account. Rang ESB today and they still say we cant take a reading from you and to ring BG, they say that they sent the reading to ESB and its up to ESB...back and forth with no resolve and then BG also send a letter to say oh we lost a laptop with all your details. Bit of a joke all round and hes now down approx 200 - 250 as our bill would be around 150 - 200 if worked out properly. Absolute farce of a service doing the changeover and BG have made a complete mess of everything and done themselves no favours with the laptop fiasco.

gagalina

took just about 2 months.

Moved into a new house and had to get an esb account first, then apply for the switch and the switch happened with the first esb bill which was also the final bill, so a BG customer for a week now ;-)

Gagalina

Fnergg

gagalina wrote: »

took just about 2 months.

Moved into a new house and had to get an esb account first, then apply for the switch and the switch happened with the first esb bill which was also the final bill, so a BG customer for a week now ;-)

Gagalina

Bord Gais are telling people moving into new properties that they have to sign up with ESB first and then move to BG.

That is incorrect.

Under the industry rules, a person is free to sign up directly with whichever supplier he/she wishes to have.

Unfortunately, Bord Gais don't seem to understand this and continue to direct people to ESB in the first instance.

As far as I know, the ESB has complained to the Regulator about this. I would suggest that anyone being given the runaround by BG to do likewise - the contact details are at www.cer.ie.

Regards,

Fnergg

eden_my_ass

Fnergg wrote: »

Bord Gais are telling people moving into new properties that they have to sign up with ESB first and then move to BG.

That is incorrect.

Under the industry rules, a person is free to sign up directly with whichever supplier he/she wishes to have.

Unfortunately, Bord Gais don't seem to understand this and continue to direct people to ESB in the first instance.

As far as I know, the ESB has complained to the Regulator about this. I would suggest that anyone being given the runaround by BG to do likewise - the contact details are at www.cer.ie.

Regards,

Fnergg

Bord Gais (aka Conduit depending how you look at it) are also misleading consumers about the process of customer submitted readings. Regardless of whether you got switched or not, I would emphasise to anyone that was mislead one way or another to do as Fnergg suggests and send a clear message that this country isn't a doormat for the business community at large.

gagalina

Fnergg wrote: »

Bord Gais are telling people moving into new properties that they have to sign up with ESB first and then move to BG.

That is incorrect.

Under the industry rules, a person is free to sign up directly with whichever supplier he/she wishes to have.

Unfortunately, Bord Gais don't seem to understand this and continue to direct people to ESB in the first instance.

As far as I know, the ESB has complained to the Regulator about this. I would suggest that anyone being given the runaround by BG to do likewise - the contact details are at www.cer.ie.

Regards,

Fnergg

ah, at the time I thought it was a bit weird, but had only limited internet access, so never checked that, so just presumed that was the way, as the guy on the phone was going on about the long waiting lists...
Used to be similar with eircom/esat years ago - you needed to sign up with eircom first to set up the line and only then could you switch over to esat.

Gagalina

Gonzales

I'm considering recommending my parents to switch to Bord Gais for electricity suply but I don't want to put them onto a complete lemon of a deal.

Apart from the recent Gaff with customer details being stolen do you regret switching to Bord Gais for your electricity supply, why?

On a similar note are you glad you switched, why?

I'm interested in good reasons to leave / stay with ESb also - apart from the obvious price difference.

thanks all in advance.:)

steps_3314

Well i switched and i am not happy.

My details were on the laptops that were stolen.

Also i thought i would get be getting one bill combned with Gas and Electricity.

Im still getting two bills and expensive ones also.

I wouldnt mind i did not have the gas on for the past 2 months and still got billed 220 euros.

I rang them up and they said it was an estimate.

First three bills this year totalling 800 euros just for gas so surely neither of the first two bills could have being under-billed.

Not happy to be honest but what can you do.

Gonzales

steps_3314 wrote: »

Well i switched and i am not happy.

My details were on the laptops that were stolen.

Also i thought i would get be getting one bill combned with Gas and Electricity.

Im still getting two bills and expensive ones also.

I wouldnt mind i did not have the gas on for the past 2 months and still got billed 220 euros.

I rang them up and they said it was an estimate.

First three bills this year totalling 800 euros just for gas so surely neither of the first two bills could have being under-billed.

Not happy to be honest but what can you do.

Bummer, but how is the electricity side working out for you?

steps_3314

Gonzales wrote: »

Bummer, but how is the electricity side working out for you?

Not got the bill yet. Its not due until July 20th.

I dont expect it to be cheap though.

mickoneill30

steps_3314 wrote: »

I dont expect it to be cheap though.

Well it'd still be cheaper than for using the same amount of electricity from ESB won't it?

For me I don't regret moving. Getting two bills or one bill from BG doesn't really make any difference to me as it all adds up to the same amount anyway.

I got my first bill this week, it was a fair bit cheaper but I haven't analysed it properly. There's discount + the fact that it's summer + I was away for a week so it's not a good month for comparison for me.

The laptop fiasco was incredibly stupid and whoever was carrying all that data around should be fired.

amtc

I got the letter too

....bill also some 30 euro cheaper!

rameire

im happy.
and staying with them.
cheaper bills than esb.
why wouldnt i stay.
never get an estimated bill, because i alway know when the next bill is due so i give my own meter reading, so no problems there.
and i dont care if my detail were on the stolen laptop,
im one of those people wha actually looks at my bank account, and doesnt wait 6 months to find out something happened at christmas on my account that wasnt me.

Mimikyu

This post has been deleted.

cdb

Up to 14% cheaper than ESB. The rest is largely irrelevant. There is also Eirtricity if Bord Gais doesn't suit.

daheff

i chose airtiricty..13% cheaper than BG...means that my electricity is apparently greener than BG or ESB

doing my bit for the environment


although somebody will now prob tell me that airtricity kill puppies to generate their energy :eek:

jor el

steps_3314 wrote: »

Also i thought i would get be getting one bill combned with Gas and Electricity.

There was never any mention of single billing.

steps_3314 wrote: »

Im still getting two bills and expensive ones also.

I wouldnt mind i did not have the gas on for the past 2 months and still got billed 220 euros.

I rang them up and they said it was an estimate.

It would be just as expensive with one bill. Why didn't you correct the estimated reading when you rang them? There's no excuse for this, as you can simply tell them and they'll re-issue the bill.

daheff wrote: »

although somebody will now prob tell me that airtricity kill puppies to generate their energy :eek:

And kittens, the dasterds.


I'm happy, it's cheaper, simple as that. My details were on the laptop too, but that is largely inconsequential.

dahamsta

daheff wrote: »

i chose airtiricty..13% cheaper than BG

13% cheaper than the ESB surely; aren't BD and Airtricity essentially the same price?

means that my electricity is apparently greener than BG or ESB

The electricity is the same, the company is greener because the electricity they feed into the grid is wind-generated. Their ads are a bit deceptive in that regard.

Of course Airtricity kills puppies to generate their energy.

adam

MunsterCycling

And helps keep server farms and data centres up and running!!!

jimmycrackcorm

dahamsta wrote: »

Of course Airtricity kills puppies to generate their energy.

Actually, having been to one of their wind generation sites, I found that it is birds and bats that get killed.

MunsterCycling

Birds, Bats, Puppies, Kittens.... They are all Gods aninmals... *

Enough of this OT stuff, haven't changed over and no plans to, not really seeing the point, I like to do my bit for the country by paying over the odds for everything!!! LOL

* Yes I do realise a Bat is a mammal

TheDriver

switched and happy, sure isn't it the same thing cheaper!
To steps 3314, there was never a mention of one bill or of your gas being cheaper by switching electricity to them?

is_that_so

TBH I reckon that letter has gone out to every Bord Gais customer in the country. As for over-estimating a reading you can call readings in yourself if you are unhappy with totals. No comments on the question as I have yet to receive my first bill.

Kinetic^

Just made the switch, good girl lucy!